Studying Intercultural Communication and Understanding the Context of Globalization

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Chapter 1: Opening the Conversation: Studying Intercultural Communication
Globalization has significantly contributed to interrelationships and interactions among individuals from distinctive cultures worldwide. Technological advancement has allowed people to connect from different parts of the world using wireless devices. The chapter shows that the current intercultural communication has increased the intensity of individuals’ interactions, interdependence, and the patterns of movement of capital, goods, and people (Chapter 1, n.d.). Culture refers to how individuals engage, view, and experience different aspects of their lives. A high culture comprises people in the ruling or elite class, who have power and were educated in prestigious schools where they experienced ballet, opera, and literature. On the contrary, low culture entails individuals in the working class. From an anthropological point of view, culture refers to the system of shared meanings passed from one generation to another through symbols that enable humans to maintain, communicate, and develop a proper understanding of life.
In addition, chapter one perceives culture as the site of contestation where the meanings are negotiated. People and groups are considered producers and consumers of cultural meanings. From the perspective of cultural studies, meanings are not stable, determined, and shared, but they are negotiated, produced, and challenged (Chapter 1, n.d.). In the globalization context, culture is exploited, experienced, mobilized, and conceptualized as a resource. The chapter shows that it is politically, socially, and discursively used as the primary resource for individual and collective empowerment. Notably, cultural identity refers to the sense of self that is usually shaped by people’s social locations and cultural experiences. For instance, individuals’ identities develop due to their relationships with others, including friends and families.
Other crucial things discussed in chapter one are positionality, ethnocentrism, and standpoint theory. Positionality entails people’s social position or location within the intersecting web of hierarchical categories that are socially constructed, including but not limited to class, gender, religion, physical abilities, religion, nationality, race, and sexual orientation (Chapter 1, n.d.). Individuals produce, access, and gain different experiences, knowledge, and understanding based on their positionality. Standpoint significantly affects what people see or cannot see. Specifically, the standpoint theory posits that individuals belong to social groups, which shape their communication and the things they know. Ethnocentrism is another subject discussed in chapter one, which refers to the idea of how a group of people act and think being superior to others (Chapter 1, n.d.). As a result, intercultural praxis is what helps indivi...