Constructing Cultural Cosmopolitanism: The Influence of Third Cultural-social Support Networks on Adaptation

• In Event: Beyond the home/host culture dichotomy: Alternative approaches to cross-cultural adaptation

Abstract

The influence of third cultural-social support networks on adaptation (Miriam Sobre-Denton)
This research focuses on moving beyond the traditional home/host culture dichotomy in cross-cultural adaptation research. Given the increased mobility and multiple border crossings of the globalized world, many sojourners find themselves building social support networks not made up of strictly home and/or host nationals per say, but of multinational, multicultural individuals, who all have in common that they are travelers. Specifically, this paper will examine the formation of multi-cultural social support networks and their role in the acculturation process. Using a framework of post-modern cosmopolitan theory, this research will describe a two-year ethnography of an international student group, including 25 interviews group member interviews, 50 pages of listserv documents, and 40 hours of participant/observation. From the qualitative data gathered, the research explores how the involvement of sojourners in such a multicultural third culture influences the identity processes of adaptation. In addition, the qualitative data have led the researcher to challenge cultural assumptions about the necessity to assimilate to the host culture in order to adequately adapt, and to consider issues surrounding the mainstream definitions of cosmopolitan theory in globalization ethnographies, such as elitism. Since the population studied has self-identified as a social organization, the paper examines the role of social support on the adaptation of these sojourners. Practical implications of this work include the improvement of recruitment and retention of international students in the face of the attenuating US position on the world stage; the decrease of the stereotype of the ‘Ugly American’ abroad through positive intercultural contact; and the implementation of more sophisticated support systems to assist sojourners through the transition process. Theoretical implications address the tendency to characterize cultural differences as essentializing binaries (i.e., the use of mutually exclusive categories rather than continuums to describe cultural differences); reconceptualizations of cosmopolitan identity theory to a less elitist and more hybridized perspective; and the linking of acculturation, third culture and social support theories to multifaceted influences beyond home/host culture dichotomies.

Author

• Miriam Sobre, Arizona State University