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Becoming an Intercultural Professional: Risks and Affordances

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The Intercultural Professional

Part of the book series: Communicating in Professions and Organizations ((PSPOD))

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Abstract

The risks and affordances experienced in becoming an intercultural professional are examined in this chapter, with a focus on ways that professionals who have relocated to live and work reflect on and make sense of key moments of dissonance and discovery in interactions. As they recount moments when their intended meanings are misinterpreted and their professional expertise and identities misrepresented, I focus on ways in which it becomes routine for them to consider diverse interpretations of situations, mediate understandings and reflexively respond to perceptions of risk to their professional expertise and identities. I argue that they develop a ‘socialised intersubjectivity’, as they move from dissonance to discovery, making connections between languages and cultures and diverse ways of thinking, feeling, reacting, interpreting and evaluating, discoveries which inform their professional expertise and sense of self.

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  1. UniSA Justice and Society, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Fiona O’Neill

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O’Neill, F. (2020). Becoming an Intercultural Professional: Risks and Affordances. In: The Intercultural Professional. Communicating in Professions and Organizations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52531-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52531-6_4

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-52530-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-52531-6

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