Critical Intercultural Communication and the Public Sphere: Theoretical Engagements with Tahakkum and Other-Interculturality

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article argues that tahakkum [ التَّحَكُّمِ ], an indigenous intercultural communication concept, impedes the functioning of the public sphere and underlines the failure (or unwillingness) of the authoritarian state and political actors to set conditions for plural deliberation and good governance. Using the critical cases of the sliding back of Islamist influence and the hirak (movement) against water privatization in an oasis town in southeast Morocco, the article theorizes tahakkum and proposes “other-interculturality” as an-other epistemological and ethical framework to articulate an intercultural communication model that interrogates embedded layers of power and domination, champions collective solidarity, and celebrates diversity without occluding difference.