Culture is a term that is frequently used but it is also one that is often misunderstood. Unfortunately, the notion of culture is habitually raised when people want to explain their assumed difference from others or when they feel the need to justify the upholding of certain ideas and practices that other people have a problem with. Underlying the use of the term culture is the assumption that culture is a quality that is written into our genes and that we are born with based on the ethnic or racial group that we belong to. Such a view regards culture as fixed, static and not open to change or progress. These are some of the reasons why the mention of culture tends to lead to conflict rather than the affirmation of people's identities or our common humanity.

Culture will be considered in relation to the needs and experiences of young people as well as their participation in social resistance and transformation. It is important, therefore, to spell out the two senses in which the term culture will be used in this discussion. These are “culture” as a way of life, and “culture” as a range of creative and intellectual practices that are broadly called “the arts”. As a particular way of life, culture refers to a variety of beliefs, rituals and practices (social, economic, spiritual) that groups or individuals develop over time in specific environments. The beliefs, rituals and practices are developed in response to the spiritual, material, intellectual and creative needs and experiences of groups or individuals. Collectively they are a social and historical process that reflects the human development of a specific group or society. The second usage of culture will be in its more restrictive or selective sense, that is, to refer to artistic practices and works such as music, dance, literature, painting, sculpture, theatre, film and new media. The two senses of culture – as a particular way of life and as the arts – are very different but are also inter-related.