Sociocultural Behavior Sensemaking: State of the Art in Understanding the Operational Environment
Abstract
Sociocultural behavior goes beyond mere cultural customs and rituals. It includes the common ways that a group of people interpret cause and effect and the mental models of the world that they share. Understanding why people from a different culture react to events the way they do, detecting subtle but significant changes in attitudes, forecasting how a situation will progress in a foreign environment, and effectively planning how to mitigate these cultural reactions requires comprehending those interpretations and mental models. At the core of understanding sociocultural behavior is sensemaking, which Klein, Moon, and Hoffman (2006) characterize as the process of creating understanding in situations of high complexity or uncertainty in order to make decisions. They describe sensemaking as "a motivated, continuous effort to understand connections (which can be among people, places, and events) in order to anticipate their trajectories and act effectively" (p. 71). This book describes the state-of-the-art for sociocultural sensemaking: the most advanced techniques, technology, methods, and theory at this time. Such state-of-the-art capabilities are found mostly in government, industry, and university laboratories development at the cutting edge, in the pipeline, but not yet packaged for use in an operational environment. The book is divided into four sections that address the operational processes defined in Schmorrow (2011), which he called operational capability areas : gaining sociocultural understanding of a new area of operation, detecting sociocultural factors and elements in an environment, forecasting behaviors, and mitigating those behaviors in ways favorable to our operational objectives.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA617277
Entities
People
- Dylan Schmorrow
- Gary L. Klein
- Jill Egeth
Organizations
- MITRE Corporation