Intercultural Communication Summary IBC Radboud University
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Course
Intercultural Communication (LETCIWB152IBC)
Institution
Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (RU)
Book
Introducing Intercultural Communication
This is a clear summary of all lectures of Intercultural Communication, which is taught in the first year of IBC at Radboud University. All needed chapters of the book are included as well as lecture notes on the chapters and various articles.
Chapter 1- Challenges of living in a global community
People around the world connected
Small world experiment (1967)
• How closely connected are two random people in the world? How many steps via
other people does it take to connect two random people in the world? Send letters
in the US to people they knew and try and get it to someone in Boston.
• It took 5 to 6 steps (people) to get from starting to end point → Six degrees of
separation network theory.
Small world experiment 2.0 (2012)
• If you pick any two Facebook users and see how they’re connected, there’s 3.57
degrees of separation between them.
• The world is more connected to each other than in 1967.
The world as a village (McLuhan)
Global village= A world in which communication technology brings news and information
to the most remote parts of the world. In this global village, people are constantly moving
cross borders and engaging in international exchange.
• Information is everywhere (ubiquitous)
• Communication is 24/7
• Communication is potentially global, you can communicate with anyone around
world.
We are all influenced by our own cultural perspective:
• Language we speak
• Communication style (how we are expected to communicate in our culture)
• Value orientations we are used to
Globalization
Globalization= The process of increasing interconnectedness between societies, so that
events in one place of the world have more and deeper effects on people and societies far
away.
or
Globalization= The widening, deepening and speeding up of worldwide
interconnectedness in all aspects of contemporary social life. This interconnectivity breaks
down the boundary between East and West. → More focus on Eastern VS Western regions
of the world.
Globalization in business= The increase of trade around the world, especially by large
companies producing trading goods in many different countries.
or
Globalization in business= The idea that the world is developing a single economy and
culture as a result of improved technology and communications and the influence of very
large multinational companies.
KOF Index of Globalization
Globalization is hard to measure → KOF Index of globalization: How globalized is a country?
• Economic globalization: trade and investment flows, import/export
• Social globalization: personal contact, information flows, number McDonald’s.
, • Political globalization: foreign embassies in a country, membership of international
organizations, participation in UN missions.
Views on Globalization
3 perspectives:
1. Globalists
Globalization is an inevitable development which cannot be resisted or influenced by
human intervention.
2. Traditionalists
The significance of globalization as a new phase has been exaggerated. Most
economic and social activity is regional and they still see an important role for nation-
states. Individual governments are important and should not turn into one big global
culture.
3. Transformationalists
In between globalists and traditionalists. Globalization represents a significant shift,
but question inevitability of its impacts. There is still reach/scope for national
governments.
Globalization= Diversity?
Globalization leads to:
• More diversity
You get more input from other cultures
When the Turkish came to the Netherlands
• Less diversity, more uniform
We all adopt each other’s cultures, so that it all turns into one big global culture
Introduction of Christmas all around the world
Global cultural diversity: history
When humans evolved, they had to work together to survive. The groups that were formed,
were diverse with different cultures.
• Different age groups, gender, interests etc → Different cultures= Sub-cultures.
• Biological and cultural diversity go together → The more plant diversity, the more
language diversity. Where there’s a lot of plant diversity, that’s the places where
people lived best, because there were lot of plants they could eat, so more people
lived there and thus more people to mix (diversity).
• Environmental factors= Geographical barriers leads to communities staying apart,
while tropical climates are better to live in, which leads to more life and more
diversity.
• Sociocultural factors= Smaller groups are highly adaptable and did better in history,
diversity in languages is everywhere (no matter how many people there live).
Contributors to cultural contact
What has led to the increase of cultural contact?
• Advances in communication technologies and transportation
- Easier to travel and move and work in other places
- Easier to interact online via apps facilitates exchange of ideas
- More diverse community because of contact with all sorts of cultures
, • Global economy and international business
- Global transformation: our local market is as diverse as global market
- International expansion: multinationals operating globally, outsourcing
- Diverse workforce: more ethnic diversity within workplaces. Migrant workers,
expats
• Mass migration and international exchange/education
- Migration increases cultural diversity for receiving country and contributes to
social and economic development in both country of origin and receiving
- Immigration flows, from developing to developed countries
- Refugees
- Migrant workers who move to a host country temporarily
- Student exchanges
- Expats who temporarily relocate to work in another country
Necessity and benefits of intercultural communication knowledge
1.Multiculturalism
• Having intercultural knowledge helps create mutual understanding and benefit from
cultural diversity and reduce intercultural tensions in intercultural communication.
• Society made up of diverse cultures → Multiculturalism at descriptive level.
• Multi-cultural societies should show acceptance of equal societal participation of
diverse groups (when incoming other cultures are accepted) and acceptance of
diversity → Multiculturalism at attitude level.
• Successful cross-cultural communication requires tolerance and mutual
understanding.
2.Building intercultural understanding
• You become aware of cultural rules of other countries and of your own country by
being confronted with cultural rules of others. In order to gain intercultural
knowledge, we must engage in intercultural conversation. This builds our knowledge
of other people’s cultures and of our own.
• Building intercultural understanding (understanding of cultural rules in other and
your own country) is important to avoid cultural tensions and for successful
intercultural communication.
• Ethnocentrism is a barrier to building intercultural understanding.
3.Promoting international business exchange
• Understanding cultures and cultural differences is the key to successful business.
• Communicating with unfamiliar cultures doesn’t simply mean finding translator, but
understanding their perceptions and values behind the words
• Culture influences how people think and communicate, it affects the kinds of deals
they take and how they make them. Understanding cultural differences helps in
promoting mutually successful international business exchanges.
4.Facilitating cross-cultural adaptation
The tension between immigrants and host nationals is about the issue of cultural
maintenance: Do host nationals expect immigrants to completely adapt to the host culture
(melting pot) or is it okay to maintain some of their own culture (salad bowl)?
Promoting mutual understanding facilitates cultural adaptation by both migrants and host
nationals. The key to intercultural understanding is intercultural communication and
intercultural communication in turn is facilitated by knowledge of other cultures (which
can be learned).
, Chapter 2- Culture and people
Defining culture
Culture= The particular way of life of a group of people and the meaning-making process
by which people make sense of their social world. Culture consists of knowledge,
experience, beliefs, values, traditions, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations,
worldviews, material objects and geographic territory. We negotiate cultural meaning
within our own culture and while communicating with other cultures.
• Culture is pervasive, it is everywhere in life and influences everything you do, how
you behave and how you look at the world
• Culture governs people’s behaviours, it provides framework for how you live.
Metaphors for culture
Culture is difficult to define, it is often described using metaphors.
• People see the world through cultural glasses (culture=glasses)
• Culture is a web that people have spun (culture=web)
- Culture confines members to their society and facilitates their functioning in it
- Culture is a product and a process
- Culture provides context for behaviour
• Culture= Iceberg (Hall)
Symbol= Flag of a country
Ritual= How you celebrate a
birthday
Values= What is important
Norms= What is good or bad
• Culture= Onion (Hofstede)
Symbols= In Western culture, the symbols for success include an individual’s
acquisition of degrees, promotions, certificates etc. In other cultures, achievements
of the main group are more important than individual ones.
• Culture= Software of the mind (Hofstede)
Culture is like software that needs to be installed in our mind. We need to learn
about it.
• Culture= A tree
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