Interculturality

A child comes into the world without cultural understanding – i.e. ‚culture‘ is something that must first be learned. Through social contacts, social occurrences, institutions and a materially influenced world, subjective attitudes, values and concepts develop in a child. This culture-learning process (also called enculturation) turns the individual into a social being who can unconsciously master the cultural signs of his environment and behave appropriately. Cultural forms and choices are adopted.

Orientation system

Accordingly, culture is an identity-forming orientation system that is internalized and no longer consciously perceived. At the same time, cultural identity is always also a group identity, since it can be traced back to belonging to a certain cultural group. Since dealing with one’s own identity is strongly emotionally charged, it is particularly important in intercultural encounters to reflect which parts of one’s own identity are individual and which are culturally shaped, even though this can hardly or only with difficulty succeed in everyday situations (cf. EMIL 2006, 13 f.).

Values and norms

In a foreign cultural environment, it quickly becomes clear that other values and norms prevail. It is no longer possible to orient oneself to one’s own cultural guidelines. This can cause a feeling of uneasiness and insecurity. It is only through the encounter of different cultures that one’s own cultural identity is reflected upon and becomes aware of. Dealing with cultures that represent other values and norms leads to these being perceived as ‚foreign‘ (cf. EMIL 2006, 15 ff.).

Personality is the product of positioning oneself in one’s own culture. In this context, it is important to view one’s own cultural identity as changeable, because „cultures are not cages and people are not their prisoners“ (EMIL 2006, 16). Cultural identity is subject to constant change, conditioned by the confrontation with people from other cultural groups. In the multicultural society, we therefore speak of the formation of multicultural identities that deal with cultural goods situationally and individually (cf. EMIL 2006, 16 f.).

Interculturality – exchange between cultures

The term interculturality is understood as a process of exchange between different cultures or between persons or groups with different cultural backgrounds. In this context, interculturality refers to traditionally self-contained cultural groups (cf. Irmer 2002, 11). According to Yousefi, interculturality refers to „a theory and practice, a[n] mode of understanding, concerned with the historical and contemporary relationship of all cultural areas and people as their bearers.“ (Yousefi 2014, 25)

The clash of cultures that have different values, systems of meaning, and levels of knowledge is linked to irritation, surprise, interaction, and self-reassurance. The prefix inter here means „between“ or „with each other“ and „refers to the fact that something new emerges in the exchange process.“ (Barmeyer 2012, 81) Through intercultural communication, the interacting persons negotiate new rules of communication and behavior that are characterized by a strong momentum. Only when the interacting persons classify the ‚own‘ and the ‚foreign‘ as significant, cultural overlapping situations occur and interculturality emerges (cf. Barmeyer 2012, 82).

Intercultural communication

In communication situations, the aspect of interculturality can remind one not to consider persons detached from their cultural environment, but as belonging to a certain group or group of persons. However, it should be avoided to culturify communication partners, i.e., to attribute specific characteristics to them based on their cultural background (cf. Wiechelmann 2013, 331).

Bridges of contact

Trans-, inter-, and multiculturalism.

Although the terms trans-, inter-, and multiculturalism are often used as synonyms, their meanings are not identical. According to Yousefi, these three theories „have an intrinsic kinship despite the obvious differences[ ]“ (Yousefi 2014, 25). Here, interculturality is the link between transculturality and multiculturality.

Multiculturalism stands for the coexistence of people of different origins, living situations and cultural ways of life in a society. The existence of clearly different, homogeneous cultures is assumed. Transculturality, on the other hand, means that there are no homogeneous cultures, but only cultural hybrids with varying degrees of distinctiveness. „Through migration, communication systems and economic interdependencies, cultures are interconnected“ (Irmer 2022, 12). In this context, national borders are no longer taken into account. Transculturality stands for an interdependent global culture that links all national cultures (cf. Irmer 2002, 11 f.). The concept of hyperculturality is new.

Also exciting: the onion model of culture.

Literature

Barmeyer, Christoph (2012): Pocket encyclopedia of interculturality. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

European Modular Program for Intercultural Learning in Teacher Education EMIL 2006. Intercultural Competence in Primary Schools. http://www.emil.ikk.lmu.de/deutch/ Handbuch-EMIL-Volltext.pdf [15.03.2017].

Irmer, Marion (2002): Intercultural play & learning. Practice solutions. Kissing: WEKA Media.

Wiechelmann, Sarah (2013): Now was that an intercultural misunderstanding? On the danger of losing sight of the person because of culture. In: Kumbier, Dagmar/ Schulz von Thun, Friedemann (Eds.): Intercultural Communication. Methods, Models, Examples. 6 ed. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Verlag, 323-335.

Yousefi, Hamid Reza (2014): Basic concepts of intercultural communication. Munich: UVK.