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Interview Project

Chapter 5: “Identity and Inter-Cultural Communication" Summary

Culture plays a very important and basic role to define the characteristics and the qualities of any person or individual. Different countries have different kinds of cultures. People adopt culture according to the region they are living in. Culture is defined as a set of values, norms, traditions and customs that are have been developed and are followed by the people of a specific geographical region. It can also be carried on and followed by the people of belonging to a specific race or religion.

Culture is not a one-time development, in fact, it is a product developed over a period of time. Culture, whether being followed by a limited number of people or a large population is developed over a period of time and includes a wide range of aspects. The fundamental role that is played in the development of culture is played by the religion and the climate of the geographical region in which that culture is being developed (Martin). Currently, white culture is the most dominant in the world. It has complex characteristics and defined and elaborated values. Identity is also a part of the culture. Identity is defined as a separate or distinguishing characteristic that is present in an individual. Culture also plays a major role in defining and shaping up the characteristics of an individual. There are multiple approaches that can be used to define identity but three of them are used most commonly; social science, interpretive and critical. Identities are also developed and defined by the major and minority group memberships. In addition to this, identities also constitute multiple types like static, dynamic, personal and contextual. Identities are very complex in nature and portray the various aspects of an individual’s personality like age, gender, sexuality, race, caste, religion, regionality, nationality, and ethnicity.

Critique/Analysis of Chapter 5: "Identity and Inter-Cultural Communication"

The author of the book “Intercultural Communication and Contexts” has a deep insight over the various sort of cultural values prevailing in the world. Judith Martin (author of the book) has presented an elaborated picture of how various cultures are developed in the world over a period of time and what are the factors that contribute to their development. In Chapter 5 of the book that has been titled as “Identity and Inter-Cultural Communication”, Judith Martin has laid emphasis over the aspect of identities within a culture. These identities may be personal or social in nature.

The chapter focuses on defining what exactly an identity is and how it is developed. Moreover, the author takes the idea of individual identity and social identity in the context and how a specific or separate identity is developed over a period of time while remaining within a group or a society. There has been a considerate amount of literature on the aspect of the development of identities and what can be the possible issues that can affect this development process. In addition to this, the chapter has also intelligently touched the areas of diversity and multiculturalism while discussing the development of social identities.

The topic of the development of individual and social identities hold great significance in the daily life and routine of a person irrespective of the role they are playing in society. It helps in determining the types of characteristics a person is carrying and evaluate the most obvious things like gender, age, nationality, regionality, religion and race. Most importantly, it also helps to analyze the nature of that specific individual and recognize the stereotypes that a person is holding with respect to other people, races, religions and other members and various aspects of the society.

Chapter 9: “Popular Culture and Inter-Cultural Communication” Summary

Communication plays a very important role in the propagation of various sort of messages and vibes in the community. Culture is a proponent made up of a mixture of amalgamation of various values, norms and traditions and thus communication helps to deliver these values to other people. These people may be the followers of that culture or the non-followers. Communication also helps to carry on the traditions and legacy of the culture downward and upward. The downward carrying on of the cultural; values means the passing on of these values to the new generations and the upward communication means to bring on changes in the current culture or the passed down traditions and informing the predecessors of these traditions that following changes have been made.

Intercultural communication also helps to propagate the positive and diverse values of any culture into the other cultures, and let the followers of other cultures learn the constructive and positive values present in the culture. But the prospect of intercultural communication is not an easy task, it can be tough and challenging to communicate within cultures especially if the values are very rigid and deeply rooted. The biggest challenge of intercultural communication is coping up with differences along with explaining certain aspects of the values to the other people especially non-followers of that culture (Martin). This could be tough as the non-followers do not understand the significance and specificity of a particular tradition.

Multiple approaches can be used to minimi9ze or mitigate these challenges and make the process of intercultural communication more easy and smooth. These approaches are social science, interpretive and critical. Moreover, there are six dialects of interpersonal communications that define and control any communication process within cultures. These are personal-contextual, cultural-individual, differences-similarities, static-dynamic, privilege-disadvantage, and history/past-present/future.

Critique/Analysis of Chapter 9: "Popular Culture and Inter-Cultural Communication"Chapter 9 of the book “Intercultural Communication and Contexts” has been titled as "Popular Culture and Inter-Cultural Communication" and throws light over the various aspects of the popular and renowned side of the culture. These aspects or the factors that make a culture popular and famous in a society or in a global perspective, in general, become the dominant properties of that culture and people mostly relate to that culture on the basis of those qualities. The author has given an insight into various sorts of cultures without having to personally experience them and how various cultures are adopted by old and new followers in that society.

As the author belongs to the United States of America and the book has also been written keeping in mind the American society, a little more focus has been put in the properties and aspects of the popular cultural values prevailing in the country. The author has also skillfully inculcated that how popular values of the culture prevailing in the United States of America is also impacting the whole world and how other cultures are also getting influenced by these values. One of the very beneficial pieces of literature that this chapter holds is the insight of the author that how immigrants take the popular culture of a new country or place and how they adopt it.

These insights are very much helpful in the daily routine or experiences of a persona as popular culture defines the major characteristics of the personality of an individual. Most of the times, the behavioural patterns exhibited by a person in the society, in general, are a result of the various sorts of cultural stereotypes and family influences that have been instilled in their minds since birth and have been brought up with those all their lives.

Chapter 11: “Culture, Communication and Conflict” Summary

The world is a combination of a mixture of various sort of cultures and values, so conflict is an unavoidable factor in such a situation. Conflict is defined as the incompatibility of goals, expectations, processes, values or outcomes that may be real or perceived. It may be between two or more individuals or a group of individuals. Conflicts may be constructive or destructive in nature. In general, conflict has multiple types: conflict of interest, cognitive conflict, value conflict, goal conflict and affective. When it comes to the intercultural conflicts it can also be divided into four major types: discussion, accommodating, engagement, and dynamic (Martin).

Intercultural communication may be affected by the various factors that leave a deep mark on the whole communication process and affect the quality of the communication. These factors may be in the form of religion, ethnicity, gender, family influences and stereotypes. In addition to this, these conflicts can arise due to various other factors like language barriers, ambiguity, and contradictory conflict management styles.

Multiple strategies can be adopted to resolve the conflicts and mitigate their effects in order to produce productive results and induce positivity for a longer term in the communication process. Social movements are one of such approaches. Moreover, many cultures imply the strategies of transformational communication and peacebuilding in big social setups so that the members of society can work in equilibrium and harmony towards the achievement of progressive goals peacefully. These strategies are also beneficial in keeping a balance in society so that petty disputes do not grow up into rigorous wars of rage and violence. Some other successful strategies in this respect may be the development of a diverse and open mindset, identifying a preferred style of conflict management, recognizing the importance of conflict management styles and promoting the habit of forgiveness.

Critique/Analysis of Chapter 11: “Culture, Communication and Conflict”

Chapter 11 of the book “Intercultural Communication and Contexts” has been titled "Culture, Communication and Conflict" and is probably the most informational chapter of the whole book. Judith Martin has intelligently inculcated the whole paradigm of conflict and conflict resolution in a single chapter and given a complete insight into the whole field of conflict. The chapter has been categorized so skillfully that even a layman, who does not have any knowledge about what conflict is, can easily understand the whole picture of conflict and the conflict within intercultural groups.

The chapter predominantly discusses the aspect of communication within the cultures and how the process of communication is affected by the arousal of the conflict. The author has focused on various types of conflicts, especially while communicating within different cultures and how these conflict can be controlled and resolved before they become a big war.

This discussion is very much important as it gives knowledge to a person how to deal with conflict in their daily lives. Conflict is not a one-day event or once in blue moon occurrence but a matter of a daily routine. A person has to face many instances in their daily routine life where disagreement or difference in opinion may occur. It has been observed that most of the times, this difference of opinion is the result of various sorts of stereotypes and the pre-developed thinking that the individual is not ready to change. This chapter is also very helpful in providing the information that how conflicts can be resolved in the daily routine using various approaches like the social science approach and the interpretive and critical approaches.

Works Cited

Martin, Judith N., and Thomas K. Nakayama. Intercultural communication in contexts. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2013.