Summary
Contents
Today, undergraduate students are more familiar with others cultures than ever before because of the media, Internet, local diversity, and their own travels abroad. As such, traditional intercultural communication textbooks– which focus solely on the “differences” approach–aren't truly effective for today's students, nor for this area's growth. By including a social constructionist approach–which explores how culture is constructed and produced in the moments in which it is experienced–Inter/Cultural Communication: Representation and Construction of Culture in Everyday Interaction provides today's undergraduate students with a fuller understanding of how culture and communication affect and effect each other. Inter/Cultural Communication improves upon current textbooks in four significant ways: (1) provides a differences approach and a social constructionist approach; (2) explores the consequences of cultural moments on immediate communication and on larger scale social issues; (3) is descriptive, not prescriptive, of how culture is communicated; and (4) introduces intercultural topics, rather than interpersonal topics, to undergraduate students. Regardless of one's motivation for a better understanding of intercultural communication, whether societal level or personal experience, this text helps students become more educated about intercultural communication by: • Examining basic concepts and theories of intercultural communication; • Learning about our own cultures and cultures other than those to which we belong; • Understanding our participation in how cultural meaning is produced through communication; • Increasing self-awareness/self-reflexivity of the ways in which cultural identities develop and are maintained; • Thinking critically about our roles in intercultural interaction and our participation in the dynamics of these relationships; and • Understanding ethical issues relevant to intercultural communication.
