When the periphery becomes the center: a critical turn in intercultural communication studies

摘要

A recent flood of books on critical intercultural communication indicates that the field of intercultural communication has arrived at a critical juncture. It could be argued that the functionalist approach, once the dominant perspective in intercultural communication, has become a 'minority' approach these days. Many of the recent publications on critical intercultural communication question ideas underlying the functionalist approach. For instance, 'nations' that were synonymous to 'cultures' in functionalist investigation have been problematized. Also many of the popular concepts in functionalist intercultural communication scholarship such as high-context/low-context, individualism/collectivism, and uncertainty reduction have been critiqued by critical intercultural communication scholars. In contrast to the functionalist approach that tended to view culture and communication as something that could be objectively quantified and intercultural communication as an interaction between two equal parties with different national backgrounds, critical scholars consider culture and communication a more fluid concept and question power differentials and hierarchy in intercultural communication. In this essay, I review four recent publications on critical intercultural communication in an attempt to identify current trends.