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Intercultural Communication
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Intercultural Communication
Globalization and Social Justice

Fourth Edition


August 2025 | SAGE Publications, Inc
Intercultural Communication: Globalization and Social Justice, Fourth Edition, introduces students to the study of communication among cultures within the broader context of globalization. Kathryn Sorrells and new coauthor Sachi Sekimoto highlight history, power, and global institutions as central to understanding the relationships and contexts that shape intercultural communication. Based on a framework that promotes critical thinking, reflection, and action, this text takes a social justice approach that provides students with the skills and knowledge to create a more equitable world through communication. The new Fourth Edition includes additional case studies and expanded discussions of the backlash to globalization, the rise of ethnonationalism, decline of democracy, new media and new technologies, and implications for intercultural communication.

 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Author
 
Chapter 1: Opening the Conversation: Studying Intercultural Communication
Intercultural Communication in Global Contexts

 
Definitions of Culture

 
Situating Yourself as Intercultural Communicator

 
Intercultural Praxis in the Context of Globalization

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Discussion Questions and Activities

 
 
Chapter 2: Understanding the Context of Globalization
Influences of Globalization on Intercultural Communication

 
The Role of History in Intercultural Communication

 
Intercultural Dimensions of Economic Globalization

 
Intercultural Dimensions of Political Globalization

 
Intercultural Dimensions of Cultural Globalization

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Discussion Questions and Activities

 
 
Chapter 3: Globalizing Body Politics: Embodied Verbal and Nonverbal Communication
Body Politics and Intercultural Communication

 
Constructing Social Worlds Through Communication

 
The Social Construction of Race: From Colonization to Globalization

 
Resignifying Race in The Context of Globalization

 
Becoming Anti-Racist

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Discussion Questions and Activities

 
 
Chapter 4: (Dis)Placing Culture and Cultural Space: Locations of Nonverbal and Verbal Communication
Placing Culture and Cultural Space

 
Displacing Culture and Cultural Space

 
Case Study: Hip Hop Culture

 
Cultural Space, Power, and Communication

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Discussion Questions and Activities

 
 
Chapter 5: Privileging Relationships: Intercultural Communication in Interpersonal Contexts
Intercultural Relationships: Historical and Contemporary Contexts

 
Topography of Intercultural Relationships

 
Intercultural Relationships in the Workplace

 
Intercultural Friendships

 
Intercultural Romantic Relationships

 
Cyberspace, AI, and Intercultural Relationships

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Discussion Questions and Activities

 
 
Chapter 6: Crossing Borders: Migration and Intercultural Adaptation
The World on the Move

 
Types of Migrants

 
Historical Overview of World Migration

 
Migration Trends in the Context of Globalization

 
Theories of Migration and Intercultural Adaptation

 
Case Study 1: Villachuato, Mexico, to Marshalltown, Iowa: Transnational Connections

 
Case Study 2: Mumbai, India, to New York City, USA: International Student Adaptation and the Challenges of Immigration

 
Case Study 3: Destination Portugal: Different Stories for Workers and the Retirees

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Discussion Questions and Activities

 
 
Chapter7: Jamming Media and Popular Culture: Analyzing Messages About Diverse Cultures
Popular Culture and Intercultural Communication

 
Media, Popular Culture, and Globalization

 
Globalization of Popular Culture

 
Ways of Reading Popular Culture

 
Popular Culture, Representation, and Resistance

 
Resisting and Re-Creating Media and Popular Culture

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Discussion Questions and Activities

 
 
Chapter 8: The Culture of Capitalism and the Business of Intercultural Communication
Intercultural Communication and the Global Economy

 
Historical Context: Capitalism and Globalization

 
The Culture of Capitalism

 
Case Study 1: Consuming and Romanticizing The “Other”

 
Case Study 2: Consuming and Desiring The “Other”

 
Tourism and Intercultural Communication

 
Case Study 3: Consuming Cultural Spectacles

 
Economic Responsibility and Intercultural Communication

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Discussion Questions and Activities

 
 
Chapter 9: Negotiating Intercultural Conflict and Social Justice: Strategies for Intercultural Relations
Intercultural Conflict in the Context of Globalization

 
Micro-Frame Analysis of Intercultural Conflict

 
Meso-Frame Analysis of Intercultural Conflict

 
Macro-Frame Analysis of Intercultural Conflict

 
Case Study 1: Interpersonal Context

 
Case Study 2: Intergroup Context

 
Case Study 3: International and Global Context

 
Strategies for Addressing Intercultural Conflict

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Discussion Questions and Activities

 
 
Chapter 10: Engaging Intercultural Communication for Social Justice: Challenges and Possibilities for Global Citizenship
Intercultural Communication for Social Justice

 
Becoming Global Citizens in the 21St Century

 
Intercultural Competence

 
“Hope in the Dark”: From Despair to Empowerment

 
Another World is Possible: Student to Student Empowerment for Change

 
Another World is Possible: DACA Students for Change

 
Another World is Possible: Mutual Aid Networks for Change

 
Intercultural Alliances for Social Justice

 
Case Study: Community Coalition of South Los Angeles

 
Closing the Conversation

 
Key Terms

 
Discussion Questions and Activities

 
 
Glossary
 
References
Key features

NEW TO THIS EDITION:

  • New coauthor Sachi Sekimoto brings valuable knowledge and experience to the text, introducing timely insights into changes in technology, social media, and environmental justice.
  • Updated coverage of topics such as the backlash to globalization, rise of ethnonationalism, decline of democracy and implications for intercultural communication.
  • New and expanded case studies further illuminate critical concepts, address current events, and illustrate how intercultural communication is a site of negotiation and contestation.
  • Updated examples addressing current events.
  •  Expanded treatment of new media and new technologies.
  • New features focused on emergent issues related to ecology, technology, and the embodied senses.
KEY FEATURES:
  • A globalization framework introduces students to the complex ways globalization impacts and alters all topics in intercultural communication, including verbal/nonverbal communication, migration/cultural adaptation, media and popular culture, interpersonal relationships, conflict, and identity.
  • A critical social justice approach provides students with the knowledge to understand current, historical, social, economic, and political inequities that impact intercultural communication on individual and systemic levels.
  • An emphasis on intercultural praxis—a process of critical thinking, reflection, and action—offers students practical guidelines for applying their knowledge and skills of intercultural communication in their everyday lives.
  • Chapter-opening learning objectives identify what students should be able to do upon completion of the reading.
  • Case studies highlight connections between local and global intercultural issues and illustrate a multilevel framework of analysis that attends to the complexities of intercultural communication in the global context through stories and experiences of people from diverse cultures.
  • Communicative Dimensions boxes allow students to explore vivid examples of intercultural communication in action to see how different facets of communication play out in the global intercultural context.
  • Cultural Identity boxes help students understand how communication and culture shape and reflect identity and in turn how identity plays a role in communicating within and across cultures.
  • Intercultural Praxis boxes emphasize ways of developing our awareness and using our power and positionality to enable more equitable and socially just relationships across different cultures by engaging in dialogue, reflecting, and taking informed action.
  • Chapter summaries, key terms, discussion questions, and activities allow students to review and apply chapter content to reinforce learning.

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