INTERCULTURAL RESPONSIBILITY
Manuela Guilherme
Clara Keating
Daniel Hoppe
INTERCULTURAL RESPONSIBILITY
ƒ Recognition of difference;
ƒ Awareness of beliefs, values and
principles;
ƒ Establishing relationships;
ƒ Active recognition of the
identifications, limits and potentials;
ƒ Plural notion of social justice;
ƒ Commitment to the democratic
ideals of human emancipation;
ƒ Advocacy of the liberating role of
critical thinking and of a language of
critique;
INTERCULTURAL RESPONSIBILITY
Concepts on which we base the notion of IR:
ƒ VOICE (a possible representation of the self and/or of the
group);
ƒ SOLIDARITY (including “in the range of ‘us’” people
who are “wildly different from ourselves” [Rorty 1991:192]);
ƒ GLOBAL ETHICS (openness to different sets of
principles, both observant of universal human rights and
attentive to particular stories located in specific contexts);
ƒ INTERCULTURAL ETHICS (mutual respect and
reciprocal trust, “active responsibility at workplace to foster
an inclusive climate and cultivate a respectful vision for
members of diverse walks of life “[Ting-Toomey and Chung,
2005:353]);
INTERCULTURAL RESPONSIBILITY
Challenges in material design and professional development:
ƒ making theory practical;
ƒ using generalisations/stereotypes without relying on
them;
ƒ dealing with complexity in a simple, organised, clear
way;
ƒ grasping the moment, that is transitory, changeable,
relative, …
ƒ not slipping into the humanitarian, patronising,
demagogic… tone.
ƒ not taking an ‘anything goes’ approach;
ƒ giving voice, options and freedom of choice;
ƒ questioning without shaking or offending basic and
essential principles;
ƒ ‘crossing borders’ without going astray …
INTERCULTURAL RESPONSIBILITY
Challenges in material design and professional development:
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stimulating links with particular individual experiences, needs and
interests;
providing a safe context to deal with uncomfortable issues;
questioning without threatening;
acknowledging the various cultural representations as well as the
underrepresented and the unrepresentable;
challenging common-sense and taken-for-granted assumptions
without causing offence;
stimulating a sense of detachment without preventing a sense of
belonging;
generating ‘reflection-in-action’ without damaging spontaneity
and emotional involvement;
exploring the implicit as well as the explicit implications of one’s
cultural behaviours;
promoting the challenge of ongoing relations of power but making
trainees aware of the possible consequences of their attitude;
discussing one’s moral/ethical principles without disrespecting
them;
encouraging solidarity and ethical responsibility without
contributing to intrusion and imposition.
BLACK IS NOT WHITE
Who/What
I am
Who/What
I am not
BLACK IS NOT WHITE
ƒ When we think of ourselves as individuals,
and our individual identity, the basic
question we ask is “Who / what am I?”
ƒ However, we can also turn this question
around and ask “Who / what am I not?”
Again, name three “things” you think you
are not:
ƒ ___________________________
ƒ ___________________________
ƒ ___________________________
ƒ Is it possible that “not being” the items
you named means that you “are” certain
other things?
BLACK IS NOT WHITE
ƒ « Contamination is always at work in establishing the sequence
of oppositions that shape our political imaginary as well as our
identities, collective and individual ones. Our idea of being a
man implies the sense of not being a woman; our sense of
belonging to the West, to civilization, to democracy, depends
on acknowledging at the same time that we are not Eastern,
savage or politically irrational and unruly. The determination of
these “positive” identities relies therefore on the simultaneous
production of a set of oppositional concepts. The emergence of
these “positive” identities to which we lay claim involves an
operation of what Derrida terms “violence”; it is based on the
suppression and denigration of one set of terms for the sake of
the elevation of the other. But this mechanism also involves
another type of suppression – a “forgetting” of the fact that our
own identity and sense of belonging is premised on a lack, on
not being somebody else, but also, perhaps, on simultaneously
desiring that otherness which we do not have or maybe even
comprehend, but which we attempt to make fit into our own
conceptual spectrum. » ZYLINSKA, Joanna (2005) The Ethics of Cultural Studies.
New York: Continuum: 8.
BLACK IS NOT WHITE
The author refers to “that otherness which we
do not have or maybe even comprehend, but
which we attempt to make fit into our own
conceptual spectrum”.
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What do you think the author means by this?
Although this process is not very evident, it is
present in everyday life. Can you think of an
example?
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What may be the consequences (positive as well as
negative) of this process of “fitting otherness into
our own conceptual spectrum”?
HIDDEN AGENDA
D – (asks A) Where are you from?
A – What do you mean? You know
I come from Portugal.
ƒ Why, do you think, does D ask A
this question even though he
knows he comes from Portugal?
HIDDEN AGENDA
B is talking with C and he tells her
that their Director was not as
black as he was painted, meaning
that he was not as bad as he was
generally viewed. He suddenly
realised that he might have
offended her.
ƒ - Why do you think he might have
offended her?
HIDDEN AGENDA
ƒ A has proved to be a natural leader.
However, when they join a bigger team to go
to South Asia, D, who is also a very
competent and committed social worker, is
appointed coordinator of the team while A is
appointed sub-coordinator.
ƒ There are several reasons why D might have
been preferred to be the coordinator. Can
you point out some possible reasons why A
was not appointed coordinator of the big
team?
HIDDEN AGENDA
ƒ Can you find a common thread
throughout the situations
presented above?
ƒ What are the various forms of
its impact in the workplace?