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The paradox of culture in a globalized world

Jones, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9426-727X (2013) The paradox of culture in a globalized world. Language and Intercultural Communication, 13 (2). pp. 237-244. ISSN 1470-8477

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To link to this item DOI: 10.1080/14708477.2013.770869

Abstract/Summary

Much of the work in intercultural communication studies in the past decade, especially in the field of applied linguistics, has been devoted to ‘disinventing’ the notion of culture. The problem with the word ‘culture’ as it has been used in anthropology, sociology, and in everyday life, it has been pointed out, is that it is used as a noun, conceived of as something ‘solid,’ an essential set of traits or characteristics of certain people or groups, something people ‘have’ rather than something they ‘do’ (Scollon, Scollon, & Jones, 2012). Among the most famous statements of this position is Brain Street’s classic paper ‘Culture is a Verb’ (1993), in which he argues that culture should be treated as ‘a signifying process the active construction of meaning rather than the static and reified or nominalizing’ sense in which the word is often used in anthropology, some linguistics circles, and in everyday conversation.

Item Type:Article
Refereed:Yes
Divisions:Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism (CeLM)
Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Literature and Languages > English Language and Applied Linguistics
ID Code:58206
Publisher:Taylor & Francis

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