Communication, Culture and Confrontation

The Third Volume in the series Communication Processes engages in understanding processes of communication in relation to cultural configurations and contending forces that permeate them. This volume is positioned at the interface of culture and communication-exploring ways in which interaction, negotiations, and even conflicts are voiced. It re-examines our conception of culture to show that communities cannot be divided into polarities such as elite and popular or dominant and subaltern -establishing that such clear divisions cannot exist in society. Culture is therefore perceived as a field of contending forces: a milieu of exchange, encounter, confrontation, and possibly conflict.

This book engages with English in globalization, re-examining and re-interpreting the contemporary contexts of its acquisition and use. The chapters contained in this book weave together four inter-related themes that define the role of English in the global context: the 'centrality of structure', 'relationships of interdependence', 'social constructions of difference' and 'reproduction of inequality'. These themes enable the authors to draw attention to the dynamics of the contemporary realities of the 'English-speaking' and 'English-using' nations...