7.1 Prelude

Having completed the previous sessions, you already have a good understanding of the intercultural perspective how cultures may differ and how these differences influence behaviour. Also, you are now aware of the concept of multi-collectivity and how it can be useful when trying to understand the complexity and multifaceted nature of intercultural encounters. In order to enlarge our repertoire of analytical tools, we are complementing this view by elaborating and by differentiating the multi-collectivity approach in 3 different ways. The first one relates to the fact that the moment we interpret we do so on the basis of assumptions and knowledge, and this means that we use (inter-)cultural meanings as a resource. The second aspect is to acknowledge that we cannot be sure whether any of our interpretations is right and therefore need to open up for not-knowing. This is the other side of the coin of the multi-collectivity theory from a systemic constructivist perspective. Finally, we are adding a critical perspective which pays particular attention to power relationships that go hand in hand with cultural resources. By elaborating and differentiating our approaches in such a way we improve our ability to grasp the complexity of intercultural encounters and find means and ways of managing them constructively.

The aim of this session is therefore to use different approaches to a situation, the multi-collective approach, the intercultural as well as the power reflexive approach while applying the concept of cultural reflexivity in its entity as a tool to analyse intercultural encounters in a variety of settings.

Our starting point will be to briefly examine the term 'reflexivity'. In practical terms, cultural reflexivity means questioning the assumptions and beliefs underlying social actions and the impact of these actions. These beliefs are strongly connected to what our pre-assumptions are and in what respect culture is relevant in encounters. In this context, our analysis of cross-cultural encounters needs to be carried out from a variety of perspectives with the premise that such a process has the potential to maintain or transform social relations and develop constructive cross-cultural dialogues. This unit is therefore an important step towards finding means and ways of managing various forms of cultural difference.

Download: Learning journal for session 7