Foundations and Theories of Intercultural Communication
What is Culture?
One theme that will be revisited throughout our course is that the definition of the word “culture” varies, and we should be clear about what we’re referring to in any of our discussions and analyses about the implications of culture. Mary Jane Collier, an intercultural communication scholar from the University of New Mexico, suggested that there are many ways we commonly think about culture:
· Culture as Place/where groups of people reside: “I’m from a southwest suburb of Cleveland, Ohio”;
· Culture as Ancestry and People/ a group of people who share the same ancestry, often ancestry is linked to race (e.g. “I’m Italian-American,” “I’m Chicano,” “I’m first generation Bosnian-American”);
· Culture as Art and Artifact/creative expressions & endeavors of a particular time and place;
· Culture as Capital or Economic Resources/ buying power of certain groups of people, organizations or even entire countries;
· Culture as Product/commodities & products such as foods, films, toys, videos, music, and books that are exported and imported;
· Culture as Politics and Ideology/ certain structures, master narratives, and beliefs that help maintain and extend power of certain groups of people; and
· Culture as Group Identity.
Regardless of the definition employed, there is general agreement about the major
characteristics of culture (Collier, 2003):
· Culture is learned; it is not innate. All humans share some behaviors, feelings, and experiences, but the forms those take differ, depending on what we have learned is normal and acceptable. For example, we all eat, feel anger and happiness, and progress from childhood to adulthood. However, a young, healthy white male in the U.S. would likely eat very different foods, express his anger and happiness, and experience rituals of transition to adulthood that are very different from the foods, acceptable expressions of emotions, and transition rituals that would be experienced by a disabled Asian female in a traditional Buddhist family.
· Culture is transmitted from generation to generation: habits, values, principles are communicated between individuals and groups over time.
· Culture is based on symbols: As humans, we are symbol-making animals. We have the ability to both learn and pass on information through verbal & non-verbal communication, icons, and images.
· Culture is subject to change: Cultures are dynamic systems that do not exist in a vacuum, therefore they are subject to change over time.
Why should we study Intercultural Communication?
Judith Martin and Thomas Nakayama argue that it is imperative that we study intercultural communication for several reasons:
1 The Technological Imperative
· Advances in electronic media/technology have influenced how we think about ourselves and how we form intercultural relationships.
· Mobility/Transportation technology places us in contact with a wider variety of people.
2 The Demographic Imperative
· The American workforce is dramatically changing in the 21st century
· Changing Immigration Patterns:
· 90% of the one million immigrants to USA today are from Latin America and Asia
· Voluntary and involuntary migrations for work, flight from war, desire to be with family have impacted the demographics within the US.
3 The Economic Imperative
· With globalization, there is a world market in goods, services, labor, capital, and technology.
· The US economy depends on global market
4 The Peace Imperative
· The need to understand and appreciate those who differ from ourselves is vital;
· Frequent incidents of hate crimes and other animosities underscore the importance of the peace imperative;
· Relationship between individual and societal forces: individuals are often born into and caught up in conflicts that they neither started nor chose.
5 The Self-Awareness Imperative
· As we study another culture and reality, we end up learning more about our own culture and reality.
· Intercultural learning may involve an increased awareness of being caught up in political, economic, and historical systems not of our own making.
6 The Ethical Imperative
· Ethical principles are often culture-bound, and intercultural conflicts arise from various notions of what is ethical behavior
· Martin and Nakayama suggest:
· developing self-reflexivity
· learning about the humanity of others
· developing a sense of social justice.
The reality is that cultures (however we define them) that have primary access to economic and institutional power are characterized as dominant or majority. Moon (one of your readings for this week) suggests that one interesting way of thinking about culture is based on the idea of culture as a contested zone. She says “Thinking about culture as a contested zone helps us understand the struggles of cultural groups and the complexities of cultural life. It also aids us in coming to understand and consider various cultural realities and perspectives on the diverse groups that reside within any cultural space” (2002, p. 16). Read her article to increase your understanding of the ways that power differences among groups impact each group’s understanding and acceptance of their own and others’ cultures.
Recognition of those power differentials can help you meet the objectives listed at the beginning of this lecture.
Sources used for this lecture:
· Collier, Mary Jane. “Understanding Cultural Identities in Intercultural Communication: A Ten-Step Inventory” in Intercultural Communication: A Reader. Samovar and Porter (Eds.). 10th edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2003; 16-33.
· Martin, Judith and Thomas Nakayama. “Thinking Dialectically About Culture and Communication.” Communication Theory (February 1999, Vol. 9, Issue 1): 1-25.
*Moon, D. G. (2002). Thinking about “culture” in intercultural communication. In J. N. Martin, T. K., Nakayama, & L. A. Flores (Eds.), Readings in intercultural communication: Experiences and contexts (2nd ed.) (pp. 13-20). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
