Intercultural Communication for Everyday Life

Face the global challenges of the future with this accessible introduction to communication across boundaries

Communication between cultures can be challenging in a number of ways, but it also carries immense potential rewards. In an increasingly connected world, it has never been more important to communicate across a range of differences created by history and circumstance. Contributing to global communities and rising to meet crucial shared challenges—human rights disputes, refugee crises, international climate crisis—depends, in the first instance, on a sound communicative foundation.

Intercultural Communication for Everyday Life provides a thorough introduction to this vital subject for students encountering it for the first time. Built around a robust and multifaceted definition of culture, which goes far beyond simple delineation of national boundaries, it offers an understanding of its subject that transcends US-centricity. The result, updated to reflect dramatic ongoing changes to the interconnected world, is essential for students of cross-cultural communication and exchange.

Readers of the second edition of Intercultural Communication for Everyday Life readers will also find:

• Accessible definitions of core concepts
• Revised and updated chapters reflecting the COVID-19 crisis, climate change challenges, and more
• An all-new chapter on social media as a tool for intercultural communication

Intercultural Communication for Everyday Life is essential for students and other readers seeking a foundational overview of this subject.

John R. Baldwin, PhD, is Professor of Communication and Culture at Illinois State University, USA, where he teaches on culture, diversity, and communication. He has published extensively on these and related subjects over a career spanning more than a quarter century.

Alberto González, PhD, is Distinguished University Professor in the School of Media and Communication, Bowling Green State University, Ohio, USA. His research is situated at the intersection of criticial intercultural communication and rhetorical criticism.

Nettie Brock, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Convergent Media at Morehead State University, USA. Her research and teaching concern popular culture texts and their connections to the societies that procue and receive them.

Ming Xie, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice at West Texas A&M University. Her research focusses on intercultural communication, female leadership in nonprofit organizations, and emergency management.

Chin-Chung Chao, PhD, is Professor of Communication at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, USA. She is a past President of the Association for Chinese Communication Studies and a past Chair of the Asian/Pacific American Communication Studies Division, and has researched and published extensively on communication, conflict management, and related subjects.