Open Access Article Intercultural Communication

Intercultural Competencies as a Means to Manage Intercultural Interactions in Social Work

Jonas Stier (1)
1. School of Social Sciences, Mälardalen University, Sweden
https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v4i1.396

Article Sidebar

Issue
Vol. 4 No. 1 (2004)
Submitted
2003 January 12
Published
2004 March 30
Keywords:
    Intercultural Competencies, Content-Competencies, Social Work, cultural dimensions
Ask AI (Dimensions)
Download PDF

Abstract

In the last century Swedish society has become increasingly globalized and multicultural. Today about 20 per cent of the country’s population of 9 million people is of foreign decent. Recently questions of immigration, integration policies and multiculturalism have received much political attention. This fact, in the unmerciful light of a deconstruction of the welfare state coming to terms with these issues, constitutes an enormous challenge to the public sector as a whole. And for single social workers this requires somewhat new sorts of professional competencies – where intercultural competencies appear among the most important.
Drawing from the inherent paradoxes and cultural dimensions of social work, the article singles out and discusses several qualities of intercultural competencies that seem useful for social workers. These are referred to as content-competencies and process-competencies. It is concluded that intercultural competencies are preconditions for successful social work in the future.

Full text article

Generated from XML file

References

Appudurai, A. (1996) Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Beck, U. (1998) Vad innebär globaliseringen? Missuppfattningar och möjliga politiska svar. Göteborg: Daidalos. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Berger, P., Luckmann, T. (1966) The Social Construction of Reality. Garden City: Doubleday. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Bernler, G., Johnsson, L., Skårner, A. (1993) Behandlingens villkor. Om relationen och förväntningarna i det sociala arbetet. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Berry, J. et al (1992) Cross-cultural Psychology: Research and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self-identity. Cambridge: Polity Press. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Gudykunst & Kim (1997) Communicating with Strangers. An approach to intercultural communication (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Gustafsson, I. (without year) “Studier i en minoritetsgrupps strävan att bevara sin kulturella autonomi”. Stock-holms universitet: Pedagogiska institutionen, IMFO-gruppen, rapport nr. 9. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Hall, E. (1976) Beyond Culture. Garden City: Anchor Press. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Hessle, S. (1987) “Kan vi förstå klienterna?”. Socionomen (1). Google Scholar | WorldCat

Holgersson, L. (2000) Socialpolitik och socialt arbete (2nd ed.). Stockholm: Norstedts Juridik. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Holmberg, B. (1984) Socialarbetare och invandrare. Stockholm: Liber. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Integrationsverket (2001) Rapport integration 2001. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Kluckhohn, C. (1985) Mirror for Man. The Relation of Anthropology to Modern Life. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Lundgren, K-E. (1980) “Att se och bli sedd. Om familjebehandling inom socialvården”. Stockholm: Socialstyrelsen/Liber: Sociala metoder 3. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Marklund, S. Nordenstam, K. Penton, R. (1984) Socialvärlden. Om mötet mellan socialarbetare och klient. Stockholm: Liber. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Maslach, C. (1985) Utbränd. En bok om omsorgens pris. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Rychen, D. S., Hersh Salganik, L. (eds.) (2001) Defining and Selecting Key Competencies. Seattle: Hogrefe & Huber. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Stier, J. (2000) ”Social omsorg i ett mångkulturellt Sverige – det interkulturella förhållningssättet som möjlighet”. Socialt Perspektiv 2-3. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Stier, J. (2003) ”Internationalisation, Ethnic Diversity and the Acquisition of Intercultural Competencies”. Intercultural Education. Vol. 14, No. 1. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Stier, J. (2004) Kulturmöten. En introduktion till interkulturella studier. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Williams, R.(1981) The Sociology of Culture. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar | WorldCat

Notes Google Scholar | WorldCat

For a discussion around the concept of “competence”, see Rychen & Hersh Salganik (2001). Google Scholar | WorldCat

Authors

Jonas Stier
Jonas.Stier@mdh.se (Primary Contact)
Author Biography

Jonas Stier

Jonas Stier is a senior lecturer in sociology at the School of Social Sciences at Mälardalen University in Sweden where he teaches sociology, intercultural studies and intercultural communication. His primary research areas are intercultural interaction, interculturality, identity and the internationalization of higher education.

Stier, J. (2004). Intercultural Competencies as a Means to Manage Intercultural Interactions in Social Work. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 4(1), 1-07. https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v4i1.396
Download Citation
Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS) BibTeX

Copyright (c) 2004 Jonas Stier

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This journal provides immediate and free open access to all its content and is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This means readers are permitted to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, as long as proper attribution is given. This policy is consistent with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access. 

 

Article Details

How to Cite

Stier, J. (2004). Intercultural Competencies as a Means to Manage Intercultural Interactions in Social Work. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 4(1), 1-07. https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v4i1.396

Most read articles by the same author(s)