Whither and which 'Culture' in Intercultural Communication? -Some theoretical considerations (original) (raw)
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'Culture’ and ‘Communication’ in Intercultural Communication
European Journal of English Studies, 2009
Two major influences on contemporary societies dictate that diffusion and hybridization of communicative norms will be an increasingly significant feature of our communication landscape: Transnational population flows; and the impact of mediated communication, including by means of the Internet. This study explores implications of different ways of viewing the 'cultural' and 'communication' dimensions of intercultural communication in such volatile circumstances. It considers the risk of reproducing cultural stereotypes in characterizing the speakers engaged in intercultural communication and the types of communication they engage in. It also examines the 'inter' that allows intercultural communication to be something active, with scope for creative fusion, initiative and change. By way of conclusion, we suggest that intercultural communication studies may need to be reconceptualized if the field is to engage adequately with further possible convergence (including communicative convergence) between cultures.
1997
Scientific thought succumbed because it violated the first law of culture, which says that "the more man controls anything, the more uncontrollable both become." In the totalizing rhetoric of its mythology, science purported to be its own justification and sought to control and autonomize its discourse. Yet its only justification was proof, for which there could be no justification within its own discourse, and the more it controlled its discourse by subjecting it to the criterion of proof, the more uncontrollable its discourse became. Its own activity constantly fragmented the unity of knowledge it sought to project. The more it knew, the more there was to know." Stephen Tyler examples for illustrating theories, methodologies as well as the core of knowledge in I.C.. A foreigner entering a Japanese home without removing his or her shoes or a Northamerican keeping a certain distance while speaking with a person from the Middle East are some of those typical examples. A particular anecdote that I want to narrate happened recently while this author was attending a party with people from different cultural backgrounds. A young boy from an Indian family, first generation born in the United States, and about twelve or thirteen years old, came to me and asked, "Are you Hispanic?" My first reaction to the tone of his voice and his attitude was to feel if this young guy was seeing in front of him a "label", a "category"; I wondered whether he could see just another person. I responded, "Hispanics are people from Spain and I am not from Spain." My answer was such that today I believe it was a surprise for him as well as for me. Responding with an O.K. sign, the young boy moved away from me. This scene which could be labeled as an unfortunate, ineffective-and perhaps rudesituation between two persons from different cultural backgrounds trying to communicate is, however, more than that. It symbolizes, in essence, the meaning and the complexity present today in many similar situations around the world when people that are different-in this case culturallyare trying to communicate among themselves. A field like I.C., which is seen as a new and growing field, pertains to the field of communication, and defines its main purpose as related to these issues, specifically, trying to understand how people communicate among themselves and how their cultures frame this communication, its means as well as its results. Trying then to deal with some of these issues currently defined, conceptualized, and researched by this field, this paper will try to focus on some prevailing perspectives and discussions. To accomplish this goal, the paper will illustrate some trends in social sciences and communication that are being discussed contemporarily. Next, a detailed epistemological description of some of the current points of view used in social sciences, communication, and I.C. will be made, particularly emphasizing some of the modernist assumptions in contrast with some of the postmodernist assumptions. This, in order to offer an open background about some important points of view, are seen to be disregarded in some of these fields, but specifically in I.C.. Continuing, a critical review about some of their theories, methodologies, concepts as well as subfields will be attempted using, for that purpose, some of the modern and postmodern assumptions previously discussed. It is the central expectation of this paper to demonstrate how the influence of modernism in general, but positivism in particular, as a deep philosophical basealmost like a kind of "worldview"-is present through the theories, methodologies, and concepts discussed and proposed in this field. I. A BRIEF PANORAMA IN COMMUNICATION In the summer of 1993, for the second time in the last twenty years the Journal of Communication published a series of articles trying to see the " ferment of change" in communication. Despite all the different points of view, proposals and approaches of the authors
THEORIES AND MEANING OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
The paper will explore the concept of international communication putting more emphasis to intercultural communication and shade light on how intercultural communication help to build and promote piece across Nation of the world.
Theories in Intercultural Communication
Canadian Journal of Communication, 1990
Clifford Geertz once wrote that the terrain of cultural diversity is "uneven, full of sudden faults and dangerous passages where accidents can and do happen". Crossing this terrain, "or trying to", he notes, "does little or nothing to smooth it out to a level, safe, unbroken plain, but simply makes visible its clefts and contours" (Geertz 1986: 119). Cultural pluralism has become a predominant phenomenon in late twentiethcentury Western society. Ease in transportation, political strife, and economic crisis are among the factors which have precipitated cross-cultural migration. The resulting (ethno)cultural, racial, linguistic, and religious diversity in countries like Canada, the U.S ., Great Britain, and Australia, with its ensuing challenges to traditional patterns of interpersonal communications, more than anything, has motivated the evolution of intercultural communications theories and strategies. Still at an immature stage of development as an object of study, new works on intercultural communications theories are a welcome contribution to the field.
Intracultural communication and intercultural communication: Are they different?
The paper discusses the differences between intracultural communication and intercultural communication from a socio-cognitive perspective that treats this relationship as a continuum rather than a dichotomy. Movement on the continuum, and differences between the two phenomena are affected by different factors that will be discussed in the paper. The hypothetical left end of the continuum is intracultural communication and the right end is intercultural communication. Neither exists in pure form. The question is to which end a given communicative situation is closer to and what characteristics it is dominated by. While moving on toward the right end communication becomes less dependent on standards, norms, frames, core common ground and formulaic language and is characterized more by emergent common ground, ad hoc generated rather than formulaic expressions, norm creating attempts and individual creativity in solving communication problems.
Reframing Intercultural Communication Research
2012
This paper discusses a possible paradigm shift within the field of intercultural communication. Distinguishing cross-cultural and intercultural approaches from historical and epistemological standpoints, it echoes the need expressed by scholars to develop a new model for examining intercultural interactions. Arguing that nation-centric studies have difficulty accounting for the complexity of communication processes taking place between foreigners, the author suggests that communication science and a “semiopragmatics” approach to interpersonal interactions can be used to reconceptualise the relationship between cultures, identities and communication, taking into account the mediating role of the contextual factors specific to the encounter itself.
Intercultural communication: critical approaches and future challenges
Language and Intercultural Communication, 2018
Giuliana Ferri's (2018) Intercultural Communication: Critical Approaches and Future Challenges provides a deeply philosophical approach to intercultural communication that is a refreshing and much needed contribution to the field. Engaging a variety of key thinkers including Levinas, Derrida, Adorno, Bakhtin and Spivak, Ferri pursues a critical reflection on three main constructs that are common in intercultural communication research: tolerance, intercultural competence, and intercultural awareness. The scope of this book underlines the significance of including ethics in intercultural communication research as crucial to the theoretical development of the field. This review explores Ferri's insights through summarizing the five chapters of the book. In particular, I first identify chapter arguments and main metaphors, and second, I underline the significance of the book for intercultural communication research, philosophy and ethics. In Chapter 1, Intercultural Communication-Current Challenges and Future Directions, Ferri suggests including an ethical methodological approach to intercultural communication research that 'confront[s] Eurocentric bias and essentialism with a critique of communicative competence' (p. 4), and examines how macro-level practices through social, political, and economic systems shape interaction. Ferri critiques the commonly unquestioned concept of intercultural competence that is based on a consideration of the other from the perspective of the self, rather than an approach to communication that is explored from the standpoint of interaction that acknowledges the reciprocity of self and other. The essentialist intercultural competence models that attempt to makes sense of the other based on the framework of the self, Ferri argues, approach the explorations on difference as 'the gap between self and other that needs to be bridged through intercultural awareness and the exercise of tolerance' (p. 8). Ferri highlights philosophical inquiry in intercultural communication as a means of developing more complex and textured conceptualizations beyond the simplified, formulaic approaches that maintain the self at the center. Chapter 1 concludes with a brief introduction to the dialogic intercultural philosophy of Levinas that challenges and questions the freedom of the self by exposing it to the other through the ethical relation. This philosophy offers a great example of 'repositioning intercultural communication practice within a new paradigm' (p. 12) that Ferri's book promotes. Chapter 2, A Critical Framework for Intercultural Communication, underlines that critical intercultural communication attends to the 'situated, dynamic and shifting relations' (p. 18) in intercultural encounters, as it examines structural constraints and power inequalities, foregrounding theories that focus on the ethical aspects of these encounters. Questioning the essentialist interpretation of culture as 'a natural entity inscribed within national boundaries' (p. 20), Ferri uses the word 'culture' as a verb in the sense of 'something that is enacted, implying that meanings are contingent and unstable, constantly negotiated in everyday life and that culture is a discursive construction built in interaction' (p. 20). Furthermore, Ferri (2018) underlines that cultural discourses do not take place in neutral spaces but are embedded in power relationships that inscribe and impose themselves through the structures of social life. This chapter offers an examination of five main concepts that illustrate the current critical approaches to interculturality: perspectivism, transculturing self, liquid interculturality, critical cosmopolitan potential, and critical intercultural citizenship. Ferri's discussion of these major concepts deepen, expand and enrich current intercultural communication discussions and scholarship on the intercultural subject, intercultural competence and ethical responsibility.
Theoretical Constructs and Practical Strategies for Intercultural Communication
Journal of Curriculum Studies Research
Delving into English language education in Vietnam, this theory-oriented article aims to generate a new debate on critical cultural awareness (CCA) in light of increasing literature on intercultural communication competence (ICC), thus offering practical implementations to academic agents. Once ICC is strongly considered indispensable within communication, CCA can strengthen the power of sociocultural and psychological relationships. This study specifies the role of intercultural communication, aiming to develop Vietnamese learners to reach beyond abstract linguistic features towards language awareness by engaging in cultural and societal plurality. Seemingly, they need use language that advocate the enactment of change, fostering their abilities in their civic life. Coupled with that, they are obliged for learning the power of positive attitudes in terms of intercultural engagement, such as sympathy towards and acceptance of differences. Critical cultural awareness as a contributio...