Intercultural Communication in Europe

This entry presents both a diachronic and a synchronic analysis of the term intercultural competence in Europe; of its respective geographical, disciplinary and political width; as well as of the use of other related terminologies and their semantic and conceptual discussion.

Although the specific term intercultural competence has only recently been introduced in Europe, whether in education or in professional training, culture, most often understood in ethnocentric patterns, has traditionally been an issue in European political and social history. In addition to the fact that European political associations and organizations, even empires, have always been culturally hegemonic, European modern history, and the Enlightenment, developed even more intensively cultural and political hegemony based on the construction of the nation-state, of which Benedict Anderson gives an interesting account. ...