USA & Europa www.idrinstitute.org Intercultural Ethicality: Universalism, Relativism, and Commitment General Meeting Milan, February 1, 2014 milton.bennett@idrinstitute.org PRESENTATION OUTLINE! Professional Standards, Professional Ethics, and Intercultural Ethicality (Discussion)! Ethicality in paradigmatic context! Universalist: Using knowledge for power! Relativist: Pushing the limits of context! Constructivist: Taking responsibility for our observations! Building an ethical interculturalism (Discussion) Intercultural Development Research Institute 1
REFERENCES Dahlén, T. (1997). Among the Interculturalists: An emergent profession and its packaging of knowledge. Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell International. Berardo, K. (2008) The intercultural profession in 2007: profile, practices, challenges, retrieved June 29th, 2011 from http://www.sietareu.org/what-is-sietar/facts-and-figures. Romani, L., & Szkudlarek, B. (2013) The struggles of the interculturalists: Professional Ethical Identity and Early Stages of Codes of Ethics Development Journal of Business Ethics, 1-19. Online first. Romani, L., & Szkudlarek, B. (2013) The interculturalists knowledge: How a professional community is facing ethical struggles with its core expertise. Draft in Progress. Bennett, M. (2013) Basic Concepts of Intercultural Communication: Paradigms, Principles, & Practices, Intercultural Press. Bennett, M. (2007). Original draft: Social justice and intercultural development: New views on campus intergroup relations. PDF file, www.idrinstitute.org Intercultural Development Research Institute 2
Dispersed Institutional Entrepreneurship: a case study of new patterns of professionalization Betina Szkudlarek,University of Sydney Business School Laurence Romani, Stockholm School of Economics Private sector Entrepreneurs Gurus Newbies Well established Activists Professors Public sector Derived from T. Dahlen, 1997 PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS! The criteria for claiming professional status (anyone selling personal expertise), usually including:! State of the art knowledge of theory and practice! Credentials from an educational or training entity with specialization in the field! Offers of services and requests for compensation that are commensurate with competencies held Intercultural Development Research Institute 3
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS! Professional standards that involve value judgments, for example:! The point at which a good presentation of credentials becomes exaggeration! The degree to which deriving material is just copying! The line between buying low, selling high and exploitation of workers and clients INTERCULTURAL ETHICALITY! Recognizing and addressing the ethical issues inherent in intercultural work, for example:! How can we talk about culture without stereotyping, or at least over-generalizing otherness?! How can the power to define intercultural terms and contexts not be used in neo-colonialist ways?! How can intercultural education and training convey ethicality as a necessary part of intercultural competence? Intercultural Development Research Institute 4
ADDITIONAL ETHICAL ISSUES! Professional Standards Personal experience plus knowledge; competence map Creating value from diversity of perspective Keep up!! Professional Ethics Humility, avoid over-claiming Courage to refuse! Intercultural Ethicality Social construction of culture. What if culture is prohibited? Paradox. Imposition of values? Who defines? To what end? Where does IC come from? UNIVERSALIST PARADIGM! Reality has an objective existence: looking in the same direction, every observer sees the same thing.! Different forms of civilization are just better or worse variations on the single universal reality Intercultural Development Research Institute 5
CULTURAL UNIVERSALISM THE HIERARCHY OF CIVILIZATION Some Ethical Implications of Universalism! Knowledge is of a universal reality; therefore, if we know something that you do not, you are lacking insight that we can provide, and if that fails, you may be incapable of educated thought.! Knowledge of cultural variation is sufficient to allow respectful and mutually beneficial crosscultural interaction to occur.! Universal human rights apply to everyone, not just to the people who define those rights Intercultural Development Research Institute 6
RELATIVIST PARADIGM! While an absolute reality exists, it cannot be perceived objectively since all observers exist in systems that limit perspective! Civilization must be understood in terms of its own perspective (cultural relativity) CULTURAL RELATIVITY THE CONTEXTING OF CIVILATIONS Intercultural Development Research Institute 7
Some Ethical Implications of Relativism! In purest terms, judgments negative or positive cannot be made across cultural boundaries. It s not bad or good, it s just different is all that can be said! Every person exists in his/her own context an individuality that is often (or always) denied by culture! Only categories indigenous to a context can be used to describe phenomena in that context; therefore all description is ideographic. Nomothetic, comparative data obscures the true diversity of humanity CONSTRUCTIVIST PARADIGM! Reality (including ourselves) is co-created through interaction with our environment (including other people)! Culture is both the collective process of constructing reality and its product Intercultural Development Research Institute 8
CULTURAL CONSTRUCTIVISM THE COORDINATION OF MEANING & ACTION Big C Culture Little c Culture Cultural institutions: what people create Cultural behavior: how people behave Some Ethical Implications of Constructivism! How can we make observations about cultural differences without reifying culture or obviating individual uniqueness.! How can the legitimacy of every culture be reconciled with necessary judgments about what activities to support or resist?! How can we incorporate ethnicality into intercultural teaching and training? Intercultural Development Research Institute 9
Levels of Analysis Ø Institutional Ø Social constructions of art, political & economic systems, ethnic demographics, etc (area studies) Ø Institutional relations (international relations) Ø Group Ø Normative group behavior, manifestations of cultural worldview (anthropology) Ø Coordination of meaning & action across cultures (intercultural communication) Ø Individual Ø Personality and personal characteristics in cultural context (cross-cultural psychology) Ø Knowledge, Attitude, Skills (experiential education) Ø Institutional/individual Ø Critical theory, role power and privilege (cultural studies) THE PERRY SCHEME OF ETHICAL DEVELOPMENT Positions 1-4: Seeking truth Position 5: Creating meaning Positions 6-9: Making commitments Dualism Absolute right/wrong given by authority Multiplicity Uncertainty of multiple perspectives; whatever Contextual Relativism Knowing demands taking perspective Commitment within Relativism Considered choices made in the face of legitimate alternatives UNIVERSALISM RELATIVISM CONSTRUCTIVISM Perry, W.(1970, 1998) Forms of Cognitive & Ethical Development in the College Years; Knefelkamp, L. Introduction ; Moore,W. Overview of the Perry Scheme, Intercultural Development Research Institute 10
The Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) Perceptual Experience of difference Ethnocentrism Denial Defense Minimization Acceptance Adaptation Milton Bennett Ethnorelativism Integration Failing to perceive the existence or relevance of culture Perceiving specific cultural groups in polarized and evaluative ways Universalism Focusing on underlying human commonality to reduce prejudice Attributing equal human complexity to different cultural groups Relativism Generating appropriate and authentic alternative behavior Including cultural context in decisionmaking and acting with contextual ethical commitment Constructivism Intercultural Development Research Institute 11