Martin, J.N. (2017). Dialectics of Culture and Communication. In The International Encyclopedia of
Intercultural Communication, Y.Y. Kim (Ed.). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118783665.ieicc0215
Intercultural Communication: A Dialectical Approach
Intercultural communication is complicated, messy, and at times contradictory.
Therefore it is not always easy to conceptualize or study. Taking a dialectical approach
allows us to capture the dynamism of intercultural communication. A dialectic is a
relationship between two opposing concepts that constantly push and pull one another
(Martin & Nakayama, 2010). To put it another way, thinking dialectically helps us realize
that our experiences often occur in between two different phenomena. This perspective
is especially useful for interpersonal and intercultural communication, because when we
think dialectically, we think relationally. This means we look at the relationship between
aspects of intercultural communication rather than viewing them in isolation.
Intercultural communication occurs as a dynamic in-betweenness that, while connected
to the individuals in an encounter, goes beyond the individuals, creating something
unique.
Source: Adapted from Judith N. Martin and Thomas K. Nakayama, “Thinking Dialectically about Culture
and Communication,” Communication Theory 9, no. 1 (1999): 1-25.
The cultural-individual dialectic captures the interplay between patterned behaviors
learned from a cultural group and individual behaviors that may be variations on or
counter to those of the larger culture. This dialectic is useful because it helps us account
for exceptions to cultural norms. For example, earlier we learned that the United States
is said to be a low-context culture, which means that we value verbal communication as
our primary, meaning-rich form of communication. Conversely, Japan is said to be a highcontext
culture, which means they often look for nonverbal clues like tone, silence, or
what is not said for meaning. However, you can find people in the United States who
intentionally put much meaning into how they say things, perhaps because they are not
as comfortable speaking directly what’s on their mind. We often do this in situations
where we may hurt someone’s feelings or damage a relationship. Does that mean we
come from a high-context culture? Does the Japanese man who speaks more than is
socially acceptable come from a low-context culture? The answer to both questions is
no. Neither the behaviors of a small percentage of individuals nor occasional situational
choices constitute a cultural pattern.
The personal-contextual dialectic highlights the connection between our personal
patterns of and preferences for communicating and how various contexts influence the
personal. In some cases, our communication patterns and preferences will stay the same
across many contexts. In other cases, a context shift may lead us to alter our
communication and adapt. For example, an American businesswoman may prefer to
communicate with her employees in an informal and laid-back manner. When she is
promoted to manage a department in her company’s office in Malaysia, she may again
prefer to communicate with her new Malaysian employees the same way she did with
those in the United States. In the United States, we know that there are some accepted
norms that communication in work contexts is more formal than in personal contexts.
However, we also know that individual managers often adapt these expectations to suit
their own personal tastes. This type of managerial discretion would likely not go over as
well in Malaysia where there is a greater emphasis put on power distance (Hofstede,
1991). So while the American manager may not know to adapt to the new context unless
she has a high degree of intercultural communication competence, Malaysian managers
would realize that this is an instance where the context likely influences communication
more than personal preferences.
The differences-similarities dialectic allows us to examine how we are simultaneously
similar to and different from others. As was noted earlier, it’s easy to fall into a view of
intercultural communication as “other oriented” and set up dichotomies between “us”
and “them.” When we overfocus on differences, we can end up polarizing groups that
actually have things in common. When we overfocus on similarities, we essentialize, or
reduce/overlook important variations within a group. This tendency is evident in most
of the popular, and some of the academic, conversations regarding “gender differences.”
The book Men Are from Mars and Women Are from Venus makes it seem like men and
women aren’t even species that hail from the same planet. The media is quick to include
a blurb from a research study indicating again how men and women are “wired” to
communicate differently. However, the overwhelming majority of current research on
gender and communication finds that while there are differences between how men and
women communicate, there are far more similarities (Allen, 2011). Even the language
we use to describe the genders sets up dichotomies. That’s why I suggest that my
students use the term other gender instead of the commonly used opposite sex. I have a
mom, a sister, and plenty of female friends, and I don’t feel like any of them are the
opposite of me. Perhaps a better title for a book would be Women and Men Are Both
from Earth.
The static-dynamic dialectic suggests that culture and communication change over time
yet often appear to be and are experienced as stable. Although it is true that our cultural
beliefs and practices are rooted in the past, we have already discussed how cultural
categories that most of us assume to be stable, like race and gender, have changed
dramatically in just the past fifty years. Some cultural values remain relatively consistent
over time, which allows us to make some generalizations about a culture. For example,
cultures have different orientations to time. The Chinese have a longer-term orientation
to time than do Europeans (Lustig & Koester, 2006). This is evidenced in something that
dates back as far as astrology. The Chinese zodiac is done annually (The Year of the
Monkey, etc.), while European astrology was organized by month (Taurus, etc.). While
this cultural orientation to time has been around for generations, as China becomes
more Westernized in terms of technology, business, and commerce, it could also adopt
some views on time that are more short term.
The history/past-present/future dialectic reminds us to understand that while current
cultural conditions are important and that our actions now will inevitably affect our
future, those conditions are not without a history. We always view history through the
lens of the present. Perhaps no example is more entrenched in our past and avoided in
our present as the history of slavery in the United States. Where I grew up in the
Southern United States, race was something that came up frequently. The high school I
attended was 30 percent minorities (mostly African American) and also had a noticeable
number of white teens (mostly male) who proudly displayed Confederate flags on their
clothing or vehicles.
I remember an instance in a history class where we were discussing slavery and the
subject of repatriation, or compensation for descendants of slaves, came up. A white
male student in the class proclaimed, “I’ve never owned slaves. Why should I have to
care about this now?” While his statement about not owning slaves is valid, it doesn’t
acknowledge that effects of slavery still linger today and that the repercussions of such
a long and unjust period of our history don’t disappear over the course of a few
generations.
The privileges-disadvantages dialectic captures the complex interrelation of unearned,
systemic advantages and disadvantages that operate among our various identities. As
was discussed earlier, our society consists of dominant and nondominant groups. Our
cultures and identities have certain privileges and/or disadvantages. To understand this
dialectic, we must view culture and identity through a lens of intersectionality, which
asks us to acknowledge that we each have multiple cultures and identities that intersect
with each other. Because our identities are complex, no one is completely privileged and
no one is completely disadvantaged. For example, while we may think of a white,
heterosexual male as being very privileged, he may also have a disability that leaves him
without the able-bodied privilege that a Latina woman has. This is often a difficult
dialectic for my students to understand, because they are quick to point out exceptions
that they think challenge this notion. For example, many people like to point out Oprah
Winfrey as a powerful African American woman. While she is definitely now quite
privileged despite her disadvantaged identities, her trajectory isn’t the norm. When we
view privilege and disadvantage at the cultural level, we cannot let individual exceptions
distract from the systemic and institutionalized ways in which some people in our society
are disadvantaged while others are privileged.
As these dialectics reiterate, culture and communication are complex systems that
intersect with and diverge from many contexts. A better understanding of all these
dialectics helps us be more critical thinkers and competent communicators in a changing
world.