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Intercultural Spr2006 Sess13

Approaches to Identity, Culture and Communication

• Four general views of identity and culture
  • The book presents three of them
  1. Social Science
     • Depicted as being interested in the static self
       • An oversimplification
     • Social science is generally interested in "common variance"
       • In the things we share in common
         • As cultures
         • As groups within cultures
         • As communities
     • Social science methods are good at commonality
       • within groups
       • between groups
       • whether differences are real
       • how big they are
       • and how they can be measurably changed
     • Hence measures of things that can be measured, including individuals, groups, and characteristics of individuals (e.g. spirituality), are paramount
  2. Communication
     • Concerned with the dynamic self
       • with the self as the changing product of
         • our relationships
         • the contexts we communicate in
         • the messages we create and consume
     • We gain our identity through our interaction with others
     • Note, in this, a structure versus process distinction
       • The communication still assumes the structure (identity) of the social science perspective
       • Communication becomes the process through which that structure is shaped.
     • Hence processual dialectics like avowal and ascription become paramount
  3. Critical
     • concerned with the ways in which culture remotely influences us
       • Socialization
       • Normalization
     • If social science is about structure and communication is about process, critical theory is very much about content
       • Who controls that content
       • How we can resist that control
     • Hence power, context and resistance become paramount
  4. Phenomenological Approach
     • An addition, but a particularly important addition as we approach the discussion of language
     • Concerned with the ways in which we create ourselves
     • The self, it might be argued, starts as a sealed and empty container
       • with a set of sensory inputs and some storage and processing capabilities
     • It build our identity as a function of our experiences
       • Communication experiences, for the most part
       • That are rooted in the commonality of our culture
       • And in the implicit power associated with that commonality
     • Experience and perception become paramount
     • Our identity becomes a product of our perspectives on that experience at three levels
       1. Perspective
          • Our perspective on who we think we are
          • Others behavior towards us as a reflection of their perspective of who we are
       2. Meta-Perspective
          • Based on our observation of others, what we think the others perspective of us is
          • Others behavior towards us as a reflection of what they think our perspective of them is
       3. Meta-meta-perspective
          • Based on our observation of others, what we think the other thinks our perspective of them is
          • Others behavior towards us as a reflection of what they think we think their perspective of us is
       • A lot of our communication activity and misunderstanding occurs as a result of mismatches between these perspectives
         • Laing's "Knots"
• The "stages" of minority and majority development can be usefully viewed through the phenomenological lens
  • "Unexamined", the first stage of both models, corresponds to not having formed a perspective on our observations
  • "Conformity" and "Acceptance", the second stages of (respectively), the majority and minority models, are reactions to the behavior of others
    • We "conform" by minimizing differences that would allow others to have negative perspectives of us
      • We don't seek acceptance so much as we impede rejection
      • We often do that in reaction to the behavior of others and the information that behavior gives us about their perspective of us
    • We "accept" by accepting the dominant cultural perspectives of others
      • And, by extension, acting that way
  • "Resistance" occurs at the third stage of both models, but is very different in each
    • For minorities, resistance follows from the realization that we can never sufficiently mute the differences
      • There will always be people who reject us simply because of one characteristic that we cannot change
      • In a reversal of the usual rhetoric, "if you can't join them, fight them"
    • For majorities, resistance follows from reversing the dominant attribution
      • The minority didn't create the inequality; the dominant culture did
      • It will often be less a resistance than an rejection of their prior acceptance.
      • This awareness is a move forward, but another step is required before majority identity can be integrated
  • "Redefinition" is the next step in majority identity formation
    • Accept that you are, in effect, just a member of another group
    • Work out the nature of that group and its relationship to other groups
    • Develop your awareness of what it means to be of the dominant culture
      • This sets you up for the last stage
  • In both models, the last stage is "Integration", which entails working your perception of self into the other facets of your identity.