This handbook provides a highly interdisciplinary overview of the wide spectrum of current international research and professional practice in intercultural communication. It discusses key examples of contrastive, interactive, imagological and interlingual approaches as well as the impact of cultural, economic and sociopolitical power hierarchies in cultural encounters, which are essential for contemporary research in critical intercultural communication and postcolonial studies. The handbook explores the spectrum of professional applications of that research and introduces the theories step-by-step using ordinary-language explanations and examples. This makes the theory accessible to readers without specialized training in intercultural communication. The handbook will be a key reference text for advanced undergraduate, postgraduate and research students, lecturers and professionals in intercultural communication and related fields, including cultural studies, linguistics, anthropology, media studies, postcolonial studies, languages, sociology, history and affiliated sub-disciplines.

This chapter discusses the diverse terminology used to describe contact situations between two or more cultures by focusing on Welsch’s discussions of multi-, inter- and transculturality. The anthropological and psychological dimensions of cultural concepts are shown to arise from the need of human beings as pattern-building and storytelling animals to position themselves by defining identities and alterities in a diverse environment which makes essentialist ontological self-definitions impossible. Using topical and historical examples, the chapter argues that conceptualization of the world as increasingly hybrid and transcultural has very concrete material, social and political consequences. The chapter then explores the connections between notions of cosmopolitanism and different conceptualizations of difference, particularism and universalism. Finally, the ethical dimensions of different ways of categorizing cultures and their implications for developing inter- and transcultural competence as the basis for constructing a peaceful and dialogic future of togetherness in difference are discussed.