clair031

The  Department of Cross-Cultural Psychology  of Tilburg University and the  Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR) Nederland  hosted a one-day symposium entitled “ Advancing Intercultural Competence Development: Initiating the dialogue between researchers and practitioners” . The event took place on Wednesday, 16th of October 2013, at Tilburg University, south of the Netherlands. It was a success! This event was part of SIETAR Nederland’s  Elfstedentocht (‘Eleven City Tour’), a tour across the country where eleven major Dutch universities and applied universities involved in cross-cultural research are hosting a meeting for practitioners and scholars connected with intercultural studies. SIETAR Nederland is committed to the development of Intercultural Competence and shares the idea that practitioners and scholars have a lot to learn from each other. The topics discussed in the panels where related to one of the four concentrat...

Monday, 18th November 2013, Groningen - I get a last minute place to attend the International Partners Universities Event (IPUE) at Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands. I was extremely interested in attending this event because IPUE would be hosting as Keynote Speaker Sir Professor Geert Hofstede - Knight of the Netherlands Kingdom and one of the most influential management thinkers of the 20th century as ranked by The Wall Street Journal. Hofstede is without a doubt one of the brightest minds in the field of Intercultural Communication ever. Professor Hofstede's speech on his "Cultural Dimensions and respective effects on communication patterns" was - to say the least - very inspirational and clarifying. It is impressive how he deeply understands national cultures in relation to its influence over communication patterns and present it in such a simple way. Hofstede makes possible for us to understand how national cultures may affect communication patterns a...

Much have been said about communication and its relation to culture. Smith (1966) back in the sixties already pointed to the fact that "culture and communication are inseparable", and indeed they are.  However, it is hard to understand why neither the communication scientific community nor communication practitioners in general have given proper attention to intercultural communication theories & frameworks in what refers to its utility in the practice of public relations across borders, which inevitably encounters a multi-cultural environment. Culture permeates all aspects of human life and we are most likely to never perceive it. It is often quoted in cultural studies that "a fish would hardly realise the environment around it - water". The same happens to human beings when staring to its own culture which have a direct impact in the communication patterns used by and with a counter-culture. As Hall (1976) explained in his Iceberg model, most of one’s culture ...

I strongly defend that International Public Relations (IPR) must make use of Intercultural Communication theories and frameworks in order to achieve the best results possible when dealing in a multicultural environment. I first presented this idea in my recent delivered MA dissertation entitled: "Cross-Cultural Media Relations: an investigation about the relevance of intercultural communication factors in the practice of media relations across different cultures", which was part of the graduation requirements at the Master in International Communication - Geert Hofstede Consortium, which was handed in to Hanze University of Applied Sciences (Groningen, NL) and Leeds Metropolitan University - with merit (Leeds/UK). Intercultural Communication (IC) theories proposed by authors such Edward T. Hall, Trompenaars and Geert Hofstede may provide a robust set of tools to better understand how can national cultures influence the communication behaviour players provenients from the resp...

Hi there, Long time I have been hearing advices from friends, colleagues and lastly by a former Professor that I should start a blog to diffuse my ideas on global communications. I am Flavio Oliveira, PR addicted, social media activist and communication believer & scientist. I will be blogging mostly about Public Relations in an international scope, its relation to Intercultural Communication and all in-between. It starts today.. let's get to the business! Wanna know what I think about Communication today? Have a look on this link ! Wanna keep also updated through my Facebook page? Please click here and like it! I hope you will have an interesting ride.. Let me hear your thoughts as soon as they pop up in your heads.. A lovely night to you all :) Best, Flavio  Photo credits: Alex Mitev   (Bulgaria) - www.alexstudio.bg