Interculturality

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The term interculturality describes the interaction process between members of different cultures. The action or communication situation creates new actions and interpretations that can neither be clearly assigned to one nor the other culture, but rather create a new, synergetic “intermediate culture”. Interculturality can take place on both an individual and an organizational level.

Definitions

Csaba Földes

According to Csaba Földes , interculturality first of all describes a phenomenon on the object level and represents a kind of relationship (which usually leads to the development of a “third variable”). At the meta level (on the level of reflection), on the other hand, it is a dynamic and interdisciplinary concept that aims to develop the conditions, possibilities and consequences of an interaction between cultural areas , including their perception.

In a cultural overlap situation, for example in a conversation, “own culture” and “foreign culture” collide. The intercultural emerges , hence the between- cultural. Different cultures are not so separated from each other that an exchange would be impossible. There are fundamental similarities between all cultures.

Hamid Reza Yousefi

In his work Interculturality and History, the German-Iranian philosopher Hamid Reza Yousefi describes interculturality as the “name of a theory and practice that deals with the historical and present relationship of all cultures and people as their carriers on the basis of their complete equivalence. It is a scientific discipline as long as it methodically examines this theory and practice. ”In this sense, Yousefi differentiates between historical, systematic and comparative interculturality. Yousefi bases his view of intercultural philosophy on this prior understanding .

Intercultural communication

Intercultural exchange is made possible by the fact that people use language , gestures and facial expressions to exchange information and that these elements of communication can be translated.

With the help of gestures alone, basic needs such as eating, drinking, sleeping or other forms of need for help can often be expressed in an uncomplicated manner and also across cultural barriers. The gesture - if it is understood - thus contains an intercultural communication potential.

Problems of intercultural communication

The interaction partners involved in a cultural overlap situation are often influenced by their own ethnocentrism in their actions and understanding . This ethnocentrism - that is, the worldview related solely to one's own culture - can make such communication more difficult, especially if ethnocentrism is actively promoted. The occurrence of intercultural communication is therefore also dependent on the willingness of the individuals meeting each other to exchange ideas, the so-called attitude level. The general tolerance and acceptance of the other is the real question in this regard.

The language barrier or the fear of foreigners create further difficulties in intercultural communication. Gestures are also interpreted differently, which is related to the different socialization of the interaction partners. For example, a touch during the greeting can be understood as friendly within one culture and as provocation within another culture. In non-verbal communication, gestures can have both an integrative and a separating character in intercultural communication.

Fundamental differences of opinion with regard to life plans and the daily conception of life and existence can also arise between people who have been socialized in a similar way and who are at home within the same culture. Problems of understanding between people in general do not always arise because the partners in the interaction belong to different cultures.

Differences within one's own culture - such as differences between subcultures or cultural differences between social groups - are sometimes included under the term intra- culturality .

Interculturality as an important basis of human culture

The human world is inconceivable without interculturality. In the course of human cultural development, the encounter and exchange between cultures is an essential process. The intercultural that arose in the process has been continuously embedded in the respective cultures and thus become part of the culture. This exchange made it possible to pass on inventions and developments between cultures, so that basic ideas such as the wheel could spread worldwide and for the benefit of all. For example, current high technologies (cars, computers) are the result of bringing together ideas that have been brought up in many different cultures and are therefore the result of interculturality .

Special aspects

See also

Portal: Migration and Integration  - Articles, categories and more on intercultural dialogue and integration

literature

  • Christoph Barmeyer : Taschenlexikon interculturality. Göttingen / Bristol, UTB, 2012.
  • Petra Buchwald, Kerstin Göbel: Interculturality and School: Migration, Heterogeneity, Education . Schöningh, Paderborn 2017, ISBN 978-3-8252-4642-6 .
  • Michael Fisch : interculturality versus transculturality. About the wear and tear of an all too often used term. In: Interculturality in Theory and Practice. Conference contributions. Edited by Mohammed Elbah, Redoine Hasbane, Martina Möller, Rachid Moursli, Naima Tahiri and Raja Tazi. Rabat: Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines 2015, pp. 7–28. ISBN 978-9954-638-25-5
  • Carolin Fischer, Helene Harth, Philippe Viallon, Virginie Viallon (eds.): Identity and Diversity. An interdisciplinary balance sheet of intercultural research in Germany and France . Avinus, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-930064-57-1
  • Csaba Földes : Black Box 'Interculturality': The unknown acquaintance (not only) for German as a foreign / second language. Review, contexts and outlook . In: active word. Trier 59 (2009) 3. - pp. 503-525. (online as PDF; 149 kB)
  • Rudolf Leiprecht (Ed.): Learn internationally - act locally: intercultural practice on site and further training in international exchange . IKO - Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation, 2001, ISBN 3-88939-589-9 . (on-line)
  • Georg Stenger: Philosophy of Interculturality. Experience and worlds. A phenomenological study. Alber, Freiburg Munich 2006. ISBN 978-3-495-48136-3 .
  • Martin Woesler: A new model of intercultural communication - critically reviewing, combining and further developing the basic models of Permutter, Yoshikawa, Hall, Hofstede, Thomas, Hallpike, and the social-constructivism . Bochum 12.2006, ISBN 978-3-89966-188-0 . Series Comparative Cultural Sciences. 1
  • Hamid Reza Yousefi: Interculturality and History. Perspectives for a Global Philosophy . Hamburg 2010.
  • Hamid Reza Yousefi , Ina Braun: Interculturality. An interdisciplinary introduction ; Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2011; ISBN 978-3-534-23824-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Csaba Földes: Black Box Interculturality: The unknown acquaintance (not only) for German as a foreign / second language. Review, contexts and outlook. In: active word. Trier 59, 2009, 3. pp. 503-525. Online version (PDF; 149 kB) p. 512.
  2. ^ A b Jürgen Bolten: Introduction to intercultural business communication . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8252-2922-1 , p. 138 f .
  3. ^ Fred Casmir: Third Culture Building: A paradigm shift for international and intercultural communication . In: Communication Yearbook . No. 16 , 1992, pp. 407-428 .
  4. Tarek Badawia: The low voice of reason of intra-culturality - critical remarks on “reflective interculturality” . In: Tarek Badawia, Helga Luckas, Heinz Müller: Shaping the social: About the possible and the impossible of social education . Springer, 2007. ISBN 978-3-531-90026-1 . Pp. 281-294