Reviewed by Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini, University of Warwick

Since having seen a draft of the first chapter of this book, I have been waiting for its publication with keen expectation. At the time of reading the draft, I was teaching intercultural communication to final-year undergraduate students and thought: ‘I could do with this textbook, and so could my students’. This is not just another textbook in intercultural communication. It is a personal and accessible invitation to consider some of the dimensions of the intercultural, with emphasis on communication but also with a sharp eye on the unresolved contradictions, the ideological subtexts, the political import, and the deeply human involvement and costs involved with interculturality.

From the outset, Ingrid Piller aims to establish a conversation with her readers, to entice and implicate them personally in her own journey of discovery as an international, travelling academic, a speaker of many languages, and an active member of multicultural networks. The author’s genealogy of intercultural communication (Ch. 2) is refreshingly informative and revealing. The historical perspective she offers facilitates the comprehension of certain enduring aspects of the field, some of which are less attractive than others, such as the prevailing ethnocentrism manifested in the dominance of Anglophone conceptualizations and United States-Eurocentric worldviews. The author does not spare balanced criticism of the key concepts of culture and nation, exposing the dangers of essentialisms and stereotyping (Chs. 4 and 5). The somewhat more technical treatment of linguistic and cultural relativity will be useful for readers who are unfamiliar with anthropology or linguistics, but who might be interested in a gentle introduction to some of the theoretical baggage in the field of intercultural communication (Ch. 4).

After offering the reader a select introduction to conceptual and academic resources, the author provides in the following chapters engaging illustrations of the intercultural-in-action: in the workplace, in advertising and commercial discourses, and in interpersonal relations (Chs. 6–8). A critical approach is in evidence in all chapters, but the last two are especially directed to answering some of the most disconcerting issues raised by the core question of this book: ‘how culture is made relevant by whom in which context for which purposes’ (128). This includes the racism and discrimination perpetrated under the guise of the language proficiency or cultural competence agendas (Ch. 9), and the practical and political consequences of language choice in multilingual environments or situations (Ch. 10). For progress to be made toward a non-essentialist, non-ethnocentric study and practice of intercultural communication, we need to better understand ourselves, as well as others (171). Looking at intercultural communication as a social practice, deeply embedded in the material and in its inequalities, is also mandatory (Ch. 10).

These reflections are a good starting point for any course in intercultural communication that embraces a critical perspective, and this is a suitable book to accompany such a course.