scholarly journals Relational values provide common ground and expose multi‐level constraints to cross‐cultural wetland management

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinne Y. Bataille ◽  
Sanna K. Malinen ◽  
Johanna Yletyinen ◽  
Nigel Scott ◽  
Philip O'B. Lyver
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Wetland Management ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Relational Values ◽  
Multi Level

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 125-130
Author(s):  
G. E. R. Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Human Universals

The final chapter takes stock of the limited conclusions of this study of the varieties of intelligence and the possibilities for mutual intelligibility. We can, it is argued, appreciate some cross-cultural human universals (language and sociability), yet we must be continually alert to the diversity of human experience and the dangers of imposing Western categories. But the chief lesson to be learned is that when we encounter beliefs and practices that diverge sharply from what we are used to, we should see this as an opportunity, rather than as a threat. The lack of common ground should not be treated as tantamount to denying the possibility of any understanding whatsoever, though such understanding as we can reach will often involve the revision of our own initial assumptions and categories.

Utilizing the Dynamic Role of Objects to Enhance Cross-Cultural Climate Change Collaborations

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott E. Kalafatis ◽  
Julie C. Libarkin ◽  
Kyle Powys Whyte ◽  
Chris Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Native American ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Expert Elicitation ◽  
Boundary Object ◽  
Cultural Climate

Abstract Engagements between climate scientists and communities feature challenges but are also essential for successfully preparing for climate change. This is particularly true for indigenous peoples who are proactively responding to the threats that climate change poses by engaging in collaborations with climate decision-support organizations. The potential for risks and rewards associated with engagements like these makes developing tools for comprehensively, consistently, and equitably assessing cross-cultural climate collaborations a critical challenge. This paper describes a multicultural team’s efforts to develop a survey that can assess collaborations between Native American tribes in the United States and climate science organizations. In the process, the developing survey’s oscillations between acting as a boundary object and acting as an epistemic object in the project revealed common ground as well as existing differences across the cultural, disciplinary, and professional divides involved. Delphi expert elicitation was shown to be an effective approach for negotiating a cross-cultural research effort like this one because of its ability to establish consensus while delineating gaps. This experience highlights that assessing cross-cultural climate collaborations requires that both researchers and the tools that they use have the capacity to identify both common ground and distinctions between climate scientists and the communities with which they collaborate.

Context-dependency and impoliteness in intercultural communication

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Istvan Kecskes
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Context Dependency ◽  
Shared Knowledge ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Actual Meaning ◽  
Interpretation Process

AbstractThere has been a great deal of research on impoliteness focusing on one particular language or cross-cultural differences between languages (e.g. Bousfield 2008; Bousfield and Locher 2008; Culpeper 2005, 2009; Haugh 2007, 2011; Kienpointner 1997). However, much less attention has been paid to impoliteness in intercultural communication in which all or some speakers communicate in a language other than their native tongue.On the basis of research on L1s and cross-cultural analysis of impoliteness, most of the researchers (e.g. Culpeper 2005, 2009, Haugh 2011; Watts 2003) in the field seem to agree that no act is inherently impolite, and that such an interpretation depends on the context or speech situation that affects interpretation (see Culpeper 2009). The paper will examine this context-dependency in intercultural communication where interlocutors cannot always rely on much existing common ground, shared knowledge and conventionalized context but need to co-construct most of those in the communicative process. It will be argued that limited shared knowledge and common ground may restrict the interpretation process to the propositional content of utterances, which may result in an increase in the actual situational context-creating power of utterances. Recent research (e.g. Abel 2003; Bortfeld 2002, 2003; Cieślicka 2004, 2006; House 2002, 2003; Kecskes 2007) demonstrated that in intercultural communication the most salient interpretation for non-native speakers is usually the propositional meaning of an utterance. So interpretation generally depends on what the utterance says rather than on what it actually communicates. As a consequence of their taking propositional meaning for the actual meaning of an utterance, interlocutors are sometimes unaware of impoliteness conveyed implicitly or through paralinguistic means.

scholarly journals Promoting sustainability through governance of eco-city indicators: a multi-spatial perspective

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wu Deng ◽  
Ali Cheshmehzangi ◽  
Yuanli Ma ◽  
Zhen Peng
Keyword(s):  
Urban Governance ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Policy Coordination ◽  
City Development ◽  
Stakeholder Groups ◽  
Collective Effort ◽  
Spatial Level ◽  
Multi Level

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of the latest practice on urban sustainability in China, focusing on the breakdown of city-wide overall indicators to a more controllable spatial level—i.e. individual land plots and individual buildings. We argue the importance of decomposing the indicators to smaller scales by understanding underlying principles such as indicators and their integration in the process of urban governance, i.e. enhancing multi-level policy coordination as an important and effective approach for developing eco-cities. This can provide a common ground of argument to monitor the progress at multiple spatial levels and form a collective effort to move a city towards sustainability. The novelty of this study is to highlight the role of eco-city development at multiple spatial levels and through urban governance. The local government needs to mobilize various stakeholders involved in the urban development process by providing sustainability targets in a transparent way. A collective effort from various stakeholder groups might be formed by linking them to a set of unified but spatial level-based targets.

Hopeful Cross-Cultural Encounters to Support Student Well-Being and Graduate Attributes in Higher Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 474-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Daddow ◽  
Darren Cronshaw ◽  
Newton Daddow ◽  
Ruth Sandy
Keyword(s):  
Social Isolation ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Learning ◽  
Religious Expression ◽  
Cultural Encounters ◽  
Graduate Attributes ◽  
Cultural Dialogue

The impetus to ensure Australian students, once enrolled, complete their university qualification has become more pressing. Student retention impacts funding in a tight fiscal environment and is used as a benchmark for quality performance. Evidence of increased levels of psychological distress in university students threatens this retention. Risks to student well-being can be compounded for diverse and international students with vulnerabilities that include social isolation, negotiating cultural difference, and marginalization. This article reports on the evaluation of an extracurricular program available to all students in an Australian university that enabled respectful interfaith and cross-cultural dialogue, called Finding Common Ground. The program sought to reduce social isolation, support mature religious expression, counter marginalization, and strengthen graduate attributes. The research highlighted hopeful and surprising cross-cultural encounters, impacted positively on student well-being, enhanced cross-cultural learning, and disrupted the propensity for polarization or “silence” in university (and social) discourse on religious beliefs.

Narrative in ‘societies of intimates’

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley Stirling ◽  
Jennifer Green
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Linguistic Typology ◽  
Narrative Style ◽  
Rich Diversity ◽  
Social Features ◽  
High Degree

When the Australian writer Richard Flanagan accepted the 2014 Man Booker Prize for fiction, he said that “As a species it is story that distinguishes us”. While the prize was given for a literary work written in English, Australia and the surrounding regions are replete with a rich diversity of oral traditions, and with stories remembered and told over countless generations and in many languages. In this article we consider both the universality and the cross-cultural and cross-linguistic diversity of various forms of narrative. We explore the question of what a linguistic typology of narrative might look like, and survey some of the literature relevant to this issue. Most specifically, we ask whether some observed differences in narrative style, structure, or delivery could derive from social features of the communities which produce them: their social density, informational homogeneity, and the high degree of common ground they share.

scholarly journals Seeking common ground: making connections big and small

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 194-199
Author(s):  
David Lee Keiser
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia ◽  
General Audience ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Current Period

Purpose This essay furthers cross-cultural exchange, and understanding. Written for a general audience by a teacher educator, it argues for accepting all others into the academic conversation. Using varied examples, the purpose of this paper is to illustrate both lifelong learning and the power of connecting across difference. Design/methodology/approach The author draws upon experience as a teacher and professor and his engagement with Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for examples of edification and engagement. Findings The author cites both the current period and a mid-twentieth-century American major event, the civil rights March on Washington to illustrate possibilities for connection, clarity and symbiosis. Originality/value Written for this journal, this essay uses an original and skeletal theoretical and empirical frame as well as field examples to argue for inclusiveness, exchange and acceptance of all learners.

scholarly journals Promoting common ground building in L2 cross-cultural conversations

2021 ◽  
pp. 220-225
Author(s):  
Maryam Sadat Mirzaei ◽  
Kourosh Meshgi ◽  
Toyoaki Nishida
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Teaching Culture ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Immersive Environment ◽  
Optimal Approach ◽  
Different Cultures

Teaching culture out of context may not be the optimal approach, yet it could be achieved by immersive technologies. This study uses an immersive theme-based environment and focuses on cross-cultural interactions between learners of different cultures in goal-oriented scenarios. We collected interactions among learners with different cultural backgrounds and annotated common ground formation and conversation breakdowns in those interactions. Next, we recreated the scenarios in a 3D immersive environment using an in-house situation creation toolkit to enable experiencing the situation by using choices to navigate the conversation and observing the consequences. In case the conversation derails, we provide timely scaffolding by offering appropriate communication strategies to rebuild common ground. Learners can be the actors of the scenarios but can also be the observers by switching between roles and points of view. Preliminary experiments with 20 L2 learners of English from different cultures showed that practicing with immersive conversational game-play is effective for raising cultural awareness and learning to choose appropriate strategies for smooth interactions.

“Actually, in my culture…” Identity, positioning, and intersubjectivity in cross-cultural interviews

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Olivia Groves ◽  
Honglin Chen ◽  
Irina Verenikina
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Multiple Identities ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Internationalization Of Education ◽  
Research Interviews ◽  
Identity Positioning ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The increasing internationalization of education has brought diversification to university student populations. The demographic changes pose great challenges to interview practice as interviews are increasingly occurring in cross-cultural contexts and often involve participants from diverse cultural backgrounds. Recent research has demonstrated that the cultural identity of the interviewer, in particular, the insider or outsider positioning relative to the participants, can impinge upon the quantity and quality of the collected interview data and research outcomes. In this paper, we go beyond this conception of interviewer as either a cultural insider or outsider to examine how multiple identities and positionings are enacted by interviewer and interviewees in order to achieve intersubjectivity, or common ground, in cross-cultural research interviews. The paper contributes to understanding the complexity of cross-cultural interviews, in particular, the impact of positioning processes on the establishment of intersubjectivity and data construction.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document