Glocal Dialogue Transformation through Transcultural Communication

Abstract

This paper addresses the role of dialogical communication in acculturation efforts in organizations and regions during periods of transition, merger, technological innovation, and globalization. This communication mode can be achieved through a dialogue process, proposed by David Bohm (1996) and developed by Peter Senge, William Isaacs and Freeman Dhority at MIT, Boston. The dialogue process, as an integral part of communication training, aims to promote dialogue competence for intercultural communication. In a company situation participants in the dialogue process as a intercultural communication training learn how to better deal with their own stereotypes of other cultures and eventually learn a style of communication that is not so stereotypical. A dialogue process in a society, that aims to promote dialogical communication between a dominant group and an acculturating group on the local level, could stimulate the acculturation process on the global level, hence glocal dialogue. The glocal dialogue has been tried out in City W, a small city in Germany, since April 2002. About 20 residents of the city are taking part in this dialogue process. The participants include Germans (as the dominant group) and people from Arab nations, Turkey, India, Japan, and Croatia (as an acculturating group) who are willing to transform the culture of the city (regional acculturation). The aim of this study is to describe the sociopsychological transformation of the dialogue group.