ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews four dominant approaches to the concept of culture relevant to the field of intercultural communication. It explores the following questions: who are the researchers, what is culture and what is not culture, what is the goal of intellectual work, what is the disciplinary root, and what are the challenges. This is followed by an overview which aims to identify similarities and differences between these different approaches, to explore tensions within the field and to suggest a way forward. The chapter focuses on implications these approaches may have for the study of intercultural communication. Historically, cultural differences were often interpreted in terms of gender, race, ethnicity and social class in the 1970s, and nationalities in the 1980s. Nowadays, although culture is still predominantly associated with ethnicity and national membership in the public discourse and among researchers, it is defined more broadly – at the conceptual level at least – and thus independently of any of the above groups.
