Foundations for the study of intercultural communication based on a third-culture building model

The author questions the adequacy of traditional and modern approaches to the study of intercultural communication, which have been based on consideration of culture as an organized orderly endstate. Emic conclusions of such studies were frequently the result of social scientists' interpretations, commonly based on their scientific culture's value systems and expectations rather than resulting from the study of intercultural communication processes themselves. A number of scholars have questioned both the approach to and the results of such efforts. The author suggests instead the application of a post-modern chaotic conceptual model of culture, making use of a third-culture building explanatory concept, as more adequately suited to the exploration and understanding of the dynamic nature of intercultural communication processes. The resulting changes in culture are part of a never ending process of adaptation for the sake of human survival. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.