Publication Beyond BoundariesRevisedVersion

1997

Scientific thought succumbed because it violated the first law of culture, which says that "the more man controls anything, the more uncontrollable both become." In the totalizing rhetoric of its mythology, science purported to be its own justification and sought to control and autonomize its discourse. Yet its only justification was proof, for which there could be no justification within its own discourse, and the more it controlled its discourse by subjecting it to the criterion of proof, the more uncontrollable its discourse became. Its own activity constantly fragmented the unity of knowledge it sought to project. The more it knew, the more there was to know." Stephen Tyler examples for illustrating theories, methodologies as well as the core of knowledge in I.C.. A foreigner entering a Japanese home without removing his or her shoes or a Northamerican keeping a certain distance while speaking with a person from the Middle East are some of those typical examples. A particular anecdote that I want to narrate happened recently while this author was attending a party with people from different cultural backgrounds. A young boy from an Indian family, first generation born in the United States, and about twelve or thirteen years old, came to me and asked, "Are you Hispanic?" My first reaction to the tone of his voice and his attitude was to feel if this young guy was seeing in front of him a "label", a "category"; I wondered whether he could see just another person. I responded, "Hispanics are people from Spain and I am not from Spain." My answer was such that today I believe it was a surprise for him as well as for me. Responding with an O.K. sign, the young boy moved away from me. This scene which could be labeled as an unfortunate, ineffective-and perhaps rudesituation between two persons from different cultural backgrounds trying to communicate is, however, more than that. It symbolizes, in essence, the meaning and the complexity present today in many similar situations around the world when people that are different-in this case culturallyare trying to communicate among themselves. A field like I.C., which is seen as a new and growing field, pertains to the field of communication, and defines its main purpose as related to these issues, specifically, trying to understand how people communicate among themselves and how their cultures frame this communication, its means as well as its results. Trying then to deal with some of these issues currently defined, conceptualized, and researched by this field, this paper will try to focus on some prevailing perspectives and discussions. To accomplish this goal, the paper will illustrate some trends in social sciences and communication that are being discussed contemporarily. Next, a detailed epistemological description of some of the current points of view used in social sciences, communication, and I.C. will be made, particularly emphasizing some of the modernist assumptions in contrast with some of the postmodernist assumptions. This, in order to offer an open background about some important points of view, are seen to be disregarded in some of these fields, but specifically in I.C.. Continuing, a critical review about some of their theories, methodologies, concepts as well as subfields will be attempted using, for that purpose, some of the modern and postmodern assumptions previously discussed. It is the central expectation of this paper to demonstrate how the influence of modernism in general, but positivism in particular, as a deep philosophical basealmost like a kind of "worldview"-is present through the theories, methodologies, and concepts discussed and proposed in this field. I. A BRIEF PANORAMA IN COMMUNICATION In the summer of 1993, for the second time in the last twenty years the Journal of Communication published a series of articles trying to see the " ferment of change" in communication. Despite all the different points of view, proposals and approaches of the authors

2006

This volume challenges two tacit presumptions in the field of intercultural communication research. Firstly, misunderstandings can frequently be found in intercultural communication, although, one could not claim that intercultural communication is constituted by misunderstandings alone. The main purpose of the contributions to this volume is to reconstruct intercultural understanding linguistically. Secondly, intercultural communication is not solely constituted by the fact that individuals from different cultural groups interact. Each contribution of this volume analyses to what extent instances of discourse are institutionally and/or interculturally determined. This volume shows how new perspectives on linguistic analyses of intercultural communication go beyond the analysis of misunderstanding. In fact, the volume documents a shift in the research focus towards the question as to what extent different linguistic means contribute to intercultural understanding. Edward T. Hall (1959, 1981) is considered to be the first scholar, who used the notion of 'intercultural communication' in order to denote the specific communication constellation that occurs when people from different cultural backgrounds meet. His statement 'culture is communication' inspired many scholars from anthropology, ethnography, cultural psychology and communication studies to attempt to offer causal explanations of communicative failure and success in intercultural contact. In actual fact, these analyses focus on psychological, cultural and communicative differences across cultures (cf.

Hermeneutic understanding operates within a tradition, whereas phenomenological philosophy investigates the constitution of traditions and the collection of traditions that forms a culture. In this essay I seek to define the planetary event that motivates intercultural understanding. This event can be understood through a double horizon: the planetary character of scientific-technological civilization defines the context of the interaction of cultures, and the interaction of cultures defines the context for the planetary expansion of scientific-technological civilization. This is the motivating event for critique of traditions and of the collection of traditions that constitutes a culture. It is the experiential ground for a transcendental history of intercultural understanding.

This paper calls for a "fifth moment" in the field of intercultural communication that re-examines modern culture's values, beliefs, and assumptions about human being in the world and the role of such in fomenting today's ongoing planetary-wide ecological crises. To conduct this re-examination, we turn to ethnoautobiography, a framework rooted in story and in the indigenous paradigm. We raise deep questions regarding the default assumptions of a discipline ensconced almost exclusively within the monocultural logic of modern culture and civilization. We end by posing key problematics that we deem crucial for renewing the discipline toward contemporary relevance, ecological awareness, and responsibility.

2023

Senior postdoctoral research with field researches in India and Japan. Project Summary, Dr. Evandro Vieira Ouriques / Núcleo de Teoria e Terapia Psicopolítica / Escola de Comunicação Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, with Dr. Bruno Cany and Dr. Jacques Poulain / Laboratoire d’études et de recherches sur les logiques contemporaines de philosophie-LLCP Département de Philosophie / University de Paris 8. ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to enhance the argument I support with Psychopolitical Theory and Therapy by deepening the dialogue with Jacques Poulain’s thoughts. The dialogue was initiated in 2013, particularly focused on his Philosophical Anthropobiology and the communicational condition of the human being, and the non-duality implicated in it. This exploration is crucial for my argument. To accomplish this, I intend to engage in transcultural dialogue including through field research in India and Japan. The goal is to contribute to de-westernize the West and de-orientalize the Orient, avoiding preconceived notions and exclusionary philosophical perspectives (Ouriques, 2002; 2010; 2016; 2022a; 2022b). One movement involves improving my argument by incorporating even more deeply Poulain's ideas founded on the dialogic imperative of the human condition, as emphasized by Bruno Cany. The other movement entails enhancing the dialogue about what our arguments have in common with the perspective of Oriental philosophy, specifically exploring the non-duality, central to the Upaniṣads, Mahayana Buddhism and the Kyoto School.

Dialogue and Universalism, 2013

2015

Intercultural relations is an unusual academic specialty among the social sciences. This is in part because it specifies a relatively specific domain as its focus. So, unlike sociology, which claims all of social relations as its domain, or anthropology, which even more grandly claims all of human phenomena as its bailiwick, intercultural studies constrains itself to those human interactions that occur across cultural boundaries. But the more salient aspect of this field’s uniqueness is its assumption that people can be aware of their cultural experience, and further, that they can intentionally shift their experience into different cultural contexts. This focus on consciousness and intentionality differentiates intercultural relations even from cross-cultural psychology, which, while it studies comparative and some interactive phenomena across cultures, does not do so with the same assumption of self-reflexive consciousness. The purpose of this article is to show that the field of ...

Journal of Teaching English For Specific and Academic Purposes, 2014

This paper is concerned with one of the most fundamental questions in linguistics, namely the role of language to shape thoughts and cognition, i.e. to affect directly one's world view. I allude to some outstanding linguists, proponents of this concept and try to elucidate the fact that being bearers of one culture we cannot come to absolute understanding of another culture, irrespective of the fact that we have a good command of its language. The reason is that cultures and languages are relative in their nature and incommensurate to others. There could be commensurability to some extent, but not complete. With simultaneous learning of а language and culture, we can achieve better results in the acquisition of a foreign language.

Transcultural Dictionary of Misunderstandings, 2023

The Transcultural Dictionary of Misunderstandings. European and Chinese Horizons is the result of an initiative which forges a radically new path for promoting transcultural understanding by studying culturebound keywords. The stimulating idea is to create and address with intention that which is generally held to be by all means avoided: namely, misunderstandings. The experiment starts with a level of communication that is not political per se but cultural. Cultures have no rigid borders like nationstates. They are more dynamic and meandering, open to influence, and translatable. Like cultures themselves, keywords are saturated with history, long-term experience, values, and collective emotions. They carry a load of tacit knowledge and implicit axioms that have the advantage of not having to be unpacked, explained, or spelled out. Working through various semantic layers of keywords on both sides helps to create a more transparent language for transcultural dialogue. The creation of such a language is the effect of producing, exchanging, and working through misunderstandings on both sides. Within the framework of transcultural dialogue, misunderstandings turn out to be an innovative tool for mutual learning by seeing oneself through the eyes of the other. It is high time for researchers in various parts of the world to join forces and translate basic concepts from one language and culture into another. Every translation is a transformation, marking similarities and differences which can lead to an uncovering of new ideas, values, and cultural practices. This unconventional dialogue is a great source of inspiration because it works through hardened assumptions and misrepresentations, unsettles schematic thinking, and leads to unexpected insights and new points of contact. Aleida Assmann Professor of English Literature and Literary Theory, University of Konstanz, Germany ISBN 978-2-85071-266-1