Interculturalism
Interculturalism is a political movement that supports
Origin
Interculturalism has arisen in response to criticisms of existing policies of multiculturalism, such as criticisms that such policies had failed to create inclusion of different cultures within society, but instead have divided society by legitimizing segregated separate communities that have isolated themselves and accentuated their specificity.[1] It is based on the recognition of both differences and similarities between cultures.[4] It has addressed the risk of the creation of absolute relativism within postmodernity and in multiculturalism.[4] Interculturalism has been used as a tool of Native American and indigenous rights activists to achieve rights and recognition.[3][5]
Definition
Philosopher Martha Nussbaum in her work Cultivating Humanity, describes interculturalism as involving "the recognition of common human needs across cultures and of dissonance and critical dialogue within cultures" and that interculturalists "reject the claim of identity politics that only members of a particular group have the ability to understand the perspective of that group".[6] Anthropologist Joanne Rappaport describes interculturalism as consisting of three main threads: a method of connection, a political philosophy aimed at creating utopian indigenous citizenship, and a challenge to traditional ethnography.[7][3] Rappaport discusses the importance of interculturalism in the Colombian Indigenous movement for human rights and recognition.
Usage
Interculturalism has been included in different national constitutions[8][9][10] across Latin America, including Bolivia,[11] Ecuador (2008),[12][circular reference][13] Brazil, and across Europe.[14] Colombia includes the concept of multiculturalism[15] and pluriethnic citizenship in its 1991 constitution.[16][3] The Ecuadorian constitution has been described as in between both multiculturalism and interculturalism.[17]
The
Intercultural Health
Intercultural health applies the concepts of interculturalism to health settings. It involves conceptualizing health itself as part of a broader cultural framework. Intercultural health defines what counts as "health" as outside purely biomedicine. In many cases, intercultural health is an approach that seeks to reduce gaps between indigenous health and biomedical health systems. Indigenous health systems, sometimes grouped in with alternative medicine, often involve different kinds of healers, plant medicine techniques, holistic medicine, and indigenous knowledge that has been passed down through generations. Intercultural health systems often state the goal of creating better health outcomes in indigenous communities and generating mutual respect between biomedical practitioners and indigenous healers.[21]
The implementation of intercultural health practices is associated with the project of decentralizing health systems, especially in Latin America.[22][23] Ecuadorian epidemiologist and physician Jaime Breilh is a proponent of intercultural health for its benefits on population health.[24] Structural violence, a term developed by American medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer, describes a lack of available health care as a form of violence.[25] Supporters of intercultural health care models cite addressing structural violence as a goal.[26] The goal of many intercultural health models is to treat indigenous knowledge with the same respect as biomedicine. Intercultural health models have been associated with improved health outcomes in indigenous communities .[27][26][28][29]
Effective intercultural health projects involve buy-in from all cultures represented.[30] Anthropologist Catherine Walsh describes the concept of "critical interculturality." She defines this as using indigenous concepts to question the existing structure and advance epistemic change.[31][30] This type of change requires what anthropologist Linda Tuhiwai Smith calls decolonizing methodologies, which call for a reconsideration of what counts as knowledge.[32] There are examples of intercultural health projects that do not fully incorporate indigenous methodologies and instead continue to perpetuate the western hegemonic order.[33]
Intercultural health projects often involve connecting traditional medicine, or ancestral medicine, or indigenous medicine, with western, biomedicine. A series of case studies highlight intercultural health projects that integrate biomedicine with traditional medicine, in Chile,[33] Ecuador,[33] Bolivia,[21] Colombia,[33] Guatemala,[33] Suriname,[33] and Ghana.[34] Intercultural health education is a priority at the medical school in the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar in Quito, Ecuador.[35] Intercultural education models have been built into schools in many indigenous communities across the Americas with the goal of passing down aspects of the particular indigenous practices and culture.[36] These are often focused on language acquisition.[37] Peru and Ecuador have both implemented intercultural indigenous language acquisition programs.[38]
Intercultural health concepts applied in United States biomedical settings are often called cultural competency.[39] The explanatory model, the original framework of cultural competency, was developed by Arthur Kleinman. It is a technique grounded in a set of questions that providers can use to understand how a patient understands their own illness. This model has been applied in many US medical schools.[40][41] Intercultural health projects are seen as distinct from culturally competent ones because of their goal in achieving indigenous political rights and reframing knowledge bases to include indigenous concepts. One of the criticisms of the cultural competency model is that it can create biases among health providers, who might begin to treat patients differently because of their cultural background, without allowing for heterogeneity within a cultural group.[42] It can also lead to worse health outcomes in minority groups when health care providers make assumptions about patients' health behaviors and histories based on their race, ethnicity, or culture.[42] The concept of "witnessing" was developed by Ellen Davenport as a way to overcome cultural competency stereotyping.[43]
Reception
Interculturalism has both supporters and opponents amongst people who endorse multiculturalism.[1] Gerald Delanty views interculturalism as capable of incorporating multiculturalism within it.[44] Ali Rattansi, in his book Multiculturalism: A Very Short Introduction (2011) argues that Interculturalism offers a more fruitful way than conventional multiculturalism for different ethnic groups to co-exist in an atmosphere that encourages both better inter-ethnic understanding and civility; he provides useful examples of how interculturalist projects in the UK have shown in practice a constructive way forward for promoting multi-ethnic civility. Based on a considerable body of research, he also sets out the outlines of a new interpretation of global history which shows that concepts of tolerance are not restricted to the West, and that what is usually regarded as a unique Western cultural achievement should more appropriately be regarded as a Eurasian achievement. He thus offers a more interculturalist view of global history which undermines notions of 'a clash of civilisations'.[citation needed]
In contrast, Nussbaum views interculturalism as distinct from multiculturalism and notes that several humanities professors have preferred interculturalism over multiculturalism because they view multiculturalism as being "associated with relativism and identity politics".[6]
The extent to which the principles of intercultural health are protected in practice under the Ecuadorian constitution are questioned by academics.[45] Some argue that interculturalism creates a binary, whereas pluriculturalism is more inclusive alternative.[46]
See also
- The Contact Zone (theoretical concept)
- Cosmopolitanism
- Criticism of multiculturalism
- Cross-cultural
- Cross-cultural competence
- Cultural agility
- Intercultural communication
- Intercultural competence
- Intercultural Universities in Mexico
- Toleration
- Transculturation
- Social Medicine
- Foucault's Clinical Gaze
- Critical Epidemiology[47]
References
- ^ a b c John Nagle, Multiculturalism's Double-Bind: Creating Inclusivity Cosmopolitanism and Difference. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2009. P. 169.
- ^ Ibanez B. Penas, Ma. Carmen López Sáenz. Interculturalism: Between Identity and Diversity. Bern: Peter Lang AG, 2006. P. 15.
- ^ OCLC 1235889580.
- ^ a b c Hans van Ewijk. European Social Policy and Social Work: Citizenship-Based Social Work. Oxon, England, UK; New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 2010. P. 136.
- ^ Lopez, Luis Enrique (1991). Educación bilinque en Puno-Perú: Hacia un ajuste de cuentas. Lima: FOMCIENCIAS. pp. 173–217.
- ^ a b Femi James Kolapo. Immigrant Academics and Cultural Challenges in a Global Environment. Amherst, New York, USA: Cambria Press, 2008. P. 134.
- ^ "Ethnography", Wikipedia, 2022-04-14, retrieved 2022-04-19
- ISSN 0719-3769.
- ISBN 978-0-8223-7177-9, retrieved 2022-05-07
- OCLC 1029746143.
- ^ "Constitution of Bolivia", Wikipedia, 2022-03-28, retrieved 2022-04-11
- ^ "2008 Constitution of Ecuador - Wikipedia". en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 2022-04-11.
- OCLC 876403478.
- ^ Piciocchi, Cinzia (2015). "From strategies to Constitutions. Identity, Multiculturalism and Interculturalism as Legal values: A Comparison between Europe and the Andean Countries". Revista general de derecho público comparado. 17.
- ^ "Multiculturalism", Wikipedia, 2022-04-13, retrieved 2022-04-19
- ^ "Colombian Constitution of 1991", Wikipedia, 2022-01-25, retrieved 2022-04-19
- ISSN 2477-9024.
- ^ UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, Article 4 Paragraph 8.
- ^ http://www.britishcouncil.ca/our-team Background on Salman Cheema
- ^ "NDP convention: A new preamble is approved". Macleans.ca. 14 April 2013.
- ^ S2CID 22639060.
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- ISBN 978-0-19-049281-6.
- JSTOR 20027362.
- ^ PMID 25880442.
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- )
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- ^ )
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ PMID 17803820.
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- ^ "Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar - Bienvenidos al nuevo portal". Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-04-19.
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- OCLC 1227394760.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ "Cultural competence", Wikipedia, 2021-10-30, retrieved 2022-04-11
- S2CID 78421640.
- PMID 26389109.
- ^ S2CID 6939785.
- PMID 11036581.
- ^ Gerald Delanty. Community: 2nd edition. Routledge, 2009. P. 71.
- PMID 27993953.
- .
- S2CID 211461393, retrieved 2022-05-07
Further reading
- Verkuyten, M, Yogeeswaran, K, Mepham, K, Sprong, S. Interculturalism: A new diversity ideology with interrelated components of dialogue, unity, and identity flexibility. Eur J Soc Psychol. 2020; 50: 505–519. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2628
- Zapata-Barrero, R. Interculturalism in the post-multicultural debate: a defence. CMS 5, 14 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-017-0057-z
- Open secularism, interculturalism, the fight against discrimination and guidelines for accommodation—Bouchard-Taylor Commission https://web.archive.org/web/20080602000753/http://www.accommodements.qc.ca/communiques/2008-05-22a-en.html
- Bouchard, Gerard et al, Interculturalism: a model for integration, in the Montreal Gazette March 2, 2011
- Bennett, Milton J. (1998) Basic Concepts of Intercultural Communication. Intercultural Press, Boston, MA.
- Kohls, L. Robert; Knight, John M. (1994). Developing Intercultural Awareness. Intercultural Press, Boston, MA.
- Storti, Craig. (1994). Cross- Cultural Dialogues. Intercultural Press, Boston, MA.
External links
- Media related to Interculturalism at Wikimedia Commons