Chapter 8
Communication Across
Cultures
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What is Culture?
• High Culture
– Culture of the elite class
– i.e. Opera, ballet, literature
• Low Culture
– Culture of the working class
– i.e. Folk art, popular theater
• Popular Culture
– Culture of common everyday people
– i.e. TV, magazine, movies, fashion, music
Anthropologic Definition
• Culture is passed down from generation to
generation through symbols .
• Culture allows us to make sense and
understand the world.
• Culture allows us to express ourselves.
• When you share the system of meaning, you
become part of the culture.
Culture as a Site of Contested
Meaning
Cultural Studies Definition
• Culture is not shared by everyone, but contested
and negotiated.
• Focus on representations of class, race, gender,
sexuality, and nationality in the media.
• Culture as an apparatus of power, system of
domination.
• Culture is a site where power relations are
negotiated.
• Hegemony : Domination through consent
Culture as a Resource
Globalization Definition
• Culture is used as resource for economic
growth in global trade (movies, music, etc.)
• Resource for political movement.
• Resource for educating people: literacy, health
campaigns, etc.
• Resource for collective resistance and social
change
Cultural Identity
• A situated sense of self that is shaped by our cultural
experiences and social locations
• How do you define yourself in terms of cultural
identity?
– Do you have multiple cultural identities?
• How does your cultural identity shape your
perspectives, beliefs and relationships with others?
• Is the way you identify culturally related to issues of
power?
– For example, dominant groups identities are often not as
salient as non-dominant group identities
Positionality
• A term that describes how we are socially
positioned in relation to each other.
• One’s social location shaped by differences--race,
class, gender, sexual orientation, religion,
nationality, and physical abilities
– i.e. I’m a woman, of Mexican descent, upper class, and
deaf
– i.e. I’m a White American male who is in a committed
relationship with another man, educated, from
working class, and non-religious
Standpoint Theory
• Standpoint: A place from which to view and
make sense of the world.
• Your positionality gives you a particular
standpoint.
• Different realities depending on the position
from which to view it.
• People with less power in society often have a
fuller and more comprehensive view—both
the dominant and marginalized view.
Standpoint Theory and Positionality
• We may see, experience, and understand the
world quite differently based on our different
standpoints and positionalities .
• Knowledge about ourselves and others is
situated and partial.
• Knowledge is always and inevitably connected
to power.
• Oppositional standpoints can be formed to
challenge and contest the status quo.
Ethnocentrism
• Ethno: group or nation
• Kentron: center
• Idea that one’s own group’s way of thinking,
being and acting is superior to others.
• Ethnocentrism can result in dehumanization,
prejudices, discrimination, conflict, and
violence.
Communication 440 Panama 2012
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The importance of intercultural communication
What is intercultural communication?
Intercultural communication and the individual
The individual, intercultural communication, and
society
• Ethics and intercultural communication
• Improving your intercultural communication skills
• We have increased opportunities for
intercultural contact due to
– Relocation of peoples
• Diaspora – displacement because of untenable
conditions
– Increasing cultural diversity within the U.S.
– The Internet
• Studying intercultural communication can lead
to greater success in domestic and
international business
• International business failure occurs often as a
result of poor intercultural planning
• We need better
communication
between countries and
ethnic groups
• Conflicts may require
mediation (peaceful
third-party
intervention)
• Studying intercultural communication can
make us more aware of our own cultural
identity and communication patterns
• Occurs in interactions with people who are
culturally different

Culture is dynamic, heterogeneous (diverse), and
operates within societal power structures
• One can become a border dweller (one who
lives between cultures) through
– Travel
– Socialization (cocultural groups)
– Participation in an intercultural relationship
• Border dwelling can be voluntary or
involuntary, for short or long periods


Culture shock - disorientation or discomfort with new
surroundings
Reverse cultural shock – culture shock in one’s home
culture
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Cultural values = are central beliefs of cultural groups that
prescribe what should be; these strongly influence individual
behavior in interaction
– Individualism – cultural emphasis on individual
autonomy/independence
– Collectivism – cultural emphasis on needs of the
group
• Preferred personality refers to a culture’s
emphasis on whether it is more important to
“do” or to “be”
– “Doing” mode – working hard to achieve material
gain
– “Being” mode - experiencing life and relationships
with others
• Another value difference is the view of human
nature as essentially good or evil
• Another value difference is the human-nature
value orientation, which is the perceived
relationship between humans and nature
– Some cultures believe humans are intended to
rule nature
– Others believe nature rules humans
– Still others believe humans and nature exist in
harmony
• Power distance refers to the extent to which
less powerful members of organizations
within a culture accept unequal distribution of
power
– Some cultures embrace the minimization of inequality and
an emphasis on informality regardless of rank
– Some cultures are structured around formal hierarchies
with clear roles
• Long-term v. short-term orientations reflect a
culture’s attitude toward virtue and truth
– Short-term emphasize one fundamental truth
(monotheism)
– Long-term respect polytheistic ideas of thrift,
perseverance, and a willingness to subordinate
oneself to a purpose
• One that emphasizes simultaneous contradictory
truths
– Challenges dichotomous (either/or) thinking
• Cultural/individual dialectic - some behaviors determined by
culture, others are idiosyncratic
• Personal/contextual dialectic - the individual and the
situation are both important in intercultural communication
• Differences/similarities dialectic - disjunctures and
commonalities between cultures can both be present
• Something can be one thing and its opposite at the same
time
• Static/dynamic dialectic - some cultural patterns stable,
but can change
• History/Past-Present/Future dialectic - emphasizes both
the present and the past influences on a culture
• Privilege-disadvantage dialectic - cultural members can
be privileged and disadvantaged

Broad political and historical forces have the power to
influence
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

Perceptions
Understanding
Communication patterns of contemporary intercultural
interactions on all relationship levels
• Those with less power in a culture tend to notice
influential power differences
– Power determines whose cultural values will be
respected and followed
– Significant minority groups within a dominant
majority have to decide how they will relate to
individuals in a dominant culture
• Remember that everyone is enmeshed in a
culture and is communicating through a
particular cultural lens
• Be aware of the humanity of other cultural
groups and avoid viewing them as an exotic
“other”
• Be open to alternate ways of viewing the world
than the ones you were taught
• Increase your motivation to be an effective
communicator
• Increase your knowledge of your own culture and
the history, background, and values of other
cultures
• Avoid stereotypes and prejudices of individuals
from cultural groups other than your own, even if
these appear to be complimentary in nature