Postmodern definition of a
culture in the education of
intercultural communication
Katja Keisala
The importance of definitions
• When designing education of intercultural
communication we are guided by our
definition of a culture
• What is a culture?
• What kind of communication situation is
intercultural?
• The concept of a culture is important here
Intercultural
• In the literature, the term ´intercultural
communication´ often refers to
communication between cultures
• Employees of various work communities
interpret the term in a similar way
• For me, intercultural refers to the
communication situation where people of
various backgrounds learn from each
other
A culture
• Culture as coherent, consistent and more
or less closed entity according which
people behave and communicate
• Culture as ´mental programming´
• Culture as an iceberg
• Culture as an onion
An onion
• Multiple layers that can be peeled away to
find the more abstract and tacit set of
assumptions at the core
• The surface layers are formed of physical
elements like clothes, symbols, behavior,
rites, rituals, language(s) and stories
• The layers inside include behavioral
norms, ideals and values (tacit knowledge)
• Onions are national
Living with onions
• We know how to behave in a certain situation,
since we have a tacit knowledge that someone
´coming from´ another culture cannot have
• In intercultural encounters, we behave without
recognizing what is inside the onions of
participants
• We judge the other person´s behavior according
to our own standards, norms and values
• The other person does the same to us
• Intercultural encounters are characterized by
confusion, misunderstandings and conflicts
Difficult questions
• Why are onions national?
• What is a relationship between a culture
and an individual?
• How did those layers inside the onion get
there? Have they always been there or did
somebody put them there? Who?
Implications of onions
• We try to avoid ´difficult´ situations and
´embarrasing´ cultural ´mistakes´ by
getting information of a culture
• We produce knowledge based on
classifications and generalisation
• We expect others to behave in a
stereotypical way and don´t see
individuals
• Do´s and Don´t do´s
Postmodern concept of a culture
• A collectively shared system of meanings,
whose inconsistent and sometimes contradictory
assumptions, norms and values individuals
interpret and put in the order of preference
(Stuart Hall)
• Individuals have a role in constructing a culture,
but a process of constructing cannot be
governed by anyone of them
• Meanings are not just there, they are negotiated
constantly, and even the members of a same
cultural group do not agree on norms, practices
and values
From a postmodern point of view it
is important to ask…
• How we produce, reproduce and change
the systems of meanings?
• How do we marginalize people?
• What kind of subject positions the cultures
offer to individuals?
• How does power relations affect to
communication?
What is intercultural
communication?
• Representation of the Self and the Other?
• A general communication situation where
communication becomes possible only if
the participants construct common and
shared basis of meanings and practices
• Producing identities and constituting a
common cultural basis for communication
(third culture, shared culture, negotiating
reality, interculture hydrid culture)
A student should learn in the
education…
• What is her cultural background and how it
affects to her observation, thinking and
behavior
• How she constitutes her identities and
cultures (when communicating)
• The skills needed in constructing a third
culture
• To learn from intercultural encounters
• To recognize and utilize her emotions
Practical solutions
• French postmodern philosophy?
• Exercises based on the critical reflection
and self-reflection
• Exercises demonstrating how biased is
our observation, listening and reasoning
• Exercises demonstrating how do we really
behave in the communication situation
• Exercises of constructing a third culture
Teacher, be strong and
prepared to get insulted!
Thank you!