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The present article explores the epistemological conditions of intercultural encounters. Based on an analysis of Raimon Panikkar's intercultural hermeneutics, we argue that intercultural encounters cannot take place adequately when they are based on purely rhetorical rationality or rational persuasion. We point to the limitations of grounding intercultural relationships on dialectical dialogue and, therefore, of educating them by simply enhancing discursive capacities. We underline the need for other epistemological conditions that should be fostered in order to move forward on the path to actual interculturality. These can be summarised by what Panikkar calls "conversion", an epistemic framework of love—personal relationality, that goes beyond objectifying rationality—for the communication between (culturally different) subjects. We conclude that the culturally diverse human condition refers to being encountered and being understood on a level that is not merely logical or linguistic. What can be understood of a person with another cultural background goes beyond what can be comprehended by logical rationality or captured by veritative judgements about objects. In other words, in intercultural encounters, ontological, rather than merely logical truth is at stake, which means that the presence of the other can lead to experiences of meaning: it reveals a being that calls for conversion. Conversion demands an ontic action on the part of the subject, not merely an epistemological one, that cancels the violence that rational persuasion might entail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa is 15 years into democracy, but difficult dialogues about race, ethnicity, and other cultural differences are hindered when students are developmentally unprepared to handle them. Although institutions of learning have been painfully aware of the racial, cultural and ethnic divides on their campuses, no real strategies or policies have been put into place to ensure integration. This study started with problems that my colleagues in the Faculty of Science at a university in South Africa were experiencing with the lack of interaction and communication among the first year students in their large and diverse classrooms. They were also concerned that their students did not know how to deal with diversity and they wanted to graduate students who would be successful in their professional careers in a multicultural environment. This study found that using an action research approach was particularly successful in teaching Communication and in encouraging intercultural communication as lessons learned could be built upon or learned from in order to plan the next phase of intervention. The continual interactions during the various phases typical of the action research approach used, enabled the unearthing of feelings, problems and issues which would otherwise not have surfaced in the normal classroom where students are merely lectured. By transforming method and methodology, students and educators were exposed to new and different ways of being. This paper therefore reports on how a course in Communication was developed to facilitate communication and interaction between the different cultures and race groups in a Science classroom using an action research approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the ways in which group identifications and stereotypes can inform our understanding of cancer treatment and survivorship, as well as the more general social processes surrounding the communicative experiences of older adult Russians diagnosed with cancer, by providing a theoretical essay (with some modest illustrative data) to shed light on salient cross-cultural health and identity issues. Utilizing an approach grounded in social identity theory, it describes the ways in which understanding primary identities associated with large social collectives such as cultural groups, secondary identities associated with health behaviors and tertiary identities associated with a cancer diagnosis can help explain certain cancer-related social processes. Subtle cultural differences in approaches to health care, particularly with older adult populations, are likely influenced by assumptions embedded in their economic, social, and political systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first examines the relationship of the components of communicative competence to culture, pointing out that strategic competence, unlike sociolinguistic or discourse competence, is not culture-specific and therefore is supposed to play a more crucial role in intercultural communication. And then it discusses research on strategic competence, particularly the contributions it can make to our efforts to understand and improve intercultural communication. Some questions that further research should address are also raised. Finally it stresses the special significance of exploring strategic competence for studying intercultural communication and indicates implications that the exploration may have for second- and foreign-language teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]