Intercultural Work Research Articles

A Glossary of Distress Expressions Among Kannada-Speaking Urban Hindu Women.

People's lived experiences of distress are complex, personal, and vary widely across cultures. So, too, do the terms and expressions people use to describe distress. This variation presents an engaging challenge for those doing intercultural work in transcultural psychiatry, global mental health, and psychological anthropology. This article details the findings of a study of common distress terminology among 63 Kannada-speaking Hindu women living in Mysuru, the second largest city in the state of Karnataka, South India. Very little existing scholarship focuses on cultural adaptation for speakers of Dravidian languages like Kannada; this study aims to fill this gap and support greater representation of this linguistic family in research on mental health, idioms of distress, and distress terminology. Between 2018 and 2019, we conducted a 3-phase study consisting of interviews, data reduction, and focus group discussions. The goal was to produce a non-exhaustive list of common Kannada distress terms that could be used in future research and practice to translate and culturally adapt mental health symptom scales or other global mental health tools.

Who does the story belong to? The politics of power in collaborative performance

In this article, I interrogate my work Encounters with Dr Yashoda Thakore and her guru Annabattula Mangatayaru who are from the kalavantulu community (a marginalized, banned and ostracized dance community) based in Hyderabad and Mummidivaram in Andhra and our historic collaboration with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO). Two extremes it would seem bridged together by the work I was doing with our platform/festival Sangam, created to provide representation for marginalized, under-represented and racialized South Asian artists in Melbourne, Victoria. Based on my research that spans fifteen years, the Encounters performance reveals the story of five South Indian dancers (known as devadasi/kalavantulu) and three musicians who toured to Paris in 1838, at a time when India was colonized by France. One significant encounter occurred in Paris when a teenaged dancer called Ammany and the rest of the troupe met several composers in Vienna including Johann Strauss I and Joseph Lanner. The MSO had been playing some pieces from this encounter (Indianner Galopp and Malapou Galopp) not aware of its historic intercultural significance. Yashoda and her guru were also performing fragments of their repertoire descended from Ammany not aware of this connection. My research forms the third part of this puzzle; of knowing only fragments until all of us came together. Each of us contributed to the anti-colonial experimental piece that was created, but whose story was this? Who had the rights to perform this story? To engage in this question, I explore the idea of cultural property and intellectual property (IP) rights, licensing and copyright agreements to embark upon a moral and ethical framework not used usually in Australian–Indian performance praxis. I draw from my work with BlakDance and its First Nations IP process to question and interrogate the complexities of sharing stories, the politics of making intercultural work in Australia and examine who profits from this process whether it is economic, symbolic, political or via cultural capital and propose a cultural IP framework for the global majority in Australia.

Rhythmanalysis as methodology for understanding the social complexity of school spaces

This paper reports on Henri Lefebvre’s methodological approach of 'rhythmanalysis' as a productive tool to understand the complex social constructions of school spaces. Schooling is founded on relationships. These relationships exist in multi-directional and multi-layered ways between teachers, students, school leadership, parents and carers, the school and local community, and official Departments of Education; but also between education policy, official curriculum, and official assessment regimes; and between the material spaces of schools such as school buildings, classrooms and outdoor spaces. These relations are complex and multidimensional, and are characterised by movement. This paper reports on the methodological approach of a recent ethnographic study in a secondary school in suburban Melbourne, Australia that investigated the complex socio-spatial relations that shape teachers’ intercultural work at this school. This paper reports on the nature of relations in school spaces across three domains - conceived, perceived and lived space - and identifies the kinds of rhythms these produce. I argue that this approach enables education researchers to examine in close detail the complex and mobile nature of relations that shape teachers' work in local settings, and may better inform a situated approach to curriculum and policy development.

Kamapim gutpela man: Papua New Guinean and Chinese refinery workers' changing understandings of becoming a good man

ABSTRACTThis article adds to research on emerging masculinities in the Pacific by analysing how Papua New Guinean and Chinese male employees' intercultural work experiences impact their perceptions of becoming a good man. The idea of a good man acts as a benchmark for assessing the adaptability of Papua New Guinean employees to new work environments and determining if Chinese colleagues are their desired partners. I illustrate this point by first considering ‘becoming’ as an alternate framework to the binary framework reflected in earlier research. I next describe how Papua New Guinean workers impress their Chinese supervisors through negotiations and concessions about industrial and subsistence farming time, as well as how working with Papua New Guinean workers alters Chinese employees' perceptions of work. Finally, I demonstrate how employment practices foster Papua New Guinean workers' evolving perspectives on becoming agutpela man(‘good man’) and Chinese employees' evolving perspectives on becoming a good person, a vital route to becoming achenggongman (‘successful man’). This article proposes characterizing emerging masculinities as hybrid identities that are context‐dependent, interculturally exchanged and temporal by presenting two parties' new thoughts on becoming a good man. This article demonstrates modulatory power dynamics in the Chinese refinery based on a two‐way narrative as opposed to portraying Chinese management as the dominating force.

Instytucje i organizacje w Monachium na rzecz uchodźców – wybrane aspekty

Russia’s war in Ukraine has been ongoing since 2014, but initially Russian actions took the form of a hybrid war. Ukraine was in peaceful relations with the rest of the world when Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimea without a declaration of war and waged war in Donbass. Its full-scale scope, launched on February 24, 2022, was unprecedented in post-war Europe and caused several million people living in the invaded country to leave Ukrainian territory. The purpose of this article is to show how organizations and institutions in Munich are addressing the influx of refugees into the city, including refugees from Ukraine. As a research hypothesis, it was assumed that in Germany, including Munich, the German experience of 2015 and subsequent years in accepting newcomers from the Middle East played a huge role in solving the problems of refugees from Ukraine after February 24, 2022. The basic research problems are contained in questions such as: what changes in asylum law have been made in Germany by the federal government; who in the city of Munich is entitled to assistance and what benefits does it cover?; what is the assistance to refugees provided by the Office for Housing and Migration in Munich?; what does the Office for the Prevention of Homelessness do?; what are the tasks of the Local Mediation Office?; what are the competencies of the so-called Social Service for the Deaf?; what is the scope of activities of the Office of Return Assistance?; what are the return offices in Bavaria?; what are the activities of the Office for Intercultural Work?; what is the scope of activities of the Foreign Qualification Development Service Center? The leading research method used in the research conducted is institutionallegal analysis.

University and Business

This study shows how disruptive training methods (DTM) equip students with skills that facilitate intergenerational and intercultural work. Skills and competences of leading international companies and institutions. A review of the literature on disruptive methodology has been carried out. The result shows how traditional education can be adapted to Wikiproducers and Generation Z students, to help them understand and develop some skills that their training is leaving behind, and that can be critical in their early stages of professional and personal life.

Inter-imperiality: Vying Empires, Gendered Labor, and the Literary Arts of Alliance

Inter-imperiality: Vying Empires, Gendered Labor, and the Literary Arts of Alliance

‘But we’re not a multicultural school!’: locating intercultural relations and reimagining intercultural education as an act of ‘coming-to-terms-with our routes’

Learning to live in a superdiverse world might be heralded as one of the great social challenges of our time. In the last decade, intercultural education has been posed as one way to foster intercultural capabilities in young people that can contribute towards learning to live well with cultural difference. As the diaspora in Australia—and elsewhere—expands, developing intercultural understanding is seen as a priority. Despite the directives of official policy and curriculum, enacting intercultural education in meaningful ways is complex and fraught. This paper reports on an Australian ethnography at a predominantly ‘white’ school that examined the way productions of cultural difference across school spaces complicate teachers’ intercultural work. This paper considers how intercultural understanding might move beyond celebrations of multiculturalism, arguing that ‘coming-to-terms with our routes’ necessarily prefigures intercultural understanding and provides opportunity for an intercultural education beyond a celebration of multiculturalism.

Intercultural Management as an Important Aspect of Modern Managers’ Work: Educational Challenges

The issue of intercultural management has become particularly pertinent because of globalization and the internationalization of economic activity undertaken by contemporary companies. Intercultural management and its challenges are extensively analysed in numerous Polish and foreign publications. The significant role played by intercultural management primarily stems from the tremendous impact it exerts on the efficient functioning of multicultural teams, the relationships between the people in these teams, and their communication and motivation. Moreover, at present it is a crucial aspect of the everyday work of managers operating in culturally diverse work environments. The article is of a theoretical nature. The first part describes the role and importance of manager values in the context of cultural diversity in their work environments, followed by the presentation of the concept and meaning of intercultural management. Next, the impact managers exert on the management of culturally diverse teams in modern organizations is analysed. The final part describes selected challenges connected to educating and training modern managers to work in intercultural work environments. The aim of the article is to demonstrate the role and importance of intercultural management as a vital aspect of modern managers’ work and to identify educational challenges related to this area.

Caring for Worldviews in Early Childhood Education: Theoretical and Analytical Tool for Socially Sustainable Communities of Care

Societies of today are becoming increasingly pluralistic. This applies also to the diversity of values and worldviews in Swedish early childhood education and care (ECEC). Still, in the increasingly secular contexts, societal hegemony often fails to include children’s home religions and worldviews in the actions and understandings aiming towards inclusiveness. We argue that it is of critical importance to also include the plurality of worldviews in the educational perception of “the whole child” in the care and education taking place in ECEC. The purpose of this article is to connect the discussions in the fields of intercultural and interreligious education, in particular those dealing with the diversity of religions and worldviews, to discussions on care and social sustainability in ECEC. The UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development promotes inclusive and equitable education, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child states children’s right to freedom of religion and a concern for the spiritual, moral, and social development. Our previous findings have illustrated the importance of religions and worldviews in the intercultural work within early childhood education, both empirically and conceptually, and as part of the moral core of teaching. This article employs feminist and postcolonial ethics of care as a theoretical lens in elaborating on the three key notions: social sustainability, care, and worldviews. Several discursive challenges that ECEC teachers in Sweden face in their work, to enhance social sustainability by supporting the child’s well-being and sense of belonging in the ECEC, have been outlined. To conclude, we bring forth a theoretical and analytical tool for the understanding, researching, and planning of socially sustainable communities of care.

Towards a praxis of difference: Reimagining intercultural understanding in Australian schools as a challenge of practice

ABSTRACT Intercultural education in Australia has been positioned in State-based official curriculum and education policy as developing understanding between diverse cultural groups. However, cultivating such understanding far more complex in practice than policy and curriculum directives can capture. In Australia, eruptions of intercultural tensions has an ongoing and complex history. This paper examines the challenges for teachers’ intercultural practice in one Australian public school setting. Reporting on a single-site ethnography drawing on Lefebvre’s production of space. I conceptualise teachers’ intercultural work as a praxis of difference, this paper problematises the way intercultural education is often taken up in tokenistic ways and advocates for reimagining intercultural education as a challenge of practice. I argue that an examination of the conditions that produce complex relations between diverse cultural groups in particular spaces is a productive starting point for developing intercultural understanding as a rational praxis of difference .

Poetische Alterität als Interkulturalität auslösendes Element am Beispiel von Yoko Tawadas Werk Talisman

Im Gegensatz zu der pauschalen Annahme, interkulturelle Literatur sei eine Literatur, die von Schriftstellern betrieben bzw. erzeugt wird, welche einem anderen Sprach-, und somit Kulturraum als die entstammen, erstrebt dieser Beitrag eine klarere Definition. Es wird versucht, festzustellen, was ein literarisches Produkt zu einem interkulturellen Werk macht und welche Aspekte ihm zugrunde liegen. Wenn erst einmal eine solche Definition festgelegt wird, geht der Beitrag zu dem der Alterität über. Indem die Alterität als das Fremde oder das Andere konstatiert wird, wird ihr Bezug auf die Literatur erleuchtet und dadurch gelangt der Beitrag zu einer spezifischeren Alterität, und zwar zum Poetischen in ihr. Darunter versteht dieser Beitrag, dass der literarische Text zwar an sich auch ein Text ist, jedoch einer, der durch seine Andersheit konstituiert wird. Denn er weicht durch Benutzung verschiedener Mittel vom normalen Sprachgebrauch ab. Auf dieser theoretischen Grundlage basiert dann die Analyse des Werkes Talisman der japanischen Autorin Yoko Tawada. Durch eine Mehrzahl an Beispielen werden das interkulturelle Element und die poetische Alterität in diesem Werk herausgearbeitet. Interessant wird hierbei, wie auf die Eigenheiten der deutschen Sprache vom Standpunkt einer Fremden aufmerksam gemacht wird. Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt dann dadurch, wie das als interkulturell zu bezeichnende Werk das Eigene beleuchtet und dafür sorgt, dass es besser verstanden wird. Das ermöglicht die Desautomatisierung der Wahrnehmung. Das bis dahin Übliche und Gewöhnliche wird entfremdet, was dazu führt, dass es bewusster wahrgenommen wird. Der Beitrag kommt neben dieser Schlussfolgerung auch zu einer weiteren, dass man durch dieses Verständnis nämlich auch das Andere besser kennenlernt und wahrnimmt.

Arts Therapy Practice in Sudan: Reflections on a Short-Term Humanitarian Programme (Pratique de l’art-thérapie au Soudan : Réflexions sur un programme humanitaire à court terme)

A creative arts therapies program was implemented in 2018 at a special-needs school in Khartoum, Sudan as part of a humanitarian program initiated by an international nongovernmental organization that promotes art therapy, and their local Sudanese partners. Using a collaborative autoethnographic approach, this paper presents the personal experiences of the three arts therapists involved, emphasizing the complex intercultural context that involved diverse cultural, ethnic, and linguistic identities. This article shares an approach to intercultural work that can be used and built-upon by other professionals working in humanitarian contexts. The unique model of a three-step program that was implemented emphasized the transitory presence of the therapists as sojourners. The reflections and process of writing this article, illuminates the authors’/therapists’ own experiences as sojourner arts therapists, and how it influenced their approach in working temporarily in Sudan. This article concludes with the recommendation to incorporate tools of critical reflections in order to support the professional team working in humanitarian contexts, and encourage continuous dialogue with the community where the intervention takes place.

A new framework of workplace belonging: Instrument validation and testing relationships to crucial acculturation outcomes

ABSTRACT Contemporary global migrant flows challenge national ingroup boundaries, leading to demands for greater inclusivity of those migrants in receiving societies worldwide. Utilizing the specific case of Japanese and foreigners in Japan, this study aimed to validate Komisarof's framework of workplace belonging. The framework refines understanding of how perceptions of belonging – particularly the degrees to which people see themselves accepted as members of another group’s cultural-linguistic community and as core members of their shared work organization – impact quality and effectiveness of intercultural work relations for both migrants and members of the host society. Instruments measuring both dimensions of belonging were validated first through a review of potential items by a panel of experts, followed by an exploratory factor analysis of retained items with a sample of 228 respondents (116 Japanese and 112 non-Japanese representing 24 nationalities). Relationships between four permutations of belonging, termed ontological interpretive spaces (“OIS”), and four outcome variables (job effectiveness, flourishing, organizational commitment, and intercultural competence) were hypothesized and tested. Significant effects of OIS were found for job effectiveness, flourishing, and organizational commitment, providing evidence of belonging’s effects on these crucial acculturation outcomes in intercultural work contexts.

Making music together: a transdisciplinary approach towards the development of intercultural awareness

In South Africa the segregation laws of the apartheid years had an impact on contacts and interactions between cultural groups, which led to prejudice, intolerance and painful intercultural experiences. The influence of the past is still evident in present-day South African society, despite greater mobility between different cultural groups. This paper reports on four research studies that investigated how social work and the arts together can explore ways to facilitate contact between diverse groups that will lead to positive experiences. The aim of these studies was to create an opportunity to develop intercultural awareness through joint music-making in an attempt to address prejudice and intolerance. The paper will firstly discuss how a transdisciplinary approach can be utilised. Secondly, the paper posits that making music together is a way to assist diverse groups to explore their own cultural understandings, to ‘hear the voices’ of other cultures, and to move towards greater intercultural awareness that could enhance tolerance in a diverse society. Thirdly, the hermeneutical perspective will be presented as an aspect of the process to support the development of awareness between diverse groups. Concluding recommendations focus on how making music together can become a form of intercultural social work.

Razvoj rotacionih alata i procena kvaliteta njihovog interaktivnog rada pogodnog za Tarai i Pantnagar region, Indija

Rotary tillers implements are now projected as important tillage machinery for better seedbed preparation; however the ordinary rotavator being in line with the tractor center line at the rear cannot be used in orchards due to the hindrance posed due to narrow space between the plants. Therefore, the concept of a rotary offset tiller in other words orchard tillers was proposed, which could perform finer intercultural operation between the plants. Since there are some models of Indians and Foreign made rotary offset tiller available and their work quality parameter significantly plays a crucial role in selection of efficient, effective and appropriate machine for orchards. Therefore, present study is carried out with a purpose of selection of suitable and efficient orchard tillers on the basis of intercultural work quality parameters. The various intercultural machines like Rineri offset tiller, Saktiman offset tiller and Side shift tiller selected for this study and finally, orchard tillers were analysed for intercultural work quality for their suitability in Pant Tarai region of Uttarakhand. The work quality assessments concluded that side shift tiller was supposed to be best among all other type of intercultural machines because of less fuel consumption 3.5 l/h, less mean weight diameter 42 mm, higher actual field capacity 0.47 and high field performance index 86 %. Therefore, side shift tiller can be recommended to farmers and found to be suitable for intercultural operation in Pant Tarai region.

Epidemiological Approach to the Hantavirus Outbreak and the Role of the Social Dimension of Health Care

In late 2018, in the town of Epuyén, Argentine Patagonia, the outbreak of Andes hantavirus begins. Evidence led to the interhuman transmission hypothesis. The comparative analysis carried out by the National Administration of Laboratories and Health Institutes (ANLIS, <i>Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud</i>) Malbrán of Argentina showed that the viral genotype was Andes Sur. The percentage of genetic identity reached 99.9% and confirmed, univocally, that the transmission mechanism was from person to person. This finding indicates a unique and extraordinary event that required a multidimensional approach, incorporating the collective health approach to transform biomedical therapeutics through an intersectoral, interinstitutional and intercultural work based on the dynamics of social determination and its impact on the health/disease/attention/care process. The chain of contagion had 4 clusters with 34 confirmed cases and 11 deaths. Overall mortality was 32.4%, women doubling the number of deaths compared to men. This article presents not only the hard data of the outbreak, but also the observation of the socio-cultural context in which it took place and the value of social determination in the health care process, criteria without which selective respiratory isolation (ARS, <i>aislamiento respiratorio selectivo</i>), the main tool for containing the outbreak, would not have been possible in the multiethnic and multicultural context of the Patagonian region. Incidentally, 8.7% of the population of Chubut province recognizes itself as indigenous and more than half of the 100 communities are distributed in the area where the outbreak occurred. The concept of indigenous health is linked to a holistic view of balance between the individual and the universe, confronting the hegemony of the bio-model. This confrontation challenged the health team to look more deeply into the social collective and to find there the agreements and synergies that allowed the successful continuation of the intervention until the resolution and conclusion of the outbreak.

Biculturalism and cross-cultural competence: examination of an attribution complexity theory-based model

PurposeBased on attributional complexity (AC) theory, the authors empirically examine the impact of biculturalism on cross-cultural adjustment and the degree to which people make isomorphic attributions, critical for cross-cultural leadership effectiveness.Design/methodology/approachUsing questionnaire surveys, the authors first validate measures in a validation sample and then empirically test the model in a second sample, using structural equation modeling.FindingsThe authors’ findings reveal an empirical connection between biculturalism and AC on the one hand, while also showing support for the relationship between biculturalism and attributional knowledge. Findings also demonstrate that biculturalism is related to attributional accuracy in cross-cultural contexts via an attributional mechanism, as suggested by AC theory.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, AC theory emerges as one with excellent prospects for explaining intercultural work in multicultural settings. Biculturalism's links to AC and attributional knowledge are critical for extensions to cross-cultural leadership effectiveness, and international knowledge transfer, interesting and high potential research avenues for the discipline.Practical implicationsThe authors’ findings carry a host of managerial implications. AC training can provide all international assignees with the necessary foundational skills and learning abilities to successfully interact in the host country setting with local nationals. This study also suggests that managers on international assignments should focus their efforts on acquiring attributional knowledge because it can provide a solid boost to their understanding of the local culture.Originality/valueOne’s understanding of biculturals and their cross-cultural management competencies is very limited. The authors provide empirical support for the hypotheses, hitherto unexamined in extant literature.

No More Magic Mirrors: Performing Intercultural Communication in a (Post?) Fairy Tale World

ABSTRACT A poetic performative script is offered in this piece to highlight through critical playful speech the metaphoric, archetypal, and narrative forms of habituation and scripting that lay powerfully in the shadows of intercultural performative work, if only because we fail to interrogate the most mundane and repetitive framing stories, assumptions, and language.

Resenha de Translation, Ideology and Gender

Publicado em 2017 pela Cambridge Scholars Publishing, o livro Translation, Ideology and Gendertem origem no projeto de pesquisa chamado TRACEgencsi (Traducción y Censura en la Representación del Género), financiado pelo Ministério da Inovação e Educação da Espanha e conduzido por um grupo de acadêmicos ”“ e acadêmicas, sobretudo ”“ da Universidade de Cantabria e da Universidade de León. Como fruto do projeto, foi realizada em 2015 na cidade de Santander, Espanha, a Primeira Conferência Internacional “Translation, Ideology and Gender”, com o objetivo de investigar de que maneiras e sob que aspectos a representação de gênero pode ser filtrada por relações de poder e ideologia na tradução de textos científicos e literários. A partir das comunicações apresentadas na conferência, somadas aos estudos enviados em resposta à chamada de trabalhos que a sucedeu, foram selecionados nove artigos para compor o volume, resultando em uma obra multidisciplinar e intercultural, cuja pluralidade de vozes e perspectivas tem considerável potencial agregador para os estudos da tradução enquanto fenômeno ”“ agente e produto ”“ da cultura.