Concept of culture:
- Weaver, Iceberg Model - visible/explicit culture above the surface and invisible/implicit culture below
- Samovar & Porter - advanced Iceberg Model - evident (visible) culture - socioeconomic situation, expression tool (language, art etc) vs deep culture - Human being & environment relations (legal, authority of state, company), Interpersonal relations (role of women, family, hierarchy), Basic convictions & values (Religion, Ideology, Traditions, Understanding of Time)
„Die Kultur einer Gesellschaft besteht in all dem, was man wissen oder glauben muß, um in einer für alle ihre Mitglieder akzeptablen Weise zu fungieren, und zwar in jeder beliebigen Rolle, die sie auch für jeden von ihnen selbst akzeptieren. Kultur...besteht nicht aus Gegenständen, Menschen, Verhaltensweisen oder Gefühlen, sondern sie ist vielmehr die Organisation dieser Dinge, vielmehr die Form dieser Dinge, die die Menschen in ihren Köpfen haben, ihre Modelle, wie sie sie wahrnehmen, in Beziehung zueinander setzen oder anderweitig interpretieren“ (Goodenough, 1964: 36).
- the culture of a society consists of everything that one must know or believe in order to act in a way that is acceptable to all its members and indeed in every arbitrary roll, that they also accept from themselves. Culture doesn't consist of artifacts, people, modes of behaviour or feelings, rather it is much more the organisation of these things, much more the form of these things that people have in their heads, their model, how they perceive themselves, how they place themselves in relation to other or otherwise interpret things.
Intercultural Communication:
- a transactional symbolic process involving the attribution of meaning between people from different cultures (Gudykunst, 1984)
Intercultural learning process:
Intercultural education + intercultural encounters = intercultural learning -> intercultural competence
Bennet model of intercultural sensitivity
For Bennett (1993) intercultural learning or intercultural competence was exemplified in his model which illustrates moving from an ethnocentric to a ethnorelative stage of development. Intercultural learning is about processing cultural differences. This means an increasing decentralisation from one’s own culture and with that the constructive integration of the foreign culture experience.
Ethnocentric: evaluating other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture.
Ethnorelative: acknowledging that another's values and beliefs, and resulting
assumptions and behaviour, are logically connected, and that there is no
absolute position from which to judge morals, knowledge, truth.
Developmental model:
- 6 stages
- transition from an inward looking, ethnocentric position, to an outward ethnorelative view
- 1st 3 stages - ethnocentric
- reactions to cultural difference
- Denial - one’s own culture is experienced as the only real one. Other cultures are avoided by maintaining psychological & physical isolation from differences. Uninterested in cultural differences
- Defense - one’s own cultureis experienced as the only good one. The world is organised into "us and them," where "we" are superior and "they" are inferior. Threatened by cultural difference, highly critical of other cultures
- Minimisation - elements of one’s own cultural world view are experienced as universal. Because these absolutes obscure deep cultural differences, other cultures may be trivialised or romanticised. Expect similarities, insistently correct others’ behavior to match their expectations.
- 2nd 3 stages - ethnorelative
- Acceptance - one’s own culture is experienced as just one of a number of equally complex worldviews. Acceptance does not mean agreement but the judgment is not ethnocentric. Curious about and respectful toward cultural difference.
- Adaptation - experience of another culture yields perception and behavior appropriate to that culture. One’s repertoire of culture behavior is expanded. Able to look at the world "through different eyes", intentionally change their behavior to communicate more effectively in another culture.
- Integration - experience of self is expanded to include the movement in and out of different cultural worldviews. People at Integration often are dealing with issues related to their own "cultural marginality." This stage is not necessarily better than Adaptation in most situations demanding intercultural competence, but it is common among non-dominant minority groups, long-term expatriates, and global nomads.“
Levels of human interaction:
- cognitive (thought process)
- affective (emotions)
- behavioural (resulting actions)
