Beyond De-Westernization: Transcultural Communication Studies Perspectives From the Global South — An Introduction

Abstract

This Special Issue of the Journal of Transcultural Communication is proactively incorporating the terms "Beyond De-Westernization" and "Perspectives from the Global South." Three factors inspire the use of the terms "Beyond De-Westernization." First, academic topics on "De-Westernization" have enjoyed popularity in the broader fields of communication for nearly two decades (see for examples: de Albuquerque et al., 2020; Ganter & Ortega, 2019; Waisbord, 2022; Waisbord & Mellado, 2014; Willems, 2014). In recent times, the phrase has also come to denote and connote decolonization with the basic premise being that communication flows are continuously being reproduced through the critiqued notions, practices, and ideologies of Western colonialism. The concepts of cross-cultural and intercultural communication speak to the ideas around De-Westernization which the concept of transcultural communication liberatingly transcends. While these perspectives still possess validity and cannot be dismissed out of hand, we believe there is scope to expand beyond "critique" with a view to contributing new bodies of knowledge that comprehend cultural communication practices that do not stop at the oppositional, De-Western conceptions. This is a key gap in the broader field of communication that this Special Issue seeks to contribute without being constrained to a vision of De-Westernization as debilitatingly hegemonic as not to be transcended. The second point is the understanding that a critique of Western notions of cultural communication shall not necessarily be a validating justification for scholarship on cultural communication from the Global South. Despite the fact that a background reading of De-Western literature can and in some cases should form the basis for the synthesis of debates. But to stop at the synthesis of literature would be to do a disservice to large swathes of the world that have been labelled the Global South. In these regions of the world, cultures are dynamic and evolving thus the need arises for new perspectives with which to make sense of them. This indeed explains the second part of the title of this Special Issue: "Perspectives from the Global South." As articles in this Issue amply demonstrate, there are multiple ways in which cultures from the Global South mingle and intersect in explicit and implicit ways. Indeed, Global South is itself a complex and contested notion in such a way that works looking to analyze cultural communication can help illuminate. One only needs to think of the Chinese food and cuisine cultures that today sit side by side with African ones in cities such as Lagos, Nairobi, and Johannesburg. Indeed, the term trans-regionalism, increasingly popular in the social sciences speaks to the emergent fusions of cultures that do not necessarily emanate from the West in the globalized world we live in today. The realities of cultural connection in the Global South – forged in unique socio-economic milieus – can, at any rate, greatly contribute to what may be referred to as global cultures. The world is so much poorer without understanding transcultural communication from the Global South. And, scholars from the Global South ought not self-consciously to demur by seeking validation from the Global North before analysing observable cultural communications forged in their encounters. The third point returns us to the essence of transcultural communication studies. It is increasingly patent that no single discipline, philosophy, theory or method in the social sciences and humanities can explain communication. If we think of transcultural communication as the intermingling of cultures from different regions and cultures, then we also have to reckon with the fact that theories and methods from different cultures have a major influence. For instance, the philosophies of Ubuntu and Confucianism forged in the humanistic art of storytelling imply that the disciplines of history, politics, literature, sociology, and linguistics. The defining question in these respects is how theories founded from a Global South standpoint or what we may refer to as theories from the South. This question can be brought to bear on global knowledge production. Does this return us to De-Westernization? Not quite! In many respects, drawing on Global South theories serves as a theory-building approach to knowledge production in the sense that even theories that originate from the West can be re-theorized, reinvited and made relevant to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In these respects, therefore, we can think of transcultural communication as a site for innovative transdisciplinary work, the plumbing together of communications across disciplines. Through a series of original research articles and review essays, this Special Issue provides nuanced and multidimensional perspectives focusing on the topic of De-Westernizing transcultural communication -Abstract Truncated-