Culture Ain’t What It Used to Be! Cultural Competence Reexamined in the Light of Contemporary Multidisciplinary Research

Abstract

The fundamental objective of this short presentation is to provide readers and intercultural practitioners with a brief exposé of key elements in neuroscientific research, linguistics, and cognitive psychology that are coming to the fore and may radically affect our understanding of culture and how it functions within us and between us. Contemporary concepts and practices in the field of intercultural learning and training applications need to be reexamined closely in the light of these fresh research elements. This paper proposes that they specifically be explored and evaluated in each of ten areas that are identified as potentially eliminating or seriously altering current thinking and/or praxis in the intercultural field. These areas are rather well established, but currently being further explored and developed by neurological research and cognitive science. They are likely to lead to new factors that will need to be taken into consideration in assessing intercultural thinking and practice in the near future.