Among the Interculturalists : An Emergent Profession and its Packaging of Knowledge

Globalization has compressed the world into a single space, in which people from different parts of the world have com e into closer contact with each other than ever before. In this context of intercultural communication, a transnational industry of intercultural training and consulting has arisen. The new cultural brokers call themselves interculturalists and offer services and products to give an enhanced understanding of and sensitivity towards culture and cultural differences, such as intercultural communication workshops, simulation games on cultural clashes and how-to books. This book describes the interculturalists’ services and products and how they are packaged and marketed. There is also a concern with professionalization and the concept of culture. How is the professional status of the interculturalists legitimized? Is there a relationship between such legitimation and particular conceptions and representations of culture and cultural differences? And on such grounds, in what ways do interculturalists and anthropologists differ? These are some of the questions addressed in this book.