Intercultural communication
Videos week 1:
Relativist versus universalist
Relativist:
- We must understand the norms and values of a culture as a system in itself.
- They cannot be judged from the norms and values of another culture.
Universalist:
- Propose norms with a universal character.
- Seeks universal features of cultures.
Dynamic versus static
Dynamic: What counts as culture is brought about through communication: “a person can be
a member of multiple collective cultures”
Static: what counts as culture can be predicted from a person’s background
Culture as knowledge
Ward Goodenough: “A society culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe
in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members and do so in any role that they
except for any of themselves.”
Possible problem of this definition: every member of a cultural group is supposed to have
the same knowledge.
Alternative:
- Culture as socially distributed knowledge
- Culture emerges as people do things together
- Behaviour is based on culture and produces culture at the same time.
The role of language for culture
- Language is a means to relate to: the world, others and to ‘self’ in relation to the
world and others.
- From the ‘social distribution’ perspective, language is indispensable to perform
activities with others.
- Language and language choices can be constitutive of communities and boundaries.
Strands in Intercultural communication research (ICC)
Cross-cultural communication
- Comparing communicative behaviour of different groups
- E.g. comparing the appreciation/ persuasive force of a specific text across cultures.
John Gumperz:
- Communication in UK between Anglo and Indian/Pakistani immigrant citizens
- Introduced the notion of ‘contextualization cue’: signs used to index context.
- Attention for intonation as a contextualization cue: post office, gravy
, Paradox:
- Contextualization cues: a dynamic view of culture
- Yet Gumperz chose to focus on difference in cc’s and resulting misunderstanding: a
more static view of culture
Focus on misunderstandings also prevalent in non-linguistic, social-scientific ICC research
Mid 80-ties: ICC = misunderstanding
Responses to the focus on misunderstanding: language researchers focusing on dynamic
outcomes of ICC.
Identify construction through language: interpersonal relations:
- In multi-ethnic schools
- In workplaces
- In public spaces
Construction of intercultural discourse: communication forms that do not originate in
participants’ cultures.
Summary:
- Culture as the ability to learn from others
- Culture as social interaction
- Dynamic cultural paradigm
- Adaptions (changes) over time
- More importantly for ICC: dynamics of social interaction: e.g. conventions, contexts,
identities.
Videos week 2
Three dimensions of stereotypes
- Physiological
- Social/collective
- Individual
A stereotype is an over-generalized belief about a particular category of people. Stereotypes
are generalized because one assumes that the stereotypes is true for each individual person
in category.
In intercultural communication, stereotypes are an obstacle. It is therefore important to
understand that stereotypes have both an individual and a social dimension. Without these
two dimensions, stereotypes wouldn’t work.
An example for the social dimension of stereotyping: celebrities.
The view on celebrities
… made into a generic Other.
… exoticized
… portrayed as successful
… shown to live life without (financial) worries
… celebrated as other.
Perspective on these groups is an example for top-level-stereotyping. This means that
stereotyping here is aimed at a maximum of dissemination.
Videos week 1:
Relativist versus universalist
Relativist:
- We must understand the norms and values of a culture as a system in itself.
- They cannot be judged from the norms and values of another culture.
Universalist:
- Propose norms with a universal character.
- Seeks universal features of cultures.
Dynamic versus static
Dynamic: What counts as culture is brought about through communication: “a person can be
a member of multiple collective cultures”
Static: what counts as culture can be predicted from a person’s background
Culture as knowledge
Ward Goodenough: “A society culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe
in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members and do so in any role that they
except for any of themselves.”
Possible problem of this definition: every member of a cultural group is supposed to have
the same knowledge.
Alternative:
- Culture as socially distributed knowledge
- Culture emerges as people do things together
- Behaviour is based on culture and produces culture at the same time.
The role of language for culture
- Language is a means to relate to: the world, others and to ‘self’ in relation to the
world and others.
- From the ‘social distribution’ perspective, language is indispensable to perform
activities with others.
- Language and language choices can be constitutive of communities and boundaries.
Strands in Intercultural communication research (ICC)
Cross-cultural communication
- Comparing communicative behaviour of different groups
- E.g. comparing the appreciation/ persuasive force of a specific text across cultures.
John Gumperz:
- Communication in UK between Anglo and Indian/Pakistani immigrant citizens
- Introduced the notion of ‘contextualization cue’: signs used to index context.
- Attention for intonation as a contextualization cue: post office, gravy
, Paradox:
- Contextualization cues: a dynamic view of culture
- Yet Gumperz chose to focus on difference in cc’s and resulting misunderstanding: a
more static view of culture
Focus on misunderstandings also prevalent in non-linguistic, social-scientific ICC research
Mid 80-ties: ICC = misunderstanding
Responses to the focus on misunderstanding: language researchers focusing on dynamic
outcomes of ICC.
Identify construction through language: interpersonal relations:
- In multi-ethnic schools
- In workplaces
- In public spaces
Construction of intercultural discourse: communication forms that do not originate in
participants’ cultures.
Summary:
- Culture as the ability to learn from others
- Culture as social interaction
- Dynamic cultural paradigm
- Adaptions (changes) over time
- More importantly for ICC: dynamics of social interaction: e.g. conventions, contexts,
identities.
Videos week 2
Three dimensions of stereotypes
- Physiological
- Social/collective
- Individual
A stereotype is an over-generalized belief about a particular category of people. Stereotypes
are generalized because one assumes that the stereotypes is true for each individual person
in category.
In intercultural communication, stereotypes are an obstacle. It is therefore important to
understand that stereotypes have both an individual and a social dimension. Without these
two dimensions, stereotypes wouldn’t work.
An example for the social dimension of stereotyping: celebrities.
The view on celebrities
… made into a generic Other.
… exoticized
… portrayed as successful
… shown to live life without (financial) worries
… celebrated as other.
Perspective on these groups is an example for top-level-stereotyping. This means that
stereotyping here is aimed at a maximum of dissemination.
