Communication and the
Multicultural Society
Joshua M. Phelps
PSY2500
Outline
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2 Lectures
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Lecture 1
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English Language
Intro to Communication
Demonstration of Communication Situation
Discussion of Communication Situation
Blakar’s Communication Theory
Lecture 2
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Multiculture & Communication
Class Exercise: Public Communication
What is Communication?
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Everyday Understandings
Common and universal activity for all human
beings
Basic precondition for all social activity
Individual is embedded in different
communication situations and participates in
communicative acts
Complex interaction
’Restricted’ to Psychology and Language
Defining Communication
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All inclusive: Behaviour and Flow
Internet Definitions www.dictionary.com
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The act or process of communicating
the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or
information by speech, writing, or signs (Flow)
The exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by
speech, signals, writing, or behavior (Behaviour and Flow)
the expression to another of information or thoughts through
speech, writing, or gestures
Hogg & Vaughan (2005) Social Psychology: transfer of
meaningful information from one person to another
Blakar’s (1984) Definition
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Communication: An intentional act to make
something known to someone else
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Kommunikasjon: En intendert handling med sikte på å
gjøre noe felles med - eller kjent for - bestemte andre
Emphasizes behavioural (action) and directional
component of communication
Grounded mainly in face-to-face interaction
Based on ’pragmatic’ aspects of communication
Communication Situation
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Demonstrate Communication in Face-toFace Interaction
Need 4 Volunteers
Leave the Room for a few minutes while I
set up…
The Communication Conflict
Situation (CCS)
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A ’City’ Map
Participant A must direct Participant B to a
particular destination
2 Routes—Simple and Complex
Audience Tasks
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How do P’s establish a ”shared reality”—
codes, contracts, etc.
How do they make attributions for
successful or unsuccessful
communication?
How P’s try to improve communication?
Write down examples of language used
and interaction.
Debriefing
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Explanation
Thoughts on participation?
Thanks!!!
Applause
The Communication Conflict
Situation (CCS)
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The ’City’ Map(s)
Participant A must direct Participant B to a
particular destination
2 Routes—Simple and Complex
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Experimental Manipulation of Complex Route
Audience Tasks – Round 2
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How do P’s establish a ”shared reality”—
codes, contracts, etc.
How do they make attributions for
unsuccessful communication?
How P’s try to improve communication and
re-establish intersubjectivity?
Write down examples of language used
and interaction.
The Communication Conflict
Situation (CCS)
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Experiment developed by Blakar in the 1970’s
Constructed and controlled situation to examine
when an essential aspect of communication is
not fulfilled
Simple but demanding
To see what happens when a basic precondition
for ’successful communication’ is not met
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Everyday misunderstandings
3 Goals of CCS
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Examine missing precondition of same
’here and now’
Examine attributions P’s made to
difficulties
Examine P’s attempts to improve
communication effectiveness and reestablish intersubjectivity
Analysis of CCS
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Simple Route
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Participants’ Perspective
Experimenter/Audience Perspective
Complex Route
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Participants’ Perspective
Experimenter/Audience Perspective
Class Discussion
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Questions and Thoughts
Audience?
Participants?
Blakar Communication Theory
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Addressing questions about good or normal
communication
Defining communication
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Identifying and understanding preconditions for
successful communication
Applying theory to social contexts: family, therapy, etc.
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Intentionality
Using abnormal to understand normal
Addressing conceptual, theoretical, and empirical
confusion in communication research in social sciences
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Social-psychological perspective
Blakar Communication Theory
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Fundamental Question: What are the
prerequisites for (successful) communication?
Under what conditions will somebody succeed
(to a reasonable degree) in making something
known to someone else?
3 Main aspects
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Preconditions for successful communication
Variables affecting
Process of Communication
Interplay of individual, social, and situational
preconditions
The Preconditions
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Most Basic  Establishment of a shared
social reality
Individual Preconditions
Relational Preconditions
Technical Preconditions
Situational Preconditions
Interaction between different
preconditions
Individual Preconditions
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Will  Motivational Component
Can  Ability Component
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Capacity to decenter and take perspective of
the other
Individual’s self-esteem or self-confidence
Attunement to the Attunement of
the Other
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Decentration and Perspective-Taking
Decentration
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Sender
Receiver
Egocentrism
Important during problems of
communication process to re-establish
intersubjectivity
Relational Preconditions
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Relations between ‘actors’ in
communicative act
Confidence in the other, trust/distrust,
seriousness
Understanding that the other has different
perspective/position
Interaction with individual preconditions
Technical and Situational
Preconditions
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Technical
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Access to a common code
Situational
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Same contractual dimensions of here & now
Variables affecting
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Variables that affect and determine
process of communication
Background Variables
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Age, Sex, Class, Education, Ethnicity
Personality Variables
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Level of anxiety, self-esteem
Also affects the ‘Can’
Process of Communication
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Contracts adopted
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What kind?
Adequacy
Adherence, violation, modification
Who proposes contracts?
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Control & Power
Free vs. Bound Information
Control distribution and exertion
Attribution patterns of difficulties
Emotional climate
Complexity within the Preconditions
and Framework
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Situational Variation
Interplay between preconditions
Background Variables
General Theoretical Statements on
Communication
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Language is most common and important medium for
communication
Most essential characteristic is that something is being
made known to another (Rommetveit, Blakar)
Requires empathy and perspective taking in some kind
of shared social reality
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Only by the communicants taking the perspective of the other(s)
into account, so that they (sender and reciever(s) may establish
commonality, is communication rendered possible (Blakar, 1984)
Complex act that requires fulfillment of several
preconditions
Some Issues
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Communication vs. Interaction
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Unintentional/unconscious aspects of communication?
Non-verbal vs. verbal communication
Too much of a situational, face-to-face
definition? Too narrow?
Other aspects of intentionally making something
known
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E.g. media
Expansion of Communication
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Rommetveit/Blakar model connected to
face-to-face interaction
How can we study communication that
isn’t face-to-face from a socialpsychological point of view?
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Media communication?
Next week: Communication in a
multicultural context
Class Discussion
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Questions and Thoughts
What is successful or good
communication?
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Everyday examples
What about other theories for
communication?
Communication vs. Interaction?
Last Word...
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Please keep quiet about the
Communication Conflict Situation
Communication, Language,
and the Multicultural Society
Joshua M. Phelps
November 13, 2006
Outline
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Class Exercise
Reminder about Language,
Communication, and Ideology
The Norwegian Multicultural Context
Communication, Social Relations, and
Ideology in a Multicultural Society
Exercise
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12 minutes
Word Association
Language (Blakar, 1979; 2006)
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An important bridge between the society and
the individual
Culturally-mediated tool inherited from
generation to generation
Instrument that we use to understand and grasp
reality
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Dyanmic and Flexible
Open and Generative System
Language is NOT neutral, objective, or ”fixed”
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Sender’s choice of expression affects the receiver’s
understanding (Blakar, 1979)
Language (Blakar, 1979; 2006)
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Language is POWER
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All use of language implies structuring and
influencing of another’s experience
”Everyday Power”
Language as a system reflects sociopolitical power structure in a given society
Language is most common and important
medium for communication
Language, Communication, Ideology
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Investigating communication requires looking at the positions used in
establishment of social reality…mainly through language (Rommetveit,
1992)
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Certain words & expressions are ”reflections” of ideologies
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Linked with Blakar’s understanding of Language as mirroring and expressing
existing power relations
We use Ideology as a critical concept for understanding how sociallyshared, taken-for-granted knowledge in society (by individuals) upholds or
legitimizes power relations
Changes in language use over time should reflect societal and ideological
developments
Media are important (most important?) platforms in which individuals
negotiate meaning (i.e.attitudes, beliefs, etc.)
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Influenced by context: culture, historical moment, positioning of actors in
situation, codes for correctness, etc.
Becoming increasingly as important as face-to-face interaction
Media language and change in media language can reflect ideology(ies)
What is ”Multiculture”?
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Descriptive: Word “reflecting reality” of living in
a society with cultural diversity
Analytical/Ideological/Prescriptive: specific way
of dealing with this cultural diversity or pluralism
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Liberal Ideology stressing equality, identity
recognition, integration, celebration of cultural
traditions/diversity
Majority/Minority Relations & Multiculturalism
The Norwegian Multicultural
Context
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Steady increase in immigration from 1951
– present (www.ssb.no)
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Increased migration of visible minorities
since the 1970s
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Largest Groups: Pakistanis, Swedes, Iraqis,
Danes, Vietnamese
Pakistanis, Iraqis, Vietnamese, Somalis, Turks
Always been multicultural?
Communication in the Multicultural
Society
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What words and expressions do we use to
describe and understand the multicultural
context?
How might these words and expressions affect &
reflect majority/minorities: social and power
relations, group boundaries, identities, etc.
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Ideology(ies)
How might one have ’successful’ communication
in a multicultural context?
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Possibilities for perspective-taking?
Fulfilling of preconditions?
Examining Multicultural
Communication & Ideology
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Language in public discourse
New words and changes in frequencies of
words dealing with multicultural issues
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Atekst searches
Aftenposten 1984-2005
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Longitudinal Perspective
Messages and Word Association
Word Association Discussion
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Semantic Network of..
Flerkulturelt Samfunn
Flerkulturelle
”Fest i Oslo” Mela Festivalen
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Discussion in pairs
General discussion of article
Look at use of the words ”multikultur*” or
”flerkultur*”
From this article, how would you describe
a multicultural festival or multicultural
society?
”Fest i Oslo” Mela Festivalen
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”I dag åpner Mela, en multikulturell
festival…”
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”en av verdens største multikulturelle
festivaler”
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Descriptive
What is a multicultural festival?
Descriptive
Arguing against FrP
”Fest i Oslo” Mela Festivalen
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”Den som tar turen til Rådhusplassen i
helga, vil derimot få se hvilket glede den
flerkulturelle virkeligheten kan
representere.”
From reading this article, what joys are on
show at the multicultural Mela Festival?
Showcase of Art & Culture
”Fest i Oslo” Mela Festivalen
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”Opprinnelig var Mela et norsk-pakistansk
arrangement, men i år tar festivalen mål
av seg til å la så godt som alle norske
minoriteter få komme til uttrykk” My italics
”Fest i Oslo” Mela Festivalen
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Dervisj-dans Tyrkia
Flerkulturelt band
med kvinner fra:
Zimbabwe, Somalia,
Tanzania, Algerie,
Russland, Nigeria, og
Norge
Vietnamesisk
folkemusikk
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Flamenco og sufimusikk fra Sørasia
Internasjonal mat fra
35 boder
Norsk-vietnamesiske
klesdesigneren
300 internasjonale
kunstere innen
musikk, sang, dans,
teater, kunsthåndverk
”Fest i Oslo” Mela Festivalen
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Associations of ”multicultural” after
reading this article?
Cultural markers: music, dance, art, food
Where is the majority?
Multicultural Message Structure
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”I et stadig mer flerkulturelt samfunn er
det viktig å vite hvor man kommer fra, og
kjenne sin historie.”
Class Interpretations?
Multicultural Message Structure
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”I et stadig mer flerkulturelt samfunn er det
viktig å vite hvor man kommer fra, og kjenne sin
historie.”
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”I et stadig mer flerkulturelt samfunn er det
viktig å vite hvor man kommer fra, og kjenne sin
historie.” Adressavisen
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Opening Mela Festival
Carl I Hagen’s Campaign Speech
”I et stadig mer flerkulturelt samfunn er det
viktig å vite hvor man kommer fra, og kjenne sin
historie.”
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Adressavisen
Social Relations in the Multicultural
Society (Chryssochoou, 2004)
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Moving into New Environments
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Receiving Immigrants: Perceiving the
Other
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Non-dominant cultural groups: Minorities
Dominant cultural group: The Majority
Living Together
Towards Cultural Diversity:
Representations, Identity, and Social
Influence
Minorities in the Multicultural
Context
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Choice of words to describe ”the other”
What words do we have to use in
describing the people moving into the
Norwegian society?
Are there new words reflecting this
reality?
How might these words influence common
sense & power relations (i.e. ideologies)?
Innvandr*
Ikke vestlig innvandr*
20
20
20
19
04
02
00
98
96
94
92
90
Aftenposten
19
19
19
0
19
20
88
Aftenposten
19
50
86
70
19
80
84
100
19
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
1987
1986
1985
1984
Utenlandsk Opprinnelse
Alle fra 1992-->
90
300
250
60
200
40
150
Alle fra 1992-->
30
100
10
50
0
1st and 2nd Generation Immigrant
Norsk-pakistansk
The Norwegian Majority
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Words to describe Norwegian
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Norsk
Nordmann
Etnisk Norsk
Norsk og Nordmann
20
20
20
19
04
02
00
98
96
94
92
Aftenposten
19
19
90
0
19
20
19
60
88
Aftenposten
19
80
86
100
19
120
84
140
19
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
1987
1986
1985
1984
Ethnic Norwegian
Alle fra 1992-->
180
160
140
120
100
80
Alle fra 1992-->
40
60
40
20
0
Ny Tid Discussion
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Front page…
How does Ny Tid’s choice of words and
signs influence our understanding
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What is intetionally being made known..i.e.
communicated?
What are some other choices/words they
could have made to alter the message and
our understanding?
Ny Tid Discussion
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Etnisk Norsk
What is an ’etnisk nordmann’?
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Denotation?
Connotations?
Class Semantic Network Associations
Why is it so important to be a
”nordmann”?
Ethnic Norwegian Associations
Residual
19 %
Norw egian culture
25 %
Otherness
13 %
Norw egianness
20 %
Colour
23 %
Discussion of Word Association
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EN a recent emerging representation that is
incorporated into ideologies of cultural diversity
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Multiplicity of meaning…
However, ’etnisk norsk’ probably denotes white
Norwegians
Descriptive or Hegemonic?
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Emergence of “Ethnic Norwegian” = Norway in
Transition
Probably both depending on context
Connotation still open, but could be leading
toward white hegemony and hierarchy of
Norwegianness
Ny Tid Discussion
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Great Example of Communication in the
Multicultural Society
Social Issues?
Conclusion
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Complexity in the Multicultural Society
Choice of words and message structure in
communication reflect ideologies in the
multicultural society
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Importance of context: sender/receiver, perceived
social relations, structuring of a message
Multicultural Communication affects and reflects
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Highlights issues involving minorities and the
majority: recognition of identites, inclusion/exclusion,
racism, prejudices, threat
Reflects power relations