ABSTRACT

This book generates a fresh, complex view of the process of globalization by examining how work, scholarship, and life inform each other among intercultural scholars as they navigate their interpersonal relationships and cross boundaries physically and metaphorically. Divided into three parts, the book examines: (1) the socio-psychological process of crossing boundaries constructed around nations and work organizations; (2) the negotiation of multiple aspects of identities; and (3) the role of language in intercultural encounters, in particular, adjustment taking place at linguistic and interactional levels. The authors reflect upon and give meaning and structure to their own intercultural experiences through theoretical frameworks and concepts—many of which they themselves have proposed and developed in their own research. They also provide invaluable advice for transnational scholars and those who aspire to work and live abroad to improve organizational participation and mutual intercultural engagement when working in a globalizing workplace.  Researchers and practitioners of applied linguistics, communication studies, and higher education in many regions of the world will find this book an insightful resource. 

 

chapter 1|20 pages

Introduction

ByAdam Komisarof, Zhu Hua

part I|68 pages

Acculturation dynamics

chapter 2|16 pages

Organizational membership negotiated, denied, and gained

Breaking the rice-paper ceiling in Japan
ByAdam Komisarof

chapter 3|14 pages

Twists and turns

Forging a career as a psychology academic in Australia
ByAnita S. Mak

chapter 4|14 pages

From outside in

The organizational life of a Chinese immigrant in Japan
ByGracia Liu-Farrer

chapter 5|11 pages

Heart and mind

Using critical incidents to decipher culture
ByDavid L. Sam

chapter 6|11 pages

Difference, disconnection, social support, and connection

Communication with the host environment and cultural adaptation
ByDeepa Oommen

part II|42 pages

Negotiating identities

chapter 8|13 pages

Issues and challenges in constructing identity in an adopted home

Being an Iranian professor in America
ByMaryam Borjian

chapter 9|13 pages

Rituals of encounter

Campus life, liminality and being the familiar stranger
ByBrigitte Bönisch-Brednich

part III|16 pages

Language and interaction

chapter 10|14 pages

Brussels–London

Crossing channels while juggling with social and cultural capital
ByJean-Marc Dewaele

chapter 11|13 pages

‘Where are you from?'

Interculturality and interactional practices
ByZhu Hua

chapter 12|14 pages

Maneuvering the margins

A Korean-American in Kazakhstan
ByElise S. Ahn

chapter 13|27 pages

Making sense of transnational academics' experiences

Constructive marginality in liminal spaces
ByAdam Komisarof, Zhu Hua