Joana Breidenbach

Intercultural Communication: An Anthropological Perspective

This article is a critical review of intercultural communication (IC), an applied academic field whose goal is to understand how members of different cultural – usually national or ethnic – groups communicate, behave, and perceive the world, as well as to facilitate communication between them. The article traces the history and current state of IC, both as an academic field and as a service industry; examines the concepts of culture upon which its assumptions rest; and offers a critical perspective on its usefulness and limitations.