1. ISSN 1392-0561. INFOrMACIJOS MOKSlAI. 2008 45
Identities and intercultural communication:
Thematic map of the 14th Congress of Nordic Network
for Intercultural Communication
Renata Matkevičienė
Lecturer, PhD
Department of Information and Communication
Faculty of Communication, Vilnius University
Saulėtekio al. 9, LT-10222 Vilnius, Lithuania
Tel. (8-5) 2366102
El. paštas: renata.matkeviciene@kf.vu.lt
The issue of identity in the context of intercultural communication is �uite rare in scientific researches.
There could be found only several discussions in the field. The aim of the paper is an analysis of a thematic
discourse in intercultural communication on the basis of the scientific presentation of the 14th Congress
of Nordic Network for Intercultural Communication “Changing Identities in Globalized World” organized
in 29 November – 1 December 2007 in Vilnius. The author tries to present the items that are articulated in
the analysis of intercultural communication, and lays focuses on the thematic map of the conference, ba-
sed on the content analysis of abstracts of the presentations made by participants of the conference. The
study has showns that the thematic spectrum of intercultural communication is �uite stable and reflects
the basic aspects of intercultural communication: interpretation of culture, �uestions of cultural diffe-
rences and conflicts, intercultural competence in interpersonal communication, international corporate
communication, etc. Also, presuppositions are made regarding a �ualitative correlation between the to-
pic of the conference and the main items presented in the abstracts. The present investigation could serve
as a start-line for a deeper analysis of scientific communication as part of intercultural communication.
In the recent decades, there could be seen problems of identity in the multicultural
a raising interest in the communication world.
among different cultures. the present-day Communication in contemporary soci-
market, society and the world emphasize ety is not only a channel of information de-
the importance of the international flow of livery. Communication also fosters and en-
communication at various levels. People courages exchange of knowledge, opinions,
from different cultures, with various cul- social identities and values. Communica-
tural, historical and social background tion in the common sense could be defined
have used to live in a multicultural, mul- as a “process of exchange of information
tilingual, multi-custom environment. Sci- among individuals (groups, institutions) by
entists are forced to review existing theo- common systems of codes and behaviour”
ries of culture and communicational action (Webster, 1995). the presented interpreta-
in broaching scientific discussions on the tions of communication stress the role of
60

2. communication as self-presentation, rela- vival of cultural traditions which should
tionship and instrumental, but as the main be strengthened with the objective to safe-
purpose of communication could be named guard national culture and especially the
interaction and search of belongingness possibility for national culture, national
(Dance, 1970; Williams, 1976; Habermas, identity to survive in the world of global-
1983, 1985; Angus, 1998). ization. the closure of culture, on the one
Adopting the general sociological ap- hand, fosters the plurality of cultures; on
proach based on communication theory the other hand, it prevents any meaningful
and expanding the widely diffused idea in dialogue among them. Both “openness and
intercultural relationship studies that com- closure create the value of diversity, but at
munication is a central feature in cross- the same time they threaten the source of
cultural processes (Baraldi, 2006), it is diversity” (Baraldi, 2006: p. 54).
possible to explain the most significant so- When we speak about communication
cial processes observed in the globalized among different cultures, we enter the
world, i.e. the most significant intercul- broad and theoretically and empirically
tural processes. multidisciplinary field of intercultural
communication, and that multidimensional
The field of intercultural tendency of intercultural communication
communication is set by the multi-definitional composition
In the recent decades, the field of com- of the key words culture and communica-
munication and especially of intercultural tion. there could be seen several different
communication has changed sharply. the approaches to a study of intercultural com-
impact on the processes of changes in the munication:
theoretical and empirical sphere of com- • first of all, intercultural communica-
munication has been made mostly by the tion could be understood in the con-
expansion of globalization, enhanced by text of constructivists’ perspective
characteristics such as ICt development, (there could be attached the phrase by
opening of states’ borders and the growth Hofstede that culture is a program-
of migration (the most intensive being the ming of mind and that shows that first
tendency of economic migration related of all culture is defined in the mind
with immigration), etc. of every man and the communication
the political, economic, cultural, so- process leads to interpretation of oth-
cial changes caused by globalization ers in schemata defined during pro-
have made an impact on communication gramming of mind);
in general and on communication among • the second way for interpreting in-
different groups of people in particular. tercultural communication could
Nowadays, globalization means openness be analysis of culture in social con-
to cultural changes, to new opportunities structivists’ perspective with linking
for a cultural (and inter-cultural) dialogue. an individual to culture as a social
But globalization also threatens the sur- system (Johnson, tuttle, 1989) (in
61

3. that perspective culture is defined tuttle, 1989: 463). From this perspective,
as a “historically transmitted system communication is understood as a con-
of symbols, meanings, and norms” textually determined process where, at
(Collier, 1997) (or in Jameson (2007) the most general level, different cultures
systems of knowledge shared by a represent different contexts for the study
relatively large group of people, but of communication (ibid., p. 463), but also
identified groups in terms of political knowledge about a culture, though valu-
boundaries between cultures), and able, does not ensure success of communi-
communication is used as a process cation process with persons from that cul-
and context for their exchange and ture, mostly because of interpreting culture
sense, – so intercultural communica- as homogeneous, whereas in fact it is het-
tion could be understood and analy- erogeneous (Jameson, 2007: 202).
sed in the context of interpretation of Interpretations of culture and commu-
culture by those concepts of meaning nication lead to scientific discussions and
and social relations as well (Key…, analysis of cultural identity which in the
1994).; most general understanding is defined as
• the third way – the way the interac- a characteristic of group communication
tionists interpret communication and that emerges in a particular situation (Col-
culture – Yuan (in Jameson, 2007: lier, 1997: 39).
p. 202) argues that intercultural
communication theories should be Identity. Current researches
interaction-based, emphasizing how there are many diverse perspectives in
individuals communicate and not the study of cultural identity maintenance.
how cultures communicate; or when, Most studies on identity formation and
according to Baraldi (2006: 68), in- interpersonal relationship development
tercultural communication occurs across cultures focus on the cultural vari-
only “if and when different cultural ability perspective (ting-toomey, 1989).
perspectives prevent the creation of a Analysis of identity is actual and typi-
single, shared culture”. cal only of modern culture (Huddy, 2001;
Of course, these approaches to intercul- Giddens 2000), where every individual has
tural communication show only a small its own character, features that distinguish
scope of the possible ways to interpret cul- him from others in the same or different cul-
ture and intercultural communication, but tural group, possibilities that could be im-
these aspects strengthen the place of com- plemented, materialized or not. According
munication and communication theory in to Durkheim (2001), in traditional cultures
the analysis of the aspects of intercultural the “individual” was treated as a member,
communication, and for that reason “fun- or representative, of a social group based
damentally, intercultural communication on such characteristics as gender, social
research is a special case of applied inter- status, family, etc. Individuality was high-
cultural communication theory” (Johnson, ly recognized, possibilities of each person
62

4. were stimulated, enshrined and uphold, part of a larger concept of individual iden-
but mostly it was sifted in the context of tity (Jameson, 2007: 207). two lines of re-
a social group. According to researchers, search have accumulated a systemic body
only in modern societies where division of of research: one focuses on cross-cultural
labour prevails, the individual has become variations of identity, while the other focu-
an object for investigation (Durkheim, ses on inter-group identity within cultures
2001: 100–101; Giddens, 2000: 100). In-
). (ting-toomey, 1989: 352).
teraction among and between individuals According to Jameson (2007: 207),
is possible only by means of communica- cultural identity should be analysed in the
tion, and only communication stresses af- context of historical perspective where the
finity, intercommunity, and because of that focus on the transmission of knowledge
the individuality, exclusive characteristics and values between generations could be
of a person could come out and could be most relevant, but also there is seen anot-
used for the identification of a person as her aspect of cultural identity, which is re-
a unit. Only in interaction the uniqueness lated to the interpretation of culture as a
of a person could be “localized” and only social group: cultural identity anchors in a
that – interrelations, communication – particular moment of time as well.
could set and define a person’s identity; in
other words, identity is a phenomenon that A thematic map of the 14th
stands out from a dialectic interaction be- Congress of the Nordic Network
tween the individual and society (Berger, for Intercultural Communication
luckmann, 1999: 218). On 29 November – 1 December 2007,
Identity (latin identitas) means individ- the Faculty of Communication of Vilnius
uality, different state (existence), absolute university and the Nordic Network for In-
clash (or homogeneity) (rusu 2003; tarp-
rusu tercultural Communication organized the
tautinių... 2001: 310). international conference “Changing Iden-
The definition of identity stresses the tities in Globalized World”. The aim of the
dichotomy that constructs the iniquity of conference was to encourage scientists and
individual: on the one hand, identity is un- practitioners from various fields to share
derstood as a personality, as a uniqueness understanding, research methodology, vi-
of the individual, but on the other hand, sion and analysis of practical aspects re-
definition of the identity of a person is ba- lated to the identity.
sed on the characteristics of the individual the aim of this paper is to identify the
that relate (interconnect) him / her with thematic map of the 14th Congress of the
a social group and that indicate his / her Nordic Network for Intercultural Commu-
belonging to and inclusion into a social nication.
group. to present the thematic maps, a quan-
While the scope of investigation of per- titative content analysis was carried out
sonal identity is determined by the cultural (all texts presented to the organizers of
context, cultural identity is interpreted as the conference (abstracts of presentations)
63

5. were analysed amploying Atlas.ti software text of meaning, analysis of research items
for the coding of texts according to key related with culture is determined by the
words presented in the abstracts). title and the problematic area of the con-
For selection and analysis of thematic ference – identity: there could be stated
maps, the coded texts were sorted accord- a close relation of the key word culture
ing to key words such as intercultural com- with the topic – identity and, vice versa,
munication, culture, identity, international the presentation of identity is related to the
business. items that analyse various aspects of cul-
ture. Almost one third of all items of the
Culture discourse in topics presented at the Congress deal with
the presentations of the Congress cultural identity.
the aspects of cultural identity that were
Being multi-discursive, culture tends to
presented in the researches of the Congress
be a link between a number of different stressed the meaning and significance of
discourses of economy, education, policy, context, which weight on the understand-
media, etc. In each case, culture’s meaning ing and interpretation of cultural identity:
will be determined relationally (Key…, in some presentations there were indicated
1994: 64). cultural environment (in 14.7% of topics
Analysis of the discourse of culture in discussed on the congress), globalization
the presentations shows several aspects (7.4%) and the media (5.5%). this shows
(Fig. 1). that almost in 1/3 of all the topics that ana-
As stated before, the understanding of lysed culture discussed the aspects of a
culture is highly impacted by the context context in which culture exists and with
in which word culture appears. In the con- which it clashes.
Elements of culture
Cultural differences Cultural environment
Globalisation Cultural learning
Media Cultural identity
Fig. 1. Topics related to culture
64

6. the presentations intended to analyse lated to the subject of the Congress: almost
culture dealt with cultural differences (8% in 33.5% of all presentations various as-
of all topics presented at the Congress) and pects of identity were discussed.
cultural learning (16.6%). this implies that Identity in most cases was analysed in
in the scientific understanding of cultural
relation with national (1.52% of all topics)
identity still exist also substantial items ofor cultural (9.13%) aspects, indicating that
otherness. the presentations submitted to the Con-
Analysis of the items related with culture gress relate to the topic of the network that
and presented at the Congress revealed also organizes the Congress rather than to the
one more important, even compulsory, as- topic of the Congress as such.
pect – analysis of the definition of culture, Also, analysis of the thematic map of
investigation of traditional aspects of cul- identity shows that there were several pre-
ture still exist as research areas in the field
sentations in which scientific study of iden-
of intercultural communication, this sup- tity is presented within the study of inter-
position based on the data that 22.1% of all national context: almost 15% of all items
items related to word culture were related to related with identity stress various aspects
the description, in some cases a review, of of the context in which identity is formed
elements of culture as well. or exists, and half of those presentations
were directed to the analysis of the chang-
Identity in the context of ing international environment, education
presentations at the Congress and media. the media and communication
Analysis of the topics of studies presented in most of the presentations are stressed as
at the Congress showed that most of the the most influential means that describe,
topics were intended to define identity create, and affect identities (almost 7% of
(Fig. 2) or to present a scientific study re- all topics analysed at the Congress).
Creating new identity
Elements of identity Cultural identity
9.13
National identity Communication
.
. .
. .
Business and international
Education
environment . .
Multicultural society Religion
Media
Fig. 2. Topics on identity in the presentations at the Congress
65

7. In the works presented at the Congress, (Fig. 3), cultural identity and diversity is-
the item of cultural identity prevailed: it sues making 14% and presentations that
covered around 1/3 of all issues related to analysed cultural contexts 6%. these num-
identity. this shows that the cultural as- bers could be strengthened by mentioning
pects of the preservation of cultural speci- that “understanding one’s own cultural
ficity are more actual in comparison with background does not reduce the need to
the retention of national identity (to that understand others’ cultural backgrounds”
topic were related only 4.5% of all items (Jameson, 2007: 202).
discussed at the Congress). this means Also, analysis of the items mentioned in
that national identity is not so important, line with the key words intercultural com-
mainly because of the free and broad munication show the value of communica-
movement of europeans, and for that rea- tion competence as such (6.3% of all top-
son cultural identity is far more important ics), which could be accompanied by the
and requires preservation in contacts with culture learning process (1.09%) and as-
pects of teaching intercultural communica-
different cultures.
tion (2.17%). these topics, if counted in the
context of items related only to intercultural
A thematic map of intercultural
communication, comprise more than 1/5 of
communication topic at the Congress
all items discussed at the Congress.
Scientific studies presented at the Con- While talking about the main items re-
gress were mostly related to intercultural lated to the investigation of intercultural
communication issues (41% of all topics) area, several aspects could be mentioned:
Cultural contexts
Religion .
Cultural identity / diversity
Language Minorities
.
Cultural learning . . Media
. .
.
.
. . .
Power
Communication
competence
Migration (economic) International business
Teaching intercultural International environment
communication
Fig. 3. Topics related to the intercultural comunication
66

8. • first of all, items related to traditional
organizational cultures in the international
analysis of power problems in inter- context are quite high and have a potential
cultural communication are quite low to grow; third, the growing number of in-
– only 1% of all items related to the vestigations whose results could be applied
topic of intercultural communication to practice; in many cases these investiga-
(or 0.43% of all items discussed at tions are related to teaching intercultural
the Congress); communication, languages, etc., but these
• second, this may be explained by investigations could be related also to re-
quite a high number of topics related searches of the international aspects of
with investigations of media and the organizational reputation, corporate com-
Internet and their relation with the munication.
studies of intercultural communica- Investigation of the thematic network
tion (4.3% of all items); shows also some tendencies related to the
• and the third aspect is related to
membership of the network: the scientists
quite a big number of presentations that participate in the network for several
in which problems of international years tend to present more traditional as-
business and globalization were dis- pects of analysis of intercultural commu-
cussed: if to include the percentage nication, but those who have entered the
of mentioning this aspect at the Con- network for the first or second time tend
gress, there should be almost 1/8 of to rise more innovative ideas and topics
all topics. for the analysis of various aspects of inter-
cultural communication. Of course, there
Conclusions could be made contradictory presupposi-
Analysis of the thematic network of the tions about the correlation between pre-
14th Congress organized by the Nordic sentations and the topic of the Congress
Network of Intercultural Communication and a correlation between the thematic
has shown several aspects that could be map of the field of interest between mem-
used as trends for further investigations: bers and non-members of the scientific
first of all, the growing importance of the network. these aspects could be analysed
media, Internet, and their possible impact in the context of social network and scien-
on intercultural communication; second, tific communication.
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TAPATYBĖS IR TARPKULTūRINĖ KOMUNIKACIJA:
14-OSIOS ŠIAURĖS ŠALIų TARPKULTūRINĖS KOMUNIKACIJOS TINKLO
KONfERENCIJOS TEMATINIS žEMĖLAPIS
Renata Matkevičienė
Santrauka
Pastaraisiais dešimtmečiais vis labiau kyla susido- Tapatybės klausimai tarpkultūrinės komunika-
mėjimas skirtingų kultūrų komunikacija. Tą iš dalies cijos kontekste gana reti, – galima rasti tik keletą
verčia daryti kintanti visuomenė, rinka, pasaulis. Šios diskusinių darbų. Šio straipsnio tikslas – pristatyti
tendencijos suveda skirtingą kultūrinį pagrindą turin- tematinio tarpkultūrinės komunikacijos diskurso
čius žmones, verčia pavienius individus įsigyventi į analizę, remiantis mokslininkų pranešimų, rengtų
jiems nepažįstamą kalbos, papročių ir elgsenos ter- 14-ajam moksliniam Šiaurės šalių tarpkultūrinės
pę. Ši kaita skatina mokslininkus peržiūrėti šių die- komunikacijos tinklo kongresui, vykusiam 2007 m.
nų kultūrų komunikacijos specifiką ir problematiką: lapkričio 29–gruodžio 1 dienomis Vilniuje, pagrin-
multikultūrinės visuomenės tapatumo paieškas, kul- du. Straipsnio autorė siekia pristatyti egzistuojančias
tūrų komunikacijos ir nacionalinio tapatumo sankir- temas tarpkultūrinės komunikacijos mokslininkų
čius, globalios ir lokalios komunikacijos ypatumus, diskurse, taip pat išryškinti tematinius žemėlapius,
multikultūrinės visuomenės vertybes, tarpkultūrinius atskleidžiančius mokslininkų tyrinėjimų, konferen-
konfliktus, kultūrų komunikaciją internete, kultūrų cijos temos koreliacijas.
komunikacijos mokymo (-si), skirtingų kultūrų ir ly- Tyrimas atskleidė, kad konferencijai pristatytuose
čių komunikacijos ypatumus ir kt. pranešimuose vyrauja tradicinės tarpkultūrinės ko-
68

10. munikacijos temos, tokios kaip kultūros suvokimas Straipsnyje taip pat keliamos prielaidos gali-
ir interpretavimas, kultūrų skirtumai ir konfliktai, miems tyrimams, jungiantiems mokslinės komuni-
tarpkultūrinė kompetencija ir švietimas, tarpasmeni- kacijos, socialinių tinklų ir tarpkultūrinės komunika-
niai santykiai tarpkultūrinės komunikacijos konteks- cijos temas.
te, tarptautinė bendrovių komunikacija ir kt.
Įteikta 2008 m. vasario 29 d.
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