Intercultural Communication Systems and Discourses of Cultural Identity

Abstract

The analysis of intercultural communication, which is adopted in mainstream applied linguistics and communication studies, aims to explain the meaning of cultural differences and identities in the present global world. The present analysis of intercultural communication is based on theories of cultural variability, which highlight the basic distinctions between values determining cultural differences and identities. Some studies in applied linguistics observe cultural variability as a discursive construction based on a form of epistemological essentialism, produced in the Western part of the world to give meaning to its hegemony. However, these studies share some epistemological foundations with theories of cultural variability. This paper proposes a theorization of intercultural communication, which explains cultural differences and identities as constructed in communication systems and based on their particular structural presuppositions. In this perspective, the hegemonic structure of intercultural communication is ethnocentrism, including the presuppositions of Us/Them basic distinction, positioning of individuals as members of cultural groups and normative expectations about displays of We-identities. This theorisation also provides an explanation of the discursive construction of new hybrid forms of identity, which are observed as a result of globalisation, and of the interdependence between local and global communication systems. Finally, this theorization leads to explain the meaning of intercultural dialogue, which is presented as an alternative to ethnocentrism. The open question regards the explanation of dialogue as either a new discursive construction of hegemonic Western culture or a new structure, introducing equality in participation, sensitivity for participants’ personal expressions and expectations of participants’ empowerment in local and global communication systems

Representations of Integration, Cultural Differences and the Intercultural in Questionnaires Collected with Professionals and Parents

“…However, according to Holliday (2011), multiculturalism can be included within the neo-essentialist paradigm since its celebration of cultural diversity grounded on overgeneralizations which eliminate the complexity that people culturally experienced. As claimed by Baraldi (2015) while multiculturalism brings with it the idea of recognition of cultural diversity and rights for cultural groups who populate the Western society, it actually underscores Western values such as the value of individual rights. The risk for multiculturalism is that it might become a Western strategy to reaffirm its hegemony and this is an effect of its ethnocentric intercultural communication which cannot be ignored.…”

“…According to Baraldi (2015: 57), in the history of human society, intercultural communication has developed on a system of communication characterized by being ethnocentric. This means that cultural difference usually has been interpreted as the difference between two cultural blocks (Amadasi and Holliday 2017) -Us and Them -and therefore a difference between two values -where Us has a positive connotation and Them a negative one (Baraldi 2015). A similar understanding of intercultural communication positions participants as members of predefined cultural groups with fixed cultural identities.…”

“…According to Holliday (2011: 4) essentialism presents 'people's individual behavior as entirely defined and constrained by the cultures in which they live so that the stereotype becomes the essence of who they are'. Through essentialist discourses 3 the meaning of hierarchical differences is determined (Baraldi 2015) and reproduced. On a theoretical level, the CHILD-UP project proposes a non-essentialist framework, which starts from the assumption of culture as the process through which social actors co-construct meanings, and thus dialogue as the place where negotiations concerning culture diversity and cultural identities take place.…”

“…In recent years, as a result of global interdependencies, the concept of hybridity has attracted the interest of social scientists, becoming however an expression of different approaches to cultural diversity. Baraldi (2015citing Pieterce 2004) speaks about hybridization, as a shift from the boundaries between cultural groups which creates a mélange of cultures in which it is no longer possible to distinguish the ethnocentric We-identities or the essentialist blocks Us and Them.…”

Studying Hybrid Identities in Schools: Notes on a European Project

“…Essentialism takes for granted that cultural identities are determined before intercultural communication, thus emphasizing cultural stereotypes. The anti-essentialist view stresses the prefix 'inter', which indicates the importance of communication (Baraldi 2015a), and warns against insisting on predefined cultural identities which are based on cultural belonging (Byrd Clark & Dervin 2014). Identity is seen as fluid, malleable, and contingently constructed in communication (Dervin & Liddicoat 2013;Piller 2011;Tupas 2014).…”