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Min-Sun Kim, NON-WESTERN PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN COMMUNICATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY AND PRACTICE. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2002; pp. 240, $59.95 hardcover, ISBN: 0761923500; $32.95 paper, ISBN: 0761923519.
This book presents us with a comprehensive review of research detailing differences between Western and Non-Western approaches to the study and practice of self-concept, including a discussion of a variety of commonly used communicative traits and constructs. The author advances both pragmatic and epistemological reasons for challenging dominant communicative concerns that have been fashioned by Western perspectives. The author presents an argument for questioning the current hegemony of Western views on communication, citing work drawn from predominantly East Asian frameworks.
The book begins with a thorough review of research on the cultural differences between independent and interdependent self-construals (chapters 1-3), with particular emphasis on the familiar work done by Triandis (e.g., 1989) and Markus and Kitayama (1991, 1998). It is argued that the creation and sustenance of self-systems necessarily reflects cultural backgrounds and the individualistic or collectivist belief system prevailing within that culture. The author argues that, just as Japan posed a "useful other" (pp. 28-29) for a critical examination of many fundamental assumptions underlying Western worldviews, further discussion of culturally different approaches to such issues may serve as a counterpoint for reexamining the ways in which we teach and do intercultural research. Throughout the text, the author...