Intercultural communication in a dialogical perspective

”The most intense and productive life of culture takes place on the boundaries of its individual areas and not in the places where these areas have become enclosed (Bakhtin 1986: 2).Theorists of intercultural communication tend to reduce identity to the „culture“ you have been born in – materializing of others. This concept of culture defends, consciously or unconsciously, a monological understanding of culture as an autonomous, self-sufficient, and independent of the other cultures and determinant of human actions and thoughts. The aim of this paper is to examine how a dialogical approach based on Mikhail Bakhtins dialogical communication can contribute to the field of intercultural communication. Unlike the intercultural perspective where cultural differences are addressed as a problem and barrier for communication differences perceived by Bakhtin as the precondition for dialogue and communication – as a resource rather than a barrier for communication. Dialogical Intercultural communication (DIC) is a risky communication. As Bakhtin noted we may be in danger – we may be forced to open up and participate in a dialogue that will emerge mutual changes. DIC is not free of power and struggle but a tension filled meaning and learning process which emerges mutual enrichment and development.