Translating Culture in Global Times: An Introduction

Abstract

Among the many notions that have been disrupted, changed or altogether put into question by the spread of global media, global social networks, and global sources of information is the notion of ‘culture’. While twenty years ago, culture could still be defined as ‘membership in a discourse community that shares a common social space and history, and common imaginings’ (Kramsch 1998: 10), today’s mobility and the proliferation of online and offline contact zones have multiplied the number of discourse communities that an individual may belong to and share a common social space with. Culture today would better be seen as meaning making practices mediated by symbolic systems of various kinds across various social and historical contexts and through various communication technologies. Intercultural communication is no longer communication across national borders, but participation in fluctuating networks of individual experiences, memories, and fantasies, multiple allegiances and legitimations, that are expressed and shared mostly, though not exclusively, through language.

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