We were like them” Intersecting Identities and Mediators' Intercultural Communication in a Municipal Service

Dorian Soru; Valentina Schiavinato; Mohammed Khalid Rhazzali; Antonio Aiello

doi:10.36923/jicc.v13i1.615

Open Access Article Intercultural Communication

Dorian Soru ⁽¹⁾ , Valentina Schiavinato ⁽²⁾ , Mohammed Khalid Rhazzali ⁽³⁾ , Antonio Aiello ⁽⁴⁾

1. Department of Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology

2. Department of Philosophy

3. Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Pedagogy and Applied Psychology

4. Department of Political and Social Sciences

https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v13i1.615

Issue
Vol. 13 No. 1 (2013)

Submitted
2011 May 3

Published
2013 March 30

Keywords:

intercultural communication, cultural mediation in public services, identity

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Abstract

The main aim of this article is to present an intercultural communication study conducted in a municipal service, which focuses on how cultural mediators make sense of their work with migrants, being both representatives of an Italian institution as well as former foreigners/migrants themselves: their shared everyday context, common destiny and their understanding of users’ experiences. The study, on the whole, underlines how cultural mediators use personal aspects of their own lives to build a “bridge” between the migrant users and the institutions they represent, thus lessening the gap between migrants' past experience and their present lives.

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Authors

Dorian Soru

dorian.soru@unica.it (Primary Contact)

Valentina Schiavinato

Mohammed Khalid Rhazzali

Antonio Aiello

Author Biographies

Dorian Soru

Dorian Soru is Post-Doctoral Research Fellow on Intercultural Processes at the University of Cagliari. His main interests include Intercultural Communication, qualitative research methods in Cultural Psychology, Intercultural processes in contact zones and Computer-Mediated Communication.

Valentina Schiavinato

Valentina Schiavinato received her PhD in Social and Personality Psychology at University of Padova in 2007. Her research interests include intercultural communication and mediation, identity positioning, intercultural practices in everyday and institutional contexts. At the present day she teaches “Social Psychology” and “Intercultural Communication in Public Services” at the University of Padova.

Mohammed Khalid Rhazzali

Mohammed Khalid Rhazzali studied Political Sciences at the University of Padua, Migration Sciences at the European University of Rome, he obtained his PhD in Sociology of Intercultural and Communicative Processes at the University of Padua, he is Doctor Europaeus and Docteur de Recherche en Sociologie at the EHESS of Paris. His main research interests include Immigration, Everyday Multiculturalism in new generations, Islam and intercultural processes, Linguistic and Cultural Mediation. He currently teaches Sociology of Human Rights at the University of Padua.

Antonio Aiello

Antonio Aiello is Associate Professor at the Department of Political Sciences, University of Pisa. His main interests include Political Psychology and Intercultural processes. He has authored and co-authored several contribution in the areas of Political Psychology, Intercultural Processes and Intergroup Relations.

Soru, D., Schiavinato, V., Rhazzali, M. K., & Aiello, A. (2013). We were like them” Intersecting Identities and Mediators’ Intercultural Communication in a Municipal Service. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 13(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v13i1.615

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