May 14-15, 2020

Dijon, France

Deadline (EXTENDED): October 31, 2019

In recent years, social tensions linked to national, religious and ethnic identities have made the headlines in many countries, often linked to migration, as this “other globalization” (Wolton, 2003) brings the not-so-exotic “Other” ever closer in our cosmopolitan societies. For decades now, scholars have denounced the way in which the notion of culture has been exploited and misused in the public sphere, in support of various causes grounded in majority or minority identity discourse, by various groups defending or promoting national/nationalist, regional/regionalist, postcolonial, religious or other agendas, and resorting to “culture speak” (Hannerz, 1999). However, despite repeated warnings against rigid and “essentialised” uses of the concept of culture, these same social discourses and the identity phenomena motivating them seem to resist and even to grow stronger.

In the wake of the postmodern turn in anthropology (Clifford & Marcus, 1986) and in cultural studies (Hall, 1997), intercultural communication scholars have gradually shifted towards a more dynamic conception of culture as a communication process on the microsocial level (Dervin, 2011; Holliday, 2016). There appears to be a consensus emerging among many researchers within the field, as to the necessity of “deconstructing” the notion of culture by adopting more “liquid” (Bauman, 2011) or “fluid” (Ogay & Edelmann, 2016) perspectives, and such approaches have progressively been applied to associated fields, such as management studies (Primecz, Romani & Sackmann, 2011), public relations (Carayol & Frame, 2012; Frame & Ihlen, 2018), education science (Ogay & Edelmann, 2016; Tremion & Dervin, 2018), media studies (Sommier, 2017), and migration studies (Frame, 2018). And yet, paradoxically, solid discourses about “cultural” identities appear to be becoming more resistant in the public sphere. Reductive, xenophobic populist discourse, on the one hand, but also accusations of cultural appropriation and minority identity movements on the other, seem to threaten social cohesion in political models based on British or North-American multiculturalism or indeed the French republican model of integration, as well as in many other areas of the world affected by perceived “migration crises.”

But could it be that these two opposing views – fluid and solid approaches to culture – actually work to strengthen one another? In a context where the legitimacy of “experts” is increasingly being challenged, a process catalysed by the trends of fact-checking, “fake news” and the fragmentation of the digital public sphere, academic discourse is frequently discredited, falling victim to the social constructionist relativism it extols. It seems to reflect less and less the social consciousness of those parts of the world population who feel they have been left behind in the rush towards globalization.

What is needed to reconcile these two extremes, to enable academics to re-engage with social debate and reduce the apparent gap between prevailing discourses within the ivory tower and those spread in society at large, amplified by the media and some politicians? Even if we deconstruct and show certain uses of the notion of culture to be oversimplified and hegemonic from an academic point of view, we must also take into account the fact that such “culture speak” makes sense to many people thinking about identity in their everyday interactions (Holliday, 2015). To address this gap we might examine possible points of convergence between critical approaches to culture in intercultural communication (Dervin & Machart, 2015; Nakayama & Halualani, 2010; Romani et al., 2018) and in postcolonial or critical cultural studies, which have long been interested in the (de)construction and repression of identity discourse notably within minority groups (Gilroy, 1987; Hall & Du Gay, 1996).

How should we understand interculturality in the light of increasingly strongly-expressed identity claims on the one hand, and of assigned “prison identities” (Abdallah-Pretceille, 2006) on the other?

How should we take into account these “cultural identities” which are experienced, emotionallycharged, and which give meaning to everyday social interactions?

Even if all communication is intercultural because of our multiple social identities (Dacheux, 1999; Lahire, 2001), interculturalists must also engage with social discourse about culture and the social psychological mechanisms it implies, and not simply reject it as oversimplified. By dismissing it, we only continue to widen the gap between scholarly discourse and the social reality which it seeks to analyse. The aim of this 2-day conference isto focus on this gap and addresssocial discourse on cultural identities, with the following objectives:

• To analyse social discourse on cultural identities (populist political speeches, media coverage of migration, cultural appropriation, reification of cultural forms through heritage, banal nationalism, institutional racism…) in order to better grasp underlying theoretical models and the conceptual and psychological mechanisms involved in this discourse.

• To propose methods (research activities, awareness-raising, training tools…) to better engage with social debate around those questions.

• To study the areas of convergence and possible synergies, in relation to these questions, between critical cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and intercultural communication.

• To open a space of dialogue between anglophone and francophone intellectual traditions in intercultural communication research, focusing particularly on critical approaches, applied to a  variety of types and levels of cultural phenomena, without geographical limits.

This conference will take place in Dijon, on May 14th and 15th 2020. It is organized by the University of Burgundy (“Text-Image-Language” research group) and supported by the ECREA International and Intercultural Communication division and SAES. Conference languages will be English and French with mediation provided between the two languages.

Paper proposals of around 800 words, including a short bibliography, in English or French, should be submitted via the conference website (http://blog.u-bourgogne.fr/aci2020/) by 1 st October 2019 for double-blind peer review. A selection of submitted texts will be published either in an edited volume or a journal special issue after the event.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers

• Fred Dervin (University of Helsinki)
• Vincent Latour (University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès)
• Laurence Romani (Stockholm School of Economics)
• Gavan Titley (National University of Ireland, Maynooth)

Scientific Committee

• Eric Agbessi, Clermont Auvergne University
• Nathalie Auger, Montpellier 3 Paul Valéry University
• Stefanie Averbeck-Lietz, University of Bremen
• Christoph Barmeyer, University of Passau
• Jean-Jacques Boutaud, University of Burgundy
• Valérie Carayol, Bordeaux Montaigne University
• Lilian Ciachir, University of Bucharest
• Robert Geisler, University of Opole
• Mélanie Joseph Vilain, University of Burgundy
• Malgorzata Lahti, University of Jyväskylä
• Vincent Latour, Toulouse Jean Jaurès University
• Éric Maigret, Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3 University
• Will Noonan, University of Burgundy
• Tania Ogay, University of Fribourg
• Philippe Pierre, Paris Dauphine University
• Saila Poutiainen, University of Helsinki
• Nadine Rentel, University of Applied Sciences Zwickau
• Laurence Romani, Stockholm School of Economics
• Sébastien Rouquette, Clermont Auvergne University
• Claire Scopsi, CNAM, Paris
• Marko Siitonen, University of Jyväskylä
• Helen Spencer-Oatey, University of Warwick
• Christoph Vatter, Saarland University
• Jacco Van Sterkenburg, Erasmus University Rotterdam
• Albin Wagener, Campus Tech
• Jacques Walter, University of Lorraine
• Michal Wanke, University of Opole
• Carsten Wilhelm, University of Haute Alsace
• Romy Woehlert, German Institute for Economic Research
• Khaled Zouari, Clermont Auvergne University

Organising Committee

• David Bousquet (Associate Professor, Cultural Studies, University of Burgundy)
• Alex Frame (Associate Professor, Communication Science, University of Burgundy)
• Mélodine Sommier (Assistant Professor, Intercultural Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam)

Calendar

Deadline for abstract submission 31st October 2019

Feedback from scientific committee January 2020

Texts submitted for inclusion in digital conference proceedings 15th April 2020

Conference 14th -15th May 2020

Selected final papers submitted for publication September 2020

Conference fees

Full rate: 200€

Student rate: 90€

The registration fees include all the conference materials, coffee breaks and lunch, and social programme with the exception of the conference dinner.

http://blog.u-bourgogne.fr/aci2020/

aci2020ub@gmail.com

References

Abdallah-Pretceille, M. (2006). L’interculturel comme paradigme pour penser le divers. Presented at Congreso internacional de educacion internacional, Madrid, 15-17 March 2006.

Bauman, Z. (2011). Culture in a Liquid Modern World. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

Clifford, J., & Marcus, G. E. (Ed.). (1986). Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Dacheux, E. (1999). La communication : point aveugle de l’interculturel ? Bulletin de l’ARIC, 31, 2.

Dervin, F. (2011). A plea for change in research on intercultural discourses: A ‘liquid’ approach to the study of the acculturation of Chinese students. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 6(1), 37‑52. https://doi.org/10.1080/17447143.2010.532218

Dervin, F., & Machart, R. (Ed.). (2015). Cultural Essentialism in Intercultural Relations. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Frame, A. (2018). Repenser l’intégration républicaine à l’aune de l’interculturalité. Communiquer. Revue de Communication Sociale et Publique, 24(1), 59–79.

Frame, A., & Ihlen, Ø. (2018). Beyond the Cultural Turn: A Critical Perspective on Culture-Discourse within Public Relations. In S. Bowman, A. Crookes, S. Romenti, & Ø. Ihlen (Eds.), Public

Relations and the Power of Creativity: strategic opportunities (pp. 151–162). New York: Emerald.

Gilroy, P. (1987). There ain't no black in the Union Jack. London: Routledge.

Hall, S., & Du Gay, P. (Eds.). (1996). Questions of Cultural Identity. London: Sage Publications.

Hall, S. (Ed.). (1997). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Sage Publications.

Hannerz, U. (1999). Reflections on varieties of culturespeak. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2(3), 393‑407. https://doi.org/10.1177/136754949900200306

Holliday, A. (2015). Afterword. In F. Dervin & R. Machart (Ed.), Cultural Essentialism in Intercultural Relations (pp. 198‑202). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Holliday, A. (2016). Difference and awareness in cultural travel: Negotiating blocks and threads.

Language and Intercultural Communication, 16(3), 318–331.

Lahire, B. (2001). L’homme pluriel : Les ressorts de l’action. Paris: Armand Colin / Nathan.

Nakayama, T. K., & Halualani, R. T. (Ed.). (2010). The handbook of critical intercultural communication. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.; Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Ogay, T., & Edelmann, D. (2016). ‘Taking culture seriously’: implications for intercultural education and training. European Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3), 388-400. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2016.1157160

Primecz, H., Romani, L., & Sackmann, S. (Eds.). (2011). Cross-cultural management in practice: Culture and negotiated meanings. Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar.

Romani, L., Mahadevan, J., & Primecz, H. (2018). Critical Cross-Cultural Management: Outline and Emerging Contributions. International Journal of Management and Organisation, 48, 403-418. https://doi.org/10.1080/00208825.2018.1504473

Sommier, M. (2017). Insights into the construction of cultural realities: Foreign newspaper discourses about the burkini ban in France. Ethnicities, 19(2), 251–270.

Tremion, V., & Dervin, F. (2018). De Cultura aux MOOCs de communication interculturelle : Quelles opportunités pour l’apprentissage interculturel à distance ? Revue internationale du elearning et la formation à distance, 33(1).

Wolton, D. (2003). L’autre mondialisation. Paris: Flammarion.