Peter Praxmarer

　　Title：Intercultural Communication as a Globalizing Field of Study: Remarks on Its History and Present Theoretical and Methodological Challenges 

　　Keynote Speaker：Peter Praxmarer, Executive Director, European Masters in Intercultural Communication, USI, Switzerland

　　Abstract：

　　This presentation deals with intercultural communication as a field of study. This topic will be dealt with in three main strands:

　　First, the sociogenesis of intercultural communication studies will be briefly presented. Development and change in this field of studies is due to at least three major factors: rapidly changing international constellations during the last thirty years or so, characterized, among other factors, by the technological revolutions (physical and virtual mobility, as well as ICTs); the different national contexts (e.g. in select European countries and the US) in which these studies have been institutionalized; and development and change following different science traditions, in particular interdisciplinary approaches.

　　The second strand will deal with contemporary theoretical and methodological developments and challenges, in China as well as in select European contexts, with concrete examples of contemporary Chinese and German scholarship, and examples of practical applications of intercultural communication paradigms in international governmental organizations (UNESCO and United Nations Alliance of Civilizations).

　　The third and final part will reflect upon what contemporary intercultural scholarship can learn from the long history of intercultural encounters and intercultural thought in general, and what some signposts for the future of this rapidly globalizing field of study could be. The extraordinarily significant work of Matteo Ricci | Li Madou, of over 400 years ago, will be introduced as a still very valid signpost for contemporary intercultural communication theory, method and ethics -- and not just for intercultural philosophy.