m

Intercultural Communication:
ILS A linguistic and argumentative approach

Eddo Rigotti, Andrea Rocci, Sara Greco

Istituto
Linguistico Working Paper n. 5

Semiotico Master in Intercultural Communication (MIC)

USI, Lugano 2004

Università della
Svizzera Italiana

Facoltà di Scienze
della
comunicazione

Via Buffi 13
CH-6900
Lugano

Tel. + 41 91 9124791
+ 41 91 9124794
ils@lu.unisi.ch
Foreword

This Working Paper presents the lectures and discussions concerning verbal
communication and argumentation of the course “Intercultural Communication: linguistic
and semiotic aspects” given within the Master in Intercultural Communication (MIC) at
the University of Lugano.

We are grateful to:

- The Master course participants, for their vivid interest, their enthusiasm, and their
rich contributions to the discussions;
- Professor Marcel Danesi, who collaborated to the course project and directly
contributed to the discussions with the participants to the Master course;
- Eugenia Converso and Sabine Christopher Guerra for their contribution to the
writing of the present Working Paper, concerning respectively the French and the
English sections;
- The scientific responsible of the Master in Intercultural Communication,
Professor Edo Poglia, and the executive director Osvaldo Arrigo;
- Karin Frei, for helping in the scientific dialogue about the notion of intercultural
communication.

Other course materials, including the intervention of Professor Marcel Danesi and some
of the texts we have suggested to the Master participants are available on the MIC
platform ( http:/ /corsi.elearninglab.org).

Lugano, July 2004

Eddo Rigotti
Director of the Institute for Linguistics and Semiotics

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Course organization

1er jour :
Morning (9:00- Eddo Rigotti Verbal communication within a framework of
12:30) Andrea Rocci communicative interaction;
Sara Greco Communication in an intercultural context;
Verbal and non verbal communication.
Afternoon (13:30- Marcel Danesi Keywords denoting cultural diversity; different
17:00) metaphoric systems in different cultures;
metaphorologic analysis.

2è m e jour :
Morning (9:00- Eddo Rigotti Mechanisms of argumentation and how, if
12:30) Andrea Rocci improperly used, they can create
Sara Greco incomprehension among individuals and groups
of different cultures;
Mechanisms of manipulation in intercultural
interaction.
Afternoon (13:30- Marcel Danesi Role of non-verbal communication (body
17:00) language, symbolic, pictorial language, etc);
Dysfunctions in communication (e.g.
misunderstandings and incomprehension)
caused by diversity in cultural codes.

3è m e jour :
Morning (9:00- Marcel Danesi Final discussion and role-playing activities.
11:30) Eddo Rigotti
Andrea Rocci
Sara Greco

3
Participants

1. Rosa Anaba Aba'a

2. Milena Blagojevic
3. Maya Bossahart
4. Doina-Teresia Buzut
5. Annalisa Cadenazzi
6. Marco Calmes
7. Moses-Valentine Chukwujekwu
8. Giorgio Comi
9. Eugénia Converso
10. Demba Dieng
11. Stephanie Dupuy
12. Abdelhakim Elkhattabi
13. Juerg Etter
14. Margherita Giromini
15. Alexandra Häseli
16. Marie Julienne Kalmogo
17. Flavia Lazzeri
18. Médard Mavoungou Bafouka
19. Monica Moedano
20. Katia Papa
21. Aymone Isabelle Poletti
22. Fulvio Poletti
23. Giorgio Porta
24. Pascal Rev
25. Marianne Roth
26. Patrizia Schettino
27. Annalisa Soldini
28. Alfredo Villa
29. Philipp Vogt
30. Cristina Vonzun
31. Sybille Zollinger

Beside the lecture in charge of giving the course, the other lecturers have been
participating to all phases of the Master course.

Peter Praxmarer has also collaborated to the discussions and group activities of the
course.

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Table of contents
Foreword......................................................................................................................... 2
Course organization.......................................................................................................... 3
Participants..................................................................................................................... 4
Table of contents............................................................................................................... 5
1 Intercultural communication ................................................................................ 6
1.1 Introduction......................................................................................................... 6
1.2 The communicative exchange................................................................................... 7
1.3 A fundamental principle......................................................................................... 8
1.4 Communicative actions........................................................................................... 9
1.5 The structure of action.......................................................................................... 10
1.6 Discussion: the notions of need and desire................................................................. 11
1.7 Cooperation....................................................................................................... 12
1.8 Interaction......................................................................................................... 13
1.8.1 Two further examples of communicative interaction..................................15
1.9 Competition....................................................................................................... 16
1.10 Benevolent (inter-)action....................................................................................... 17
2 Common ground and culture .............................................................................. 20
2.1 Introduction....................................................................................................... 20
2.2 Culture............................................................................................................. 22
2.2.1 Culture as a hypertext .................................................................................22
2.2.2 Culture as a semiotic system .......................................................................24
2.3 Culture and cultures: les appartenances croisées......................................................... 26
2.4 Freedom from culture and necessity of culture............................................................ 27
3 Argumentation in intercultural communication................................................ 32
3.1 Manipulation in intercultural communication........................................................... 34
3.1.1 Manipulation exploiting human instinct of referring to totality...................35
3.1.2 The polarity temptation..............................................................................36
4 Respect and dignity in intercultural communication ....................................... 37
5 Role -playing activities and final discussions ..................................................... 38
5.1 Un modèle pour la conception d’une intervention de communication interculturelle............. 38
5.2 Groupe 1 .......................................................................................................... 41
5.3 Groupe 2 .......................................................................................................... 44
5.4 Groupe 3 .......................................................................................................... 48
6 References ............................................................................................................ 53

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1 Intercultural communication

1.1 Introduction

Nowadays, intercultural communication is an important and urgent topic, since the future
of human communal life seems to be necessarily bound to our attitude towards
intercultural communication. The articulation of cultures and peoples has de facto changed
from a bijective mapping (where only one culture, one language, one religion “inhabited”
a certain place) to a much more complex relationship: the borders that separated cultures,
groups, traditions, religions, languages… have begun to overlap. Cultures cannot take
their natural continuity for granted: intercultural contacts and exchanges have become
essential, and include a set of possible human relationships, among which interaction,
cooperation, competition, but also different forms of gratuitous giving.

Course objectives:
o Firstly, the complexity and urgency of intercultural communication in the present
society is to be considered;
o Some basic notions, such as that of culture and its relationship with the freedom of
each human subject, must be introduced and discussed, in order to build a definition
of intercultural communication;
o On one hand, the possible risks implied in intercultural communication, from
misunderstandings to manipulations and conflicts, must be recognized in order to
overcome them; on the other hand, the possible advantages of intercultural
communication will be also considered, such as:
a. Enlargement of interaction space;
b. Enlargement of intellectual space;
c. Check of our own culture;
d. Discovery of new values (ethical principles, new cognitive
opportunities, new notions for interpreting reality… )
Such advantages would lead us to consider that there is an intrinsic added value of the
sound intercultural dialogue.
o Given the value that intercultural communication may provide, we should ask
ourselves how to guarantee the quality of intercultural communication in the
communicative exchanges occurring in the human Souq.

6
Course contents:

The following schema provides a synthetic overview of the topics that will be tackled
during the course:

Figure 1: Course contents

1.2 The communicative exchange

Our first approach to the notion of communication will be analyzing its etymological
value. Understanding the etymology of a term is not sufficient for a scientific analysis of
its semantic value; nevertheless, the etymological approach often suggests us interesting
insights, by showing us the pat h along which a certain notion has been constructed.
Nevertheless, the considered notions need to be analyzed further. In our case, the history
of the term communication reminds us the deep meaning of t his notion.
The Latin word munus has a double value: on one hand, it is a free gift; on the other hand,
it is the task to be accomplished. “ Communicatio”, in Latin, is an exchange of munera, i.e. of
something that is at the same timea gift and a task (in the sense of commitment).

Figure 2: Etymology of communicatio

7
One interesting point is that the two concepts of gift and task, despite their seeming
distance, are semantically connected to each other: every gift implies a task to be
accomplished; so, each communicative interaction implies a set of commitments for the
interagents1. An analogous relationship is expressed in many European languages with the
word carus (Lat.), which means “dear” and “expensive”. The same ambivalence can be
found in the Italian and Spanish word caro, in the French cher, in the German teuer and in
the Russian dorogoj2. Communication is therefore an exchange of values, where my
interlocutor expects me to give him something p recious, and vice versa.

1.3 A fundamental principle

In order to improve our understanding of the relevance of communication in human

interaction and in social relationship, it may be useful to recall a wise story offered by the
Bible: the story of the Tower of Babel.

“Now the whole Earth used the same language and the same
words. And it came about as they journeyed east, that they
found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And
they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn
them thoroughly." And they used brick for stone, and they
used tar for mortar. And they said, "Come, let us build for
ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven,
and let us make for ourselves a name; lest
we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.“ And
the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the
sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are
one people, and they all have the same language. And this is
what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to
do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and
there confuse their language, that they may not understand one
another's speech”. So the Lord scattered them abroad from
there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building
the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the
Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there
the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole
earth”.

1 John Searle describes the importance of the exchange of commitments in communicative interactions as
follows: “...Just about every speech act involves a commitment of some kind or other. The famous examples
are speech acts like promising, where the speaker is committed to carrying out a future course of action, but
asserting commits the speaker to the truth of the proposition asserted, and orders commit the speaker to the
belief that the person to whom he or she gives the order is able to do it, to the desire that he or she should
do it, and to permitting the hearer to do it. In short, what people have thought of as the distinctive element
of promising, actually pervades just about all speech acts”. Cf. Searle (2001 : 147).
2 On this point, see Rigotti & Cigada (2004 : 3).

8
In our – rather communication-oriented – interpretation of this passage, it emerges that
no human interaction occurs without communication: where communication is
clogged, the enterprise is blocked. Thus, we discover an essential relation between
communication and human interaction: no interaction can succeed if inter-agents do not
communicate.

1.4 Communicative actions

In order to understand the notion of communicative action, it is necessary to start from

the structure of human action and of its relationship with the world:

„Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist (Wittgenstein)…

… und was der Fall sein könnte (Rigotti)“ 3

Figure 3: Human actions and the world

3 Wittgenstein’s statement, which is the first Satz of the Tractatus logico -philosophicus (“The world is all
what is the case”) does not exhaustively explain human action: in fact, human beings act in order to realize a
possible state of affairs, which does not exist in the moment of the performance of the action. Thus, the
notion of possible worlds has been introduced beside the real world. Peter Praxmarer has proposed a further
widening of Wittgenstein’s definition: “ If one were to follow this line of thinking, one would very soon
arrive at the necessity to widen Wittgenstein’s first sentence even further, enriching it not only by (future or
actually present) possibilities, but also by pointing to the past, to the history embedded, carried within, and
maybe hidden in “the world of cases”, to the cases missed or not realized in the past. Thus one could add:
“ … . und all dessen, was der Fall war oder gewesen hätte sein können.“ In other words: the world as actual case and as
potential case past, present and future” .

9
States of affairs can be subdivided into static facts (such as “the table is black”) and dynamic
facts (such as “this table has been moved”); dynamic facts may be also defined events.
Actions are a category of events where an individual or collective subject (an agent)
pursues his own goal to realize a desired state of affair. 4 Communication is a subtype of
joint action: thus, the structure of action must be analyzed in order to understand
communication.

1.5 The structure of action

The following diagram represents an elementary ontology of human action:

Figure 4: The structure of action

Human action represents the intersection between what is possible and what is real, in the
sense that an agent acts in order to modify the actual world in order to achieve a new
possible state of affairs corresponding to his desire.

An agent is a subject who has a certain epistemic knowledge of the world, intended here in
the widest sense of the word; he also has a desire, and can imagine a new possible world
corresponding to his desire – these features may be considered “internal” to the subject.
Consequently, the agent decides to pursue his goal to achieve the new state of affairs, and

4 In some cases, it might be difficult to establish if an event is an action. For instance, is letting the roast
burn an action? In a sense, it is not an action, as it is not intentionally performed; nevertheless, it might be
considered an action, because who burns the roast has not invested enough attention to monitoring the
meat roasting. This topic turns out to be particularly relevant for its juridical implications, for instance in
cases of manslaughter.

10
activates a causal chain that is intended to realize his goal – which is more an “external”
effect of the agent’s action5.

1.6 Discussion: the notions of need and desire

Here, a discussion is opened on the notions of need and desire. The proposed ontology of
human action considers desire as the fundamental moving cause of human action; the
participants of the Master course are asked whether it is preferable to replace this term by
the term “need”, and what the semantic difference between the two words is.

− A first distinctive feature that emerges concerns the fact that “desire” seems to be
necessarily more internal and personal, whereas a need is more “external”, i.e. less
depending on the subject. A need is necessarily related to a precise goal, whereas a
desire is not: for instance, we say “Human beings need food and water” implying
“in order to survive”; “I need some money” implies “I must buy food”, or “I
must pay a creditor”… In the proposed schema of action, needs are placed within
the causal chain, since we need something for something else, which is a desire.
− A second important feature, which may be related to the first one, is that one
cannot desire something that is negative for him. Normally, one does not say: “I
desire to take this bitter medicine”, but rather “I need to take this bitter
medicine”. Thus, the term desire seems to imply a more positive characte rization of
what is desired, and a more radical connection with the notion of interest: if it is
true that each human being needs some food in order to live, the desire for food
is, in a way, even more essential, because if a man looses his desire for life, he will
also stop eating, even if he knows he will die.
− The relationship between desire, need and fear is also examined: a course
participant asks if fear might be an adequate reason for some – or for all – human
actions. It is certainly true that fear, i.e. our desire to avoid what may be negative
for us, in certain cases leads us to make decisions. Nevertheless, acting just on the
basis of fears and external needs appears to be a rather “resentful” position (a
reaction to something that somehow “forces” us), whereas the action that is
generated by a desire is more “creative”, and can really change the world to realize
better states of affairs6.
− Desire and action are also bound to the notion of responsibility, since human action
by definition implies the responsibility of the agent, whereas an agent cannot be
considered responsible for an event occurring independently of his will. In fact,

5
Here, M. Danesi suggests that the distinction between the “internal” and the “external” part of the action
is echoed respectively by the English verbs “to do” and “to make”.
6
On this point, one must also consider that each human action somehow deals with a risk: in banking, for
instance, there is the risk of loosing money; if one has a child who goes to school, one has to take the risk of
“delegating” part of the education of one’s child to the school teachers, which is surely a more complex and
essential risk.

11
 one cannot say: *“You bad guy, you should not be 1.70 meters tall!” or *“I think
you are wrong, you should not be Russian!”.
− M. Danesi proposes a metaphorologic analysis of the terms need and desire,
consisting in verifying which source domains can be used to build up metaphors
in order to explain the two terms. Here, we consider the different sources domain
and their application to the concepts:

Source domain Need Desire

Container v v
Up/down v v
Obstacle ? v
Shapes ? v

Strength v v
Weakness - v
Intensity v v
Obscurity ? v
Clarity v v
Plants v v

Physical v v
Personal v v
Social v ?

Now, one can compare need and desire considering the predicates that can be
associated to them:

To have ? v
To lack ? v
To grow v v

1.7 Cooperation

mere human action is not sufficient to realize all the possible goals that a human being
may have, because we do not always manage to control the required causal chain to
achieve those goals; in these case, communication turns out to be necessary. In other

12
words, in these cases, a joint action is activated, which may be a cooperation, an interaction,
a competition or a benevolent (inter-)action. Firstly, we shall consider the structure of
cooperation:

Figure 5: Cooperation

In cooperation, two or more co-agents share a desire (a we-intention), and imagine a causal
chain realizing it. In this sense, cooperation is the basis of the weness, i.e. of the awareness
of being a community. Cooperation, in fact, is not simply defined by two agents pursuing
the same goal; two agents may pursue the same goal even not knowing of the existence of
each other. For instance, I am trying to “kill” a tree o n the other side of the street, and I
go and put some poison near the roots of the poor tree; and an other person who also
hates that miserable tree goes and does the same. However, we do not know each other
and we do not know what the other has done; despite our goals turning out to be the
same, we are not cooperating, for we do not perceive our action as a cooperation. A
certain common ground, i.e. a set of shared visions, knowledge, desires, and intentions...
between the co-agents is essential in order t o realize cooperation7.

1.8 Interaction

Cooperation is not the only possible form of joint action: if I go to the watchmaker’s to
buy a watch, my desire is to get a good watch; but who sells the watch does not share that
desire; rather he wants to get money for the watch, and probably has other desires – he

7 In Figure 5, one can see the knowledge of the world of a co -agent overlaps with the knowledge of the
other co -agent.

13
may be an artisan, and may therefore desire that the watches he produces are appreciated
by his customers; he may desire the money to feed his family... etc. Our desires, thus, do
not coincide; but each one cannot realize his own desire without the action of the other
inter-agent8.

The interaction can be represented as follows:

knows the world

singles out a desire a new responding state of

affairs
Agent A

decides to pursue this realizing

goal

and activates a causal chain

INTEGRATION
and activates a causal chain

decides to pursue this

goal realizing

Agent B
singles out a desire a new responding state of
affairs

knows the world

Figure 6: Interaction

In ideal circumstances, the action of an inter-agent perfectly realizes the desire of the
other, and vice versa; normally, it must be said that each inter-agent looses something that
he somehow desires (in the case of the watch, I give money to buy it, although I would
maybe prefer to have both my money and the new watch...): in this sense, every
interaction implies, in some degree, a conflict of interests.

The notion of integration of the causal chain allows us to consider that each interaction
implies a certain level of cooperation: in our example, if I do not go into the watchmaker’s
shop, the seller cannot imagine I want to buy a watch, and therefore I cannot get it.

8 On this point, see Rigotti (in press): “And communication involves, in its turn, forms of cooperation as
well as forms of interaction. Here different mutual commitments are exchanged in relation to the different
speech acts that are each time accomplished. Communicative interaction allows each inter-agent to
construct an action scheme coinciding to some extent with the action scheme of the other inter-agent.
Roughly speaking, X shows to Y that Y obtains a certain benefit or avoids some evil by cooperating in the
required way.”

14
1.8.1 Two further examples of communicative interaction

The first example we consider is that of a particular interaction field, a bar, where a client
asks for a coffee, and the barman is, of course, committed to serve him.

Figure 7: May I have a coffee?

The second example we consider is that of a political candidate engaging in a particular

strategy in order to be elected. The following diagram shows the interaction between the
candidate and an elector to whom the rather demagogical electoral promise is addressed:
“If you vote for me, I’ll double your pay” 9.

9
For more details on this example, see Rigotti (in press).

15
 Figure 8: A political interaction

1.9 Competition

A particular kind of joint action is competition. The etymology of this term may help
understanding the phenomenon: competition derives from Latin cum + petere (two persons
point at the same good in order to possess it). Competing means desiring a certain good
(in our case, a big slice of cake), which is at the same time desired by someone else, and
which is exclusive by nature: if the other agent succeeds in getting that good, I loose it.
One can describe competition with the Latin saying: mors tua vita mea.

Figure 9: Competition

16
Different kinds of competition may be possible. For instance, consider the difference
between a race and a football match:

Figure 10: Race and match

The difference between a race and a match depends on the structure of the competition,
which involves essential differences, mainly concerning the notion of victory. In the case of
a football match, for instance, a team wins in that the other team looses; if a team scores
three goals, they score three goals against the other team. The concept of a football match
is that of the German term Wettstreit and Latin pugna. In a race (for instance, a time trial) a
runner wins by achieving his own best result; the fact that other runners also get good
results does not hinder his own achieving a good result. In this case, one could speak of
emulation (German Wetteifer, Latin certamen) rather than of competition.

1.10 Benevolent (inter-)action

Is it possible that an (inter-)agent does not simply desire something for himself, but rather
for someone else? In other words, can a benevolent (inter-)action take place? The answer
to this question is not trivial, since much of intercultural communication is directly bound
to the gratuitous part of human interaction.

17
 Figure 11: Benevolent (inter-)action

On this point, a plenary discussion is opened, which we try to summarize in its main
passages:
− Firstly, the question of the existence of benevolent (inter-)actions is taken into
account. Is it possible that human beings desire something for others? Or is it
rather the case that human beings have only “selfish” needs, and perform
“egoistic” actions, which may, in their turn, have benevolent, more or less
unexpected, collateral effects? Somebody argues that, for an action to be purely
benevolent, the agent should not have any personal advantage in performing that
action.
− What does “benevolent” mean? To be benevolent literally means to desire or to want
the good of the other person, to take care of him; this idea reminds us of the
notion of love as a possible motive for action, as in the relationship between a
mother and her children: a mother, in fact, has no direct interest in taking care of
her children. In general, we may say that interactions within a family can be
assumed as a paradigm of benevolent interactions. However, one could wonder if
this kind of interaction may occur outside the family environment.
− A further problem concerns the notion of benevolent action versus benevolent
interaction. Is benevolence an action performed by a single agent, or is it rather a
joint action? In other words, is the acceptance of a benevolent action also an
action? With regard to the diagram, we may ask whether B is an agent in the strict
sense of the term. It must be noticed that there are many initiatives which may be
considered benevolent from the point of view of intentions, but which are simply

18
 not accepted by the intended beneficiaries of the benevolence. The choice of not
accepting a benevolent action on the part of the addressee leads us to consider the
benevolent relationship as an interaction: both subjects have a responsibility
within the benevolent interaction. If B does not accept A’s action, as may be the
case, complex negotiations may occur in order to understand if A’s offer is
effectively related to B’s desires, i.e. if it is really in B’s perspective10. There appear
to be two possibilities: either B explicitly asks for something, then A responds to
an explicit request; or A takes the initiative in doing something for B. In the latter
case, A must negotiate in order to make sure that what he holds for good is in fact
good for B.
− The problem arises, here, of distinguishing between proposing some good to or
imposing it upon other human beings. Does proposing a certain specific good
necessarily imply imposing it upon the beneficiary with a certain degree of implicit
or explicit violence? This problem necessarily affects our perspective on
education, since in educating the idea is implicitly conveyed that who is being
educated must reach his good. Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics describes men as
beings that tend to an aim (télos), which is their good11. And, despite the fact that
people may assign different interpretations to their own good - and hence many
misunderstandings and conflicts can be generate d - the shared desire of good and
the need to give a reasonable justification to their choices may induce them to
engage in a dialogue whence healthy cooperative interactions may arise. This is
particularly relevant in relation to intercultural communication.
− The way is opened to a further question: are there meta-cultural dimensions that
concern each human being, irrespective of his cultural identity? Is there a universal
dimension relative to the human being as such? This topic will be tackled more in
detail further down.

10 Such negotiations may be even more complex if the benevolent interaction takes place at an institutional
level, where each inter-agent officially represents the desires and intentions of a group of people: this is the
case, for instance, of many humanitarian interventions. The scheme of action and interaction that we
propose does not specifically address the problem of complex agents (i.e. of agents that are actually
composed by groups); nevertheless, it must be noticed that the management of the internal dynamics and
interactions among agents who constitute a collective inter-agent may be crucial in many situations.
11 See Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, available at: http://www.msu.org/ethics/content_ethics/texts/aristotle/

nicoeth1.html (Last visited: June 2004): “If, then, there is some end of the things we do, which we desire for
its own sake (everything else being desired for the sake of this), and if we do not choose everything for the
sake of something else (for at that rate the process would go on to infinity, so that our desire would be
empty and vain), clearly this must be the good and the chief good”.

19
2 Common ground and culture

2.1 Introduction

Going back to the scheme of interaction, we may zoom on one of the essential conditions
for interaction: the inter-agents’ knowledge of the world. Which are the essential elements
that each inter-agent must be aware of?

Figure 12: The inter-agents' knowledge

As shown in the diagram (Figure 12), each inter-agent has a certain (though partial)
knowledge of different elements: the culture that he respectively shares or does not share
with the other inter-agent (possible and real worlds, semiotic systems, values) and private
experience (states of affairs, persons, relations, implications)… So, each inter-agent has a
certain degree of culture and experience, of which only a part is shared with the other
inter-agent, and constitutes what is called the common ground in their communicative
interaction:

20
 Figure 13: Common ground, culture, private experience

There is a part of the private experience that the participants in a communicative

interaction share, because they have built it together: for instance, inter-agents may have
some knowledge about each other, about the “history” of their interaction, about previous
speech acts, joint actions, about salient events having occurred in the presence of both…
etc12. Some other experiences may rather concern the private sphere of each interagent, or
their relationships with other people, but are not necessarily shared with the interlocutor.
The cultures of the inter-agents taking part in a given communicative interaction also
overlap only partially; for instance, a n inter-agent may be from Geneva, and the other one
may be from Lugano: they share their belonging to the Swiss nation, but they do not have
the same mother tongue 13.

The common ground of the inter-agents is composed of the set of

beliefs, knowledge, desires, needs, interests… that they share and that
they are aware of sharing at the moment of the interaction.

The notion of culture needs further clarification, and will be developed further down.

12 The shared part of the private experience of the inter-agents coincides with what H. Clark defines the
personal common ground of the interlocutors (see Clark 1996 : 112): “Much of our common ground is based on
joint personal experiences [… ]. Most of these experiences fall into two categories – joint perceptual experiences
and joint actions. Perceptual experiences rely on the perception of natural signs of things, whereas joint
actions depend on the interpretation of intentional signals”.
13 The common ground depending on cultural bases is defined by Clark (1996 : 100) communal common ground,

and depends on the shared belonging to a certain cultural community. On the concept of cultural
community see Clark (1996 : 102-106): “A cultural community is really a set of people with a shared
expertise that other communities lack. Opthalmologists don’t all live in one place or know each other. What
makes them a communitsy is a shared system of beliefs, practices, nomenclature, conventions, values, skills,
and know-how about eyes, their diseases, and their treatment”.

21
2.2 Culture

Culture has been defined as the non-genetic information that is transmitted across
generations14. Culture might be compared to a cradle, which welcomes and
“accompanies” the baby within a community (a group of human beings) under two
respects:

1. introducing the baby to the relevant aspects of reality

à culture as a hypertext
2. providing him with basic categories, i.e. teaching him how to relate to reality and
to others members of the community
à culture as a system 15

2.2.1 Culture as a hypertext

Culture is in part constituted by a set of historically founded and shared experiences (a set
of canonical texts which are interrelated in the experience and in the memory of those
who belong to that culture). In this first sense, many kinds of shared experiences can be
said to be foundational for a certain culture:

− Constitutions, laws, and other (verbal and non-verbal) foundational texts: sayings,
monuments, literary texts16… ;
− Common history of a certain community;
− Civic commitments, which give rise to principles to be respected in a community;
− Rituals, myths, narrations, festivities, culinary traditions;
− Common currency;

During the course, we have considered two categories of canonical texts by bringing two
examples of foundational myths and an example of a Constitution.

1) The myth of William Tell shows the origin of the Swiss unity, and conveys values such
as independence, unity and freedom.

14 See for instance Lotman & Uspenskij (1973).

15 The identification of these two complementary aspects of culture is due to the Tartu-Moscow school. See
Lotman & Uspenskij (1973).
16 Two literary texts that are essential for English speaking countries have been discussed in class: the Bible

and the works of Shakespeare. It is certainly true that these two texts are not equally important in the
different English speaking nations, nevertheless they have shaped the evolution of the English language
during the course of history, and the categories presented in these texts continue to represent a cultural
background to be taken into account.

22
Guillaume Tell
Selon la tradition, Guillaume Tell se rendit coupable d'insoumission en refusant de saluer
le chapeau aux couleurs des Habsbourg que le bailli du canton d'Uri, Gessler, avait fait
placer au sommet d'un mât pour mettre à l'épreuve la loyauté de la population. Le bailli
ordonna alors à Guillaume Tell de percer d'une flèche une pomme posée sur la tête de son
jeune fils à l'aide d'une arbalète. Cet exploit accompli, Guillaume Tell déclara que, si son
fils avait dû y laisser la vie, il aurait fait subir à G essler un sort funeste. Guillaume Tell fut
emprisonné sur-le-champ mais parvint à s'échapper et à tuer son ennemi. Cet épisode
aurait été à l'origine de la révolte des Suisses contre les ducs d'Autriche, qui conduisit à
l'unification et à l'indépendance de la Suisse17.

2) The writing of the Preamble of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, written
after the end of the communist regime, was characterized by serious problems in
identifying a common ground on which the new Russian nation could be established.
Finally, the basis that was chosen for the Constitution is the common experience, vivid in
the memories of all people, to have lived and suffered together on the Russian soil: “we…
united by a common fate on our land” 18.

The Constitution of the Russian Federation

Ratified December 12, 1993

We, the multinational people of the Russian Federation, united by a common fate on
our land, establishing human rights and freedoms, civic peace and accord, preserving the
historically established state unity, proceeding from the universally recognized principles
of equality and self-determination of peoples, revering the memory of ancestors who have
conveyed to us the love for the Fatherland, belief in the good and justice, reviving the
sovereign statehood of Russia and asserting the firmness of its democratic basic, striving
to ensure the well-being and prosperity of Russia, proceeding from the responsibility for
our Fatherland before the present and future generations, recognizing ourselves as part of
the world community, adopt the CONSTITUTION OF THE RUSSIAN
FEDERATION.

17 There are many cases of communities that have a foundational myth to recall their origin and meaning.
During the course, we have also briefly considered the case of the tiny but very ancient Republic of San
Marino: Saint-Marin est la plus ancienne république du monde. La tradition fait remonter l'origine de la cité
à une communauté de chrétiens dalmates réunie, au IVe siècle, autour de saint Marin, tailleur de pierre et
ascète retiré sur le mont Titan. Cette petite communauté se fortifia au haut Moyen Âge pour se protéger des
attaques des Hongrois, des Sarrasins et des Normands.
18 It is worth noticing that other constitutions also refer to “hypertextual” aspects of one nation’s culture.

The Pream ble of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (1997), for instance, explicitly cites the
bitterness for the past events as a feature of the Polish community: “Mindful of the bitter experiences of the
times when fundamental freedoms and human rights were violated in our Homeland… ” .

23
2.2.2 Culture as a semiotic system
Culture also includes a set of systems, which the members of a community share and
which constitute the “grammar” of that community. In this second sense, culture is a
language, a system of shared codes that shape a community’s way of living and thinking:
for instance, the verbal language (with its cultural categories), visual and art codes, and
music are included in this categorization of culture 19.
The notion of c ulture as a system implies the acknowledgment of the difference between
cultures: if culture is partly defined by a code, different cultures may have different codes,
such as languages, systems of visual representation, musical codes… etc. Here, we
consider an example of visual codes that turn out to be different in different cultures:

Figure 14: Alberti's grid (1450 ca)

The so-called direct perspective was explicitly theorized by Leon Battista Alberti in the
XV century. It cannot be considered a “natural” way of perceiving and representing the
outside world; it is rather a visual code that must be learned in order to be used; in fact,

19 On the analogy between culture and language, see Wierzbicka (1991 : 21): “Language – and, in particular,
vocabulary – is the best evidence of the reality of “culture”, in the sense of an historically transmitted system
of “conceptions” and “attitudes”. Of course, culture is, in principle, heterogeneous and changeable, but so
is language”.

24
children do not naturally draw things in direct perspective; they may learn this system of
representation as part of their education. Figure 14 shows a grid that Alberti used in order
to “shape” the visual perception and convey it into the rules of direct perspective.

The direct perspective, thus, is far from being “natural”, is a cultural datum; this is
confirmed if we look at other representation systems, which propose a different, rather
“internal” point of view on the depicted scene. The following example is a particular from
a Van Eyck’s masterpiece in Gand20:

Figure 15: The Annunciation in Gand

The scene is that of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary. The archangel addresses his
words to the woman ( Ave Maria), so the words go from his mouth towards her, from the
left side to the right, as it is “normal” for us. But as she answers (Ecce ancilla Domini), the
words flow from her mouth towards Gabriel; moreover, as Mary is accepting God’s
proposal, she is actually speaking to God rather than to the archangel: for this reason, the
words are upside-down, so that God may read them. In this case, the chosen perspective
is internal to the scene; it is not the viewers’ perspective (in fact, it is quite difficult for us
to read those words!). Here, we see a different semiotic system that is simply alternative to

20The example is taken from Uspenskij (2001), who analyzes Van Eyck’s work in Gand from a semiotic
point of view.

25
that of the direct perspective, which is however, if explained, equally comprehensible and
valid21.

The notion of culture as a system is essential to the comprehension of culture;

nevertheless, it must be considered as complementary to the notion of culture as an
hypertext.

2.3 Culture and cultures: les appartenances croisées

We might be tempted to think that each person exclusively belongs to one cultural code,
as if each person could be exhaustively defined by his belonging to a single cultural
community. This is not true, because each human being belongs to a multiplicity of
cultural communities, as the example of Switzerland clearly demonstrates:

Figure 16: Les appartenances croisées in Switzerland

In Switzerland, the political identity to the Swiss state is crossed with other important
identities, such as linguistic communities. From the linguistic point of view, Switzerland is
subdivided into four regions (German, French, Italian and Romantsch) each one of which
unites the Swiss language communities with other communities inhabiting the adjacent
States: Germany, France, Italy and the north-east area in Italy where the Ladin and Furlan
languages are widespread. The Swiss case is particularly representative of the crossing and

21 The internal (or “inverted”) perspective is used, for instance, in the tradition of Russian icons.

26
overlapping of different cultural identities; nevertheless, it could be said that each one of
us shares the condition of multiple identities: one could, for instance, belong to the
community of the Swede s, to the Lutheran religion, to the Swedish language community,
to the community of the IBM workers… etc22.

2.4 Freedom from culture and necessity of culture

We may thus conclude that there is no bijective relation between an individual and a
culture. This leads us also to consider the problem of the liberty of individuals with
respect to their own culture: can we overcome the limits of our culture, or are we rather
determined by our cultural systems? For instance, were those living in U. S.S.R. really free
to deny (at least part of) their cultural system? In the discussion among the Master
participants the idea has emerged, that t he culture(s) we belong to give us basic categories
for interpreting reality, but we can personally reflect on those categories (both those that
are explicit, and those that remain unconscious) and propose changes. The problem arises,
here, of the creation of a reasonable consensus in the relationship between the individual
and the community he belongs to.

In order to sum up some results of this plenary discussion, we quote the contribution of
one of the participants of the Master course, Rosa Anaba:

La notion de l’individu et de la liberté.

L’individu vif au sein d’une communauté qui est déterminée par une culture. La liberté
de l’individu dépend de la relation de celui ci avec la culture de sa communauté
d’appartenance. Il est à noter que chaque culture est constituée de contradictions, et
des ambiguïtés : l’appartenance à une culture permet l’acceptation et la tolérance des
contradictions. Etre libre dans ce cas, renvoie au fait que l’individu agit d’une manière
conforme à sa culture. Sa façon de penser, d’agir, de percevoir, de sentir... est in
concordance avec sa culture. L’individ u obtient une reconnaissance par les autres
comme faisant partie de la culture. L’individu est ainsi libre dans un cadre préétabli par
la culture.

Ce problème de la liberté de l’individu se pose, dès lors qu’il commence à réfléchir sur
les ambiguïtés, les contradictions de sa culture. Dès ce moment, il y a comme un rejet
par les autres qui n’acceptent pas qu’un individu puisse (ose) remettre en cause la
culture. L’individu commence un processus de négociation de la liberté, il cherche à
conquérir la liberté, en essayant d’apporter un changement aux contradictions, aux
ambiguïtés. Cet apport de changement est progressif, il pourrait débuter par une prise

22On this point, see Clark (1996 : 104): “We all belong to many communities at once. We each have a
nationality, residence, level of education, occupation, employment, set of hobbies, set of languages, religion,
political affiliation, ethnic affiliation, cohort, and gender”.

27
de conscience des contradictions, qui se traduit par un réveil de la conscience
endormie des autres.

Deux cases sont possibles :

1er cas --> Il y a acceptation de la position de changement : le cercle des individus
acceptant le changement s’élargit et on aboutir probablement à un changement.
2e cas --> il y a rejet de la proposition du changement. Il pourrait y avoir résignation
de l’individu, qui continue à vivre dans ce cadre, à partager la même culture malgré lui,
dans la frustration ; ou alors il décide de quitter, d’abandonner la culture. Le facteur
temps devrait dans toute cette démarche jouer un grand rôle.

Sous forme de schéma :

28
If the individual is free to discuss and criticize the categories that his culture provides him,
nevertheless it is true that each human being needs to have a culture as a “cradle” with the
function of welcoming him and accompanying him into his relationship with reality (in
the wide sense of this word). Nobody can live as a human being without belonging to
some culture, as it has been proved by the experiences of the so-called “feral children”,
i.e. of children who spend many of their formative years in the wilderness, without any
contact with other humans, and, therefore, without a culture. The story of one of the
most famous feral children, Victor de l’Aveyron, has been mentioned during the course:
Victor, a boy of about 11 or 12, was found in the woods near Aveyron, in France, at the
end of the 18th century23. Victor was taken into the care of a scientist, Dr. Jean-Marc-
Gaspard Itard, who dedicated himself to the education of the boy, trying to teach him to
speak and, generally, to “civilise” him. Beside the fact that Victor never learned to speak,
Itard describes him as unable to experience the meaning of the different entities in the
world around him. Victor could not even distinguish one thing from another, and did not
show any interest in anything around him, because he had not been taught to relate with
reality. So, as he was not interested in anything, and nothing was relevant to him, nothing
was worth being given a name – which was also the root of his inability to speak. The
humanity in Victor had been damaged24 by the absence of a culture, i.e. of a benevolent
welcome into life, and of the necessary categories25 to relate with it.

Victor’s story shows that culture has an essential function in the development of human
beings; each culture may provide different, maybe partial, categories for understanding
reality, which can be further developed or corrected; but each human being must grow up
in some cultural environment, and be taught some categories which lead him to his first
relationships with the outside world. In this sense, it does not matter which culture one
grows up in26, but it is essential for each human being to have a culture: so, culture is not
natural, but having a culture is natural for men27.

23 Rigotti & Cigada (2004 : 39) quote the episode of Victor and discuss its meaning in relation to the
concepts of culture and language acquisition.
24 It has b een noticed, during the discussion, that Victor had however survived his years of loneliness; in this

sense, he did not need culture. This is true, but it has also been noticed that Victor had learned to live as a
feral being, not having the human faculty of speech and of relating with reality and experiencing interest in
things. If it is difficult to define a human being philosophically, it is evident that, in our experience, we
expect human beings to perform some actions: to try to understand reality, to communicate… and it is
evident that Victor lacked these properties, and that, in this sense, he lacked fundamental properties of
human beings, as a consequence of his having grown up without a human culture.
25 The term category derives from Greek agora, which was the place (Latin forum) designated for the public

speaking, plus the prefix kata-, wich means “about”, “with regard to”. Category is the instrument we use in
order to speak of something, and is strictly related to the interest we have in reality. We could not speak
without cultural categories: that was the problem of Victor.
26 During the discussion, it is suggested that cultures might be unequal regarding the cognitive skills that

they provide. In this perspective, different cultures cannot be considered equally valid, because if one grows
up in a certain culture x, he might have, for instance, fewer cognitive skills for arithmetics, or for
interpersonal relations. Such considerations are quite problematic, and lack evidence-based proofs; for this
reason, one must be careful about introducing them, because this way of considering culture may also
become a modern way of replacing racism with a new equivalent notion.
27 In this perspective, the opposition between nature and culture does not stand: belonging to some cultural

system(s) is intrinsically bound to human nature. Speaking of human languages, Dante Alighieri introduces

29
Itard, who was in charge of taking care of Victor, devoted large efforts to his education, in
particular in order to teach him to speak and to “become a complete human being”. Here,
the question arises of the legitimacy of this kind of intervention on others: did Itard
respect Victor’s freedom and dignity? And, in general, is education an essentially violent
relationship, where a human being imposes his categories and values on other human
beings, or is an educational treatment morally valid? The answer to this question may be
provided if we take into account that, as previously said, each human being needs a
culture, as a benevolent and loving welcome into life. Given this need, the child’s parents
(or the adults that take care of him) necessarily teach him their culture, their categories,
and their way to perceive and understand reality. As the child grows up, he will be able to
evaluate and possibly reject his cultural identity, nevertheless culture has fulfilled its
essential function of awakening his interest in reality, and of drawing his attention to the
positive aspects of reality: culture is the necessary prosthesis for getting in touch with
reality.

It is true that the child cannot choose where to grow up, and cannot therefore choose the
culture he belongs to; in this sense, human beings are not free to choose their culture.
However, the human being can free himself from his culture as he grows up and learns to
relate his cultural categories to his actual experience, and may even abandon his cultural
categories if they do not adequately explain what he is experienc ing. Here, we speak of a
critical identity (appartenance critique) with one’s culture.

Corrections and improvements of one’s cultural categories are frequent, since each culture
provides only a partial perspective of the world, i.e. a specific point of view28. Here, we see
that intercultural communication may generate an added value for each culture, since the
different cultural perspectives may help understand reality better; as a consequence, it is
evident that the ideal model of intercultural communication is not rejecting one’s own

the idea that it is natural for human beings to speak, whereas it depends on human cultures which language
they speak: “Opera naturale è ch’uom favella / ma così o così, natura lascia / poi fare a voi secondo che
v’abbella” (Paradiso XXVI). Aegidius Romanus, in his work De regimine principum, applies the same concept
to the juridical system, observing an analogy between the necessity of having some juridical order and the
necessity of having some language in order to live.
28 Here, again, the analogy between culture and language may be useful, as language categories also express a

particular angle from which to look at reality. On this point, see for instance Lüdi (2003 : 76): “Dass jede
Sprache ein eigenes Fenster auf die Welt darstellt, welche diese in einer jeweils einzigartigen Perspektive
wahrzunehmen erlaubt, ist also nicht bloß eine schöne Metapher. Unser Wissen von der Welt resultiert aus
einer großen Anzahl von Mosaikteilchen, die ursprünglich in der einen oder anderen Sprache kodiert
wurden. Diese Wissensbestandteile sind natürlich übersetzbar, tragen aber immer etwas von ihrer Herkunft
mit sich“. See also Rigotti & Cigada (2004 : 37-38): “Ogni lingua offre un’articolazione propria della realtà.
Per esempio il tedesco offre (anzi: impone) la distinzione tra Neffe e Enkel (nipote di zio e di nonno,
rispettivamente), che l’italiano trascura. [...] Per tradurre bisogna trovare il modo di esprimere un valore
piuttosto che l’altro, ricorrendo eventualmente a delle perifrasi. Ma non si tratta di un problema
drammatico: il parlante sa che per risolvere i problemi posti dalla lingua deve far ricorso al senso, inteso
appunto come rappresentazione semantico -pragmatica. Se le cose non stessero così, nemmeno ci porremmo
il problema della diversità delle lingue, perché non saremmo in grado di stabilire dei confronti tra un sistema
linguistico e l’altro”.

30
identity in order to find a compromise with the interlocutor, a sort of “geometrical mean”
of different cultures: indifference towards one’s own identity and towards the other’s is
not a good starting point for communicating. One should rather consider one’s own
interpretation of reality when communicating with others; the first step in intercultural
communication is finding a common ground between interlocutors29. Here,
argumentation intervenes as a means of building a reasonable consensus starting from
shared values and moving towards non-shared values to be discussed30. The role of
argumentation is that of bridging the gap between the present level of common ground
and the new issues on which consensus must yet be found.

29 An essential point to be stressed here is that different cultures are never completely unrelated to each
other: there is always some kind of common ground that can be found. In non-violent conflict resolution processes,
such as mediation, the acknowledgement of what is shared is one of the most important achievements
towards the solution of the dispute. Conversely, there is never 100% common ground between two
interlocutors, even if they belong to the same cultural communities, from the language community to the
family life. In this sense, all communication is intercultural.
30 It must be noticed that the discussion occurred in class about intercultural communication was not aiming

to describe an “ideal model” of intercultural communication as something to be create ex novo. Actually,

intercultural communication already exists, and takes place between individuals with different cultural
identities. It is however to emphasize that intercultural communication, as every communicative interaction,
in fact, does not take place between cultures, but rather between persons.

31
3 Argumentation in intercultural communication

In English, the term argument has the same value as the Latin argumentum, which consists of
two parts:

A R G U- M E N T U M

arguere: to show, to ‘mentum’ is a formative which

bring someone to means “instrument”. So, monu-
acknowledge mentum is the instrument for
reminding, docu-mentum is the
instrument for informing, etc.

Argument is an instrument to show, to bring someone to see and to acknowledge

something. When we argue, we exchange the adhesion to a certain value/issue/statement
with reasons. One can speak of argumentative exchange 31 when an interlocutor
acknowledges the other interlocutor’s claim in exchange for reasons supporting
this claim . Thus, to argue means give reasons to support a claim, going from a shared
basis (a common ground) towards consensus building on new issues. Arguments are
instruments we use in order to move from an accepted point to a new level of common
ground that has not been accepted yet. In many circumstances of our ordinary life, giving
reasons is necessary: to give advice to someone, to make a decision, to propose a certain
solution, to negotiate, to mediate a conflict, to justify an action performed, to motivate a
collaborator… all these activities require, in some degree, the support of good reasons 32.

The notion of reason, here, must be understood both in the sense of rational, i.e. of the
respect of logical coherence (non-contradiction), and in the sense of reasonable , i.e. of
the consideration of all relevant aspects with regard to the topic concerned (which
include, for instance, the interlocutor, the common ground with him, etc.). In

31 See also Eckhouse (1999): “At the heart of all argument is the principle of exchange: to receive
something, something must be given. [...] in argument reasons are exchanged for assent” .
32 Argumentation practice may be considered an ability to build consensus on certain issues; in this sense, as

it has been noticed during the class, it implies a certain power of the arguer. Power is defined as the ability to
make someone else do something. There is a first form of power, based o n coercion, which is intrinsically
violent, because I oblige an other person to perform actions that he/she is unwilling to perform. There is
also a second form of power, the one related to argumentation, which is sound: another person does
something because I have persuaded him to do so on the basis of good reasons.

32
argumentation, in fact, there are both rational and non-rational aspects, as pointed out by
Aristotle 33:

Figure 17: Brain and heart in argumentation

First of all, we have an arguer (argumentateur), who uses a discourse in order to persuade a
decision maker. We always argue in front of a decision maker (someone who is in charge
of making a decision). In the ancient Greek rhetorical tradition, the decision maker is
named krités; this term derives from the verb kríno (Latin cerno), which means ‘to sieve’: a
krités is one who sieves, in other words, he is a person in charge of verifying the reasons
given by the arguer, and of m aking a decision.

The Greek term éthos (importance of the arguer due to his current or previous
behaviour) corresponds to Latin auctoritas (authority), deriving from the verb augeo, (“to
raise”, “to grow something”). Auctoritas is the quality of a person of whom I know
(because of past experiences) that he can make me grow up, and to whom I give credit:
therefore what he says is persuasive to me.

Lógos is the instrument we use to communicate and to argue, moving from the accepted
bases towards the acceptance of new issues. Cicero, in his tractate “De officiis”, affirms
that there are two ways off resolving conflicts: violence, or coercion, which human beings
should consider only as extrema ratio, since this is the way beasts solve their conflicts; and

33 See Aristotelis Rethorica 1356a, available at: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu : “Now the proofs furnished
by the speech are of three kinds. The first depends upon the moral character of the speaker, the second
upon putting the hearer into a certain frame of mind, the third upon the speech itself, in so far as it proves
or seems to prove. The orator persuades by moral character when his speech is d elivered in such a manner
as to render him worthy of confidence; for we feel confidence in a greater degree and more readily in
persons of worth in regard to everything in general, but where there is no certainty and there is room for
doubt, our confidence is absolute. But this confidence must be due to the speech itself, not to any
preconceived idea of the speaker's character; for it is not the case, as some writers of rhetorical treatises lay
down in their “Art,” that the worth of the orator in no way contributes to his powers of persuasion; on the
contrary, moral character, so to say, constitutes the most effective means of proof. The orator persuades by
means of his hearers, when they are roused to emotion by his speech; for the judgements we deliver are not
the same when we are influenced by joy or sorrow, love or hate; and it is to this alone that, as we have said,
the present-day writers of treatises endeavor to devote their attention. (We will discuss these matters in
detail when we come to speak of the emotions.) Lastly, persuasion is produced by the speech itself, when
we establish the true or apparently true from the means of persuasion applicable to each individual subject”.

33
the other way, argumentation (lógos), i.e. persuasion based on good reasons, which is
proper of human beings 34.

Páthos is the effect of argumentation on the decision maker’s heart. When arguing, we
must always take into account the decision maker’s view on the issue, together with his
values and sentiments, and his way of perceiving the situation. Aristotle warned us about
the fact that the judgements we deliver are not the same when we are influenced by joy or
sorrow, love or hate; indeed, we must take into account the decision maker’s emotions
and desires.

3.1 Manipulation in intercultural communication

Manipulation may occur in intercultural communication, and it may be the source of
intercultural conflicts or misunderstanding. It is useful to start with a definition of the
manipulative discourse:

“A message is manipulative if it twists the vision of the world (physical as well as

social - or human - actual as well as virtual) in the mind of the addressee, so that
he/she is prevented from having a healthy attitude towards decision (i.e. an attitude
responding to his/her very interest), and pursues the manipulator’s goal in the
illusion of pursuing her/his own goal.”35

It must be noticed that a subject who manipulates other inter-agents is often a victim of
self-manipulation, that is, he is himself convinced of the distorted vision of the world he
promotes36; in fact, it is remarkable that manipulation is often unintentional.

Before going into further detail in the analysis of manipulative processes, it is worth
spending a few words on the meaning of the study of manipulation devices, which aims at
making us aware of possible dangers of manipulation. Manipulation can be discovered
and avoided; on this point, it is interesting to notice that even in the most “perfect”
totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, the manipulative system, although very refined,
still had some “hole s” and points of contact with the outside world, which allowed people
to perceive other visions of the world beside the regime’s impositions. In fact, the
U.S.S.R. has not been defeated by an external force: it has rather imploded due to internal
pressures.

34 Ciceronis De officiis I, 34: “Nam cum sint duo genera decertandi, unum per disceptationem, alterum per
vim, cumque illud proprium sit hominis, hoc beluarum, confugiendum est ad posterius, si uti non licet
superiore”.
35 See Rigotti (in press).
36 On this point, see Rigotti (in press): “ In our opinion the most interesting case o f manipulation – and at

the same time the most likely to succeed – occurs when an already manipulated person aims at convincing
another. In fact, in this case, the manipulated person does not pursue the goal of the manipulated
manipulator but the goal of the original manipulator. Anecdotal evidence and the personal testimony of
people who survived totalitarian regimes suggest that the effect of a manipulative device is heavily
strengthened if it is applied by somebody who has himself been manipulated”.

34
Different manipulative events may occur in intercultural communication. Here, we only
analyze some exemplificative categories in order to identify the kind of problems that may
emerge 37.

3.1.1 Manipulation exploiting human instinct of referring to

totality

It has been noticed that “The human beings feel an irresistible tendency to look for
principles having general validity, and each particular datum is assumed as a sign of the
total truth. And, under certain conditions, this is not only perfectly correct, but represents
an authentic accelerator of scientific progress. The defect arises from undue
simplifications” (Rigotti, in press). In other words, the manipulative event based on the
exploitation of the human instinct of referring to totality consists of an unjustified passage
from the existential quantification to the universal quantification (from “many” to “all”).
Stereotypes are a prime example of this proceeding: I know somebody from the South of
Italy whodoesn’t work much; thus, I infer that all Southern Italians do not work at all38.

Another kind of undue generalization is what we have called the “temptation of the
spokesman”; it happens that a person, for instance a Russian, makes a public statement on
some issue. We might be tempted to think that this statement reflects the opinion of all
Russian, which is normally not the case.

A third type of undue generalization is the application of one’s own cultural categories to
other cultures, thus presupposing a structural analogy between cultures, but without
verifying it. For instance, it has happened in some TV debates in Italy that representatives
of the Islamic religion were invited and presented, for instance, as “the imam of the city
x”, and consequently treated as if they were “Muslim bishops” of those cities, which
presupposes a perfect analogy between the institutional structures of the Muslim and the
Catholic religions, which is actually not the case.

37 The general categories of manipulative events are taken from Rigotti (in press).
38 We have assisted to an application of this principle this year, during a class, where some students have
proposed the idea that inhabitants of Southern Italy do not like working, since to work, translated into some
dialects, is faticare, which means to labour. The linguistic connection between work and labour was meant to
demonstrate the negative vision of work of those people. This consideration was clearly based on a
stereotypical prejudice, as it is suggested by the comparison of the word faticare with other terms used to
refer to work in European languages. The French word travailler and the Spanish trabajar derives from the
name of an ancient instrument of torture (the so-called tripallium); the Italian term lavorare derives from Latin
laboro, which also means to suffer (e.g. “ laboro ex capite” means “ I’ve got a headache”); the German Arbeit has the
same origin as the word Erbe (heir), and reminds of a man whose father has d ied, and, since he has been left
an orphan, he needs to work to survive, because nobody takes care of him, nor defends him. It is quite clear
that the concept of work is bound to rather negative concepts in many languages, always involving some
kind of sufferance; therefore, there is no reason to conclude, from the analysis of their dialects, that people
of Southern Italy have a particularly negative attitude towards work.

35
Intercultural misunderstandings of this type, bound for instance to different perceptions
of time (as concerns, for instance, the notion of b eing late!), food and conviviality… also
derive from this kind of undue generalizations.

3.1.2 The polarity temptation

This type of manipulative process is tied to the complex notion of paradigm (class of
predicate s):

“If a semantic paradigm consists of two predicates only, the negation of the former
becomes the affirmation of the latter: it is the case of the contradictory relation. Instead,
if a paradigm consists of more than two predicates, the negation of one of them is not
necessarily the affirmation of any other predicate in particular: we only affirm that one
of the others is the case.
Our manipulative process arises in relation to those paradigms that present a scalar
structure, where there is a graduation between one extreme and the other, with the
presence of intermediate states:

[high… . ... low];

[white… ... black ];
[strong… ... weak];
[good… ... bad];
[friend… ... enemy].

Here the negation of one extreme does not coincide with the affirmation of the other:
they cannot be both true, but they can be both false. So, if we affirm that one extreme
is the case, we do negate the other extreme (and all other alternatives in between); on
the contrary, if we negate one extreme, we do not affirm that the other extreme is the
case. This other extreme becomes just one of the possible alternatives. E.g. if
somebody is not my friend, he/she is not necessarily my enemy and not to hate does
not necessarily mean to love.”

Consider, for example, a certain state x, go verned by a bloody despot, whose power is, at
a certain stage, threatened by a young man from the country, who is generally considered
good because he is the enemy of the people’s enemy; unfortunately, the second man
might be even bloodier than the old despot. The fact that he fights against the old enemy
(the “evil”) does not guarantee that he is good. History has shown many cases in which
the application of this manipulative process has led to heavily negative consequences.

36
4 Respect and dignity in intercultural communication

The final session of the course has included a plenary discussion on the topic of respect
and dignity in intercultural communication, which we resume here in its main passages.

− Dignity is defined as the intrinsic value of human beings just because they are human
beings. In this sense, each human being is equal, because each human being possesses
the same dignity (peer dignity).
− Respect etymologically means to be aware of the presence of the other person,
watching him out of the corner of one’s eye; it implies the acknowledgement of the
dignity of the other person. It follows that dignity and respect are correlated notions.
It has also been proposed to consider respect as the acknowledgement of each human
being’s pursuit of happiness.
− The notion of respect is different from that of tolerance, as we notice if we compare the
following utterances:

1. “I promise I will respect you for the rest of my life”

2. * “I promise I will tolerate you for the rest of my life”

The first utterance is perceived as meaningful, as we can promise to respect the other
person, implying that we acknowledge – and shall forever acknowledge – his dignity.
On the contrary, the second utterance is a non-sense (unless it is perceived as an
ironical statement!), since the act of promising presupposes that what is promised by
the speaker is in some way positive for the addressee. The incongruity we perceive in
this utterance is due to the fact that to tolerate has a clearly negative connotation. To
tolerate someone (from Latin tuli, “to carry a burden”) means that the presence of the
other person is a burden that I cannot avoid, and that I decide to accept rather than
rebelling against it; i.e. I do not acknowledge the other person’s dignity – thus the
negative connotation.
− The problem has emerged of maintaining respect for the other in cases where he
appears aggressive or violent. Here, caution is necessary, since different cultures may
have different visions on what an aggressive behaviour is.
− A further problem is that of how respect may be implemented in cases of strongly
asymmetric relationships, e.g. the work relationship between a teacher and his pupils.
In these cases, we nonetheless speak of peer dignity and respect, since one may
respect the other’s dignity in that he is a human being, despite the asymmetry of social
roles.

37
5 Role -playing activities and final discussions

To conclude the course, participants have been subdivided into three groups and asked to
prepare and play an argumentative role-playing game, in which a conflictive situation
within an intercultural context had been simulated. Here, we report the groups’
participants, the task they were assigned, and the method that had been suggested to them
in order to fulfill their tasks. Moreover, in each group a spokesman had been chosen with
the task of resuming the results of the class discussion, and to propose possible solution
to the conflict.

5.1 Un modèle pour la conception d’une intervention de

communication interculturelle

• Réfléchir sur le type d’inte raction;

– But(s) des inter-agents;
– Chaînes causales (étapes, buts d es étapes...)
– Niveau de coopération
• Identifier les facteurs culturels impliqués:
– niveau conceptuel: la grammaire de la culture, les catégories dont elle
dispose
– niveau textuel: les textes canoniques, les mythes fondateurs
• Établir l’arrière-fond commun (culturel et expérientiel)
• Projeter l’argumentation (choisir les bons arguments,inventio);
• Projeter le « discours » argumentatif (elocutio):
– Choix de mots-clefs adéquats à rappeler et les dimensions du common ground
culturel pertinent;
– Choix des métaphores culturellement adéquates
– Ordre de présentation de la thèse et des arguments;
– Style d’interaction: prise de parole, back-channel
– Langage du corps

38
Figure 18: Type d’interaction

Figure 19: Common ground

39
Figure 20: Facteurs culturels impliqués

Figure 21: Projeter l'argumentation - 1

40
 Figure 22: Projeter l'argumentation - 2

5.2 Groupe 1
Une entreprise multinationale suisse nomme la meilleure de ses jeunes dirigeants,
une Suissesse, au poste de cheffe de la filiale d’un pays de l’Afrique où l’islam est la
religion de la majorité des habitants et a une place très importante dans la culture
(ou dans les cultures) de ce pays. Une équipe de dirigeants provenant des headquarters
suisses rencontre à un groupe de cadres et de dirigeants locaux, en collaboration
avec une équipe de spécialistes de la communication interculturelle à fin de créer les
meilleures conditions de travail pour la nouvelle dirigeante: les objectifs sont, en
particulier, d’éviter les conflits, de motiver le personnel, d’établir des liens avec les
institutions politiques et d’autres réalités de la société locale.

Dans le développement de cette activité on peut choisir de développer un scénario précis lié à un pays
et à un type spécifique d’entreprise, mais l’on peut également choisir d’explorer plusieurs « mondes
possibles » en variant les paramètres du pays et du secteur industriel.

41
Composition du premier groupe

Dirigeants de la filiale locale:

Abdelhakim Elkhattabi Al Hoceima Maroc

Moses-Valentine Chukwujekwu Lugano Suisse/ Nigeria
Demba Dieng Preonzo Suisse/ Senegal

Dirigeants suisses:
Alexandra Häseli Arosio Suisse
Katia Papa Pregassona Suisse
Giorgio Porta Breganzona Suisse
Philipp Vogt Gerra Piano Suisse
Spécialistes de la communication interculturelle:
Flavia Lazzeri Genève Suisse
Stephanie Dupuy Lugano Suisse
Juerg Etter Odogno Suisse

Solutions de médiation39
Les médiateurs ont d’abord entendu les soucis de chaque partenaire, de suite ils ont pu
analyser les potentiels malentendus et chercher de trouver des solutions conciliantes qui
pouvaient satisfaire les besoins des deux partenaires à travers le dialogue et la
compréhension réciproque.

Les soucis des africains sont liés principalement à la peur que l’entreprise suisse ne les
écoutent pas, ne prenne pas en considération leur culture et donc pense seulement à leur
productivité sans les respecter. Les soucis des Suisses sont que les Africains ne vont pas
accepter leur nouvelle directrice étant une femme et étant étrangère , et cela pourrait donc
déclencher un conflit.

Le groupe africain doit se rendre compte que l’entreprise les respecte. Ce respect est
montré par exemple grâce à l’intérêt démontré par l’entreprise vis à vis du pays africain,
notamment la recherche de médiation, de dialogue avec le personnel de la filiale et grâce
aux démarches pratiques comme le projet d’une crèche pour les enfants des employés et
d’une maison de la culture où l’on mettrait en place des échanges mutuels entre culture
locale et culture suisse.
Il ne faut tout même pas oublier que l’entreprise a comme but le profit. Les démarches
entreprises (notamment la recherche de dialogue, les investissements dans les loisirs, etc.)

39The following text, which resumes the results of the discussion, has been elaborated by one of the
participants to the Master, Stephanie Dupuy.

42
doivent être vues toujours dans c e cadre, c’est pour cela que le groupe africain d’employés
ne devrait pas montrer un refus excessif et préconç u vis à vis des employeurs suisses, en
mettant, par exemple, en question l’impartialité du médiateur.

Les deux parties, suisse et africaine, devraient écouter les besoins de l’autre et adapter
leurs besoins en fonction toujours du but commun qui lie les deux, c’est à dire le profit de
l’entreprise.

D’une part les employeurs doivent tenir compte des besoins des africains comme le
respect et la connaissance de leur culture et deuxièmement ils devraient montrer, exercer
et maintenir une interactivité constante entre employeurs et employés.

Pendant la confrontation entre les deux parties, les médiateurs ont pu constater que les
africains donnent beaucoup d’importance à l’écoute des employés, et souvent ils se
sentent ignorés et non respectés. Cela explique peut-être la grande méfiance vis à vis des
médiateurs, perçus comme des sortes d’«espions».
Le dialogue, la compréhension et le respect réciproque, fruit de l’écoute des besoins, se
traduit en meilleure productivité, diminution des conflits et un plus grand profit.

Du côté africain, si l’entreprise a un bon profit, les postes de travail seraient plus sûrs, il y
aurait la possibilité de gagner davantage , majeure, et une meilleure reconnaissance sociale;
le profit de l’entreprise se traduit donc , pour les employés africains, en meilleures
conditions de vie pour eux et pour leur familles. Grâce à la médiation ils ont compris que
l’employeur est prêt à les écouter mais il faut collaborer et bien intégrer les nouveaux
dirigeants, spécialement la nouvelle directrice.

Les Suisses, afin d’éviter des conflits dans la filiale africaine en introduisant une directrice
femme et étrangère pour les africains, avaient proposé une directrice avec la même
formation mais d’origine sénégalaise40. Finalement, les Africains avaient beaucoup
apprécié le geste, non pas tout à fait parce que la nouvelle directrice allait être africaine
mais surtout parce que les Suisses avaient montré beaucoup de disponibilité à chercher un
dialogue, en essayant de les comprendre et de s’approcher davantage de leur culture.
Aussi, le fait que ce soit une femme n’avait, à fin de comptes, posé aucun problème
véritable.

Les besoins des Suisses étaient surtout économiques mais ils visaient aussi à ce qu’aucun
conflit se produise dans leurs filiale africaine, ils ont donc compris que les besoins des
Africains devaient être satisfait pour que les leurs aussi s’accomplissent. Les besoins des
Africains concernaient plutôt des démonstrations visibles de respect, de recherche de
connaissance de leur culture et d’interaction plutôt que des offres concrètes comme la
création d’un jardin d’enfance ou autre ; finalement ils ont compris qu’il fallait être moins
méfiant vis à vis des employeurs suisses qui voulaient vraiment les prendre en
considération et les écouter.

40 Le groupe « africain » avait décidé que le pays en question était le Sénégal.

43
5.3 Groupe 2

Dans un pays africain qui n’est pas une destination touristique de choix pour l’instant,
une institution publique ou une entreprise privée va recevoir une délégation
d’entrepreneurs suisses et des représentants d’institutions suisses pour leur illustrer le s
potentialités touristiques du pays (ou d’une région particulière de ce pays et pour
favoriser la naissance de différentes formes de partenariat dans l’industrie du tourisme.
Une équipe de médiateurs et d’experts de communication interculturelle a été
impliquée dans l’organisation de la visite (il peut s’agir d’intermédiaires contactés par
une des deux parties).

Pour bien exploiter cet exercice il est souhaitable que les interlocuteurs africains définissent de manière
précise la nature et les buts de l’institution qu’ils représentent. Il faut aussi rappeler que le pays/région
en question n’a pas de véritable industrie touristique pour l’instant.

Composition du deuxième groupe

Représentants de l’institution africaine:

Rosa Anaba Aba'a Basel-Stadt Suisse/Cameroun
Marie Julienne Kalmogo Ouagadougou Burkina Faso
Médard Mavoungou Bafouka Brazzaville Congo

Délégation suisse:
Cristina Vonzun Bellinzona Suisse
Filippo Jörg Tesserete Suisse
Aymone Isabelle Poletti Massagno Suisse

Médiateurs:
Eugénia Converso Viganello Suisse
Monica Moedano Mexico City Mexique
Fulvio Poletti Orsellina Suisse

A) Proposition touristique d u groupe africain du « BoCo » : (Burkina Faso – Congo)41

Facteurs positifs pour une promotion au « BoCo » :

- Langue officielle : français

- Alphabétisation : 80%
- Etat : libéral et démocratique

41The following text, which resumes the results of the discussion, has been elaborated by some of the
participants to the Master: Monica Moedano, Aymone Poletti and Eugenia Converso.

44
 - Situation économique : en augmentation légère dans les dernières années.
- Situation politique e sociale : stable.
- Religion : liberté de culte. La plus part de la population est chrétienne (protestante).
- Parcs : présence de grands parcs nationaux, magnifiques pics et cascades, grottes, un
musée en concession du roi.
- Animaux sacrés
- Musées et différents types de loisirs.
- Pays cosmopolite
- Musique et danse traditionnelles.

Le but de la démarche du groupe africain est de sensibiliser le marché touristique suisse en

montrant une image moderne et occidentalisée de leur nation.
Les délégués africains insistent sur les similitudes de langue, religion, moyen de communication
(internet/radio/TV). Il y a donc une certaine culture partagée. Toutefois il manque des structures
touristiques.

B) La délégation Suisse :

- Il s’agit d’une fondation privée/no profit ayant pour but de mieux intégrer les handicapés
dans la société quotidienne.
- L’objectif de la délégation dans ce cas spécifique est de trouver ou construire une série de
structures afin d’offrir des séjours de vacances en Afrique à des personnes handicapées.
- Désir de savoir si le « BoCo » possède des structures pour les personnes handicapées.
Comment sont traités les handicapés au « BoCo » ? Quel est leur rôle dans la société ?
- Y a-t-il des d’autres institutions ou ONG déjà présentes sur place ? Peut-on s’y associer ?
- Y a-t-il des associations similaires à celle de la suisse au “BoCo” ?

C) La confrontation :

- En parlant avec la délégation africaine, on découvre que le « BoCo » a déjà des structures
pour les personnes handicapées et aveugles. Le problème principal est que ces personnes
handicapées sont placées dans un institut uniquement pendant la journée. Il manque donc
toute la partie logistique dédiée à la nuit qui est fondamentale aux handicapés suisses.
- Au « BoCo » les structures pour les handicapés sont financées par l’état et des ONG alors
que l’association européenne est privée. Etant donné que les structures actuelles que les
Européens devraient utiliser sont financées par les ONG, il risque d’y avoir des
problèmes entre l’association européenne et les ONG africaines responsables des
structures. Il faudra trouver des accords entre l’association suisse (qui est privée), l’Etat du
« BoCo » et les ONG qui participent au financement des structures. De plus, il faut
souligner qu’il y a un problème d’intérêt entre l’institution sans but lucratif des Européens
et l’intérêt lucratif des Africains.
- La requête de la délégation suisse d’envoyer en vacances environ 50 patients par mois. Ce
nombre est plutôt élevé par rapport à ce que les structures africaines peuvent supporter.
De plus, l’idée des l’association suisse était de les emmener en Afrique en rotation
pendant tout l’année. La délégation du « BoCo » conseille d’éviter certains mois trop
chauds et humides pour des personnes q ui ne sont pas habituées à ce climat. Il faudra

45
 donc déterminer les période de vacances et trouver des accords pour exploiter les
structures pendant un maximum de temps.
- Par rapport au transport des handicapés de l’aéroport à l’institut il est nécessaire
trouver/acheter un moyen de transport adéquat étant donné que le véhicule de l’institut
africain ne peut pas contenir 50 personnes. Qui financera l’achat de ce véhicule ?
- Pour les structures en particulier, l’association suisse remarque qu’elles ne sont pas
adaptées aux besoins des patientes européens (salles de bain non conforme à la normative
européenne pour les handicapés, absence de climatisation et manque de structures pour la
nuit). Le groupe suisse propose donc de superviser ou collaborer à la fabrication de
structures supplémentaires. Ils voudraient collaborer avec un studio d’ingénieurs suisse
spécialisé dans la construction de préfabriqués. L’idée serait donc d’installer une usine de
construction autour de l’aéroport qui permettrait de promouvoir le travail dans cette
région.
Cette proposition de collaboration avec des ingénieurs suisses n’est pas acceptée par le
groupe africain. En effet, le «BoCo » possède d’excellents ingénieurs qui peuvent
s’occuper de l’édification des structures pour la nuit. L’usine n’est donc pas prise en
considération.
Pour ce qui est des normes européennes, la délégation du « BoCo » demande d’élaborer
un document officiel avec les normes européens demandées afin de voir de quelle
manière il est possible de modifier les structures existantes.
- Enfin, concernant le personnel soignant, l’idée est de faire travailler du personnel africain
et européen et donc de former des infirmiers africains en Suisse.

Inter-Agent A Inter-Agent B Inter-Agent C

Africains Suisses Médiateurs

Intégration

- Les deux parties se rencontrent pour discuter sous la supervison d’un médiateur.

BUT BUT BUT

- Accueillir des touristes
étrangers dans des
structures
gouvernementales
africaines.
- But lucratif.
Pour chaque interaction:
- Envoyer des handicapés Protéger les intérêts du
en vacances en Afrique. groupe africain et de la
- Intégration avec les délégation suisse en
handicapés africains. améliorant la coopération et la
- Sans but lucratif. communication.

Culture de A (Non Partagée) Culture de B (Non Partagée)

Afrique Suisse

-Handicapés à la maison principalement. -Handicapés placés principalement dans des

46
- Organisations publiques et structures instituts.
gouvernementales à but lucratif. -Association privée sans but lucratif.
-Architecture traditionnelle. -Architecture de type préfabriquée
-Les handicapés ne vont pas à l’étranger. -Les handicapés voyagent.

Common Ground (avant l’interaction)

Expérience Partagée Culture Partagée

-Centres pour handicapés. -Langue française

-Econome libérale
-Culture démocratique
-Stabilité politique
-Religion: liberté de culte

Identifier les facteurs culturels impliqués:

Facteurs culturels non partagés, à prendre Facteurs culturels non partagés, à éviter:
en compte:
Catégories:
Categories:
- Architecture et standards pour les structures
-Economie, social, traitement différent des pour les handicapés.
handicapés.
Textes:
Texts:
Vers une architetture, Le Corbusier.
- L’elefante invisibile, Firenze, Giunti, 1998.

Comment peut-on arriver à les partager?

Facteurs culturels non partagés, à exploiter:

Catégories:
-Aide aux handicapés, richesse culturelle.
Textes:
- L’elefante invisibile, Firenze, Giunti, 1998.
Projeter le “discourse” argumentatif :

Prémisses: Métaphores: Mots-clefs:

-Intérêt d’une structure du - Peur de l’invasion. - Handicapé
gouvernement qui veut - Structure: privée -
s’ouvrir au niveau mondial en publique
offrant ses services du point - Religion chrétienne

47
de vue touristique. - Langue française
- Coopération
-Intérêts d’une association - Intégration
suisse privée qui s’occupe - Aide
d’handicapés et qui veut faire
voyager ses « clients » à
l’étranger en leur offrir des
structures adéquates.

-But lucratif vs. but non

lucratif.

Projeter l’argumentation:
Arguments (Ils doivent ê tre partagés avant l’argumentation)

Logos (prémisses): Ethos: Pathos:

- On veut le bien des - Ne pas trop profiter -Donner de la joie aux
handicapés de deux du coté lucratif de personnes handicapées
côtés. cette opération. -Intégrer les personnes
- Ne pas oublier le but - Se limiter aux handicapées.
lucratif du groupe objectifs sociaux -Dignité et opportunités pour
africain pour cette - Ne pas imposer les tous.
initiative. intérêts d’une seul
côté.

Conclusion(s) (cf. But)

- Ingénieurs africains qui s’occupent de travailler selon les normes
européennes pour la construction des structures au “BoCo”.
- Etablir une coordination économique entre les deux groupes.
- Elaboration un document contenant les standards européens des
structures pour handicapés.
- Organisation de stages de 6 mois en Suisse pour les infirmières
africains.

5.4 Groupe 3

Un consortium d’universités de l’Europe orientale (déterminer le pays ou les pays

concernés) demande la collaboration d’universités suisses et italiennes pour lancer un
nouveau cursus d’études en sciences de la communication qui devra se dérouler
partiellement en présence avec la participation d’enseignants du pays concerné(s) et de
visiting professors italiens et suisses, et partiellement à distance grâce aux nouvelles
technologies de la communication. On est maintenant dans la phase de définition des

48
 orientations culturelles, des contenus disciplinaires, et de profils professionnels cible
envisagés par le nouveau cursus. Pour s’assurer la bonne réussite du projet, le
consortium a aussi engagé une équipe d’experts de communication institutionnelle au
niveau international.

Il est important de rappeler que les représentants des universités de l’Europe orientale ont d’une part
l’intérêt de convaincre les Suisses et les Italiens à collaborer dans le projet, mais ils ont aussi, d’autre
part, leurs propres exigences et préférences en ce qui concerne les contenus du cursus. Il faudra faire
jouer ces deux aspects dans la négociation.

Composition du troisième groupe

Universités de l’Europe orientale:

Milena Blagojevic Genève Suisse
Doina-Teresia Buzut Balti Moldavie

Universités suisses:
Marianne Roth Zürich Suisse
Sibylle Zollinger Zürich Suisse
Maya Bossahart Zürich Suisse

Universités italiennes:
Patrizia Schettino Milano Italie
Alfredo Villa Milano Italie
Margherita Giromini Varese Italie

Experts de la communication interculturelle:

Giorgio Comi Mendrisio Suisse
Annalisa Cadenazzi Osogna Suisse
Pascal Rey Estavayer-le Lac Suisse

Le principe de simplicité impose de disjoindre et de réduire, le principe de complexité

enjoint de relier, tout en distinguant.
(Edgar Morin, 1996)

La traduction réalisée par le groupe de travail42 :

Deux nations de l’Europe de l’Est demandent la collaboration de la Suisse et de l’Italie
pour organiser ce travail universitaire dans les sciences de la communication. Les deux
institutions de l’Est demandent la collaboration d’un consultant, qui se charge de modérer
les rencontres.
42
The following text, which resumes the results of the discussion, has been elaborated by one of the
participants to the Master,Giorgio Comi.

49
Exercice
A partir de la lecture de la consigne, nous avons discuté en trois groupes : les responsables
des Pays de l’Est, les responsables suisses et italiens, l’entreprise des consultants.
Le travail a permis de mettre en marche la première discussion entre les « trois » groupes
de partenaires :

CH et I: Margherita, Marianne, Maja, Sybille, Alfredo,

Pays de l’Est : Doina, Milena
Consultants: Annalisa, Giorgio, Pascal

Pays de l’Est – Moldavie et Serbie Monténégro:

« présentation de l’idée et des nécessités »

Suisse et Italie :
« questions et réflexions d’entrée »
Quelles retombées pouvons-nous imaginer dans nos pays, quel gain pouvons-nous
prévoir, il faut trouver des motivations pour activer les universités de nos pays dans cette
collaboration, nous devons travailler sur le feedback.

Moldavie et Serbie Monténégro:

Il faudra considérer aussi le choc culturel qui pourrait se créer, nous nécessitons d’un
support organisationnel, les infrastructures sont presque absentes, nous voulons entrer
dans l’Europe à part entière.

Consultants :
« Ils demandent de creuser les différentes facettes ressorties de ce premier round »
Quelles réponses peuvent déjà être données, quelles questions peuvent trouver des
réponses officielles, quels arguments devront être objet de la négociation.

Suisse et Italie :
« la réflexion continue »
Pour nous il s’agit de définir les contenus à approfondir, par exemple, quel est le sens du
mot « communication » pour vous ? Nous avons dans nos Pays un bon nombre
d’universités qui étudient le thème et qui pourraient, peut -être, se mettre à disposition
pour ce pro jet.

Consultants :
Nous avons un champ commun à développer. Il s’agit aussi de construire un espace
d’organisation commun, de définir des contenus, d’évaluer les infrastructures nécessaires,
de choisir les formes de collaboration.

Suisse et Italie :
Si nous considérons le terrain de l’économie, nous voyons actuellement peu d’espace pour
le développement de professions liées à la communication dans les Pays de Moldavie et

50
Serbie Monténégro. Les deux nations ont une petite population et les entreprises ont un
faible intérêt pour le marché de biens de consommation. Au contraire, nous voyons un
marché potentiel dans les produits financiers :
Vos Pays sortent d’une longue période caractérisée par une forte sûreté sociale, avec une
gestion centrale. Aujourd’hui il s’agit la de reconstruire sur d’autres bases une structure
sociale et d’assurance.
Un autre champ est probablement celui de la formation à l’usage des nouvelles
technologies
Ou encore celui de la vente et de l’assistance aux clients par téléphone (call center)
« La confrontation est ample, les propositions concrètes, quant aux retombées sur le
marché du travail, elles monopolisent la discussion »

Consultants :
Nous vous proposons de continuer sur la piste que vous avez tracée, parce qu’elle montre
des marges de développement concret et laisse prévoir des possibles investissements aussi
de la part d’entreprises privées, parallèlement à une coopération entre gouvernements et
institutions universitaires.
Les stratégies que vous discutez intègrent déjà des contenus (la communication, les TIC,
les finances, les compétences communicatives en situation) et des formes possibles de
formation qui considèrent déjà les TIC et l’échange de ressources humaines.

Moldavie et Serbie Monténégro:

- Nous pourrions coopérer pour réaliser cette coopération par des sessions de
formation conjointes et à distance.

Consultants :
- Il nous semble que la demande initiale est en train de se développer et de se
modifier :
o Vous passez de l’idée de demander / offrir un service manquant à l’idée de
constituer une coopération entre partenaires.

Moldavie et Serbie Monténégro:

- il faut maintenant évaluer comment nous proposer à nos Gouvernements
respectifs, pour les impliquer dès le départ.

« Discussion sur les possibles démarches »

Consultants :
- Nous pensons que le moment de fixer quelques points pour confirmer l’intention
de ratifier un accord de collaboration, qui a pour but de faire démarrer le projet,
est arrivé.

Le travail qui suit permet de préparer (en quelques minutes) la session p lénière, dans
laquelle l’accord va s’affiner par la présentation de données explicites de la part des
« demandeurs », et de la négociation dans le sens d’un tel projet.

51
Consultants :
Les points suivants ont été considérés, sans les expliciter directement :
Pourquoi cette demande ?
Quelle est la compétence déjà présente ?
Quelles expériences ont déjà été faites ?
Quels seront les critères de faisabilité des différents éléments qui constituent le projet
concret ?
, Quel impact aura l’utilisation des TIC?
Quelle évolution est attendue ?
Quels critères de qualité seront utilisés pour mesurer les résultats ?

La présentation de la situation souligne différents aspects du problème, qui vont être

repris par la suite, si nous en avons encore l’occasion :
Parler de situation interculturelle, dans le projet proposé est correct. Mais les Pays mêmes
depuis lequels part la demande de collaboration vivent déjà cette situation, par effet de
l’histoire qui a vu bouger des communautés entières, qui, aujourd’hui, au moins en
Moldavie, sont reconnues comme appartenantes aussi à une autre nation d’origine.
Résultat : la possibilité de faire une demande afin d’être reconnu comme appartenant
aussi à une autre nation (d’origine) fait augmenter à 47 les nationalités qui se côtoient dans
le Pays.
L’intérêt pour la communication interculturelle « est » déjà là et ne doit pas être inventé
dans le projet !
Le processus d’intégration dans la communauté européenne en en marche et cette
attention au thème de la communication devrait aider à diminuer le choc culturel.
La situation concrète n’est pas simple :
Peu de locaux, électricité non stable et problèmes avec l’informatique, manque
d’infrastructures informatiques modernes
Les équivalences des titres devra être étudiée.

La discussion avec les partenaires met en évidence l’intérêt de travailler sur l’organisation
globale et non pas seulement sur les formes et contenus d’enseignement. Apprendre à
organiser un curriculum d’étude d’une certaine façon est aussi un thème culturel, modifier
ses pratiques implique aussi une changement dans la façon de penser ses relations aux
autres et au contexte.
La logique intégrée (individu, organisation, technique) doit être considérée comme
centrale.

« La discussion se conclu »

La pause de midi est utilisée pour continuer la discussion et imaginer une solution
concrète. Le futur pourrait nous ouvrir des possibilités concrètes.

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