A Classification Approach to Mapping Cultural Differences: An Illustration Using Survey Data from 60 Russian Regions
Year: 2025

We argue that a classification-based approach to measuring cultural differences across countries or subnational regions is a promising complement, and sometimes an alternative, to the widely used dimensional method in cross-cultural research. The latter summarises cultural variation using continuous dimensions, for example, Hofstede’s famous individualism-collectivism dimension. However, this approach relies on strong parametric assumptions, which are often violated in aggregate cross-cultural s