Abstract
Discourses about interculturality do not merely discover, describe, and analyse intercultural communicative practices that already exist in an objective manner, but actively co-construct them (Risager, 2011; Dervin, Gajardo, & Lavanchy, 2011; Holliday, 2011). Intercult ural trainings and training programmes (as well as any other discourse on interculturality) provide particular discursive resources for thinking about, relating to and communicating with others and thus significantly shape ideas and practices. As Blommaert (1995, p. 5) describes it:
we should not only worry about intercultural communication per se, but also about the way in which it is perceived, interpreted, construed, and structured by all kinds of people, including ourselves. In short, we should be committed to investigating the ideologies surrounding intercultural communication.
The present chapter analyses an intercultural training programme, Alelo’s Virtual Cultural Awareness Trainer, in the context of the War on Terrorism. The questions guiding the investigation are: What understanding of culture underlies the design of this programme? How are Self and Other constructed and portrayed? What function does this particular conceptualisation serve in the political context of the War on Terrorism?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Alelo Inc. (2010). Virtual Cultural Awareness Trainer (VCAT). Retrieved April 1, 2012 from www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ2CLv6JyXo.
Alelo Inc. (publication date unknown): About us. Retrieved from December 20, 2012 from http://www.alelo.com/aboutus.html.
Anderson, B. (2006). Imagined Communities. London and New York: Verso.
Anwar, M. (2011). Preface. In N. Ul Haq, M. Anwar, & M. Nawaz Khan (Eds.), Post-withdrawal scenario in Afghanistan. Vancouver, BC: The Human Sec urity Report Project. Retrieved April 1, 2012 from http://humansecuritygateway.com/documents/IPRI_PostWIthdrawalScenarioAfghanistan.pdf.
Baureithel, U. (2002). Abwehrzauber: Krieg der Kulturen. Wie Samuel P. Huntington trotz Dementierung seiner Thesen die gegenwärtige Politik beeinflußt. Retrieved May 21, 2002 from http://www.freitag.de/autoren/der-freitag/abwehrzauber.
Blommaert, J. (1995). Ideologies in intercultural communication. In Ø. Dahl (Ed.), Intercultural communication and contact. Selected papers presented at the 1st Nordic Symposium on Intercultural Communication (pp. 9–27). Stavanger, Norway: Miljonshogskolens.
Breidenbach, J., & Nyíri, P. (2009). Seeing Culture Everywhere: From Genocide to Consumer Habits. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
Bush, G. W. (2001). Address to A Joint session of Congress and the American people. Retrieved January 25, 2015 from http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010920–8htm.
Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Dervin, F. (2011). A plea for change in research on intercultural discourses: A “liquid” approach to the study of the acculturation of Chinese students. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 6(1), pp. 37–52.
Dervin, F., Gajardo, A., and Lavanchy, A. (2011) (Eds.). Politics of Interculturality. Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Dupré, J. (2001). Human Nature and the Limits of Science. Oxford: Clarendon.
Feng, A., Byram, M., & Fleming, M. (Eds.) (2010). Becoming Interculturally Competent through Education and Training. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Fenton, S. (1999). Ethnicity, Racism, Class and Culture. Basingstoke, UK: MacMillan.
Fukuyama, F. (1989). The end of history. The National Interest, 16, pp. 3–18.
Goodman, D. J. (2000). Motivating people from privileged groups to support social justice. Teachers College Record, 102(6), pp. 1061–1085.
Grillo, R. D. (2003). Cultural essentialism and cultural anxiety. Anthrop olog ical Theory, 3(2), pp. 157–173.
Halliday, F. (1995). Islam and the Myth of Confrontation: Religion and Politics in the Middle East. London: I. B. Tauris.
Hannerz, U. (1999). Reflections on varieties of culturespeak. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2, pp. 393–407.
Holliday, A. (2011). Intercultural communication and ideology. London: Routledge.
Huntington, S. P. (1993). The clash of civilizations? Foreign Affairs, 72, pp. 22–49.
Huntington, S. P., & Harrison, L. (Eds.) (2000). Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress. New York: Basic Books.
Layes, G., & Kammhuber, S. (1997). Development of intercultural competence for German military personnel. Paper presented at the NATO/Partnership for Peace Workshop. Heidelberg, Germany. Retrieved April 1, 2012 from Personnel www.nato.int/docu/colloq/w970707/m01.rtf.
Leeds-Hurwitz, W. (1990). Notes in the history of intercultural communication: The Foreign Service institute and the mandate for intercultural training. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 76, pp. 262–281.
Löckert, M. (2011). Design and implementation issues for convincing conversational agents. In D. Perez-Marin, & I. Pascual-Nieto (Eds.), Conversational agents in natural language interaction: Techniques and effective practices (pp. 156–176). Hershey, UK: IGI Global.
Müller, A. (2011). Germans train for “intercultural competence.” Defense News. Retrieved January 25, 2015 from http://www.defensenews.com/print/article/20110210/TSJ01/102100305/Germans-train-8216-intercultural-competence.
Murray, A., & Sondhi, R. (1987). Socio-political influences on cross-cultural encounters: Notes towards a framework for the analysis of context. In K. Knapp, W. Enninger, & A. Knapp-Potthoff (Eds.), Analyzing Intercultural Communication (pp. 17–33). New York: de Gruyter.
Oddo, J. (2011). War legitimation discourse: Representing “Us” and “Them” in four US presidential addresses. Discourse and Society, 22(3), pp. 287–314.
O’Hanlon, M. (2011a).Gauging the effect of Obama’s troop cuts. Brookings. Retrieved January 25, 2015 from http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2011/06/23-afghanistan-ohanlon.aspx.
O’Hanlon, M. (2011b). To win Afghan war, we must fix the politics. USA Today. Retrieved January 25, 2015 from http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011–07–04-win-afghan-war-karzai_n.htm.
Parekh, B. (2000). Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Piller, I. (2011) . Intercultural Communication: A Critical Introduction. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.
Rashid, A. (2000). Taliban, Islam, Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia. London: I. B. Tauris.
Reuters (2011). US cost of war at least $3.7 trillion and counting. Express Tribune (Islamabad). Retrieved January 25, 2015 from http://tribune.com.pk/story/198639/us-cost-of-war-at-least-3–7-trillion-and-counting.
Risager, K. (2011). The cultural dimensions of language teaching and learning. Language Teaching, 44(4), pp. 486–499.
Sagae, A., Johnson, L. W., & Valente, A. (2012). Conversational agents in language and culture training. In A. Sagae, L. W. Johnson, & A. Valente (Eds.), Conversational Agents in Language and Culture Training: Techniques and Effective Practices (pp. 358–377). Hershey, UK: IGI Global.
Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London: Penguin Books.
Said, E. W. (2001).The clash of ignorance. The Nation Company. Retrieved January 25, 2015 from http://www.thenation.com/article/clash-ignorance
Sayer, A. (2011). Why Things Matter to People: Social science, Values and Ethical Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Scollon, R. & Wong-Scollon, S. (2001). Intercultural Communication. Oxford: Blackwell.
Steinmann, H., & Scherer, A. G. (1998). Corporate ethics and global business: Philosophical considerations on intercultural management. In B. N. Kumar, & H. Steinmann (Eds.), Ethics in International Management (pp. 13–46). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Street, B. V. (1993). Culture is a verb: Anthropological aspects of language and cultural process. In M. Byram (Ed.), Language and Culture. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Tariq, A. (2002). The Clash of Fundamentalism: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity. London and New York: I. B. Tauris.
Ulrich, U. (2012). Intercultural competence in the Bundeswehr. Bundessprachenamt — ReferatSMD 3, Auftragsnummer 2011U-03070. Retrieved January 25, 2015 from http://young-campus.eu/starter_kids/download/HandoutMinistryofDefense.pdf.
Watson Institute of International Studies (Brown University). (2014). Summary costs of war Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan FY2001–2014, billions of current dollars. Retreived April 28, 2015 from http://www.costsofwar.org/sites/default/files/Summary%20Costs%20of%20War%20NC%20JUNE%2026%202014.pdf.
Zecha, W. (2011). Intercultural awareness: A necessary asset of soldiers for international operations. AARMS Security, 10(2), pp. 293–304.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Karin Zotzmann
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Zotzmann, K. (2015). Increased Understanding and Empathy through Intercultural Training? The Case of Alelo’s Virtual Cultural Awareness Trainer for Military Personnel. In: Dervin, F., Machart, R. (eds) Cultural Essentialism in Intercultural Relations. Frontiers of Globalization Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137498601_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137498601_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-55769-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-49860-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)