The Discourse of Ethics and Equity in Intercultural Communication

This book examines the notions of ethics and equity in relation to language and communication in intercultural relations, notions that, although often discussed, are not always addressed with regard to specific subjects. Much intercultural discourse dialogue of recent times has been coloured by clashes of civilizations (as described by Samuel Huntington), terrorist attacks such as 9/11, and the indelible effects which these events have had on dealings between different peoples, cultures and religions. This book discusses ethics and equity with regard to marginalized and privileged minorities, victims of abuse and of conflict, researchers and practitioners, and language learners and speaker/users. It opens up spaces for a critical discourse of ethics and equity in language and intercultural communication as ‘new’ knowledge. This book was originally published as a special issue ofLanguage and Intercultural Communication.

Shanta Nair-Venugopal was most recently guest scholar at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and previously Principal Fellow at the Institute of Occidental Studies and Professor in the School of Language Studies and Linguistics, National University of Malaysia. Her publications include The Gaze of the West and Framings of the East(2012), and ‘Linguistic ideology and practice’, Linguistics and Education(2013).