Publications

Chapter

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Chapter in "Lingua Ex Machina: AI, Multilingualism and Interculturality" which explores the evolving role of AI in shaping language, communication and intercultural encounters. The term ‘Lingua Ex Machina’ (literally ‘language from the machine’) encapsulates the paradox of AI acting as both a tool for bridging linguistic and intercultural divides, and a potential amplifier of inequalities. This edited volume brings together critical perspectives on the impact of AI on language diversity, translation, education and the production and dissemination of knowledge. From questioning whether AI is more than a sophisticated ‘parrot’ to examining its effects on minor languages and intercultural education communication and research, the contributors highlight both the promises and drawbacks of machine-mediated communication. They also urge readers to reflect on the future of language, advocating for a reflexive approach to technology that prioritises agency, diversity, and critical engagement. This interdisciplinary book is an essential read for students, scholars, and practitioners interested in multilingualism, intercultural communication education, and the implications of AI.

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Provocative, interdisciplinary, and daringly critical, AI for Critical Interculturality doesn’t spoon-feed ready-made answers but rather inspires readers to think, question and interrogate interculturality alongside AI. In a world where AI is often feared as a threat to human intelligence and creativity, the book flips the script by positioning AI as a valuable partner in the study of interculturality as both a scientific and educational notion. How could AI help us dismantle biases, interrogate knowledge production/dissemination and foster deeper self-reflexivity in the broad field of Intercultural Communication Education and Research? What happens when we treat AI not as a passive tool but as an active interlocutor – one that mirrors our ideological blind spots and pushes us toward sharper criticality and reflexivity? Through rich theoretical and conceptual insights, real-world cases and interactive activities, this book equips readers to unmask ideologies in AI-generated knowledge about interculturality; leverage AI as a mirror to expose and confront personal and systemic biases; consider some language stratagems to disrupt linguistic norms in human-AI dialogue. More importantly, the author asks us to forge an ethical and non-utilitarian partnership with AI. This boundary-shattering work invites students, educators and researchers of interculturality to envision and co-create the future of intercultural studies.

Chapter

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Chapter in "Lingua Ex Machina: AI, Multilingualism and Interculturality" which explores the evolving role of AI in shaping language, communication and intercultural encounters. The term ‘Lingua Ex Machina’ (literally ‘language from the machine’) encapsulates the paradox of AI acting as both a tool for bridging linguistic and intercultural divides, and a potential amplifier of inequalities. This edited volume brings together critical perspectives on the impact of AI on language diversity, translation, education and the production and dissemination of knowledge. From questioning whether AI is more than a sophisticated ‘parrot’ to examining its effects on minor languages and intercultural education communication and research, the contributors highlight both the promises and drawbacks of machine-mediated communication. They also urge readers to reflect on the future of language, advocating for a reflexive approach to technology that prioritises agency, diversity, and critical engagement. This interdisciplinary book is an essential read for students, scholars, and practitioners interested in multilingualism, intercultural communication education, and the implications of AI.

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This book adopts an interactional pragmatics and multimodal approach to the study of im/politeness, offering unique insights for better understanding intercultural interactions in today’s globalised world. The volume explores face/identity and its relation to im/politeness, not only through language but through gestures as well. In addition, this study brings greater awareness to analyses of interactions with participants from different cultural backgrounds, specifically drawing upon data from authentic video-recorded interactions between Finnish and French speakers in both personal and professional contexts. Detailed analyses of interactional situations across different phases of life, from family meals to social interactions between students and friends to coaching at work, elucidate both the ways in which face/identity are co-constructed during interactions through an intercultural lens and offers new directions for its further study. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in pragmatics and intercultural communication.

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Lingua Ex Machina: AI, Multilingualism and Interculturality explores the evolving role of AI in shaping language, communication and intercultural encounters. The term ‘Lingua Ex Machina’ (literally ‘language from the machine’) encapsulates the paradox of AI acting as both a tool for bridging linguistic and intercultural divides, and a potential amplifier of inequalities. This edited volume brings together critical perspectives on the impact of AI on language diversity, translation, education and the production and dissemination of knowledge. From questioning whether AI is more than a sophisticated ‘parrot’ to examining its effects on minor languages and intercultural education communication and research, the contributors highlight both the promises and drawbacks of machine-mediated communication. They also urge readers to reflect on the future of language, advocating for a reflexive approach to technology that prioritises agency, diversity, and critical engagement. This interdisciplinary book is an essential read for students, scholars, and practitioners interested in multilingualism, intercultural communication education, and the implications of AI

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Practicing Digital Ethnography offers a comprehensive introduction to the essential methods, concepts, and practices of conducting ethnographic research in digital environments. Written by sixty global contributors across twelve chapters with accompanying case studies and concept explorations, this book provides both theoretical foundations and practical guidance for digital ethnographic work. It covers research approaches for diverse digital contexts including social media, virtual spaces, video games, and hybrid physical-technological settings, while addressing the deployment of tools like artificial intelligence, big data, mapping technologies, and multimodal methodologies. The book examines ethical challenges specific to digital research environments while maintaining a commitment to reflexive, co-present research that acknowledges how our interactions with digital technologies transcend boundaries of citizenship, race, gender identity, age, and ability. Practicing Digital Ethnography is ideal for students and researchers in anthropology, media studies, science and technology studies, and communications who seek to understand contemporary hyper-mediated environments, as well as professionals outside academia who need practical, accessible guidance for conducting rigorous digital research.

Chapter

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Chapter in "Lingua Ex Machina: AI, Multilingualism and Interculturality" which explores the evolving role of AI in shaping language, communication and intercultural encounters. The term ‘Lingua Ex Machina’ (literally ‘language from the machine’) encapsulates the paradox of AI acting as both a tool for bridging linguistic and intercultural divides, and a potential amplifier of inequalities. This edited volume brings together critical perspectives on the impact of AI on language diversity, translation, education and the production and dissemination of knowledge. From questioning whether AI is more than a sophisticated ‘parrot’ to examining its effects on minor languages and intercultural education communication and research, the contributors highlight both the promises and drawbacks of machine-mediated communication. They also urge readers to reflect on the future of language, advocating for a reflexive approach to technology that prioritises agency, diversity, and critical engagement. This interdisciplinary book is an essential read for students, scholars, and practitioners interested in multilingualism, intercultural communication education, and the implications of AI.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
In the field of Software Engineering (SE), educational institutions are confronted with the demanding responsibility of aligning their curricula to provide students with the competencies — soft and technical — demanded by the evolving job market. Moreover, workplaces are becoming increasingly international, highlighting the competencies required in collaborating with people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Competency models offer essential input for curriculum design. Moreover, educators may need to construct their own competency models when international guidelines fall short. To prepare students for future workplaces, curriculum designers necessitate knowledge to address demands of the international working environment. To gain a deeper understanding of the needs in the international SE context, we conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to identify and analyze existing SE competency models and their construction, as well as investigate communication, collaboration, intercultural, and language competencies embedded in these models. This SLR identified 29 competency models across diverse application domains and purposes, constructed using a range of mono- and multi-method approaches, and offering multiple use scenarios for diverse stakeholders. We identified and collected an extensive collection of communication, collaboration, intercultural, and language competencies from the competency models in addition to the elements of the competency model construction process. Regarding identified competencies, communication and collaboration embody as core components in SE competency models whereas intercultural and language competencies are depreciated. Moreover, competency models and their construction lack international aspects. These findings highlight gaps in current competency models and offer insights into curriculum design to better prepare students for international SE environments.

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Stepping into the vibrant and uncharted margins of Intercultural Communication, Education and Research (ICER), this edited volume challenges the field’s established narratives by actively listening to the thinkers, educators and practitioners whose transformative work has previously been overlooked. Moving beyond clichés, this volume introduces the ‘unsung maverick’ not as a heroic figure but as a precarious rope-dancer performing vital and innovative work without a safety net. Through powerful, first-hand accounts, ranging from autoethnographies to poetic experiments, the contributors pull apart dominant paradigms and reveal how systemic biases and linguistic hierarchies have silenced crucial perspectives. Representing a platform for methodological rebellion and epistemic justice, this book showcases how interculturality is lived and reimagined from the ground up. For anyone ready to move past the usual references and discover the fertile and creative potential at the edges of ICER, this edited volume urges us to listen, learn and help shape the conversation about interculturality today.

Chapter

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This chapter examines how sociotechnical affordances of activist education and digital interaction enabled a pedagogical practice aimed at disentangling learners from colonial legacies of gender, sexuality, and race. Specifically, I focus on a 2021 Faveladoc class, a documentary-making workshop held via Google Meet for young favela residents in Rio de Janeiro, organised by the grassroots NGO Raízes em Movimento. Led by Joice Lima, a Black social scientist and activist, the class explored what it means to inhabit a gendered, racialised body shaped by desire within a peripheral space. The interactions among the instructor, the young participants, and the digital and discursive affordances at play gave rise to a situated collective that actively resists (in)securitisation—that is, the process of framing certain populations as existential threats. As territories predominantly inhabited by Black working-class communities, favelas have been key targets of Brazil’s (in)securitisation, subjected to intensified policing and the persistent ‘crossfire’ between the state and organised crime. Against this backdrop, this chapter analyses how this dialogical digital setting fostered unlearning of patriarchy, racism, and LGBTQI-phobia — ultimately repositioning language as hope.

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Digital intercultural experiences are shaped by broader sociocultural dynamics, including migration, corporate discourse, and social activism. This volume offers a comprehensive exploration of ‘digital interculturality’, drawing on insights from intercultural communication studies, sociolinguistics, and adjacent fields. The contributors examine how digital technologies—such as social media platforms, translation apps, and artificial intelligence—mediate intercultural encounters, identities, and meaning-making processes. Together, these perspectives advance our understanding of the entanglement of intercultural communication with digital technologies, laying the groundwork for ‘digital interculturality’ as an emerging interdisciplinary field.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This research explores how intercultural dialogue through a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project enhances students’ understanding and integration of Indigenous perspectives. The initiative connected Norwegian Early Childhood Teacher Education (ECTE) students with Canadian Teacher Education students to explore Sámi and Métis cultures. Using a qualitative design, focus group interviews with ECTE students employed a hermeneutic approach to interpret experiences and cultural reflections. These insights, analyzed systematically, demonstrated the COIL project’s effectiveness in facilitating intercultural dialogue, fostering intercultural competence, and encouraging self-reflection among participants. Participants developed invaluable skills for integrating Indigenous perspectives into future educational roles, supported by facilitation that enhanced cross-cultural dialogue and language skills. This study underscores the need for frameworks supporting sustained cultural engagement, acknowledging sample size limitations. Findings advocate for the broader integration of intercultural collaborations in strategies, emphasizing education that enhances cultural competence. Future research should expand with larger samples and varied cultures, using longitudinal studies to assess the impacts on professional development and optimize collaboration educational contexts.

Chapter

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This chapter considers games and play in the context of intercultural education. The chapter explores three viewpoints that have been of interest to scholars and educators for decades. These include the issue of perspective-taking and role-play, the question of learning to embrace anxiety and uncertainty, and the power of agency. By contrasting concrete examples with theoretical views, the chapter builds an argument for the potential as well as risks related to games as a potential tool in the intercultural educator's toolbox.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
The digital age has profoundly transformed Holocaust remembrance through the influence of digital archives, connectivity, and emerging technologies. This research investigates the transformation of personal memories into connective memory shaped by online social platforms, Internet search tools, and artificial intelligence. It employs an analysis of digital memory platforms and conducts interviews centered on a specific case study examining the memory patterns of a Holocaust survivor. The increasing reliance on algorithmic mediation raises concerns about the potential distortion and manipulation of historical narratives. This study highlights the need for human agency in memory construction and the challenges of technologically mediated memory. It suggests that collaborative efforts involving scholars, survivors, and community members should continue to play a central role in developing technological tools for remembrance. The implications extend beyond Holocaust memory, informing discussions on the digitization, preservation, and ethical dissemination of technologically mediated historical knowledge in the twenty-first century.

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This book addresses the importance of sustainability and environmental worldviews and the role of intercultural competencies in achieving SDGs acceptance and their effective implementation. Particularly since the pandemic, there is a growth in online education, and this offers opportunities for educators and students that can be exploited with a focus on sustainability. The book provides examples of virtual exchange including Global South and Global North with tools ranging from Project-Based and Community-Based Service Learning, Debates, Environmental Games and Simulations, Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality, and Accessibility and DEI issues. Additionally, issues of social justice and digital colonialism are a thread through several of the chapters. By providing a broad range of global learning experiences from scholars across several continents from various disciplines that include various post-secondary education based on tools and best practices, the book is a great resource to academics, researchers, and students on approaches to education that prepare the learner for praxis and effective implementation of sustainable solutions for their professional and social future perspectives.

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This edited volume explores the specific ability of the school setting to promote intercultural education as an approach to address contemporary, societal issues of justice and social inclusion. Highlighting the importance of schools as one of the first areas where diversity is encountered and experienced, this book offers case study chapters on the most recent pedagogical approaches, research questions, and frameworks for intercultural education and teaching. To address these approaches, the book uses comparative studies, systematic reviews, case study analyses, and theoretical and conceptual discussions. Written by an international team of experts in the field, chapters address new challenges in curriculum development for intercultural education and illustrate innovative ways to provide instruction through the use of technology and the arts. Fusing conceptual and methodological approaches, the book examines interculturality and associated instruction within schools, further exploring the frameworks and methodologies that govern contextually based, culturally responsive education. Offering in-depth treatment of cutting-edge pedagogies used to teach interculturality in culturally diverse settings, this book will be of interest to educators, researchers, and students studying intercultural education and studies, multicultural education, and the sociology of education more broadly.

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This edited volume provides a comprehensive examination of the intersection between internationalization of higher education and digital transformation, with a focus on insights from Morocco. Through a series of chapters authored by experts in the field, the book covers a wide range of topics, including critical thinking in intercultural education, the transformative impact of internationalization on educators and students, technological integration, challenges, opportunities, policy perspectives, and future directions.

Book

Language(s): German

Abstract:
In Japan findet jährlich eine Vielzahl von Amateur-Comic-Events, darunter die größte Comic-Messe weltweit, die Comiket, statt. Entgegen dem globalen Trend zur Digitalisierung im Comic-Bereich wird ein Großteil der dortigen Werke nach wie vor von den Künstler*innen selbst verlegt, gedruckt und herausgegeben. Katharina Hülsmann nimmt die Kultur japanischer Fan-Comics (sog. dōjinshi) in den Blick: Wie entwickelte sich eine solch solide Infrastruktur in Japan und warum hält sie sich bis heute? Welche Anschlussmöglichkeiten haben dōjinshi an ein globales Fandom, wenn sie sich im Internet eher wenig verbreiten? Und was treibt japanische Amateur-Künstler*innen an, ihre Werke mit viel Aufwand herzustellen und mit anderen Fans zu teilen?

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This book offers various perspectives from media studies, interpersonal communication, and intercultural communication on the experience and effects of being othered, excluded, and treated as less than. Its three sections cover: 1) expressions of otherness in everyday life, 2) experiences of otherness in media discourses and 3) strategies against otherness in social interaction. This book challenges the expression of otherness that is frequently related on texts of colonialism and of western social hegemonic characteristic of the Global North, therefore giving voice to perspectives from the Global South, in a pluralistic reading. The collection of contexts in which the expression of otherness is highlighted in this book, are presented in the perspective of the powerless other. As a receiver involved in a communicative process, the othered individual is approached in relation to his identitarian demonstrations, both in daily life, face-to-face and virtual contexts and in critical situations. These range from households to school and to media environments, therefore enhancing a thorough perspective on the phenomenon of othering in plural contexts.

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This edited volume presents the latest achievements of postdigital scholarship in the field of future studies. Showing that current policy frameworks are dominated by capitalist imaginaries, the book insists on the development of radically different futures. This task is approached in five different ways. The book begins with an overview of the many ways to approach postdigital imaginations as emancipatory practices, followed by some urgent reimaginations of older ideas. It moves on to critiques of current practices, policies, and imaginaries, and develops postdigital research methods for the development of emancipatory educational imaginaries. Showcasing some recent interventions in educational politics, policy, and practice, it links presented work on postdigital imaginations with recent postdigital inquiry related to the geopolitics of postdigital educational development. This book is suited for educators, policy-makers, and any researcher fascinated by the unbounding of education from capitalist imaginaries and reframing it within an emancipatory future.

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This open access book outlines how the digital platforms that mediate so many aspects of commercial and personal life have begun to transform everyday family existence. It presents theory and research methods to enable students and scholars to investigate the changes that platformization has brought to the routines and interactions of family life including intergenerational communication, interpersonal relationships, forms of care and togetherness. The book emerged from a seminar jointly funded by the Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe project, the Norwegian Research Council and The Australian Centre of Excellence for the Study of the Digital Child.

Book

Abstract:
This book introduces a new theory of national identity, arguing that the nation does not only represent an abstract “imagined community” but also represents embodied cultural and discursive practices. Drawing upon a detailed case study of Serbian Londoners, this truly interdisciplinary study positions media as constitutive of national identities. The author contends that nations come into being and are sustained through everyday interpersonal communication practices that have increasingly become mediated, especially for migrants. She develops the concept of "doing nation" to argue that we should think of the nation as a dynamic process. Situated first within a particular migration context, the concept is then applied more broadly as everyday communication practices are becoming increasingly mediated worldwide. Covering a breadth of key theories and concepts in this field, including diaspora, ethnicity, nationalism, cosmopolitanism, social media affordances and polymedia, this book will appeal to scholars and students researching digital media, migration, identities, nationalism and cosmopolitanism in the social science disciplines.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This article employs Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis (CTDA) to analyze the affective public surrounding the hashtag #christiantiktok. We find that “Christian TikTok” discursively negotiates the unpredictable visibility affordances of TikTok’s algorithm by ascribing layers of spiritual significance to how the algorithm delivers content. Our research uncovered four key themes to this spiritualized conceptualization of algorithmically controlled visibility: (1) Algorithm as directed by the hand of God, (2) Context collapse as an evangelism opportunity, (3) Boosting visibility as a spiritual obligation, and (4) Invisibility as persecution. Following our analysis, we develop an understanding of the “spiritual algorithmic imaginary,” building on Bucher’s concept of the “algorithmic imaginary.” Functioning as both a networked performance and an affective framework, the concept of the spiritual algorithmic imaginary theorizes how certain spiritual users sacralize their participation in and understanding of digital platforms.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Research on women and hostile behaviour in video games has largely focused on women as victims rather than perpetuators of hostile behaviour. In this study, by utilizing discourse analysis, we examine how women’s hostile behaviour is discussed in the subreddit r/GirlGamers, and how the ideal gaming woman is discursively constructed in these discussions.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Speakers may resort to different inferences and expectations in intercultural encounters. These expectations are influenced by speakers’ socialization processes in speech communities and networks, as well as by the local interactional demands and power dynamics in the communicative situation. While interactional sociolinguistic studies have unveiled intercultural mismatches in how contextualization asymmetries operate in the here-and-now of interaction, less attention has been given to speakers’ normative expectations of good and bad social encounters, as reflected in retrospective accounts of interactional experiences. This article uses critical discursive psychology to examine social interactional ideologies, as German and Chinese students (home and exchange students, respectively) reflect on their experiences in a virtual intercultural game. As an analytical tool, we use the notion of “interpretative repertoires,” i.e., culturally shared ways to construct generally recognizable versions of objects. Our analysis of reflection reports written by the game players shows repertoires addressing ideal behaviors and ideal group features, which tend to place the German students in a more favorable position than the Chinese students. We discuss how local and historical power dynamics are blended in the repertoires and point to the need to critically engage with the social interactional ideologies that exist – but often go unnoticed – in intercultural settings.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This two-part special issue of the Journal of Intercultural Communication Research addresses the state of past, present, and future theorizing in intercultural communication scholarship. Articles in this issue touch on one or more of the following themes: engaging in theorizing, not theory; acknowledging identities and voices at the margins; questioning and resisting colonial legacies; prioritizing praxis and social engagement; and humanizing intercultural communication. The empirical and reflexive essays in this issue are guided by diverse theoretical perspectives and each provides a snapshot of the past, present, and future state of intercultural communication theorizing.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
The #StopAsianHate hashtag movement emerged as a challenge to the rising tide of racism in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic and contributed to the legislation of the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act. Our research brings together concepts from social movement studies as well as network science and celebrity-fandom studies to examine a corpus of tweets about the movement. We employ a mixed-methods design combining structural topic modeling with digital discourse analysis. Even though the movement rose up against White Supremacist structural racism, we find that right-wing provocateurs with large followings often hijacked its hashtags to amplify sporadic Black-on-Asian violence. But the active participation of Asian celebrities such as BTS, with their own huge followings online, bolstered the movement. Their posts and statements about anti-Asian violence were heavily reposted and dominated the digital discourse. Crucially, we show how their fans helped boost the movement’s anti-racist agenda by repeatedly posting similar messages in concert, which we compare with the offline fan practice of “chanting” as a form of collective identity performance. While theories like the logic of connective action view digital activism as individualized and decentralized, our research elucidates its hierarchical structure and the oversized role of provocateurs and celebrities in raising the visibility of competing claims and agendas by re-contextualizing hashtags. At the same time, culture industries and practices can create bottom-up solidarities that can have a political impact by raising particular agendas in the digital attention economy.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is important when different cultural speakers learn Mandarin as a Foreign Language (MFL). The use of virtual reality (VR) has been shown to be effective for improving ICC. Hence, this study investigates a production-based instructional strategy where students use VR to view and create VR environments with cultural elements for learning MFL to determine if this strategy was effective with the current cohort of students (2023). In addition, it would be investigated whether there was a difference in ICC between the 2019 cohort and the 2023 cohort. The study employed a quasi-experimental method to assess ICC using the Survey of student’s Intercultural Competence (SSIC) and gauged the improvement within the 2023 cohort. Next, the ICC between the 2023 and 2019 cohorts was compared to determine if there was a significant difference. Data was analysed using paired-samples t-tests and thematic analysis for the open-ended responses. There was a significant improvement in ICC after the intervention for the 2023 cohort, which was supported with the open-ended response. However, the t-test results indicated no significant difference in ICC between the 2019 and 2023 cohorts. However, the 2023 cohort seemed to be more motivated, confident and eager to continue using VR. The findings indicate that VR when combined with an appropriate pedagogy could improve students ICC. The use of VR and this production-based instructional strategy could be used in other languages and could possibly be used to improve linguistic and communication skills.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
In the digital age, spherical video-based virtual reality (SVVR) emerges as a powerful tool for intercultural education, enabling immersive experiences that transcend geographical boundaries. However, prevalent research often reduces learners to passive observers, constraining the cultivation of intercultural competence. This study addresses the gap in current research by examining the effects of learning devices and interaction components within SVVR environments, based on embodied cognition theory, on intercultural competence. Additionally, it also focuses on student engagement during intercultural learning in SVVR environments, an aspect that previous studies have insufficiently explored. Using a mixed-methods approach with 80 participants from China and Indonesia, we compared four distinct learning environments: Basic Learning Environment (BLE), Virtual Reality Learning Environment (VRLE), Basic Guide Learning Environment (BGLE), and Embodied interactive Learning Environment (EILE). The findings indicate that the EILE, which achieves a higher level of embodied interaction, significantly enhances intercultural competence and learning engagement compared to other conditions. Specifically, EILE group showed superior emotional and cognitive engagement, as well as diverse and proactive behavioural patterns. This study underscores the importance of educational design in SVVR, showing that careful consideration of learning devices and interactive components can promote active learning, deeper understanding, and positive learning behaviours.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is an increasingly critical construct in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education and global professional contexts, particularly amidst rapid globalization and digital transformation. This article systematically reviews prominent ICC frameworks, concurrently addressing the inherent challenges of integrating ICC within EFL curricula in non-English-speaking environments, with a specific focus on China. Furthermore, it investigates the impact of emerging technologies, such as advanced language learning tools, on fostering intercultural learning and interaction. Drawing upon established models, including those proposed by Byram and Deardorff, this study proposes a novel hybrid ICC model that integrates cultural adaptability, digital literacy, and multilingual identity, extending these traditional frameworks to address modern intercultural communication needs. The empirical validity of the proposed model is substantiated by its robust global fit statistics, including Chi-Square (𝜒2) and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA). A brief analysis of local fit (residuals) further corroborates the model’s structural integrity and explanatory power. The interpreted model is an extension of the originally specified frameworks, aiming to meet the demands of contemporary intercultural communication. The paper concludes by offering actionable recommendations for educators and institutions committed to enhancing ICC development within digitally mediated and culturally diverse learning ecosystems.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
The current system for training educational managers in Kazakhstan remains focused on technical and administrative skills, which is inadequate in the context of digital transformation and the age of artificial intelligence. There is a research gap regarding the integration of sustainable social development and new pedagogical models, socio-formation pedagogy, into the management education system. The purpose of this study is to develop a structural-functional model of education that will facilitate the development of professional competencies in future educational managers. The methodology employed includes analysis, modeling, and a quasi-experimental approach, incorporating quantitative analysis of changes in student competencies before and after completing the course. The sample consisted of 150 fourth-year students from three Kazakhstani universities specializing in educational management and related fields. Data were collected using a Likert-type questionnaire and analyzed using the Student’s t-test and other statistical methods to assess the significance of the changes. The results demonstrated that students’ skills significantly improved across all three categories following the implementation of the model. Digital competency increased by 3.2–4.5 points, which was attributed to the active use of digital tools (p < 0.001, t = 10.5). Strategic thinking also improved, albeit at a less significant level (3.1–4.3 points, p < 0.001, t = 9.8), which can be explained by the need for experience and additional learning time to acquire strategic planning skills. Intercultural competencies, essential for working in a globalized educational environment, grew by 3.0–4.2 points (p < 0.001, t = 11.0) due to international online meetings where students interacted with peers from other cultures. The proposed model addresses existing research gaps by integrating the concepts of sustainable social development and social design into management skills training. Its implementation contributes to the development of educational leaders capable of ethical leadership, critical thinking, and effective management of educational transformations. Similar content being viewed by others

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
first_page settings Order Article Reprints Open AccessArticle A Learnt City: The Mediated, Affective, and Experiential Layers of London by Giota Alevizou 1,* [ORCID] and Photini Vrikki 2 [ORCID] 1 Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London, London WC2R 2LS, UK 2 Department of Information Studies, University College London, London WC1E 7BT, UK * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Societies 2025, 15(9), 253; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc15090253 Submission received: 30 June 2025 / Revised: 27 August 2025 / Accepted: 3 September 2025 / Published: 11 September 2025 Download keyboard_arrow_down Browse Figures Versions Notes Abstract This article reconceptualises London as a learnt city, a dynamic learning ecosystem co-produced through digital mediation, affective experience, and embodied practice. Focusing on international university students in London, a transient, hyper-digital city, we employ a participatory reflective-mapping methodology to examine how urban learning unfolds across mediated, affective, and experiential layers of city life. The mediated city describes students’ imaginaries shaped by digital media and mapping apps. The affective city captures emotional registers, such as nostalgia, autonomy, and (dis)orientation, that emerge during urban adaptation. The experiential city foregrounds embodied engagements: movement, infrastructure use, routine navigation, and elective belonging. These three dimensions interweave to form an “urban collage,” revealing how students continuously remake both their identities and the city itself through integrated online and offline practices. The article advances critical urban and communication studies by contesting technocratic and neoliberal framings of urban learning. It positions learning as inherently spatial, affective, and relational—a sense-making process enacted in everyday urban experiences. By framing the city as a contested site of knowledge production and identity formation, this article contributes to debates in digital urbanism and critical digital pedagogy. The learnt city concept offers a novel lens for understanding how global cities—characterised by frictions of belonging and mobility—are lived, known, and shaped by those negotiating their multiple mediated, affective, and material dimensions.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This article deals with an innovative mechanism for developing students' intercultural communicative competencies (ICC) employing multimedia tools. The research examines how multimedia resources, such as video conferencing, interactive digital platforms, virtual simulations, and multimedia storytelling, can effectively foster intercultural understanding, empathy, and communication skills among learners. Through qualitative and quantitative methods, the study evaluates changes in students’ ICC before and after multimedia-based interventions, highlighting specific strategies and tools that significantly enhance intercultural competencies.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This article introduces a practice-based approach to intercultural communication (IC), proposing an epistemological integration that foregrounds how interculturality is enacted through socially and materially situated practices. Rather than framing IC within structural (macro) or individualist (micro) paradigms, the article focuses on the performative (meso) dimensions through which people “do” IC in context. Key concepts such as practical intelligibility, teleoaffectivity, bundles of practice are introduced to offer a generative vocabulary for analysing how IC is negotiated, sustained, and sometimes opposed. The article concludes with methodological suggestions for studying IC qua practices.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
The application of virtual reality (VR) technology in teaching is increasingly widespread. This study leverages VR to create cross-cultural teaching contexts and develop speech recognition models for language learning. An ecological model of language learning based on VR is constructed, and a cross-cultural contextual VR system is implemented and introduced into language education. Testing reveals that the system achieves a speech recognition efficiency of 99.7% and a correctness rate of 99.5%. Moreover, a comparison of pre- and post-test data between experimental and control groups shows that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in English proficiency (p < 0.05). Overall, the cross-cultural contextual VR system demonstrates a significant positive impact on language learning outcomes.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This research explores the evolving role of speaking etiquette in intercultural communication within the digital age. With the increasing shift from face-to-face communication to virtual platforms, traditional norms of communication etiquette are undergoing significant changes. The study addresses the challenge of adapting these norms, traditionally rooted in non-verbal cues and in-person interactions, to digital environments where communication is primarily text-based or mediated through video conferencing. Using a bibliometric approach, this research analyzes trends in the literature on speaking etiquette and intercultural communication, mapping the intersection of key concepts such as digital literacy, emotional intelligence, and cultural adaptation. The findings highlight a clear shift toward incorporating technological and emotional intelligence skills into traditional communication practices. Additionally, the research identifies a gap in the literature regarding the adaptation of speaking etiquette to digital platforms, suggesting that future research should explore these interactions in greater depth. The study's implications underscore the need for updated communication strategies that integrate digital competencies to improve intercultural interactions in an increasingly digital world. These insights provide a foundation for enhancing global communication practices, particularly in multicultural and virtual settings.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This article explores the evolving dynamics of adolescents’ digital media practices and their implications for socialization, identity, and well-being. The research, conducted over two years with students aged 14-19 in Bo- logna, employed a mixed-method approach to examine media habits be- fore and after the pandemic. Findings reveal increased screen time, shifts in communication toward more functional interactions, the challenges of fragmented identity across platforms and the pivotal role of group chats in peer dynamics, often amplifying misunderstandings and exclusion.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Developing Arabic language curriculum within multicultural contexts is essential for enhancing educational outcomes in diverse countries like Indonesia. This study uses a literature review to examine how incorporating elements of Arab culture into the curriculum can improve cross-cultural understanding and social cohesion. The research finds that an intercultural approach effectively addresses challenges such as the diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds of students and the need for relevant teaching materials. Additionally, integrating technology and digital media enriches the learning experience by making it more contextual and inclusive. The study highlights the importance of training educators in intercultural skills and the use of technology to enhance the quality of Arabic language teaching in multicultural settings. Overall, this approach can strengthen cultural integration in the Arabic curriculum and better prepare students for effective communication in a globalized world.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This study examines how Japanese Generation Z, “digital natives” currently in higher education, engage in cross-cultural learning and develop global skills. In the modern digital era, encountering and studying international topics, cultures, and languages is no longer limited to the traditional physical movement of people to acquire new experiences. We seek to investigate a modernized educational model for intercultural exchange, learning, and internationalization that emphasizes the technological information, platforms, and tools that the digital native generation uses daily. We use survey data from 123 Japanese higher-education students to investigate this subject and help reveal how they can operate and learn global skills in an increasingly digital landscape. Our findings indicate a strong desire to gain intercultural competence through digital sources, remote communications, and interactions with inbound international students. Digital information provides a significant opportunity for students to gain foundational international knowledge and competencies without the level of investment and limited accessibility of traditional study-abroad programs. We consider the pros and cons of integrating digital information into future academic endeavors.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Globalization has increased the demand for English proficiency and intercultural competence. However, English instruction in Indonesia often focuses on grammar and vocabulary, with limited emphasis on cultural understanding. Although AI tools are commonly used to support language learning, their potential to promote intercultural learning remains underexplored. This study aimed to investigate how Indonesian EFL students use AI-powered conversational agents to explore cultural perspectives and what cultural insights they gain. The research employed a descriptive phenomenological design involving 15 undergraduate students from five regions in Indonesia. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. The results showed that students moved from retrieving simple cultural facts to engaging in deeper conversations that supported reflection and critical thinking. They described AI as a non-judgmental partner that allowed them to ask sensitive cultural questions. The students learned to distinguish between surface-level cultural practices and deeper values. They also habitually questioned AI-generated content and verified it through other sources. This process helped them build critical AI literacy. The findings suggest that AI tools can support intercultural learning if used with guidance. Teachers are encouraged to design activities that help students reflect on cultural content and develop critical awareness during AI interaction.

Article / Journal

Abstract:
Examinations of online far-right activity often focus on harmful content proliferation and its social and political impact. However, understandings of its spread often lack a consideration of the emerging political economy of social media algorithms and surveillance capitalism.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
In recent years, the scholarly critique of tech power as a form of digital colonialism has gained prominence. Scholars from various disciplines—including communication, law, computer science, anthropology, and sociology—have turned to this idea (or related ones such as tech colonialism, data colonialism, and algorithmic colonization) to conceptualize the harmful impact of digital technologies globally. This article reviews significant historical precedents to the current critique of digital colonialism and further shows how digital rights activists from the Global South have been actively developing and popularizing these ideas over the last decade. I argue that these two phenomena help explain why scholars from varied disciplines developed adjacent frameworks simultaneously and at this specific historical juncture. The article also proposes a typology of digital colonialism around six core features. Overall, this article encourages historicizing current debates about tech power and emphasizes the instrumental role of nonscholarly communities in knowledge production.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This study analyses the integration of intercultural competence through technology in the teaching syllabi related to foreign language (FL) in the pre-service primary teacher training degrees (Degree in Primary Education) of Spanish universities. The research aims to understand how these elements, which enhance computer-assisted language learning (CALL), are incorporated into the teaching syllabi and their impact on teacher training. Using a qualitative documentary analysis, the study reviewed 496 course guides from foreign language teaching (FLT) programmes. The analysis focused on competencies, learning outcomes, and content, with a particular emphasis on the use of digital technologies and their relation to the soft skills developed in intercultural education. The findings indicate that while intercultural components and digital technologies are included, they are often addressed separately. Most programmes prioritize linguistic proficiency and soft skills, such as empathy and adaptability, yet do not fully integrate these aspects with technology to foster comprehensive intercultural competence. Digital tools are primarily employed to enhance practical language skills but have limited application in promoting critical thinking or cultural understanding. The study concludes that there is a need for a more cohesive integration of technology and intercultural elements within FLT programmes to better prepare future educators. It recommends enhancing teacher training curriculums to incorporate emerging technologies and intercultural frameworks comprehensively, ultimately promoting a more inclusive and effective educational environment.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Shortly after its 2018 global launch, reports surfaced that content creation platform TikTok tasked its moderators to suppress disabled creators’ user-generated content without formal notification to the users, a belief colloquially known as shadowbanning. This theoretical article introduces algorithmic ableism to interrogate how platform systems encode ableist ideologies into algorithmic recommendation infrastructures, reproducing dominant offline beliefs. With the invocation of algorithmic ableism, the article’s analysis highlights how platform companies rely on disability-related discrimination as a platform logic that reifies long-standing western biases of who belongs in public life. Supported by scholarship in critical disability and feminist creator studies, the article engages in a critical/cultural close reading of corporate and investigative cultural artefacts, using TikTok as a case study. In doing so, the article argues how algorithmic ableism reproduces bias for disabled and marginalized creators through content suppression and surveillance. The article’s conclusion offers additional insights into how disabled creators’ microactivist content creation subverts algorithmic ableism.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
For young adults, developing intercultural competence (IC) is essential, yet assessing their needs remains difficult due to a lack of validated instruments. Drawing on Deardorff’s and Byram’s IC models and Ng’s digital skills framework, this study developed the 22-item Chinese Intercultural Competence Scale (CICS) to assess Chinese students’ IC across knowledge, attitudes, skills, and digital dimensions. Developed through four phases—literature-based design, piloting, validation, and replication—the scale demonstrated strong internal consistency and validity through confirmatory factor analysis and face validity checks. By incorporating digital skills, the CICS addresses the increasing need for students to engage effectively in intercultural interactions across online platforms, which are now integral to global education initiatives such as virtual exchange and collaborative online learning. This integration enhances the scale's relevance and distinguishes it from existing tools, offering a practical instrument to help institutions evaluate and strengthen IC development in digitally mediated educational settings.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Declining birth rates in Japan are contributing to a workforce shortage. Recruitment of skilled international workers is therefore increasing. However, Japanese corporations report that a lack of Japanese communication skills presents challenges when employing international workers. Additional challenges are differences in culture, values, and ways of thinking. Associate Professor Meng Yun, from the Institute of Global Affairs at Niigata University in Japan, is developing more effective ways to improve intercultural communicative competence as well as digital teaching and learning materials to optimise business communication. Based on the results of a 2019 DISCO Corporation Survey on the Recruitment of International Students/Highly Skilled International Human Resources, Meng and the team interviewed international employees at major companies and found that one of the factors that inhibits success is the lack of communication skills between Japanese colleagues and international employees, which results in stress for both parties. However, there is a lack of clarity about the cause of these communication problems and how they can be overcome. In her current project, Meng is working to shed light on the cause of core communication problems in business settings and how they can be resolved through effective language education materials. She will verify the educational effectiveness of these materials through systematic evaluation. Preliminary results suggest that the materials she has developed will effectively meet the needs of international employees seeking to better understand the Japanese language and culture.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Abstract Counter-practices as minor practices Virtuality and counter-modelling Declaration of conflicting interests Funding ORCID iD References PDF/EPUB Cite article Share options Information, rights and permissions Metrics and citations Abstract Expanding from Borbach and Kanderske's study of counter-practices in sensor-media societies this commentary explores two additional aspects that both support their insights. The first, related to the concept of becoming-minor, seeks to further develop their ethical-political framework, while the second, focusing on virtuality and counter-modelling, broadens the scope of analysis to include the entanglement between the virtual and the computational.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Sexual pleasure is a question of sexual justice and sexual rights in so far as who is allowed or denied pleasure is a vital issue for queer, trans, and nonbinary people. Pleasure is also intimately a technological question as sex was always entangled with and regulated by technologies. In this article, we seek to delineate a queer politics of pleasure by exploring LGBTQ+ people’s uses and experiences of sextech in Australia and Sweden with a specific focus on sex toys. Which bodies, identities, pleasures, and practices do sextexch assume and extend? And how do these sextech users play with (while being played by) such norms and assumptions? We begin by considering the cultural specificity of queer and feminist histories of sex toys, including the commodification of sex and pleasure in late capitalism and how this relates to sexual identities and ideas of sexual liberation. We then discuss norms of sex, pleasure, and sextech. But rather than distinguishing the normative from the antinormative as a way of locating a transgressive potential, we rather consider how norms are always part of their own variation, opening up a broader sexual field of perhaps more mundane practices, yet no less significant. Finally, we explore how pleasure aligns with or disrupts an attention to norms and identities. In contrast to the commodification of sexual identities in sextech, and the linear enhancement of pleasure by design, we further an understanding of pleasure as something more improvisational and unpredictable with limited space in mainstream sextech data economies.

Article / Journal

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Digital gaming has evolved from a peripheral activity to a central aspect of mediatized lifeworlds, significantly impacting media culture and society. Despite its pervasive influence, digital gaming research often occupies a marginalized status within broader academic disciplines. This article advocates for recognizing digital gaming as an integral part of the media landscape and understanding its role within a deeply mediatized society. By adopting a holistic perspective, this study emphasizes the interconnectedness of digital gaming with other media forms and cultural practices, highlighting its significance in driving digital transformation. Therefore, we argue for a dual development: one that removes gaming from its segregated special status and recognizes it as an integral part of the media landscape, and another that situates the unique aspects of gaming within the broader context of a society deeply transformed and shaped by media; capturing both its significance and its role as part of the whole. We elaborate on the concept of gamevironments bridging deep mediatization research and communicative figurations to comprehend change brought about by the transformative power of digital gaming in deeply mediatized societies. Gamevironments encompass transmedia figurations and narratives, cross‐media adaptations, social interactions, user‐generated content, and the cultural and educational impacts of gaming. We discuss the analytical potential of gamevironments along five distinct yet interrelated areas (making of gamevironments, values in and of gamevironments, governance of gamevironments, education in and for gamevironments, and researching gamevironments) to provide a comprehensive view of digital gaming’s transformative impact on digital society.

Book

Language(s): English

Abstract:
Far from causing the "death of the book," the publishing industry's adoption of digital technologies has generated a multitude of new works that push the boundaries of literature and its presentation. In this fascinating new work, Élika Ortega proposes the notion of "binding media" — a practice where authors and publishers "fasten together" a codex and electronic or digital media to create literary works in the form of hybrid print-digital objects. Examining more than a hundred literary works from across the Americas, Ortega argues that binding media are not simply experimentations but a unique contemporary form of the book that effectively challenges conventional regional and linguistic boundaries. Furthermore, the book demonstrates that binding media have remained marginal in the publishing industry due to technological imperatives like planned obsolescence and commercial ones like replicability and standardization that run counter to these bespoke literary projects. Although many binding media and other hybrid publishing initiatives have perished, they've left behind a wealth of material; collecting and tracing the residues of these foreshortened projects, Ortega builds a fascinating history of hybrid publishing. Ultimately, this essential account of contemporary book history highlights the way binding media help illuminate processes of cultural hybridization that have been instigated by the expediency of globalized digital technologies and transnational dynamics.