Perspectives on Globalization and Culture in Intercultural Communication Textbooks

Abstract

Intercultural Communication as an academic discipline originated in the United States in the years following the Second World War to help Americans who were going abroad in different capacities: private, official or for business purposes. Since then, the globalization process has accelerated. Technology has made it possible to communicate through the internet, and social media has made communication cheap and simple worldwide. The academic discipline of Intercultural Communication has developed accordingly. This chapter investigates the discipline by asking: What are the consequences of general global developments for intercultural communication in general and the academic field of Intercultural Communication in particular? This chapter analyzes three textbooks in Intercultural Communication to see how they view these global developments. The results point to some differences in their various approaches. Neuliep’s book follows the traditional, positivistic academic tradition in Intercultural Communication with historic roots in the United States. Jandt’s book is close to the same tradition but has a critical and more complex understanding of intercultural communication. Holliday’s book builds on general social sciences and cultural studies, and consequently it has a view of culture and the communication process as a negotiation between individual actors and social structures, belonging to a social constructivist and critical cosmopolitan understanding of intercultural communication.