Culture and Religion

Aims of the chapter

To understand how culture and religion affect how people understand and seek to achieve development.

To critically assess different perspectives on culture and religion.

To explore the contribution of the human development approach to our understanding of culture and religion.

Key points

From a position of relative neglect, culture and religion are now recognized as being important factors in development.

Culture is not just about ideas or values, but is deeply embedded in material life and power relations.

Culture is not set: instead it is porous, contested and always capable of change.

Religion is often seen as a form of culture but can also be understood as being in tension with it, as major religious traditions are found in all kinds of cultural contexts and take on different forms depending on socio-political realities locally.