Intercultural Alliances : Critical Transformation

Intercultural Alliances, Volume 25 of The International and Intercultural Communication Annual, reflects the struggle to comprehend our international communities and improve the ways in which we communicate and negotiate across cultures.

Carefully organized and edited by Mary Jane Collier, this accessible volume defines intercultural alliances and demonstrates their potential through examples of effective and ineffective alliances.

A group of diverse and distinguished contributors presents an array of approaches to intercultural alliances, analyzing relationships between groups and individuals; institutionally based relationships that are constrained and enabled by structures, ideologies, and histories; and relationships as situated discourse. Intercultural Alliances offers a variety of perspectives on culture, identity, and the formation of alliances by including: Numerous cultural identifications, representations, and sites of study. Research using diverse theoretical approaches and methodologies. Perspectives of international, national, and local sites of communication in which alliances are being negotiated. A cyberdialogue among five conflict scholar/practitioners about visions, concerns, and actions that characterize alliance development in three diverse contexts. Directions that we might take as researchers, teachers, and practitioners in the future. Intercultural Alliances wrestles with questions of cultural identification, representations, and quality of intercultural relationships at all levels.

The essays examine our need as human beings to make sense of our international communities and our relationships that are economically, politically, and socially interdependent and inextricably bound together. Tailored for scholars who study culture, communication, sociology, or language, Intercultural Alliances is also essential reading for upper level undergraduate and graduate students interested in culture or communication.