Will and Power: Towards Radical Intercultural Communication Research and Pedagogy1

Abstract

Much of intercultural communication research and training has rested on the presumption that the key to intercultural communication and understanding is knowledge and skills in the relevant language and culture. In this paper, we argue that what is missing from this perspective is, crucially, power relations and the willpower to overcome them. Proceeding from this ethical and political stance, we suggest that research, education and training take on the role of institutional moral agents and turn their attention to critiquing power practices on the one hand and cultivating the ethical motivation to construct common goals on the other. As empirical illustrations of research, we examine, firstly, how intercultural '(mis)understandings' are utilised to suit political and economic interests and, secondly, what members themselves feel to be the cause of failures in intercultural communication. In conclusion, we discuss some implications for pedagogy.

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