Books

• Edward T. Hall, The Silent Language (1959), a classic, which many seen as the beginning of the field of intercultural communication
• Geert Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind (1991), standard in the field by one of the major scholars
• Adrian Holliday, Intercultural communication & ideology (2011), looks at intercultural communication against the backdrop of an unequal global politics in which ideology plays a major role
• Edward Said (1979). Orientalism. 1978. New York: Vintage, 1994.
• Kathryn Sorrells, Intercultural Communication: Globalization and Social Justice (2015)

Online Resources

Globalization

• Why the World Is Flat
  Article from Wired about Thomas Friedman’s well-known book on globalization
• Pankaj Ghemawat: Actually, the world isn’t flat
  Ghemawat offers counter-arguments to the conventional wisdom about globalization, the concept that, as Tom Friedman put it, the “world is flat”. In particular he has interesting comments about Facebook.
  TED description: “It may seem that we’re living in a borderless world where ideas, goods and people flow freely from nation to nation. We’re not even close, says Pankaj Ghemawat. With great data (and an eye-opening survey), he argues that there’s a delta between perception and reality in a world that’s maybe not so hyperconnected after all.”
• Global Policy Forum: Globalization
  From Global Policy Forum, with extensive links

Statistics on world demographics

• World Demographics Profile
  From Index Mundi, includes demographic information on all countries
• Hari Kondabolu – 2042 & the White Minority
  Humorous take on the demographic changes coming to the USA

Cultural dimensions and history of intercultural communication

• Edward T. Hall and The History of Intercultural Communication: The United States and Japan
  Article tracing the role of anthropologist Edward T. Hall in founding the field of intercultural communication
• Geert Hofstede cultural dimensions
  From Clearly Cultural

On broadening horizons and media

• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story
  Nigerian novelist speaking about her experiences growing up in Nigeria and studying in the USA
  TED description: “Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.”
• Leslie Dodson: Don’t misrepresent Africa
  TED description: “Real narratives are complicated: Africa isn’t a country, and it’s not a disaster zone, says reporter and researcher Leslie Dodson. In her talk, she calls for journalists, researchers and NGOs to stop representing entire continents as one big tragedy.”
• Alisa Miller: How the news distorts our worldview
  World map dramatically illustrates the US media’s reporting on world events (very limited)
  TED description: “Alisa Miller, head of Public Radio International, talks about why — though we want to know more about the world than ever — the media is actually showing us less. Eye-opening stats and graphs.”

Technology and the filter bubble

• Technology is creating a world without strangers
  On the sharing economy
• How to Burst the “Filter Bubble” that Protects Us from Opposing Views
  From the MIT Technology Review
• Eli Pariser: Beware online “filter bubbles”                                                                                                                                 Pariser’s classic TED talk explains the concepts of echo chamber and filter bubble. TED description: “As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, there’s a dangerous unintended consequence: We get trapped in a ‘filter bubble’ and don’t get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. Eli Pariser argues powerfully that this will ultimately prove to be bad for us and bad for democracy.”
• Ethan Zuckerman: Listening to global voices                                                                                                                            Interesting comments on how to be more aware of what’s happening in the rest of the world, such as “engineer serendipity” and “cultivate xenophiles”. Discussion of Twitter from an international perspective. TED description: “Sure, the web connects the globe, but most of us end up hearing mainly from people just like ourselves. Blogger and technologist Ethan Zuckerman wants to help share the stories of the whole wide world. He talks about clever strategies to open up your Twitter world and read the news in languages you don’t even know.”