Intercultural Identity Research Articles

Intercultural personhood: Globalization and a way of being

Abstract This theoretical essay makes a case for “intercultural personhood” as a viable model for human development in today's increasingly integrated world. Critiquing the largely static, monolithic, and value-laden perspective on cultural identity prevalent in social science literature, the author emphasizes the complex and evolving nature of identity. The term, intercultural identity, is employed as a counterpoint to, and as an extension of, cultural identity, and as a concept that represents the phenomenon of identity adaptation and transformation beyond the perimeters of the conventional, categorical conception of cultural identity. The stress–adaptation–growth dynamic in the author's integrative theory of cross-cultural adaptation provides a systemic account for the identity development process as the interplay of acculturation and deculturation. The author argues that, through prolonged and cumulative intercultural communication experiences, individuals around the world can, and do, undergo a gradual process of intercultural evolution. The emerging intercultural personhood is characterized by two interrelated key patterns in self-other orientation: individuation and universalization. Empirical evidence for this theoretical argument is offered through some of the pertinent research findings as well as case illustrations based on publicly available personal testimonials and biographic narratives.

Unintended Outcomes in Second Life: Intercultural Literacy and Cultural Identity in a Virtual World

Since its inception in 2003, the popularity of Second Life (SL), an online 3-D virtual environment, has increased exponentially. The global reach of SL and the opportunities it provides for cross-cultural exchange using multiple modes of communication in real and virtual worlds make it an ideal venue to examine cross-cultural engagement. Drawing on Cultural Historical Activity Theory and Heyward's model of intercultural literacy, this article analyses findings from an exploratory study examining the construction of cultural identity and development of intercultural literacy among 29 SL participants. The authors argue that SL Residents participate in an Activity System, engaging in myriad activities (e.g. language classes) which provide structured environments that generate both intended and unintended outcomes. The findings reveal that in many ways participation in SL enhanced participants’ intercultural literacy – for example, by fostering use of multiple languages, cross-cultural encounters and friendships, greater awareness of insider cultural perspectives, and openness towards new viewpoints. Additionally, respondents used their avatar's appearance to construct shifting cultural identities. Although the cross-cultural exchanges in SL do not guarantee intercultural literacy, they provide participants with opportunities to move in that direction.

Intercultural Identities in W.G. Sebald's The Emigrants and Norbert Gstrein's Die englischen Jahre

This paper analyses W.G. Sebald's The Emigrants and Norbert Gstrein's Die englischen Jahre from the perspective of intercultural identity. In Sebald's work, intercultural identity emerges as a political crisis that leads to a series of devastating personal crises: Sebald's protagonists’ inability to fully abandon early ethnic and national identifications results in life-long melancholy whose issue can only be death. For Gstrein, the problem of intercultural identity is one of ethnic impersonation. Gstrein explores performative notions of identity, but is alert to the ethical dubiousness and, indeed, potentially regressive aspect of performance, in contradistinction to some contemporary theorists who see the performative approach to identity as emancipatory. In conclusion, the role of the narrator in the texts is examined. Both narrators thematise the question of empathy, from both an ethical and an epistemological point of view. Although they come to different conclusions about the value of empathic identification, their texts represent self-conscious attempts to develop a mode of intercultural narrative that seeks to do justice to the otherness of the other.

Discourses of Intercultural Identity in Britain, Germany and Eastern Europe

(2004). Discourses of Intercultural Identity in Britain, Germany and Eastern Europe. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development: Vol. 25, No. 5-6, pp. 361-368.

The role of communication, technology, and cultural identity in repatriation adjustment

The current study examines the influence of demographic factors, communication behavior, and cultural identity on the repatriation adjustment of 101 American sojourners returning from work assignments in 44 different countries. The results indicated that the demographic factors of age, marital status, length of sojourn, and attendance at debriefing had a significant relationship with repatriation adjustment. Levels of closeness in relationships and satisfaction with use of information and communication technology were also related to repatriation adjustment. In fact, several mediated forms of communication, such as email and the Internet, received as high or higher ratings than some types of face-to-face communication. Intercultural identity patterns (home favored, host favored, integrated, and disintegrated) were defined, and results on them demonstrated that integrated and home-favored patterns had the smoother repatriation adjustment, while disintegrated and host-favored patterns had more difficult repatriation experiences.

Yamina Benguigui's Inch'Allah dimanche: unveiling hybrid identities

Yamina Benguigui's Inch'Allah dimanche is a memoir of the Maghrebi immigrants' story in the 1970s and at the same time a movie about identity negotiation by immigrants and children of immigrants in France today. The main character Zouina has access to a fluid, multipolar, complex and intercultural identity and is able to invert or question traditional or essentialist identity markers.

Intercultural Identity in James Welch's "Fools Crow" and "The Indian Lawyer"

Intercultural Identity in James Welch's "Fools Crow" and "The Indian Lawyer"