Annie Tubadji (p)

Maryam Alomair

The Book ‘Founding Principles of Culture Based Development – CBD: The Economics of WHY?’ by Annie Tubadji is the economic hitchhikers’ guide through the universe of culture, its definition and quantification for economic analysis purposes. The book offers the much needed and long-awaited definition of culture in economic terms, offering a comprehensive transdisciplinary in-depth motivation for this definition and the whole taxonomy and ontology of CBD as a paradigm. The overview of the book will focus on the structure of the book and what can be found in it in each chapter. Namely, each chapter starts with the original CBD value added, provides the economic theory behind it, continues with the empirical theory and actual summary of the existing CBD empirical papers that illustrate the theory. Each chapter finishes also with special type of policy implications focused on the unique cultural policy and human development approach known as aesthetic education, tackled from a learning city-relevant perspective. Understanding the logic of the structure of this book can help the reader to go faster and more efficiently into the main insights offered by the book and start using them successfully in their own research.

Maryam Alomair (p)

Yashi Jain

Culture Based Development is a research paradigm for cultural bias in economic choice which allows to model the impact of culture on any type of economically relevant topic. In my case, my PhD is focused on the topic of risk and decision making, including the risk concerning human behaviour towards others, or what is known as ‘other-regarding preferences’. Through application of the CBD paradigm, I have managed to demonstrate that card driving behaviour is an excellent and culturally informed measure for other-regarding preferences. Namely, behavioural patterns can be carried by migrants from their country of origin to the recipient country. Does this apply for behaviour related to other-regarding-preferences? My CBD-application operationalizes this question through a culturally-augmented model for attentive driving. The results reveal a paradox. Namely, locals’ and migrants’ behaviour have significant qualitative cultural differences. Yet, when the study focuses only on the behaviour of foreigners, what remains solely significant is the balanced propensity to cultural adaptivity and cultural stickiness in the country of origin (measured through CBD Cultural Entropy). This reinforces an important CBD postulate that Cultural Entropy explains insider and outsider self-identification.

Yashi Jain (p)

Sameera Almalki

As a young researcher who has been bread as a member of the new generation of experts in Culture Based Development, I want to share my insights on why and how the methodological instruction in the new book by Annie Tubadji can be useful to researchers who endeavour to undertake a CBD type of analysis for the first time. I will share two sets of points. Firstly, I will share with candidate-novices in the CBD research field the five reasons why I wish I had read this book before writing my PhD papers. This is based on the fact that the book actually provides a useful compendium on the existing CBD papers and the theoretical and methodological specificities of each of them. This part of the book is entitled PRACTICE and is present in each chapter. I will also share with you the five questions I still want to ask about CBD and its methodology. I hope we will hear further insights on the latter five points from the author of the paradigm chairing the special session.

Sameera Almalki (p)

Annie Tubadji

Culture Based Development is a research paradigm for cultural bias in economic choice which allows to model the impact of culture on any type of economically relevant topic. In my case, my PhD is focused on the topic of female empowerment and regional development. Through application of the CBD paradigm, I have managed to demonstrate that female empowerment is dependent on culture and is beneficial for regional development. I have actually been able to make specific in-depth observations through the application of CBD. My results not only demonstrate that culture matters, but how and with aspects of it – cultural heritage or living culture. Thus, I have documented examples of exoticism in the Western perception of female empowerment in entrepreneurship and documented the positive cultural heritage impact on female empowerment in entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia. My further research applications, employing the CBD paradigm, similarly demonstrate previously unknown cultural patterns in Saudi Arabia that lead to female empowerment in positive ways in other spheres, such as the public service sector and public education. Thus, I can comment on the way that the CBD lenz has enabled me to reveal the true impact of my country’s culture and its regional relevance.