Polycentrism

Polycentrism is a multifaceted concept that has concrete meaning and application in many fields, such as intercultural communication and marketing management. A recent exponent of the concept of polycentrism in political science is Vincent Ostrom.

Theoretical roots

Togliatti coined polycentrism, calling for the decentralization of the exercise of communist power after the de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union around 1956. He was the first communist leader to turn away from the Soviet model of socialism and call for a polycentric orientation of the communist system, i.e., the decentralization of political leadership and thus the recognition of the autonomy of parties or the plurality of the communist movement. From the perspective of political science, polycentrism is understood as the political state of the communist movement at that time, in which the ideological center of power is no longer centralized but organized by multiple centers.

Intercultural communication contexts

In intercultural contexts of action, polycentrism means the recognition of the autonomy of cultures, especially cultures other than one’s own. This involves decoupling the interpretation of contexts of action from one’s own cultural experiences and attitudes and thus objectifying one’s evaluation. Polycentrism is thus the opposite of ethnocentrism, which places one’s own culture at the center and establishes it as the standard for evaluation.

However, it is in human nature to create one’s own images of others. „Images of the other, i.e. forms of perception of the other, form a central component of intercultural communication“ (Lüsebrink 2016). The self-constructed images of the other influence the experiences that are made with other cultures. A firmly constructed or even clearly deviating image of the other can have a communication-inhibiting effect.

Polycentrism can be understood as a term for an open and unprejudiced attitude towards other cultures, which should be detached from one’s own foreign images.

Polycentrism in corporate management

The concept of polycentrism is increasingly playing a special role in international corporate marketing. Communication between international companies from different countries is subject to a certain tension. These companies have to manage a balancing act between local communication work and global communication management in a trading relationship. Praxis des PR-Managements by Lies breaks down in more detail what problems this communication situation entails.

Especially in the field of international marketing, there are differences between a local or international framework of marketing. Depending on which markets are to be reached, marketing management must be adapted to ensure that the core messages are received as planned. In this context, the aforementioned work mentions the polycentric strategy, in which the PR content and messages of the marketing idea should be based on the characteristics of the ‚host country‘. The ethnocentric strategy, with which the company argues from their ‚own cultural framework‘, presents itself as the opposite. The goal here is not to come to the same values with a host country. Instead, the focus is on the will for a common cause. The own cultural values should not hinder the cooperation.

The core idea of polycentrism is to decouple one’s own evaluation criteria from one’s own culturally specific values.

Literature

Holz, Hans Heino (1972): currents and tendencies in neo-Marxism. Munich: Hanser.

Lies, Jan (ed.) (2015): Practice of PR management. Strategies – instruments – application. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler.

Lüsebrink, Hans-Jürgen (2016): Intercultural communication. Interaction, foreign perception, cultural transfer. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler.

Neubert, Harald (2009): Line Gramsci – Togliatti – Longo – Berlinguer. Renewal or revisionism in the communist movement. Hamburg: VSA.

Schönhuth, Michael: The Cultural Glossary. http://www.kulturglossar.de/html/p-begriffe.html#polyzentrismus https://educalingo.com/de/dic-de/polyzentrismus [09 Feb. 2019].