Edwin Hoffman en Arjan Verdooren - Diversity competence

Introduction: intercultural communication in a globalized world

1 Why this book? To say that people today live in a dynamic and diverse world sounds like stating the obvious. Globalization – however you define it – implies more frequent and intense connections between people of various ethnic, national and reli gious backgrounds than ever before; be it through travel, migration or virtual communication through internet, email and social media. Paying attention to cultural differences and intercultural communication and competence in the workplace, whether in the classroom or in the private sphere, therefore seems logical. Confrontations with people of different cultural backgrounds are often, and unavoidably, expected to lead to confusion, miscommunication or even conflict. This premise follows an understanding of culture that connects it exclusive ly to nationality, ethnicity and (more recently) religion. It is a premise from a time when cultural differences were associated with travelling or moving to other countries or regions. Much of the traditional literature on intercultural communication and competence reflects and follows this premise, as it was often aimed at adapting to another culture or engaging with newcomers to a society. Both the common sense and the academic view implicitly regarded cul ture as something static, which would continue to steer its members’ behaviour, thoughts and feelings in consistent ways, regardless of context, period or indi vidual. While intercultural communication and competence remains an important field and resource, it should be questioned if the same conceptualization of cul ture that guided early approaches should be applied to interactions in today’s world. First of all, the context of today’s ‘intercultural’ interactions is much more dynamic and diverse than before. Migration has made many societies and cities ‘superdiverse’ (Vertovec, 2007), with communities hosting within themselves a wide range of generations, beliefs and religions, political convictions, migra tion histories and socio-economic positions. Corporations employ people from multiple nationalities who often have living and working experience in several countries or even continents. Both governance and politics are characterized by a complex interplay of institutions on the local, national and supranational

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