Intercultural Communication

Offering a unique treatment of intercultural communication culled from the global experiences of its authors, Intercultural Communication: Roots and Routes examines intercultural communication against the background of a rapidly transforming world both culturally and linguistically. As worldwide travel and contact increase, intercultural communication competence becomes a powerful imperative that goes beyond traditional approaches to this field. The authors' travel experiences in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America and their interactions with people during their travels echo in the book through stories and ideas that have enriched their perspectives. Their firsthand experiences combined with their scholarship offer students insight into and knowledge of the field of intercultural communication.

This text focuses on the inseparable relationship between cultural roots and the communicative consequences of humans' confrontation with diversity. Using the metaphors of process and movement - "roots and routes" - to capture the ongoing dynamism of intercultural communication, this text demonstrates how theory animates intercultural performance. These metaphors are used as powerful tools for understanding how primary places and things such as home, family, experiences, immigration, food, prejudices, perceptions, popular culture, race, gender, and customs and traditions help to shape what people think, feel, and do as they interact in an increasingly complex world.

The authors examine intercultural communication from a humanistic, qualitative approach with an emphasis on everyday interpersonal/rhetorical interactions. In addition to providing complete chapters on religion, the media, ethics, culture and pedagogy, and the socio-economic dimensions of intercultural communication, the authors conclude with a discussion of some of the major trends in diversity and intercultural communication which are shaping the future as we approach a new century and an examination of the challenges and possibilities that might be lying ahead.