Call for Papers

FQS 10(1): Qualitative Research on Intercultural Communication

Methods and Perspectives in Social Sciences, Cultural Studies and Education

Editors

Jens Allwood (University of Göteborg)
Assumpta Aneas Alvarez (University of Barcelona)
Dominic Busch (Europa University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder)
David Hoffman (University of Jyväskylä)
Matthias Otten (University Koblenz-Landau, Campus Landau)
Michele Schweisfurth (University of Birmingham)

Background

Increasing public awareness concerning issues related to intercultural understanding is reflected by a growing emphasis on research on intercultural communication, particularly during the last three decades. Myron LUSTIG and Jolene KOESTER (2005) draw a distinction between the "domestic" and the "international imperative" for intercultural competence as two distinct—yet closely interlinked—intercultural points of departure that pervade social institutions and structures like politics, business, education, and science. Such developments affect and are affected by—both basic and applied research. While basic research relies on interdisciplinarity and leads to sophisticated concepts and theories of culture, applied research on intercultural communication is usually conducted in the realm of practical interventions and programmes, aiming at the verification of evidence, evaluation and change in concrete settings.

Researchers in the field of intercultural communication must explicitly elaborate their basic theoretical and methodological assumptions about interculturality to earn the recognition of a meaningful and evident analytical perspective. Robust analysis is essential to generating sustainable explanations for the change of social structure and practice within pluralistic societies. Due to its interdisciplinary character, intercultural communication research seeks inspiration from theories, models, methods and critique from the various corners of the social sciences, cultural studies, humanities and education. Given the general expansion of qualitative research methods in the social sciences (DENZIN & LINCOLN, 2005; FLICK, KARDORFF & STEINKE, 2000; SILVERMAN, 2006), the interdisciplinary nature of intercultural communication research generates a wide and rather blurry landscape of theories and methods. Methodologies are culturally embedded themselves, depending very much on differing intellectual traditions in different countries and world regions (FLICK, 2005; KNOBLAUCH, FLICK & MAEDER, 2005; LOHFELD, 2007).

This special issue seeks to spotlight examples of the emerging variety in research methods and methodological approaches in the field of intercultural communication.

Conceptual Aspects

On the theoretical level, a qualitative approach to intercultural communication can be justified with the conception of the "research object": the emergence, the reasoning and the communicative effects of the social constructions of cultural difference. Such an approach takes a critical position against various forms of essentialism and naturalisations in cultural theory. Within the interactionist paradigm the main focus is set on the interactive construction of "otherness" and the practice of "othering" (HALLAM & STREET, 2000), as being crucial for research on intercultural communication. Similar to the field of qualitative migration research (see FQS Vol. 7, No. 3, May 2006), major methodological challenges of qualitative research on intercultural communication arise from the obligation to state reasons for taking culture as a relevant or even a crucial factor in social interaction.

Pragmatic Research Aspects

On the practical level of research on intercultural communication a wide range of methodical questions can be identified: problems of the linguistic, semantic and cultural translation of the research process and its interpretations and constructions (RENN, STRAUB, & SCHIMADA 2002; TEMPLE, 1997), the difficulties of adequate field strategies, or reflections on various problems caused by the inevitable cultural bias of the research process (BERRY, 1980; DIGNES & BALDWIN, 1996). Here it becomes obvious, that an exploration of the cultural practice of others has to include forms of rigorous self-exploration, e.g. by methods of auto-ethnography (BOUFOY-BASTICK, 2004).

Some Guiding Questions to be Addressed in the Forthcoming Special Issue

Despite the advancement and diversification in intercultural communication research, the intercultural competence within the field of social sciences itself raises questions (MATTHES, 2000). Thus, it is hoped that a number of guiding questions about approaches to intercultural communication in qualitative social research will be addressed in the special issue, specifically:

• Which classical qualitative research methods seem preferred for the empirical investigation of intercultural communication, and how are these methods legitimated, founded theoretically and adjusted to intercultural phenomena?

• How is culture conceptualised/manifested in the application of a qualitative research method?

• How are mixed methods and interdisciplinary approaches applied in intercultural communication research?

• How can researchers anticipate and reflect the cultural bias of their theoretical concepts, field access, instruments, interpretation and data presentation throughout the research process?

• How can the relatively young research field of intercultural communication be systemised and mapped on the background of classical approaches of qualitative social research?

For this special issue "Qualitative Research on Intercultural Communication", we invite papers in English, German or Spanish language, for publication in FQS. Papers can focus on one, or a coherent combination of the suggested questions, or other thematically relevant problems. Special emphasis will be placed on papers that exemplify these problems using a concrete empirical research project. All papers should contain both profound methodological reflection and a critical review of the practical research process. Besides the classical article format we also invite other, thematically relevant types of papers such as book reviews (review essays), interviews or the introduction to a research instrument.

We invite short abstracts (400 words) of your proposal in English by April, 30th 2008. Please indicate also the preferred language of your article (English, German, Spanish).

A selected number of proposals will be invited for a full paper (30.000-40.000 letters). Deadline for submission of the full paper is August, 30th 2008. Publication guidelines: http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs/fqs-e/manuskript-e.htm. FQS 10(1) will appear online in January 2009.

Please send your abstracts and questions to:

Dr. Matthias Otten

Universität Koblenz-Landau (Campus Landau)
Arbeitsbereich Interkulturelle Bildung
Thomas-Nast-Str. 44
76829 Landau, Germany

E-mail: otten@uni-landau.de

Tel. ++49 (0)6341 – 990 251 oder 906 208

References

Berry, John W. (1980). Introduction to methodology. In Harry C. Triandis & John W. Berry (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology, Vol. 2 (pp.1-24). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Boufoy-Bastick, Beatrice (2004). Auto-interviewing, auto-ethnography and critical incident methodology for eliciting a self-conceptualised worldview [36 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 5(1), Art. 37, http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-04/1-04boufoy-e.htm.

Denzin, Norman & Lincoln, Yvonne (2005). The handbook of qualitative research (3rd edition). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Dignes, Norman G. & Baldwin, Kathleen (1996). Intercultural competence. A research perspective. In Dan Landis & Rabi S. Bhaghat (Eds.), Handbook of intercultural training (2nd edition, pp.106-123). Thousand Oakes: Sage.

Flick, Uwe (2005). Qualitative research in sociology in Germany and the US—state of art, differences and developments [47 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 6(3), Art. 23, http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/3-05/05-3-23-e.htm.

Flick, Uwe; Kardorff, Ernst von & Steinke, Ines (Eds.) (2000). Qualitative Forschung. Ein Handbuch. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt.

Hallam, Elizabeth & Street, Brian V. (2000). Cultural encounters. Representing "otherness". London: Routledge.

Knoblauch, Hubert; Flick, Uwe & Maeder, Christoph (2005). Qualitative methods in Europe: The variety of scocial research [10 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 6(3), Art. 34, http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/3-05/05-3-34-e.htm.

Lohfeld, Wiebke (2007). Review: Sharlene Hesse-Biber & Patricia Leavy (2006). The practice of qualitative research [100 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 9(1), Art. 13, http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-08/08-1-13-e.htm.

Matthes, Joachim (2000). Wie steht es um die interkulturelle Kompetenz der Sozialwissenschaften. IMIS-Beiträge, 15, 13-29.

Renn, Joachim; Straub, Jürgen & Schimada, Shingo (Eds.) (2002). Übersetzen als Medium des Kulturverstehens und sozialer Integration. Frankfurt am Main: Campus.

Lustig, Myron W. & Koester, Jolene (2005). Intercultural Competence. Interpersonal communication across cultures (5th edition). Boston: Pearson.

Silverman, David (2006). Interpreting qualitative data: Methods for analysing talk, text and interaction (3rd edition). London: Sage.

Temple, Bogusia (1997). Watch your tongue: Issues in translation and cross-cultural research. Sociology, 3(31), 607-618.

[qualitative-research.net] [Home] [Inside FQS] [Features] [Services] [Submission]
[FAQ] [Advertising] [Search FQS] [Newsletter] [Editorial Team]

© 1999-2008 Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research
(ISSN 1438-5627)

Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Center für Digitale Systeme, Freie Universität Berlin