Intercultural communication: the pros and cons of being a ‘Discipline’

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, intercultural communication can be considered a ‘discipline’ clearly inserted within the ‘system of science’. At first sight, this seems to be a major achievement on the way to elaborate consistent theories and effective models to be applied in the several fields in which intercultural interactions occur. Moreover, the increasing visibility and reputation of Intercultural communication within the ‘scientific community’ may be a useful step towards spreading a favourably intercultural attitude around the globe. But this does not come at no cost, as I argue in this mainly epistemologically oriented article, by showing that the process through which Intercultural communication has been institutionalised followed the usual ‘rules of the game’ coming from the traditional understanding of ‘Western modern science’, which should be instead radically put into question.

Attualmente, la Comunicazione interculturale può senz’altro essere considerata una ‘disciplina’ chiaramente inserita nel ‘sistema della scienza’. A prima vista, ciò appare come un’importante acquisizione sulla via dell’elaborazione di teorie coerenti e di modelli efficaci da applicare nei molti ambiti nei quali avvengono interazioni interculturali. Inoltre, la crescente visibilità e reputazione della Comunicazione interculturale entro la ‘comunità scientifica’ può costituire un utile passo verso la diffusione a livello globale di un atteggiamento favorevole all’interculturalità. Ma ciò non va immune da costi, come sostengo in questo articolo orientato primariamente in senso epistemologico, mostrando che il processo attraverso il quale la Comunicazione interculturale è stata istituzionalizzata ha seguito le usuali ‘regole del gioco’ provenienti dalla definizione tradizionale della ‘scienza occidentale moderna’, che dovrebbe essere invece messa radicalmente in questione.

KEYWORDS:

• Modernity
• Western modern science
• scientific discipline
• intercultural communication
• interdisciplinarity
• intercultural attitude

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the Journal’s editor, Malcolm N. MacDonald, and the two anonymous reviewers for their very valuable and stimulating comments on previous drafts of this essay.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work has been realised within the framework of the project ‘Migranti e comunità inclusive: diritti, pratiche di cittadinanza e prevenzione dei rischi’ [Migrants and inclusive communities: rights, citizenship practices and risk prevention] supported by the Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca – Italy [grant number C.U.P. H33B17000010001].

Notes on contributors

Flavia Monceri

Flavia Monceri is Full professor of Political philosophy at the University of Molise (Italy), and holds an MA in Political Sciences (University of Pisa, Italy) and a Ph.D. in Philosophy of the social sciences (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy). Monceri researches, teaches and has published widely in various fields, including Intercultural communication, Gender, Queer and Transgender theories, and Disability Studies.