The contrasting paths that different types of societies around the world have adopted in the earlier years signify that the society’s socio-economic environment is a crucial factor for its shift in cultural norms and values. The changes that occur from generation to generation is primarily centred on influences outside the society’s cultural sphere.
The externally-influenced cultural changes draw in new meanings and values, new practices and new relationships created by the society itself. Among others, these aspects are tightly correlated with its economic development, change in its political system and intergenerational shift of values between the young and the old.
Nonetheless, it must be noted that cultural heritage within the society is also an important factor that determines how societies deal with the socio-economic and political situations that exist.
A major finding from the World Values Surveys, the largest ever study on attitudes, beliefs and values of 65 countries involving more than 75 percent of the world’s population (Inglehart and Baker, 2003) suggests that there is a coherent linkage between economic development and systematic changes in a society’s basic values.
In essence it brings to light that whenever there is economic development, which is externally influenced, there is a strong trend for one generation of the society to move away from norms and values normally practiced by the earlier generation. These new values would be interpreted by individual members of the society as being “rational, tolerant, trusting and participatory”. However, its cultural heritage is an important determinant for the direction in which the society would take. For instance, Inglehart and Baker (ibid) discover that there is no cultural convergence between the world views of rich societies and those of poor societies.
Going back to the thesis that the stability in a society’s socio-economic environment is very much dependent on its external influence which would lead to cultural
development, secularist ideals and self-expression values will flourish within the society. For instance, over the years one can observe the progression in cultural changes within the Malaysian society with regards to its influence of the Western concept of democracy. This subject is discussed in Chapter Three.
In essence, the Western based democratic model has an overwhelming support from societies throughout the world partly because it encourages intrinsic human values such as freedom and self-expression. Recent events, including the 2002 biggest demonstrations in Britain against the Iraq war and the 2006 worldwide Muslim protests against the depiction of Prophet Mohamad as caricatures in the Danish newspapers are classic examples of freedom of expression as adopted by Western democracy. These events and many others are proof of the extent to which a society has an underlying culture of civilian protest and the extent to which its people give high priority to subjective well-being, freedom of speech and self-expression as very powerful indicators of effective democracy. As indicated earlier, the Southeast Asian nations are presently experiencing a resurgence in the political culture of democratisation and freedom of speech amongst its middle class population (Johan and Loh, 2004). In fact, there are indications showing that Malaysia and many of Asia’s developing nations are following the footsteps of developed countries like Britain in empowering its women and members of the minority communities to speak up and be heard (see Deane, 2005). This phenomenon suggests the extent of external influence that has seeped into the developing Asian societies.
Another major socio-cultural phenomenon that continues to be a subject of study among social science scholars is the intergenerational shift between the young and the old (Inglehart, 1997). The rapid changes and developments in technology and media have brought in external pressures to the society resulting in the cultural gap between the young and the old becoming more acute than before. Be it the Western society or Asian society, depending on its cultural circumstances, intergenerational shifts which involve the conflicts of values between the young and old is a common phenomenon today.
In the comparatively more politically and economically stable West, the issue of youth authority is probably more widespread than that of the developing Asian
societies. In Britain, for instance, the young generation is further separated from the rest of the society because British parents have become more irresponsible than they were in the past (Deane, 2005). Deane (ibid: 55) reveals that 68 percent of British youths say that they are not forbidden to watch any programme on television. Also, programmes with graphic violence and sexual content are not only watched but are often preferred by them.
In contrast, in Hong Kong and Singapore, as a consequence to the shift in values from the earlier generation, the issue centres around the wide income disparity between the young and the old. According to Chui (2001), the elderly in Hong Kong are comparatively poorer in physical, financial and social aspects, compared to the younger generation. As the policy of the Hong Kong government is to give heavy focus on urban renewal, only the young benefit, resulting in a weakening of Chinese traditional values of respecting the elderly and their heritage of community care. In addition, the concept of a nuclear family whereby three generations live under one roof, which has been a pride of the Chinese culture for generations, is slowly but surely fading. This situation is also true for Singapore which gives too much emphasis on economic growth at the expense of the erosion of its traditional values, making its Confucianism heritage a thing of the past (Martin and Sengupta, 1998).
Despite the conflict between the old and young, it must be mentioned that not every traditional value is rejected by the young. As noted earlier, values considered as
“positive for the future” are accepted and practiced in everyday life, as is the case with many young couples in Holland. Findings in a panel study (Jansen and Kalmijn, 2001) that measured value orientations amongst young Dutch couples between 1991 and 1995 of which behavioural outcomes were measured in 1999, show that couples that practice traditional values invest more in family lives than those who adopt modern values. The former were more participative in joint consumption activities and division of household tasks and have children sooner after marriage.
Overall, as laid out above, if a nation progresses economically, it is inevitable that its socio-economic and political structure are bound to change akin to the characteristics of the prevailing post-industrial societies of the world today. This
the embrace of new externally-influenced values and lifestyle that form the culture of the young generation today.