Cultures in Conversation

By Donal Carbaugh

Book Overview

Cultures in Conversation introduces readers to the ethnographic study of intercultural and social interactions through the analysis of conversations in which various cultural orientations are operating. Author Donal Carbaugh presents his original research on conversation practices in England, Finland, Russia, Blackfeet County, and the United States, demonstrating how each is distinctive in its communication codes--particularly in its use of symbolic meanings, forms of interaction, norms, and motivational themes. Examining conversation in this way demonstrates how cultural lives are active in conversations and shows how conversation is a principal medium for the coding of selves, social relationships, and societies.

Representing 20 years of research, this volume offers unique insights into the ways social interactions not only gain shape from, but also are formative of cultures. It makes a significant contribution to communication scholarship, and will be illuminating reading in courses focusing on cultural communication, language and social interaction, intercultural pragmatics, and linguistics.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805852336
• ISBN13: 9780805852332
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Outstanding study of communication and culture

This book makes an outstanding contribution to the study of cultural and cross-cultural communication. It is one of the very few books out there which does a detailed analysis of communicative practices in four different cultures - Russia, Finland, U.S.A., and Blackfeet American Indian. The author draws on numerous examples of naturally occurring speech gathered from his many fine ethnographic studies. Carbaugh demonstrates how the premises which guide communication can be discovered, described, and interpreted in such a way as to reveal how people create a sense of shared cultural identity. No other author has so clearly articulated the intersection of communication and culture.