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Locating Diversity in
ommunication Stud ies
AMARDO ROD RIGUEZ Syracuse University
DEVIKA CHAWLA hio University
There is a common perception in academia that overly generous affir-
mative action program s have given rise to remarkable d iversity on co llege
cam puses. Tbe reality, of course, is anything but so, as every report con-
tinues to show that historically marginalized and disenfranchised peop les
face daunting obstacles both inside and outside the university (Antonio,
2002;
Educating,
2003;
Milem, 200 0; Viernes Tum er, 2000 ). In
Communication Studies, the situation remains bleak, with many major
comm unication departments yet to promote and tenure a minority candi-
date. The argum ents, of course, are many, such as the supposedly thin
pool of viable candidates who can flourish in supposedly the most rigor-
ous programs. But only a few persons can continue to take these argu-
ments seriously (Hu-DeHart, 2000).
Our position in this paper is that the diversity problem tbat faces
Com munication Studies is much more profound than merely a num erical
lack of historically marginalized and disenfranchised persons. We focus
on the ordinary ways that the status quo in Communication Studies
undermines a richer and fuller understanding of diversity. Although we
acknowledge the need to increase the number of persons from historical-
ly marginalized groups in Communication Studies, and support every
program available to do so, we believe that the diversity problem is fun-
dam entally epistemological ratber than merely racial. It is about a disci-
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4 Intercultural Com munication in a Transnational World
sexuality, and so forth. We can theoretically add such differences but yet
achieve no diversity (Hu-DeH art, 2000). W hat emerges is plurality.
Plurality looks like diversity, and can even behave like diversity; but unlike
diversity, plurality neither pushes us to look at the world anew nor enriches
the human experience. Diversity as a process is inherently organic, where-
as plurality is fundamentally inorganic. A few more distinctions must be
made about these two processes.
Plurality is about addition, accom modation, and inclusion. For this rea-
son, it poses no threat to the status quo by undermining the openness and
suspicion (of our own truths) that is vital to look at the world in new ways,
including those that are in every way contrary to our own. An exam ple of
pluralistic thinking is aptly seen in the recent call for papers in the
Journal
of Intercultural Comm unication Research
(JICR): JICR publishes qualita-
tive and quantitative research that focuses on the interrelationship between
culture and com munication. Submitted manuscripts may report results
from either cross-cultural comparative research or results from other types
of research concerning the ways culture affects human symbolic activities.
By embracing both qualitative and quantitative research, the joumal
undoubtedly appears to be inclusive of different kinds of research.
However, it makes no mention of research that falls outside of this tradition-
al axis, such as thinking that is against method and thereby has no discov-
eries or results to report? In fact, what about research that rejects the dual-
ity of theory and method and therefore makes no distinction between the
theoretical and the empirical? Such scholarship would most likely come
from persons who com e from non-dualistic cultural orientations. How is it
that such research, and the persons who embody such research, are unwel-
come in joumal about culture and published by the World Communication
Association (W CA ), where members are convinced that to maintain peace
throughout the world there must be a mutual understanding among people
of the world that grows from individual and group interaction. Indeed,
WCA believes that one effective way to begin this worldwide exchange is
by establishing individual and scholarly contacts among people and across
all national and cultural boundaries. Unfortunately, the W CA underm ines
this important mission by downplaying or simply missing the rich and
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Locating Diversity in Com munication Studies 5
such as those investigations that view culture as a mode of spiritual
em bodying rather than merely a tool of meaning-m aking Anzalda , 1987;
Bhabha, 1994; Conquergood, 2002; Rodriguez, 200 1). That is, what is the
possibility of scholarly contacts where there is no nurturance of Other mod-
els of scholarship , especially those that challenge the status quo? Ou r posi-
tion in this paper is that diversity is about disruption , confrontation, and rev-
olution. It poses a threat to the order of things by pushing us to prom ote
rather than merely accommodate, tolerate, and bridgenew ways of being
that affirm life. Prom oting diversity involves, among other things, disman-
tling structures and arrangements that block such processes, as well as pro-
moting environs and practices that invite modes of being that are yet to
form. Therefore, diversity is about possibility and the forces that promote
possibility.
We contend that the diversity project has been co-opted by the plurality
project and, as a result, has been depoliticized and neutralized. Even though
more comm unication departments may com e to have increasing numbers of
historically marginalized and disenfranchised persons, and thereby claim
diversity, such additions can also potentially work to mask our own com-
plicity in promoting a status quo that is hostile to diversity. Indeed , the goal
of inclusion constitutes the most insidious threat to diversity by promoting
and even reifying the belief that inclusion is possible without dismption,
confrontation , and evolution. We believe that such a reality is ecologically
impossible. Inclusion outside of dism ption , confrontation, and evolution is
moral regression. This regression consfitutes the neutering and assimilating
of that which makes us most different from one another.
In this paper we look at the ordinary ways that the status quo in
Communication Studies undermines diversity and disguises plurality as
diversity. Our analysis is twofold. In the first section, we show how jo b
descriptions in Communication Studies, including those for intercultural
communication positions, limit diversity in the field by perpetuating an
impoverished understanding of culture. In doing this, we interrogate the
supposed divide between communication scholarship and intercultural
com mu nication scholarship. Our contention is that com munication schol-
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6 Intercultwal Comm unication in a Transnational W orld
ter of the field, or are comm only viewed as such, and therefore play a dom -
inant role in framing communication studies.
The second section of this paper looks at how intercultural communica-
tion textbooks legitimize these structures and ideologies by perpetuating the
division between communication theory and intercultural communication
theory, by re-legitimizing a narrow view of diversity, and by promoting
models of communication that hinder diversity. Our analysis, in some
ways,
parallels another conducted by Ashcraft and Allen (2003), who
recently scmtinized the construction of race in organizational communica-
tion textbooks and found that the field's most common ways of framing
race ironically preserve its racial [white] foundation (p. 5). In the third
section of this paper we introduce an emergent framework that allows us to
make a theoretically rigorous distinction between diversity and plurality.
We conclude the essay with a discussion of communication and diversity.
As w e begin our analysis, we want to emphasize that we do so with great
respect for our colleagues in the field of Communication Studies, the
authors of the textbooks we review, as well as colleagues in our respective
institutions. In fact, it is because w e use and value these processes and texts
that we have chosen to represent them in this analysis. Moreover, we main-
tain that we are often complicit in promoting similar ideologies of differ-
ence and diversity; yet we continue to consider them problem atic, and there-
fore have decided to present a critical analysis of the discourses of power
which frame diversity and difference in job descriptions and textbooks. Our
goals here are mainly to illum inate, explore, and thereby provoke conversa-
tions about these matters across the field.
Job Descriptions and the Field of Communication Studies
Job descriptions in any field or discipline provide us with an overview
of a field's terrain and topography. In Communication Studies, as in any
other field, job descriptions give us a sense of the kind of faculty who are
required, preferred, and even encouraged
t
join academic programs. These
descriptions are also about how resources are distributed within colleges
and departments. Moreover, jo b descriptions control academic access to the
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L o c a t i n g D i v e r s i t y
i n
o m m u n i c a t i o n S t u d i e s
7
kinds of instructors students will be exposed to in a classroom , and how dis-
sertations and theses w ill be guided. Job descriptions also give us the tra-
jectory of a field by setting in place various push and pull forces, as in
revealing what areas of study are in vogue and what graduate students
should be studying. In fact, we know from the way job descriptions are
written what might be expected of us in terms of teaching loads and other
obligations. W here one gets a job often tells us whether a person will be
able to sustain a research program or whether one might get caught up in
overwhelming teaching assignments that leave no time or room for an aca-
demic to pursue research.
In a Focauldian sense, job descriptions may be considered the gatekeep-
ers of a discipline. Inasmuch as they are ordinary and mundane artifacts,
they enact the most entrenched institutional discourse about any field by
being the most visible descriptions about how a discipline is constituted
outside of periodicals and textbooks). These descriptions perform a disci-
plining function by dem anding that the status quo be adhered to. For exam -
p l
minority candidates tend to be professionally boxed as persons of color
who are casually cast as experts in all matters intercultural, and, too often,
only invited for positions that focus on race, ethnicity, and intercultural
communication Hu-DeH art, 200 0). Such persisting experiences reinforce
our belief that job descriptions remain a vital discourse in the examination
of how a field defines diversity, culture, and cultural practices. In job
descriptions we see institutional discourses of power on displayin terms
of who gets the jobs, what and who are cast as mainstream, ways in which
difference and diversity are defined, and in tum how these inevitably
becom e replicated in textbooks inside the classroom a matter examined in
the second portion of this paper). Job descriptions can be considered mech-
anisms of deflection that departments develop in order to propagate one
view of diversity, culture, and communication.
Our analysis uses communication job descriptions for the last three aca-
demic years 2003-2006) from two sources ^/jecira, the monthly newslet-
ter published by the National Communication Association, and CRTNET
Com munication Research and Theory Network), an online information
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8
Interculturl Communication in a Transnational World
at the intercultural com munication jo b desc riptions to see how w ell these fit
with the dominant discourses about diversity that are perpetuated in 'main-
stream ' advertisements. Finally and broadly, we sought to show tbe inher-
ent contradiction present in the descriptions, which claim to seek diversity
yet control and limit it by promoting overly rigid epistemological and
methodological guidelines for candidates.
We first assessed how diversity was mentioned across all job postings
and made a few early and obvious observations. Every job posting bad
paragraphs that expressed the university's commitment to diversity and
encouraged m inority persons to apply. Indeed, more than 80 percent of
these postings contained the phrases, Women and minorities are encour-
aged to apply, and/or this University is an equal opportunity employer.
Others took it one step further and offered caveats that tend to give tbe
impression that minority candidates will be favored, such as the following:
[Our university] is an equal opportunity educational institution and as such does
not discriminate on grounds of race, color, sex, national origin, age, sexual ori-
entation, or status as a disabled or Vietnam era veteran. X is committed to
increasing the diversity of its faculty and senior administrative positions.
***
[Our university] is committed to excellence and actively supports cultural diver-
sity. To prom ote this endeavor, we invite individuals who contribute to such
diversity to apply, including minorities, women, GLBT, persons with disabilities
and veterans.
***
[Our university] is committed to a pluralistic cam pus community through affir-
mative action and equal opportunity, and is respons ive to the needs of dual career
couples. We assure reasonable accommodation under the Am ericans with
Disabilities Act.
These sentences and caveats reveal many serious implications about the
way that diversity is cast, understood, and perpetuated inside most commu-
nication departm ents. In our reading of tbese jo b descriptions, diversity is
understood as difference, as access to people from Other worlds who differ
from the mainstream in color, ethnicity, and/or sexuality. There seems to be
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Locating Diversity in Comm unication Studies 9
It follows from the way that diversity is framed that it is these Other folks
who will diversify a department, while the rest already there are 'mainstream.'
Yet, this is a threshold of diversity because even though Others are strongly
urged to apply, every applicant must 'fit' with the ideology of the departm ent
in terms of theory, methodology, and so on. For instance, most jo b positions
that include caveats for diversity, equality, affirmative action, and so on, seek
only candidates whose scholarly and teaching interests align with the status
quo of
th
respective program s. There is no apparent recognition that no epis-
temology can ever be unhinged from an ontology (Bhabha, 1994; Minh-ha,
1989;Ong, 1988; Rodriguez, 2006). To insist that an epistemological posi-
tion be upheld or remain privileged is to insist that an ontological position also
be upheld and privileged. Therefore, to demand that Other peoples uphold a
certain epistemological orientation or suffer punitively in terms of resources
and opportunities undermines any possibility ofdiversity. Ashcraft and Allen
(2003), who propose a similar argument in their analysis of race in organiza-
tional communication tex ts, tell us that the ways in which we routinely frame
race preserve the Whiteness of the field, even as we claim to do otherwise
(p .
6). They suggest that complex accounts of race will continue to elude
organizational Communication Studies unless its scholars problematize the
ways in which the dom inance and invisibility of W hiteness (p.7) is con-
structed. In the context of the framing of culture, consider the specifications
for the following two positions:
The Department of Communication at the University of X is seeking to hire fac-
ulty members in two areas: (1) intercultural communication; (2) persuasion and
social influence.
Position 1. Assistant or Associate Professor in Intercultural Communication .
The successful candidate will have expertise in quantitative approaches to inter-
cultural com munica tion. In addition, the successful candida te will have the abil-
ity to teach quantitative research methods, statistical analysis, and/or mathemat-
ical modeling of communication processes.
Position 2. Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor in Persuasion and Social
Influence. The successful candidate will have expertise in quantitative
approaches to persuasion and social influence (e.g., negotiation and conflict
management, political communication, message design and production, compli-
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4 Intercultural ommunicationin a TransnationalWorld
Interpersonal Communication; Communication Technology; Health
Communication; Political Communication; Organizational Communication.
While we already have a firm presence in these areas, we are looking for col-
leagues who have an interest in helping us develop an even stronger program.
The School is committed to empirical, social-scientific research on communica-
tion processes, either basic or applied.
Accompanying these advertisements were also standard caveats about the
university s com mitmen t to diversity. In these cases, the departments have
devised job descriptions that promote plurality by disallowing persons who
bring fundamentally different epistemological perspectives to the study of
the advertised areas. This formal disallowing of Other perspectives is a
devaluing of those perspectives. Indeed, what is most striking about these
ads is the unwillingness of these departments even to consider Other possi-
ble ways of studying and theorizing about the advertised communication
areas. Prominent across
all
jobdescriptions, this pattern reinforces the gate-
keeping funcfion these jo b ads perform and shows clearly that these descrip-
tions function as a control mechanism that ultimately requires Others to
comply with the overarching ideology of
a
department. Such advertisemen ts
lead to creating win-win situations for departments if job searches are suc-
cessfulacademic units are applauded and often rewarded for making diver-
sity/minority hires, wh ile the status quo in these units remain intact. Adding
categorically diverse faculty merely constitutes dem ographic diversity,
which does nothing to ensure racial, ethnic, gendered, or cultural equality in
the workplace (Daniels et a l , 1997; Zak, 1994). This practice also does
nothing to produce epistemological diversity.
However, what is arguably most compelling is the fact that this ideologi-
cal and epistemological disciplining is found in many advertisements for
intercultural communication positions, such as the following:
We are seeking faculty to teach and conduct research in Intemational and
Intercultural communication, particularly related to health and risk communica-
tion. Qualified applicants should have a social scientific focus, a background in
quantitative research methods, and expertise to teach both graduate and under-
graduate courses.
e
are seeking candidates with strong potential for a success-
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oc tingDiversity in Communication Studies
4
communication, inu-oductory courses in theory and/or research and courses in
area of specialization.
***
Assistant Professor in Persuasion and Social Influence or in Intercultural
Communication. The successful candidate will be able to teach and engage in
research in persuasion and social influence from a cognitive approach (e.g.,
negotiation and conflict management, political communication, message design
and production, compliance gaining) or in intercultural communication. The
successful candidate will have the ability to teach quantitative research methods,
statistical analysis, and/or mathematical modeling of communication processes.
Expertise in health communication or risk communication is desirable.
The above intercultural communication job descriptions show quite clear-
ly the gate-keeping role that job descriptions play in the everyday life of a
communication department. These job s ads are all written in ways that limit
the scholarship that can potentially occur in these departments by requiring
applicants to adhere to an epistemological stance as dictated by the depart-
ment. With these ads there is simply no opportunity for persons with differ-
ing worldviews to present an alternative way of understanding these areas.
These departments have already determined what type of epistemology is
superior and the worldviews to which students in these departments will be
introduced. By hierarchically imposing a certain epistemology, these depart-
ments are also dictating which human practices will be conceptualized and
theorized , including what will be defined as com municative behavior. Yet,
from an epistemological standpoint, every way of framing negates other
ways of framing. Thus to insist or promote one way of understanding is to
block the growth of other ways of understanding.
But intercultural communication positions should arguably allow for the
most epistemological and methodological fiexibility, as intercultural com-
munication should at least begin with the premise that the world is rich with
peoples who hold different views, including different systems of under-
standing, experiencing, and framing the world. Acco rdingly, the study of
these peoples may most likely involve epistemologies and methodologies
that are different from those in the mainstream of Communication Studies.
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42 Intercultural C ommunication in a Transnational W orld
methodological orientation, these departments and schools undercut tbe
mission of our discipline to introduce our students to all the possible epis-
temologies and methodologies necessary to understand and leam from dif-
ferent peoples, and to be a discipline that welcomes peoples from all cor-
ners of the world who com e to the study of comm unication from different
epistemological and methodological persuasions.
Another fallout of these stringent epistemological boundaries is the cre-
ation of a bifurcation between 'mainstream' and 'cross-cultural' job posi-
tions, which manufactures a cultural dividea divide that is by no means
balanced because one group is privileged over another. Cu lture begins to
get isolated into a separate realm , leaving intact the illusion that m ainstream
courses and scholarship are acultural. In this way,th s job announcements
further reify a division of labor among academicsthose who do cultural
work and those wh o do mainstream work. The strongest implication of
such maneuvers is that culture gets assigned to certain classes. It also gives
license to 'mainstream' faculty who teach the so-called mainstream cours-
es,
which merely give a nod to 'multicu ltural' perspectives. On a resonat-
ing note, Ashcraft and Allen (2003) report that in organizational communi-
cation studies, race is relegated to a portion of tbe class and often postponed
to be covered at the end of a text. They further assert that wh en race is dis-
cussed it appears to be the unique interest of the people of color, manifest
as a static identity variable with relatively predictable effects on one's per-
spective and behavior (Ashcraft & Allen,
2003,
p. 10). We wholehearted-
ly concur with these authors; our assessment of diversity as addition show-
cases bow diversity is depoliticized and neutralized. In the context of cul-
ture and communication, this addition and division have grave intellectual
implications for communication theory, because both operate on the
assumption that there is theory and then there is intercultural theory, and
that mainstream theories cater to one singular culturein this case, the
dominant mainstream.
There are various other implications of thiscultural divide In too many
cases, persons of historically marginalized groups, when interviewed and
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Locating Diversity in Cotnmunication Studies 4
created by communicative, rhetorical, and performance practices. This lack
of interrogation allows comm unication departmen ts to maintain a status quo
tbat surely will face no threat from the rise of fundamentally new ways of
understanding and experiencing the worid. In this case, diversity is sacri-
ficed for the promise of predictability. Our analysis revealed the persistence
of this ideology w ithin the jo b advertisem ents. In fact, only
one
out of 75
positions framed diversity in intellectual and relational ways, thus giving us
a glimpse at some possibilities, yet all the while reinforcing how scarce
such a worldview is within the field:
[Our
university
seeks an associate professor
in the area
of race/ethnicity and com-
munication in the Department of Communication. We seek faculty committed to
our department's principles of intellectual and cultural pluralism, interdisciplinary
theorizing, diverse methods of inquiry, public scholarship and community engage-
ment, and innovation through collaboration among faculty and students.
This advertisement was the exception. In nearly all the Interculturai
Communication positions under review, diversity was dealt with as a cate-
gory of difference, and culture as something that occurs outside of our
human interactions. In a majority of descriptions, culture and diversity are
constructed as nouns rather than verbsthat is, as stable processes versus
continually occurring natural processes which constitute all persons in any
society. These advertisements never seem to recognize or acknowledge tbat
all categories leak, change, and evolve (Minh-ha, 1989). There is no men-
tion of or concern with w hat is comm only referred to in most disciplines as
a cosmopolitan perspective in wbich diversity is more wary of traditional
enclosures and favors voluntary affiliations. It is a movem ent that promotes
multiple identities, emphasizes the dynamic and changing nature of many
groups, and is responsive to the potential for creating more cultural combi-
natio ns (HoUinger, 1995, p. 3).
At the same time job advertisements are not the only places where
Communication Studies undermines diversity and disguises plurality as
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Intercultural Comm unication in a Transnational World
Intercultural ommunication Textbooks
Textbooks are arguably the most important books in our society.
Disseminating the knowledge that is vital to maintaining the status quo,
textbooks are required to be read and leamed, for students must acquire the
education necessary to succeed in our society. Moreover, textbooks are
ubiquitous, covering nearly every subject and every level of education. In
fact, as they define and perpetuate w hat is appropriate know ledge and, in so
doing, shape what is appropriate and possible, textbooks are guardians of a
society. In this way, textbooks are crucial objects of analysis because they
dissem inate a field's canon of kno wledge (Ashcraft & Allen,
2003,
p. 7;
see also Altbach, 1991;Kuhn, 1970; Litvin, 1997). Further, textbooks inad-
vertently take on the role of disciplining undergraduate and graduate stu-
dents with respect to the field's dominant theories and interests (Ashcraft
& Allen,
2003,
p . 7). Agger (1991 ), a sociologist who undertook a critical
study of sociology textbooks, concluded that introductory texts socialize
both the students as well as the faculty members who teach them.
Exploring this relationship. Agger (199 1) points o ut:
many graduate students and junior faculty mem bers are acculturated to our com -
mon disciplinary assumptions by teaching through the chapters of the introduc-
tory boo ks. In this sense , pedag ogy merges with professional socialization,
underlining the disciplinarily constitutive nature of textbooks. Th e books not
only reflect the discipline, they also help to reproduce it in the way in which they
expose graduate students and faculty to the consensus underlying the dominant
approach to epistemology, methodology and theory, (pp. 107-108)
However, textbooks generally manage to avoid the scrutiny that should
com e with such infiuence. Then again, textbooks achieve this invisibility
by seeming to be objective, authoritive, and neutralthat is, texts devoid of
human subjectivity.
It is precisely this neutrality that makes textbooks so problem atic. No
book , even a textbook, is devoid of human subjectivity. Every textbook
refiects a vision of how the world is and how the world should be. Also,
every textbook, especially an intercultural communication text, through
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Locating Diversity in Comm unication Studies 45
In order to focus our analysis, we chose eight textbooks based on a few
guiding criteria. All the textbooks were book-length m anuscripts that syn-
thesize intercultural communication and frame it as a field. Second, we
chose texts that target both undergraduate and graduate students. For
instance, our sample ranged from texts that include introductory theoretical
frames meant primarily for undergraduates to other more sophisticated text-
books that could potentially be used in graduate-level classes. All of these
chosen textbooks are widely used in the discipline. Finally, and most
importantly, these textbooks represent many different methodological and
conceptual perspectives on intercultural communicafion. We believe that
surveying this plurality of perspectives is vital to understanding the arche-
ology of intercultural communication theory. In this section we focus upon
how intercultural textbooks also undermine diversity and disguise plurality
as diversity by re-legitimizing assumptions that align our understanding of
diversity with physical places and spaces.
Our review of numerous intercultural textbooks (including Hall'sAmong
Cultures; Gudykunst's Cross-cultural and Intercultural Communication;
Gudykunst and Kim's Communication with Strangers; Weaver's Culture,
Communication and Conflict; Rogers and Steinfatt's Intercultural
Communication; Gudykunst ' s Theorizing about Intercultural
Communication; Cooper, Calloway-Thomas, and Simonds' Intercultural
Communication; Klopf and McCroskey's Intercultural Communication
Encounters; Martin and Nakayama's Intercultural Communication in
Contexts; Neuliep's Intercultural Communication; and Samovar, Porter,
and McDaniel 's Intercultural Communication, and Communication
Between C ultures found many com mon themes and assumpfions. All these
texts begin with the assumption that cultures make for differences, such as
peo ples' sharing different beliefs, values, fears, norm s, expectations, truths,
and, ultimately, different behav iors. For exam ple. Klopf and McC roskey
(2007) contend that Un less we know the rules of other cultu res' prac tices,
we will discover it is almost impossible to tell how members of other cul-
tures will behave in similar situations (p. 22). Many textbooks focus on
how peoples are different as a result of being of different cultures that are
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6 Interculturl Communication in a Transnational World
ficient by knowing how cultures are different and how best to use various
communication skills and techniques to navigate and bridge such differ-
ences.
For exam ple, McDaniel, Samovar, and Porter (2006) claim that The
intemational community is riven with sectarian violence arising from ideo-
logical, cultural, and racial differences (p. 15). Neuliep (2000) echoes
Arthur Schlesinger's warning that history tells an ugly story of what hap-
pens when people of diverse cultural, ethnic, religious, or linguistic back-
grounds converge in one place (p. 2). Finally, many intercultural comm u-
nication textbooks emphasize that changing global demographics, econom-
ics,
and pragmatics make being interculturally proficient vital to human
beings in the contemporary world. As Rogers and Steinfatt (1999) note, If
individuals could attain a higher degree of intercultural competence, they
would presumably become better citizens, students, teachers, businesspeo-
ple,
and so forth. Society would be more peaceful, m ore produc tive, and
generally a more attractive place to live (p. 222 ). Moreover, Individuals
would be better able to understand others who are unlike themselves.
Through such improved understanding, a great deal of conflict could be
avoided; the world would be a better pla ce (p. 222 ). In short, in nearly all
of these textbooks, the focus is on discourses of plurality that encou rage tol-
eration and accom modation. Such a thread also persists in many discus-
sions of language.
Although language receives significant attention in most of the textbooks
under review here, these discussions also perpetuate assumptions that limit
diversity, and, in so doing, keep us bound to a set of fears and beliefs that
maintain our suspicion and distrust of those who seem most different from
us.
The common assumption is that a com mon language is vital for com-
munication between peoples of different cultures. For instance. Samovar,
Porter, and M cDaniel (2007) write that language diversity presents a prob-
lem in the United States (p. 182). Although Samovar et al. do not
end orse legislative proposals to make English the official language of the
United States, they do believe that know ledge of English and the ability
to com municate in English are essential in Am erican so ciety (pp. 182-
183). However, the position that language diversity presents a problem in
the United States still perpetuates the assumptionand the attending fear,
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Locating Diversity in Comm unication Studies 7
History makes no case that language diversity threatens stability and
social evolution. In fact, the world's most horrendou s crimes have occurred
in placessuch as Germany, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Iraq, Turkey, and
Som aliathat actually experience language hom ogeneity. Moreover, in
focusing on issues, such as language diversity, that reallypose no threat to
the ability of different peoples to find harmony and understanding, many
intercultural communication texts are able to side step other issues that do
threaten harmony and understanding. W hat of, for instance, the widening
gap between rich and poor, or our reckless and selfish plundering of the
plan et's natural resources? How did these and other such issues come to
present no problem to intercultural relations in the United States, and hence
come to be elided from most intercultural communication textbooks?
Indeed, the disguising of plurality as diversity can be seen in the omission
of any discussion of poverty and inequality in most intercultural communi-
cation textbooks. In fact, plurality is most compellingly seen in the goal of
most intercultural communication textbooks merely to make us intercultur-
ally comp etent. Such proficiency is comfortable and unthreatening to the
status quo . It in no way pushes us to wrestle with the larger ideological and
institutional forces that make for a widening g ap between rich and poor and
thereby heighten our anxiety over immigrants supposedly taking away jobs
and draining preciou s resources. Th e goal of com munication proficiency
never allows us to reckon with the fallout of our reckless plundering of the
world's natural resources on the quality of life of different peoples, such as
the native peoples of Alaska, whose homes are disappearing into the ocean
as the ice caps melt. It also downplays and even misses how our heavy
dependency on foreign oil has made many persons in the Middle East har-
bor a deep hostility to the United States.
Language is by no means the most important component in communica-
tion. Yet language ach ieves this status when one begins w ith the assum p-
tion that communication is fundamentally linguistic and symbolicand it
is this lingu istic and symbolic-based definition that pervades many intercul-
tural com mu nication textbooks. For instance, Neuliep (2000) asserts,
Intercultural communication occurs whenever a minimum of two persons
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8 Interculturl C ommunication in a Transnational World
textbooks forward definitions of communication that assume no profound
relationship between communication and the human condition, or even
between communication and the condition of the world. Co mm unication is
cast as a tool to share our thoughts and emotions, and communication com-
petency is about mastery of various skills and techniques. But this orienta-
tion masks the implications of different communication practices on tbe
human cond ition (Rodriguez, 2006 ; Thayer, 1987). To recognize the pro -
found relationship between communication and the human condition is to
recognize that communication is fundamentally moralour communica-
tion practices and environs shape and define our humanity and the humani-
ty of others, and the condition of our humanity affects the condition of the
worid. Com munication is both human making and world mak ing.
Our point is that the definitions of communication that are found in most
intercultural communication textbooks lack the expansiveness to help us
flourish in a world that is increasingly showcasing diversity more as a verb
and less as a noun . In a worid where spaces and distances are co llapsing
and imploding and there are no longer boundaries between the local and the
global, increasing numbers of persons are unwilling to yield to simplistic
and reductionistic categories (Conquergood, 2002). Sucb a worid requires
a new definition tbat characterizes communication as a mode of being and
becoming rather than a means of relaying and sharing of messages between
static bodies (Rodriguez , 2006). In this emergent definition, com munica-
tion is about being vulnerable to the humanity of
others.
This emergent def-
inition of com munication prom otes modes of being that lessen the threat
of our differences by pushing us to understand and embody the worid from
new and different positions. In assuming ontological or ecological continu-
ity between human beings, our communication competence is now defined
in terms of our capacity and willingness to enlarge our humanity. This
move exceeds commonly held definitions of communication competence
that stress proficiency in executing various skills and techniques that sup-
posedly make for effective communication. Indeed, to look at comm unica-
tion in terms of vulnerability is to recognize that language diversity poses
no threat to progress and social prosperity. W hat ultimately underm ines
social evolution is our lack of compassion for those who seem most differ-
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Locating Diversity in Com munication Studies 9
ability and are necessary for the fiourishing of diversityremain on the
periphery of communication theory, inquiry, and pedagogy (Chase, 1993;
Go oda ll, 199 3; Kirkwood, 1993; M cPhail, 1996; Ohlhauser, 1996;
Rodriguez, 2006; Thayer, 1987; Tukey, 1990).
Our analysis of both job announcements and intercultural communication
textbooks arguably shows that Communication Studies has yet to arrive at
a rigorous understanding of diversity and to understand what is at stake in
the struggle for diversity. The field is com prom ised by this deficiency, for
diversity would mean that Communication Studies is evolving and acquir-
ing new epistemological resources that enrich our understanding of the inte-
gral relation between communication and being human . It would also mean
that historically marginalized persons are teaching courses and doing schol-
arly work that is respected by peers. But, of course, such is hardly the case
(see Allen, Olivas, Orbe, 1999). Many job announcem ents under review
show that many of us cannot even get the opportunity to present a different
epistemology for consideration, for many departments remain off limits for
the only reason that our worldviews are different, and thereby our ways of
understanding and theorizing about communication are different. Even
many intercultural communication announcements give us no opportunity
to present a different story, a different reality, a different possibility of being
in the world. Moreover, many intercultural com munication textbooks hard-
ly help our plight as they promote diversity as plurality.
The rigid epistemological guidelines of many job announcements really
mean that there is no opportunity for comm unication among peoples of dif-
ferent w odd view s in the departments that are seeking to fill open ings. This
is the interesting irony about the lack of diversity in Communication
Studiesthe undermining of comm unication by persons who are supposed-
ly com mitted to the study and promotion of comm unication. Yet this irony
reminds us why communication is integral in the promotion of diversity.
Communication sustains the possibility of diversity and most distinguishes
diversity from plurality. Com munication puts our differences in com mun-
ion with one another. It allows us to demystify one another, to understand
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5 Intercuitural Com munication in a Transnational World
n Ecological pproach
Most intercultural comm unication textbooks under review offer different
frameworks upon which to view intercultural relations. For instance, Kloff
and McCroskey (2007) offer a functional approach, Neuliep (2000) offers a
contextual approach, and Martin and Nakayama (2007) offer a dialectical
approach. In the funcdonal approach, the goal is to understand how differ-
ent cultures make for different com munication behaviors. Th e contextual
approach aims to understand the cultural, tnicrocultural, environmental, per-
ceptual, and sociorelafional contexts in which intercultural communication
occurs. According to Neu liep (2000), A context is a complex com bination
of a variety of factors, including the setting, circumstances, background, and
overall framework within which communication occurs (pp. 18-19). The
dialectial approach emphasizes the processual, relafional, and contradicto-
ry nature of intercultural communication, which encompasses many differ-
ent kinds of intercultural know ledge (Martin & Nakayama, 2007, p. 69).
Ukimately, the goal of these models is to promote tolerance by giving us the
means to better understand one another's differences. As Neuliep (2000)
writes about the benefits of intercultural cotnmunication, Communicating
and establishing relafionships with people of different cultures can lead to a
host of benefits, including healthier communifies; increased intemational,
nadon al, and local comm erce; reduced conflict; and personal growth through
increased tolerance
(p .
2). But tolerafion, as even the staunchest proponents
of toleration acknowledge, is a morally and theoretically tenuous nofion
upon which to build a diversity politics. Even though all differences are
incomparable, most intercultural communication textbooks refrain in every
possible way from broaching this politically perilous subject. The result is
an orientation to intercultural communication matters in most textbooks that
never engages the most contentious issuessuch as women's seemingly
subordinated and even oppressed positions in many cu ltures that currently
surround discussions of diversity and culture. The result also is an impres-
sion that these issues stand outside the realm of theory.
We believe that Communicafion Studies needs a framework that moves
beyond the goal of merely accommodating, tolerafing, and bridging differ-
ences.
Such a framework should be able to help us know which differences
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L o c a t i n g D i v e r s i t y i n o m m u n i c a t i o n S t u d i e s 5
tive action) is cast as being economically good. How did this become a
morally sound way to defend some of the most vulnerable groups among
us? Evidently, Com munication Studies needs a framework that can funda-
mentally expand our understandings of borders, citizenship, and regional
cooperation, for immigration and diversity are in every wayand every
placeumbilically intertwined.
We believe an ecological framework can enlarge Com munication Stud ies
understanding and framing of diversity. This framework begins on the
assumption that social, cultural, and communicational processes, as organic
phenom ena, are ecologiesrelationships among organisms sharing an envi-
ronment. Since every ecology must abide by the same algorithms and
axioms or simply perish, this framework gives us a rigorous moral and the-
oretical calculus to understand d iversity. One such algorithm and axiom is
that ecologies are either
evolving or devolving
either promoting or under-
mining life. No ecology is ever morally neutral. On the other hand , though
the proclivity of every ecology is to aifirm life, evolution is difficult, even
perilous. It requires an embracing of ambiguity, mystery, and complexity,
and thereby an unwillingness to be seduced by the illusion of certainty. In
other words, evolution requires ecologies to possess the muscularity,
resiliency, and capacity to deal w ith high levels of ambiguity, as in our open-
ness to new ways of knowing and experiencing the world. In this way,
social, cultural, and communicational processes that promote and promise
certainty, besides undermining innovation and evolution, promote crippling
fears,
anxieties, insecurities, and paranoia about that which is unknown, dif-
ferent, and com plex. By underm ining diversity, we underm ine life, includ-
ing all the life forms that share our ecology . W hen it is no longer innovating
and evolving, and thereby promoting diversity, a culture faces decline and
ruin as reason gives way to desperation, relationships give way to structures,
and comm unication gives way to information (and expression).
But cultures undercut ambiguity, mystery, and complexity by insisting on
rigid and redundant structures, such as job announcements with rigid
methodological and epistemological guidelines and curriculums with strin-
gent requirements that lessen the opportunity for new course offerings. By
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52 Intercultural Communication in a Transnational World
Ecologies also evolve by prom oting relationships w ith many different kinds
of ecolog ies. This is the axiom of embeddedness. Ecologies survive and
flourish by being embedded within as many other ecologies as is physical-
ly possible. This is why, for instance, joint appointments are necessary for
the evolution of Com munication S tudies. It is also why Comm unication
Studies needs to continue to promote interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary,
and multidisciplinary initiatives, and amply reward such work. In fact,
embeddedness undercuts the notion that because [our] view of the world is
shaped by the perspective of [our] culture, it is often difficult to understand
and appreciate many of tbe actions originating in other people, groups, and
na tions (Samovar, Porter, & McD aniel, 2006, p. v). It does so by showing
that cultures and peoples who are evolving, innovating, and changing are
highly embedded; they are so significantly influenced by other cultures and
peoples that assuming cultural boun daries is all but meaningless. High lev-
els of embeddedness make for a belonging and understanding of multiple
ecologies. In this way, em beddedness enlarges our humanity and also quilts
our humanity w ith other peoples and cultures . On the other hand , the rela-
tional promiscuity that promotes em beddedness also promotes permeabili-
ty
which is another reliable measure of ecological prosperity. Permeability
allows for the back-and-forth movement of resources, knowledge, and
expertise between and among ecologies . For Com munication Studies, per-
meability is about inviting colleagues from other departments to be on our
search committees; encouraging scholarship that appears in joumals and
venues outside of mainstream communication outlets; allowing job candi-
dates to present new m odels of excellence in research , service and teaching;
and instituting tenure and prom otion pro cedures that encourage these differ-
ent models of excellence.
Our point is that distinct attributes and processes distinguish an evolving
ecology from a dying ecology. Ultimately, the latter is afraid of the world 's
ambiguity, mystery, and complexity. It is beholden to the past and bent on
promoting isolation so as to avoid contamination from outside influences.
It is also hostile to other ecolog ies, especially those that supposedly threat-
en pollution, contam ination, and chaos. In contrast, ecologies on the evolv-
ing side of the continuum move courageously into the world's ambiguity,
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Locating Diversity in Com munication Studies 5
being that undermine evolution and innovation by disrupting leaming will
always face decline and ruin. The notion that a culture can be preserved by
religiously holding on to tbe ways of the past is simply contrary to what is
necessary for preservation. But preservation is by no means the only no tion
that this emergent framework changes. Again, most intercultural com muni-
cation textbooks focus on the need to understand our many differences; the
origins of our differences; the implications of our differences; the need to
respect our differences; and how best to navigate, negotiate, and bridge our
differences. The assumption is that our differences ultimately make for
strife and conflict. Our differences are cast as a set of dan gero us and per-
ilous rapids that demand vigilant and sensitive navigation . Any wrong act,
movement, bebavior, or word can send us crashing into the rocks and cur-
rents of discord . But framing cultures as ecologies moves us away from this
approach by emphasizing diversity rather than difference, and thereby
reminding us tbat only com munication ends aggression. Also, the language
of culture suggests, as is seen in most intercultural communication text-
books, that cultures are relatively stable and have well-defined boundaries.
This premise is foundational to intercultural communication theory, inquiry,
and pedagogy. However, this language tends to mask the tremendous ten-
sions, conflicts, and dissent that are found among supposedly homogenous
peop les. In actuality, our differences pose no threat to discord and conflict.
Our supposedly intercultural problems are really ecological problems
problem s that stem from the undermining of evolution. Put differently, our
supposed diversity problems are fundamentally ecological in origin: they
reflect a lack of permeability, diversity, embeddedness, and harmony in our
social, cultural, and com municational processes. No amount of sensitivity
or respect for one another s differences can save us from the angu ish that
promise to come from cultures that disrupt leam ing. The pervasive hostili-
ty to that which is different, complex, and unknown will always produce
strife and discord. In this way, such cultures, and the differences that come
from these cultures, should neither be tolerated nor accom modated . To look
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5
Intercultural Communication in a Transnational World
on lusion
The struggle for diversity has long been cast as a struggle for space
specifically for spaces that will shelter and nourish the best ambitions of
historically marginalized and disenfranchised peoples. In this regard the
struggle has always been about inclusion. But inclusion depoliticizes diver-
sity. Job announcem ents in Com munication Studies show that many who
are already marginalized and disenfranchised will remain marginalized and
disenfranchised as inclusion demands submission and our promise to aid
and abet no forces that might disrupt the status quo. Unfortunately this
promise often translates to the marginalized and disenfranchised being
complicit in helping perpetuate and reify the illusion of separation between
communication theory and intercultural communication theory.
This illusion is foundational to maintaining the status quo in
Communication Studies including keeping historically marginalized and
disenfranchised peoples confined to job s convention pane ls journ als and
anthologies that focus upon intercultural communication and other matters
that supposedly deal
only
with race culture ethnicity and sexuality. The
impression that emerges is that communication theo ry is devoid of
race
cul-
ture
and privilege and thereby beyond the limitations of hum an subjectiv-
ity. It is outside of history and culture and consequently superior to inter-
cultural communication theory. But no theory escapes history and culture.
Theories describe as well as reinforce a vision of the world. But what mat-
ters is the illusion of objectivity for without this illusion the hegemony
found in Com munication Studies will implode. So the status quo in
Communication Studies does have a stake in maintaining this illusion
which means ironically continuing to support traditional intercultural com-
munication theory so that historically marginalized and disenfranchised
peoples can claim to have a space in Communication Studies.
But inclusion blocks any rigorous scrutiny of the dominant worldview
that rules communication theory inquiry and pedagogy and thereby the
job s and textbooks that help maintain this hegemony. In our view the par-
adigm of inclusion toleration and accomm odation needs to be displaced by
a paradigm of evolution innovation and confrontation. W ithout this dis-
placement the disenfranchised and marginalized will remain marginalized
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Locating Diversity in Comm unication Studies
55
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imagine new and better wodds. The struggle for diversity is ultimately a
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