Research

Cultural research allows us to explore the world, finding ways to increase true understanding. We are constantly expanding the types of cultural research we perform, from searching for human universals in communication, to collecting music in little-known cultures, to examining how cultural beliefs impact global security. Culture is part of all of us, every day of our lives, from the moment we awaken to the moment we sleep – at a culturally-dictated time and place! Cultural Intelligence Institute analyzes how these differences make us unique and either create barriers or bring us together, helping us understand each other better.

Contact us to participate in research, help fund a specific project, or support our efforts.

An Academic Explanation of Cultural Intelligence Institute's Research

The Cultural Intelligence Institute provides original research to interested parties throughout the world, including industry, non-profit organizations, governments, and academia. With an emphasis on native or near-native understanding of local cultures, as well as intercultural (i.e., across cultures) issues and communication, and cross-cultural (i.e., cultures within a culture) issues and communication, the Cultural Intelligence Institute incorporates divergent perspectives and objective, fact-based analysis. Authoritative, native, original documents; media created by and for the subject population; and historical analyses that provide longitudinal evaluation of concepts and ideas are incorporated. First-hand accounts and interviews with local populations, while utilized, are carefully fact-checked and verified for consistency and accuracy with other research evidence.The emphasis on a large corpus of material provides reliable, defensible, and more consistently objective information gathering.

The Cultural Intelligence Institute's researchers combine a core team of terminal-degree-level, multi-field experts and individuals who are highly specialized in the subject field. Our extended team represents a wide range of linguistic capabilities, including low-density and high-impact languages.

Deliverables range from papers and books to software training packages and operational plans, from K-12 curricula to international business expansion plans to tactical humanitarian aid and military support. Please contact us for more information about how we can advance your requirements.

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Cultural Intelligence Office

Monitoring situations to provide cultural analysis is a big task – and not one that most companies and organizations have the skill set, time, or funding to perform on a regular basis.

Are you a business opening in a new location? An organization monitoring a humanitarian crisis? A travel professional responsible for ensuring the knowledge and safety of your clients? A government office ensuring your personnel’s security?

Let Cultural Intelligence Institute be your regular Cultural Intelligence Office!

For each client, we establish a specialized core team of professionals to monitor any location or situation, respond to your questions, and alert you to important changes and trends. We are available to you 24/7/365 to ensure that your goals are exceeded.

Cultural Intelligence Institute, as your Cultural Intelligence Office, provides:

• ongoing research
• monitoring
• surveys
• social media tracking and analysis
• local support

Contact us today for customized pricing and service options.

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Cultural Analysis Projects

FOCUS AREA: CULTURE AND SOCIETY


Culture guides every aspect of human life, thought and behavior. Cultural Intelligence Institute examines many aspects of culture, from social behavior to technology, arts and medicine.

Culture and Social Media
     Social media has changed the ways that people interact all over the world. What are the impacts? How is social media being used? What is its impact on culture, and what is the impact of culture on social media?
    
Humanitarian Network Socio-Cultural Analysis
     Humanitarian workers are sent around the world at a moment's notice to respond to disasters and other needs. They don't always have time to be trained in cultural issues, so how do they know how to be most effective when dealing with people and ideas that may be very foreign to them? Cultural Intelligence Institute is creating a software-based system to help compile cultural information from many places in the world for easy reference and update.
    
Similarities among Criminal Cultures
     Criminality takes many forms -- pirates, organized crime, gangs, terrorists and more. At Cultural Intelligence Institute, we are interested in whether there is an underlying "group crime" culture that links these groups. Through careful analysis, we are examining each discrete type of criminal organization and searching for consistencies and variances.

Culture and the Importance of Life
     Warfighters have returned to the West after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan with an acknowlegment that the importance of life is "different" in those countries than it is in the U.S., Canada, UK and other Western nations. They seem surprised that locals in this region often do not understand why they are so upset when a fellow Service Member is killed. What is the importance of life in countries throughout the world? How did the concept of what life means become different in each region? How does this varying belief system impact our ability to understand and cooperate with one another?


FOCUS AREA: INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION


Every society and sub-society has its own forms of communication, so how do we communicate with one another? Intercultural communication is challenging and exciting. Cultural Intelligence Institute is examining intercultural communication to learn how to better bridge the gaps that differentiate us.

Culture and Rapport-Building
     Whether traveling on vacation, business, or visiting friends, our ability to create new friendships, feel comfortable in a foreign environment and be confident that we can navigate around a new city or countryside is important. How does culture play into how we approach and build rapport with people?

Gesture Analysis
     Everybody gestures -- that is, they use motions to replace or accompany speech to communicate ideas. Cultural Intelligence Institute is examining gestures that are used around the world to help us better understand how people in different cultures communicate.

Human Universals in Communication
     A renowned psychologist identified seven universal facial expressions, which made us wonder if there are other kinds of communication that are universal. Are there universal gestures? Paralanguage? Behaviors? Cultural Intelligence Institute is exploring the world in an attempt to answer this research question.


FOCUS AREA: WORLD CULTURES


What makes the world so rich is its diversity of cultures. Gaining an understanding of cultures that have undergone little scrutiny helps us bring the world closer together.

Comparative Cultures of World Religions
     From the worship of the natural earth to Hinduism to Scientology, religion is pervasive among human societies. Each has its own belief system, rules, and worldview, and can result in closer civilizations or wars. What are the foundations of each religion? What are the similarities and differences among them? At Cultural Intelligence Institute, we seek to explore this fascinating world of belief and faith.

Music from Remote Cultures
     There are two definitions of "culture" -- a system of collectively-held values (Geert Hofstede) and cultural products that reflect the values of a society (Edward Hall). Music is a cultural product created by a society. In today's world, music from remote cultures remains distant, and as societies disappear, their music disappears with them. Leveraging the talents of musician-researchers throughout the world, Cultural Intelligence Institute captures this rare music for the enjoyment of all.


FOCUS AREA: UNDERSTANDING ISLAM


In the West, Islam is a critical, yet still very much "foreign" culture. Only by examining Islam from the perspective of Muslims can we truly understand the range of what Islam is. Like any culture, there are few true universals that affect "every" Muslim. Objective, documented research can help bridge gaps in understanding.

Comparative Analysis of Islamic Law
     An "Islamic nation" is one that is guided by the principles of Islamic law, yet Islamic nations vary widely in how the law is practically applied. How is Islamic law being interpreted differently in the 57 member countries of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, and in other countries in which Islamic law is an accepted code? Cultural Intelligence Institute is engaging law students and scholars in each Muslim country to answer a standardized set of questions about how Islamic law is applied in that country, with a goal of completing a comparative analysis that will demonstrate the array of applications throughout the world.

Documentary Film: The Secrets behind the Holy Land Foundation Trial
     The Holy Land Foundation trial was the largest terrorism-financing trial in the United States -- but one that few people have heard about. The trial itself was contentious, creating a divide between two cultures. Cultural Intelligence Institute is producing a documentary film that conveys both sides of the trial and issues in an objective, balanced manner in order to allow the viewer to be exposed to all sides of the arguments, and reveal a hidden piece of American-Muslim history.

Stylebook of Islam
     Islamic words, names, and concepts are very unfamiliar to most individuals in the West, including journalists, media professionals, government officials and business people. In the spirit of the Associated Press Stylebook, Cultural Intelligence Institute is creating a style guide for Islam, cited to original sources, that will provide factual, Islamic-original, documented definitions and information about Islam.

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Surveys

What trends are hot in Europe? How do people in the Middle East feel about changing political situations? How are people in Japan faring after the devastating tsunami?

Many questions that involve public opinion, thoughts and trends have a cultural basis. The success of your project requires that the surveyers appreciate cultural sensitivities, use appropriate and correct language choices, and assess nuances in responses accurately.

Trust the experts at Cultural Intelligence Institute to conduct your surveys and polls with the utmost cultural awareness and professionalism. We will ensure that your questions are worded for full effect, pollsters speak the appropriate language natively, and responses are analyzed both denotatively and connotatively.

Contact us today!