Articles
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A Cross-cultural Study of Preferences for Popular Music Among Hong Kong and Thailand Youths
Abstract: The main purpose of this study is to explore popular music preferences among young people in Hong Kong and Thailand. The survey was conducted between June and November 2003. It includes a short questionnaire concerning participants' musical habits, a listening test comprising fifteen excerpts from popular songs in Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Spanish, and English and interview questions about musical preferences and... [...] Read more
Communicative prerequisites for diversity - protection of difference or promotion of commonality?
Abstract: A basic dilemma faces the student of intercultural communication: Should communicative norms that protect substantial differences guide intercultural encounters? Or should formal rules of communication be promoted regardless of the interlocutors' cultural backgrounds and group affiliations? In this article arguments for and against these two positions are presented through a review of the discussion between Charles Taylor and Jürgen Habermas.... [...] Read more
Developing Intercultural Competence as Part of Professional Qualifications. A Training Experiment
Abstract: The internationalization and globalization of working life sets specific requirements on professional education including professionally integrated foreign language education, the overall goal of which should be intercultural competence. The paper discusses a training experiment in intercultural communication, especially the effectiveness of training in developing the various components of intercultural competence. The training experiment... [...] Read more
The relevance of culture-specific conceptualisation for organisational management: a cross-cultural study on the difference between German and Swedish organisational concepts
Abstract: The article deals with the question how culture-specific ways of conceptualising (thinking) play a role in organisational and management theory from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. Not only does this paper question the widespread idea that the language of science and economics is universally the same and that communication across cultural borders can be managed just by means of a lingua franca. This paper also shows by comparison of... [...] Read more
Intercultural communication or parallel cultures? The Swiss example with special regard to the Rhaeto-Romance situation
Abstract: Politically correct terminology often fails to describe actual reality. Switzerland is commonly held up as an example of accomplished multiculturalism and multilingualism. Although appealing, this image is also fairly erroneous as the German majority and French "dominant" minority seem to live separate lives. Likewise, Italian and Rhaeto-Romance are generally marginalized and rarely either spoken or understood by the French- and... [...] Read more
Intercultural Competencies as a Means to Manage Intercultural Interactions in Social Work
Abstract: In the last century Swedish society has become increasingly globalized and multicultural. Today about 20 per cent of the country’s population of 9 million people is of foreign decent. Recently questions of immigration, integration policies and multiculturalism have received much political attention. This fact, in the unmerciful light of a deconstruction of the welfare state coming to terms with these issues, constitutes an enormous challenge... [...] Read more
How "refugees" became "illegal migrants": Constuction, Reconstruction, … Deconstruction
Abstract: In 1998, Marjeta Doupona Horvat, Jef Verschueren, and myself published a booklet The pragmatics of legitimation: The rhetoric of refugee policies in Slovenia. The book discusses an episode in Slovenian public rhetoric, historically situated roughly as a one-year time span from April 1992 to March 1993, and topically defined in terms of "refugee policies". The approach was a pragmatic text analysis in a tradition of empirical ideology... [...] Read more