STRUCTURE AND CHAPTER OUTLINE

The structure outlined below follows the general framework for Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough 2003, to be further described in chapter 2) that proceeds from identifying the social problem to be investigated in its specific social context (in this case changes in the German higher education system and wider society), through an analysis of the specific role semiosis plays therein (changes in the order of discourse of academia, exemplified by the new field of inquiry IBC) to an exploration and discussion of potential alternative perspectives and discourses on the respective (in this case academic and educational) practices. The investigation thus attempts not only to describe and explain particular discursive practices in relation to other social

practicesbut aims ultimately to contribute to their transformation.

CHAPTER 2 outlines the theoretical and methodological framework I will use in this investigation. I principally draw upon Critical Realism (henceforth abbreviated as CR) as a socio-ontological perspective that brings into focus the nature of academic

knowledge in relation to issues of truth, truthfulness and validity. Critical Discourse Analysis (henceforth abbreviated as CDA) which is based on similar philosophical assumptions will be employed in order to understand academic writing as a socio- discursive practice related to the context of wider social and institutional change. As a method, CDA thus brings into focus how social change is partly brought about by specific changes in the order of discourses, i.e. the configuration and re-configuration of discourses and genres. Further important analytical concepts to be employed (such as genre integrity and hybridity,intertextuality and interdiscursivity) will also be explained.

The second part of the same chapter introduces some of the key terms and concepts every approach to intercultural communication employs and has to address, namely the relationship between culture, interculturality, the other, values and critique35. This discussion will serve as the theoretical background against which claims to these terms made in the academic articles under investigation will be assessed.

CHAPTER 3 provides a description of the historical emergence of the

interdisciplinary and applied academic field of IBC in both its country of origin, the U.S.A. and in the context of the German higher education system. It thus answers the question of what kind of discourse and professional communities, expectancies and interests are involved and interact in the respective genre system under investigation. The account will at the same time show the widespread establishment at universities and the particular institutional relationship of the field with the business sphere. It will likewise present main strands and approaches and highlight disciplines that authors in this field respond to, draw upon and combine in their interdisciplinary academic work. Particularly salient in this context is the relation with neoclassical economics: IBC responds to the two main shortcomings this predominant school of thought displays: the inability to account for the socio-cultural embeddedness of the economy and the socio-cultural nature of human beings. The last section therefore attempts to unearth the theoretical and institutional entanglement of the two fields36.

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By making the epistemological, ontological and normative assumptions and conceptual categories used in this investigation as clear and explicit as possible this chapter attempts to comply with the quest for reflexivity as established in the preceding section.

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Mainstream or neoclassical economics is, at the same time, related to the current hegemonic

discourses of neoliberalism (to be analyzed in chapter 4.2.) with which it shares a host of economic and political presuppositions and value assumptions. Neoliberal discourse will play an important role in the forthcoming analysis and argument. Central to this study will be the question of whether academics in the field of IBC are actually ‘buying into’ and thus contributing to the neoliberal project of change.

CHAPTER 4 focuses on the particular context intercultural theories are applied to and recontextualize, namely the international economy. The chapter unfolds as follows: For analytical reasons outlined in chapter 2, I will refer here to two distinct but dialectically interrelated levels: the discursively construed and the discursively mediated but fundamentally material reality of current socio-economic changes. In terms of discourses, I will outline main perspectives that are available in (mostly) sociological debate; in terms of material reality, I will engage in depth with current neoliberal policies37 and the serious political and ethical concerns these processes raise for intercultural contact in general and the cultural politics of the field in

question in particular. While chapter 3 had provides the background of the analysis in terms of genre by showing the links between and interests of different audiences and writers, chapter 4 establishes the necessary framework for an analysis of the

discourses employed in the respective texts.

CHAPTER 5 analyzes the corpus using CDA as a method. This chapter concentrates on three aspects: First, the appropriation and recontextualisation of (discourses of) socio-economic change (including for instance actors, processes and evaluations) and how these are in turn used to legitimate the academic subject area itself, its

institutionalization, educational goals, methods and concepts. Related to this is, secondly, an analysis of the theoretical position towards the key notions of culture,

interculture and otherness. In a third step, I will investigate whether, and if so how, the specific textual make up of these articles displays generic changes. In terms of

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I will focus on three supranational forces pushing for these changes: strategic alliances such as mergers and acquisitions operating on an international scale, supranational organization (the

International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization) which bring about the general legal framework (or its lack) these alliances work in and with and the international financial world that impact upon organizational structures and practices through the shareholder model of ownership.

textual analysis (to be outlined in more detail chapter 2), I will, for instance, look at how presuppositions are built up in time, how a ‘common-sense’ background is constructed, which particular meanings are mobilized through the textual organization, how the authority of the author is established, which discourses or genres are drawn upon, which purposes are pursued, if and how the text displays ambivalence and unresolved contradictions, and, last but not least, what is absent, unsaid or silenced.

CHAPTER 6 answers the question why the discourse of IBC and its associated meanings, values and purposes have become so dominant. It thus moves towards establishing a framework that explains how the discursive and generic patterns and strategies, paradoxes and tensions found in the texts are related to context IBC

operates in, in particular the changes the German higher education system is currently undergoing. In addition, I will analyze the design and commodification of

communicative practices through IBC in terms of Habermas’s Colonization of the Lifeworld and raise the question whether these ‘intercultural competencies’ can, in fact, improve mutual understanding. Through critically reflecting upon the nature of this form of knowledge production and the concomitant educational practices, I will, finally, invite a reexamination of the role of higher education in society.

CHAPTER 7: This final section will draw the findings together, point out the

relevance and contribution of this study and discuss normative issues and alternative perspectives. While the main part of the investigation tried to recover thekind of world intercultural competencies are tailored to and targeted for through the field of IBC, this last chapter addresses the question of how we want to imagine our social

futures and the kind of educational goals and methods following from this. It indicates alternative theoretical pathways to understand economic issues which allow the reconciliation of the relation between structure and agency, bring into focus the social embeddedness of the economy, take the conflictive nature of socio-economic relations into account and are, hence, able to integrate political-ethical concerns important for any understanding of intercultural communication. The aim here is not to bring closure to a debate but to open up avenues to arrive at an increased reflexive interdisciplinarity that is attuned to fulfilling the role higher education is to play in society. I will argue that to this end, the historical contextualization of academic discourse needs to be a central element of higher education and that CDA can be effectively employed to contribute to a critical awareness.