Perspectives on Interculturality: The Construction of Meaning in Relationships of Difference

The intercultural occurs in the space between two or more distinct cultures that encounter each other, an area where meaning is translated and difference is negotiated. A better, more systemic understanding of these processes is a major challenge of our time. Intercultural themes have thus far been mostly pursued within bounded academic disciplines, but the fact that people often have multiple, overlapping cultural affinities, and that cultures are inherently dynamic because they are man-made, not fixed and ahistorical systems, begs for interdisciplinary approaches. However, scholars are rarely trained to do so. They are routinely constrained by conventionalized conceptual languages of their disciplines, by their own apperceptions and assumptions, and by the incommensurability of frameworks of knowledge in an increasingly interconnected world. Intercultural studies are due for reflection and refinement. This volume brings together international scholars from diverse disciplines to reflect on the phenomenon of interculturality, and to share the theoretical and methodological frameworks of interpreting it.

Michal Jan Rozbicki is Professor of History and Director of the Center for Intercultural Studies at Saint Louis University, USA.

Introduction

Intercultural Studies: The Methodological Contours of an Emerging Discipline

Michal Jan Rozbicki

PART I: CONCEPTUALIZING INTERCULTURALITY

1. Apperception, the Influence of Culture, and Interracial Humor; Michael D. Barber

2. Toward Foundations for Intercultural Studies: Considering Mobility Studies and the Study of Religion; Paul Kollman

3. Toward the Materiality of Intercultural Dialogue, Still a "Miracle Begging for Analysis"; Teruyuki Tsuji

PART II: INTERCULTURALITY AND SOCIAL IDENTITY

4. Group Identity and Attitudes in Guatemala: The Role of Ethnic Interculturality; Judith L. Gibbons, Brien K. Ashdown, Yetilú de Baessa

5. Fear of the Knotted Cord: Pueblo-Spanish Relations after the 1680 Revolt; Tracy Brown

6. Bienvenido, Mr. Inquisitor: On the Sociocultural Dynamics of Inquisitorial Visits; William Childers

PART III: A GLOBAL STAGE FOR INTERCULTURALITY

7. Interculturality, Cosmopolitanism, and the Role of the Imagination: A Perspective for Communicating as Global Citizens; Nilanjana Bardhan, Miriam Sobré-Denton

8. Towards a Cosmopolitan Sociology: Understanding Cosmopolitanism in Korea; Mun-Cho Kim

9. A Netnographic Case Study of Western Expatriates' Attitudes towards the Chinese in Shanghai; Henrik Gert Larsen, Leslie Wolowitz

PART IV: THE PRACTICE OF INTERCULTURALITY

10. Theorizing Interculturality in Indigenous Healthcare: A Case from a Rural Intercultural Hospital in Mexico; Jennifer Hale-Gallardo

11. Tourist Destination Marketing and Interculturality: The Polish City of Krakow in the British Press; Irmina Wawrzyczek

12. Do the Folk Believe that They Can Speak their Way into Interculturality?; Kara McBride, Jingyun Gu