Intercultural communication & ideology

摘要

The field of intercultural education and training is highly diverse in terms of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. The resulting network of discourses and educational practices exerts a considerable influence on how learners, students and clients think about, relate to and interact with others. It is this unquantifiable discursive and conceptual power that Holliday focuses on in his book about intercultural communication and ideology. By raising questions about the way 'otherness' is constructed and the ethical and political implications these forms of representations entail, he responds to a longstanding call for self-reflection from many intercultural theorists (Blommaert, 1995; Chang & Holt, 1997; Schweitzer, 1994).