Difference in diversity: multiple perspectives on multicultural, intercultural, and transcultural conceptual complexities

Abstract

This text undertakes an analysis of three concepts, namely ‘multiculturalism,’ ‘interculturality,’ and ‘the transcultural,’ which are scrutinized and discussed in their potential for explaining the wider scope of inequality, difference, and diversity as developed in perspectives of different north-south conceptual frameworks. The discussion draws from recently published or other made public sources from different academic and cultural traditions and, therefore, it maps different perspectives and uses of these terms. They have lately been made ubiquitous in the academic and social discourse and are often used indiscriminately. In fact, it is impossible to establish fixed and stable lines between them since they form a complex web of meanings that, to some extent, may crisscross each other. However, it is feasible, for the purpose of deeper scientific accurateness, to identify layers and regions of meaning for each of one of them and this is what this article attempts to do, against a backdrop of different types of colonialism, both from the perspective of the colonized and the colonizers, as well as against a backdrop of a north/south-south/north metaphor. The conceptual discussion on which this article relies is based upon two large projects in Latin America involving various types of higher education institutions.

Keywords:

• multiculturalism
• interculturality
• transcultural
• difference
• diversity
• inequality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Manuela Guilherme is a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra. She was awarded a Ph.D. in Social Sciences, Education (2000) by the University of Durham, UK, for whose dissertation she was granted the Birkmaier Award for doctoral research by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and The Modern Language Journal, Washington DC. She has (co-)coordinated and participated in several European-funded international projects.

Gunther Dietz is a Research Professor in Intercultural Studies at the Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Mexico. He is a member of the IAIE board (International Association of Intercultural Education). He holds an MA and a Dr Phil. in Anthropology from Hamburg University.

Additional information

Funding

This work is partly based on the RIAIPE3 ALFA Project (2011–2014), funded by the Alfa Program (European Commission) and by the Mexican Council for Research and Technology (CONACyT).