Non-Western Perspectives on Human Communication: Implications for Theory and Practice

What it means to be a self - and a self communicating and being in a particular culture - are key issues interwoven throughout Min-Sun Kim’s impressive text, Non-Western Perspectives on Human Communication. Going beyond cultural descriptions or instructions on adapting to specific cultures, the author interrogates the very core assumptions underlying the study of human communication and challenges longstanding individualistic, Western models on which much intercultural research is based. Kim proposes a non-western way of conceptualizing identity, or the "self" - the cornerstone of cultural research — illuminating how traditional western and non-western views can be blended into a broader, more realistic understanding of cultures and communication. Grounding her work in a thorough knowledge of the literature, she challenges students and researchers alike to reexamine their approach to intercultural study.

The majority of communications research making universal claims is based on data obtained from the study of Anglo-Americans and has led to a field that wrongly assumes that all people have individualistic notion of self, argues Kim (speech, U. of Hawaii at Manoa). In order to combat this flaw, she selectively reviews the recent literature on cultural ways of being and the implications for the study of human communication. She then proposes a bidimensional model of communication that takes into account both individualistic and collectivistic orientations towards identity. Annotation c. Book News, Inc.,Portland, OR

Min-Sun Kim (Ph.D., Michigan State University, 1992) is Professor in the Department of Speech at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her research focuses on the role of cognition in conversational styles among people of different cultural orientations. She has applied her models (based on conversational constraints) in the areas of requesting, re-requesting, conflict styles, communication motivation, etc. She has conducted extensive research in this and related areas and has published more than 40 research papers in major communication journals, plus several more papers which are in press. Her two newest theoretical developments, focusing on relativity of communication constructs, appeared in two consecutive volumes of Communication Yearbook (Vol. 22 and Vol. 23) . She is the recipient of numerous top paper awards in major international communication conferences, and was recently invited to give a keynote speech on Paradigms of Cultural Identity at the 3rd annual conference of the David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies, Hong Kong. She has served as a Division Secretary for the International and Intercultural Communication Division of the International Communication Association. Since 1994, the author has also served as a workshop leader for the annual Summer Workshop for the Development of Intercultural Coursework at Colleges and Universities (which is run by the Center for International Business Education and Research at the University of Hawaii at Manoa). She is currently serving as an Associate Editor forCommunication Reports and also as a reviewer for various communication journals.