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Welcome to the Intercultural Connector! |
Intercultural Connector is the official bi-annual publication of the World Council on Intercultural and Global Competence, a global nonprofit organization with free membership to all with a mission to connect researchers, practitioners, students, and policymakers across languages, cultures, disciplines, and countries to further our understanding and praxis of intercultural and global competence (www.iccglobal.org). Intercultural Connector offers different genres of articles including practitioner pieces, book reviews, opinion pieces, art reflections as well as peer-reviewed research-based articles and more. Submissions are accepted around the year.
Email: connector@iccglobal.org |
In this issue of the Intercultural Connector, we have two special feature articles by renowned interculturalists Craig Storti and Peter Mousaferiadis. In Craig’s article, he shares a reflection on his experience of a trip to Essaouira. The story began with how he was invited to stay with one of his former students and found out that the father of his student had more than one wife, to a series of reflective questions that led to a humble notion of “a person from one culture is ultimately a mystery to someone from a very different culture.” In addition to the interesting reflections from Craig, in Peter’s article, he presents a data analytics perspective on race and colorism, arguing that the deceitful category of race is contradictory to the idea of embracing shared humanity. Even powerful influencers such as ChatGPT state that racial categories have real social consequences, therefore to create greater equity, Peter suggests that the concept of race should be treated as the purely social, historical, and cultural category that it is.
Aside from our featured articles, this issue contains two peer-reviewed articles and four vetted articles. In the first article, Paichou Huang shares her experience of coordinating a tri-national conference across Taiwan, Malaysia, and Mainland China. There were various intercultural learning opportunities while coordinating, such as during moments of tension, interacting with individuals with different communication styles, and dealing with different institutional decision-making structures across the three countries. The second article, written in French by Luciana Lallaizon, examines intergenerational continuity and identity formation, arguing that children raised between cultures inherit not only fixed identities but also narratives, memories, and symbolic lineages. The third article, written by Karen Rice, draws examples from the podcast Stolen Goodbyes to discuss how political inaction, fragmented memorialization, and structural inequalities produced disenfranchised grief from the COVID-19 pandemic. The fourth article by Linda Safford is a reflection based on the Caux Principles on moral capitalism and global leadership from perspectives of kyosei, human dignity, and ethics of care. The fifth article by Logan Tayler Pender is a reflection from a graduate student’s perspective on the complexities of intercultural and global learning. The last article of this issue by Clare Conway and Lucie Pollard is a short article sharing an experience of UNESCO Story Circles from a staff mobility visit from Ireland to Stellenbosch University in South Africa. |
Creating a Global Community Where All are Welcome
The World Council on Intercultural and Global Competence (World Council for short), a global non-profit NGO, continues to engage students, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers across cultures, languages and countries to create a global community through initiatives such as hosting virtual annual Global Forums and Symposia, sharing resources on intercultural and global competence, and through an increasing number of working groups that address intercultural-related issues from assessment to migration to the SDGs. Working groups and volunteers are at the heart of the World Council. We are grateful for all members of the World Council contributing in their respective ways - coordinating working groups, delivering webinars, sharing resources, and connecting people with each other - thank you to everyone who is part of the World Council community (which can be found online at Linkr- if you have not joined us on the Linkr online platform yet, please do so soon since that is where all the action is happening including the 20+ working groups! It's quick to join) As always, membership in the World Council remains free and you are warmly invited to become a member of World Council by completing the brief online member form on World Council’s website at www.iccglobal.org. Let us continue to grow this global community and bridge divides as we build a more peaceful world together.
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Our strength at the World Council lies in our appreciation, gratitude, respect and support of and for each other. In this vein, we recognize those who help us achieve our goals. For the current issue, deep gratitude is extended to Monika Jaiswal-Oliver and academics and practitioners worldwide who serve as reviewers representing Japan, Australia, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and the USA. |
Official Publication
The Intercultural Connector is published bi-annually by the World Council on Intercultural and Global Competence, a U.S.-based 501(c) (3) non-profit global organization registered in North Carolina, U.S. The publication follows the APA (7thEdition) style and format and uses American and British English spelling based in the authorship. All findings and opinions published in the Intercultural Connector are those of the authors, and are not attributable to the World Council, its staff or volunteers. Submissions and queries can be sent to connector@iccglobal.org or info@iccglobal.org |
Table of Contents
Special Features: My Trip to Essaouira Craig Storti
Race and Colorism: A Data Analytics Perspective - Peter Mousaferiadis
Peer-reviewed Articles:
Intercultural Decision-Making in a Tri-National Academic Conference: Lessons from Coordinating Collaboration Across Taiwan, Malaysia, and China – Paichou Huang
Le multiculturalisme en héritage : promesses d’une nomade envers son enfant interculturel – Luciana Lallaizon
Vetted Articles:
COVID-19 and the Global Right to Pause: Intercultural Memory, Inequality, and the Unfinished Grief of a Pandemic – Karen Rice
A Reflection on Moral Capitalism and Global Leadership: Kyosei, Human Dignity, and Ethics of Care – Linda Safford
Between Worlds: A Graduate Student’s Exploration of Global and Intercultural Learning – Logan Tayler Pender
From the West of Ireland to the Western Cape: A Story Circles Reflective Report – Clare Conway and Lucie Pollard
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My Trip to Essaouira Craig Storti Many years ago I taught English as a foreign language for two years at a high school in Safi, Morocco. About 60 of my pupils were boarding students from Essaouira, a town three hours down the coast. These students would go home for certain holidays, and one day a group of them invited me to accompany them and spend the holiday in their town. We took the bus together and I ended up staying at the home of Mohamed Ezzrahoui. The first morning I was there I saw a lady sweeping the central courtyard, and I asked Mohamed if that was his mother. “No,’ he answered. “That’s one of my father’s wives.”
At the time I did not think much about this. I knew it was legal in Morocco for men to have more than one wife, so I was not surprised or shocked. If anything, I was amused at the naivete of my question. Now many years later, I often think of that brief exchange and realize how significant it was, although it didn’t seem so at the time. I realize that what it meant was that given the vastly different environments he and I grew up in, I had very little chance of ever understanding Mohamed. What is it like to live and grow up in a household where there are three mothers and where only one is yours? How are you supposed to relate to the other two mothers? Should you be careful to relate to them with the same respect and deference as towards your own mother? What do those other two mothers think of Mohamed? How are they supposed to treat him? The same way as their own children or some other way? What duties do they have towards him? Is he supposed to interact with his half-siblings the same way he interacts with his full siblings, assuming there are any? How are his half-siblings supposed to behave towards him? Towards his mother? How does Mohamed’s father expect him to behave around the other members of the family? How does his father treat him relative to the children of other wives? Is there a favorite wife? If so, should Mohamed treat her differently than his own mother? In what ways? If the favorite is his own mother, how does that change the dynamic of this boy’s world? How has growing up with all these considerations—and countless others—influenced Mohamed’s thinking and ultimately how he behaves in numerous everyday situations? What are the rules Mohamed has learned to live by? What is it like to think like Mohamed?
I could go on with many more questions, but these are enough to make my central point here: the everyday life of Mohamed—the behaviors he has learned and developed, the circumstances that have shaped who he is, how he thinks, how he behaves—are profoundly different from the reality that has shaped me and people like me. And if that is so, then what chance do I have of ever understanding him? If we human beings are the products of our experience, then a set of experiences as profoundly different as mine and Mohamed’s must have resulted in two profoundly different products. Can these two products ever really understand each other? When I project what I think Mohamed’s behavior means—what is driving it—when I make assumptions about his actions based on my very different upbringing, what chance do I have of being anything but accidentally correct? And yet we regularly make these projections and assumptions to be able to interact successfully with another person, with any other person, in fact.
To be sure, any two individuals, even those from a similar background with a very similar upbringing, will nevertheless be different in many respects, but not, I think, profoundly different, not in the sense of more or less unknowable. But I would submit that Mohamed and I will always be largely unknowable to each other.
As I was writing this column, I was thinking I had not come across this notion very often—that a person from one culture is ultimately a mystery to someone from a very different culture. I didn’t think the idea was original with me, but I didn’t remember reading it anywhere. And then I picked up a book called Traveling with Herodotus by the Polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinski and came across a passage where he is describing a ritual that the great Indian writer Rabindranath Tagore underwent every morning with his father who woke the young Rabi before dawn to sing the Upanishads. Here is how Kapuscinski describes the occasion:
I tried to imagine this scene: it is dawning, and the father and small, sleepy Rabi stand facing the rising sun and singing the Upanishads. The Upanishads are philosophical songs dating back three thousand years, but still vibrant, still present in India’s spiritual life. When I realized this and thought about the small boy greeting the morning star with stanzas from the Upanishads, I doubted whether I could ever comprehend a country in which children start the day singing verses of philosophy.
I suppose we don’t encounter this notion that often in the intercultural field because it undermines one of our core assumptions: that it is possible to understand people from a different culture, that someone from a very different culture is not ultimately unknowable to us. But is that really true? Could I ever really understand where Mohamed comes from? Each of us will answer this question in our own way, but merely engaging with the question should make us more humble.
Author bio Craig Storti is a best-selling author, trainer and consultant in the field of intercultural communication. For more information on Craig Storti please visit his website: https://www.craigstorti.com/ |
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Race and Colorism: A Data Analytics Perspective Peter Mousaferiadis
Like languages, all categories are social constructs, but some categories are more truthful than others. Race is a deceitful category. Intercultural competence requires “embracing our shared humanity, recognizing our interdependence with each other and with the planet, and cultivating a way of being that honors dignity, difference, and care.” (Deardorff & Simba, 2025) The category of race makes it impossible to meet these preconditions; conceived and perpetuated as a hierarchy (The Linnean Society, 2020), it pits groups of people against each other.
Despite this, there is still widespread acceptance of racial categories. Survey a group on their race, and many people are happy to comply, however there is considerable pushback when people are asked about skin shade. For a more equitable world, we need to reverse this equation through education, and this education needs to occur everywhere.
Described by palaeoanthropologist Darren Curnoe as “the worst error in the history of science” (2016), racial categorization continues to play a major role in the field of human identity. In the United States, the national census, many institutions and most Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs still rely heavily on racial categories. In Australia, the acronym CARM (culturally and racially marginalised) is often used to refer to “people who cannot be racialized as white” (Diversity Council Australia, 2023).
The unintended consequence of sectioning off a group of people “who cannot be racialized as white” is that it perpetuates racial categorization, which perpetuates the debunked but still pervasive and conditioned belief that race has biological validity. It also perpetuates the conflation of people with a particular pale pink or beige skin shade with the concept of “whiteness”, which more accurately describes an ideology rather than skin shade, as countless eminent thinkers and writers have pointed out (Dabashi, 2021). Racism can be perpetrated against people regardless of their biological appearance, solely based on cultural or religious markers like names, accents or attire. Is it ok for people to identify as black, blak, brown, white, Asian, Indigenous and/or mixed? Yes, if they clearly understand this as social, cultural and historical categories and not biological categories; there is no biological evidence for a black or white or Asian race.
Does discrimination based on skin shade exist? Yes! This is called colorism, and it is remarkably pervasive throughout the world (Pollock et al. 2020). Lighter skin in many Asian countries is traditionally associated with class or caste, a pattern reinforced by Mughal and European rule (Jung, 2023). But we cannot understand this form of discrimination through racial categories. To understand how colorism manifests, we need data that distinguishes by skin shade, not by “race”. Since its launch in November 2022, the Large Language Model (LLM) ChatGPT has accrued more than 800 million weekly users to date (OpenAI, 2025), making it a powerful influencer. On 25 November 2025, I asked ChatGPT for its opinion on racial categories.
ChatGPT responded that “racial categories have real social consequences. They structure access to resources, power, and social treatment, and they’re often embedded in institutions like education, healthcare, and the legal system. That’s why organizations, researchers, and governments continue to use racial categories in surveys and policy-making—they can help identify inequities and guide interventions.”
The idea that racial categories can help identify inequities is a dangerous fallacy that LLMs are perpetuating. The broad racial category “black” does not distinguish between an African American descendant of enslaved people and a privileged Nigerian academic. Even this distinction lacks nuance as real equity calls for a holistic intersectional approach to identity.
Academics have been slow to identify the role technology plays in shaping our social worlds, and the important role of categories (i.e. datasets) in shaping technology. Philosopher Yuk Hui illuminates in much of his work the disconnect between philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists and technology (2024). The social theory of constructivism has led many prominent academics to eschew classification altogether, as per this statement: “Insofar as that research grows from the original constructivist and developmental roots, it will avoid taxonomic classification and focus instead on developmental.” (Bennett, 2017, italics added)
Avoidance of categories is not a realistic option. As humans, it is through categorization that we generate meaning (Hall, 1997). Categories allow us to identify, measure and compare patterns and relationships. Scientists have created detailed taxonomies of thousands of life forms. The human genome is a complete set of nucleic acid sequences for humans. Yet this same rigor is rare when it comes to understanding human identity.
Racial categories have muddied a collective understanding of human identity. Race is usually invoked as a proxy for skin shade, but can also stand in for ethnicity, economic status, religion, culture, skin shade and racialization itself. Race scholar Sheena Mason has done groundbreaking work disentangling race from many of its proxies (2024). Racial categorization has the starkest impact in the healthcare field; indeed as New York City’s chief medical officer Dr Michelle Morse said, “health equity scholars have been raising alarm bells about the way race has been misused in clinical algorithms for decades” (Neergaard, 2024). Two notorious examples of this misuse are spirometers (Anderson, Malhotra, & Non, 2020) and eGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate) measurements used to diagnose kidney function (Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, 2025).
So why categorize human identity? Aren't we all the same? Why shouldn’t we eliminate the word “diversity” and base all our decisions about people on individual merit or need?
Differentiation is important because as humans we have different needs and gifts. The natural world caters for our diversity by matching it with a greater diversity than our own. By contrast, our socially constructed world often limits choices, especially for those further from the hegemony.
The conflation of race with skin color has allowed the biologically real category of skin shade to be under-analysed from a data analytics perspective. You may have 100 people in a market or clinical study who identify as black, but not one person with very dark skin shade.
Harvard University sociologist Ellis Monk points out that “lots of different companies need to make sure that their products work equally well across the entire skin tone continuum,” citing faucets that don’t turn on for dark-skinned people, self-driving cars that don’t recognise dark-skinned people as people, and pulse oximeters that don’t detect the correct blood oxygen levels in people with dark skin (Medtronic, 2024). Computer scientist Joy Buolamwini founded the Algorithmic Justice League in response to her personal experience with AI-powered facial-recognition systems.
Racial categories are a poor proxy for determining where inequities fall. To create greater equity – including faucets that work for every skin shade – and avoid the resentments and polarization caused by misleading categories, our technology must adhere more closely to biological and social reality, and must parse the two. Those of us working to promote intercultural understanding must normalize collecting data on the biological proxies for race, especially skin shade, and treat race as the purely social, historical and cultural category that it is.
References
Anderson, M. A., Malhotra, A., & Non, A. L. (2020). Could routine race adjustment of spirometers exacerbate racial disparities in COVID 19 recovery? The Lancet. Respiratory Medicine. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30571-3
Hall, Stuart, ed. (1997). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Sage.
Hui, Yuk. (2024). Machine and Sovereignty for a Planetary Thinking. University of Minnesota Press.
Mason, S. (2024). The Raceless Antiracist: Why Ending Racism Is the Future of Antiracism. Pitchstone Publishing.
Pollock, S., Taylor, S., Oyerinde, O., Nurmohamed, S., Dlova, N., Sarkar, R., Galadari, H., Manela Azulay, M., Chung, H. S., Handog, E., & Kourosh, A. S. (2020). The dark side of skin lightening: An international collaboration and review of a public health issue affecting dermatology. International Journal of Women’s Dermatology, 7(2), 158–164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijwd.2020.09.006
Author bio
Peter Mousaferiadis is CEO of Melbourne-based cultural enterprise Cultural Infusion, founded in 2002. With a professional background as a composer, conductor and creative director, he advances intercultural understanding through education, the arts and ICT, reaching 375,000+ students annually. Cultural Infusion’s data and equity SaaS platform, Atlas (launched 2019), serves global organisations. Mousaferiadis has received major international awards, including UN, interfaith and global leadership honours, and coined “Diversified We Grow” for a UN campaign. |
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Introduction As international collaboration becomes increasingly central to higher education, academic conferences serve as important platforms for knowledge exchange, relationship-building, and global engagement. Yet behind the scenes, the actual process of coordinating such conferences is often complex, revealing deeply rooted cultural norms, communication patterns, and institutional logics. Intercultural competence is not only displayed in the conference content—it is required throughout the entire organizational process.
This article draws upon my recent experiences serving as a coordinator for a tri-national academic conference jointly organized by institutions in Taiwan, Malaysia, and Mainland China. What began as a straightforward administrative task quickly evolved into a real-time intercultural learning experience. The project illuminated key differences in communication styles, organizational structures, decision-making timelines, and expectations across three higher education systems. Through this process, I came to understand how global competence is developed not only through theory or formal training, but through navigating actual cross-border collaboration in practice.
Institutional Decision-Making Structures Across the Three Partners
The most significant difference encountered during this collaboration was the decision-making structure embedded in each country’s higher education system. These structures directly influenced communication speed, clarity, and stability. Malaysia: ISO-Centered Coordination and Relational Clarity
Our Malaysian partners worked primarily through the International Office (ISO), which acted as a centralized hub for communication. Once the ISO approved a decision, internal alignment was swift and reliable. Their communication style was warm, relational, and supportive. Emails and WhatsApp messages, widely used across Southeast areas, often began with personal greetings and ended with expressions of appreciation, which helped build rapport and trust. In Malaysian contexts, establishing a positive working relationship was the foundation of efficiency. Once this relational groundwork was laid, decisions tended to remain stable, and administrative processes flowed smoothly.
Mainland China: Multi-Level Approval and Late Finalization In Mainland China, the workflow was shaped by a hierarchical and highly regulated approval process. Professors or coordinators serving as contact points could not directly confirm participation, delegation size, travel plans, or session assignments. Every decision had to pass through senior administrative authorization and even higher-level administrative authorities.
As a result, preparations needed to begin at least six months in advance, much earlier than other partners expected. Yet paradoxically, final approval often arrived only one week before departure. In some cases, the complete travel list and session participation were finalized over a single weekend. This required all partners - especially the host institutions - to adjust plans rapidly, finalize logistics, and update materials within days. WeChat is the primary communication and document-sharing tool in Mainland China.
Taiwan: Documentation, Timelines, and Mediation The Taiwanese team, including myself, served as the intermediary positioned between the early-relational clarity of Malaysia and the late-hierarchical decision-making of China. Taiwan’s organizational culture emphasized documentation, detailed schedules, and incremental progress. However, the need to bridge two systems with contrasting rhythms required more than procedural precision - it demanded intercultural empathy, patience, and adaptability. Emails and line messages, are the primary communication tools.
Communication Styles and Their Intercultural Implications Beyond institutional structures, the tri-national collaboration revealed notable differences in communication style. ● Malaysia: contextual, warm, relationship-based ● China: concise, rapid, authority-driven ● Taiwan: detailed, cautious, confirmation-oriented
These styles are not simply personal preferences - they reflect broader cultural norms (Deardorff, 2020). Communication differences also shaped perceptions of professionalism. For example, when Mainland China partners responded quickly but without elaboration, Malaysian colleagues sometimes interpreted this as abruptness. Conversely, when Malaysian partners wrote relational messages, Chinese colleagues occasionally viewed the tone as less direct or overly cautious. By serving as the communication bridge, I learned to adjust my style depending on the recipient—being clearer and more structured with China partners, while maintaining relational warmth and contextual detail with Malaysian partners. This adaptive communication reflects a core component of global competence (OECD, 2023).
Moments of Tension as Intercultural Learning Opportunities Intercultural competence often emerges through tension rather than harmony. Several moments during the conference planning process highlighted contrasting expectations:
1. Deadlines and Time Perception
For Malaysian partners, early clarity was essential because it connected to event promotion, budgeting, and logistical preparation. For Chinese partners, early clarity was impossible due to internal review requirements. This mismatch created recurring anxiety. What initially felt like organizational inconsistency later revealed itself as a systemic constraint—not an individual or institutional weakness.
2. Hierarchy and Flexibility
Normally, last-minute changes to session chairs or panel arrangements were manageable. In China, such modifications could be interpreted as disrespectful to hierarchy or as inadequate preparation. Understanding this expectation allowed us to communicate changes earlier and more sensitively.
3. Information Sharing and Trust
Timely updates from China depended greatly on trust. Once that trust was established, Chinese partners increasingly provided early internal signals (“informal but accurate” updates), helping us reduce uncertainty. This reinforced the importance of relationship-building across all three contexts. These tensions, though initially challenging, drove deeper intercultural understanding and strengthened our collaboration.
Developing Global Competence Through Practice
Throughout these projects, I learned that intercultural competence is cultivated through lived experience. Frameworks from UNESCO (2023) and OECD (2023) emphasize empathy, adaptability, and perspective-taking—qualities that emerged naturally as we navigated real challenges.
Key lessons included:
Intercultural competence requires cognitive flexibility. I learned to reinterpret actions not as inefficiency or delay, but as reflections of structural and cultural systems.
Communication must be adaptive rather than uniform. Adjusting tone, speed, and depth depending on the audience became crucial to sustaining collaboration.
Relationship-building is essential to global coordination. Trust facilitated earlier information sharing, particularly with Chinese partners.
Conflict provides insight. Moments of disagreement revealed deeper assumptions about leadership, expectations, and cultural norms.
These practical lessons—emphasizing cognitive flexibility, adaptive communication, and relationship-building—are fundamentally aligned with a Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA). These insights align with global competence frameworks emphasizing real-world engagement and reflective practice (Li, 2023).
Conclusion
Coordinating a tri-national conference across Taiwan, Malaysia, and Mainland China offered a rare opportunity to experience intercultural collaboration at a structural, interpersonal, and communicative level. The project demonstrated that successful global cooperation is not built solely on logistics or technology, but on mutual understanding, trust, and respect for diverse institutional realities.
This experience transformed my understanding of global competence. It reinforced the idea that intercultural collaboration is not merely an academic concept—it is an everyday practice that requires sensitivity, adaptive communication, and a willingness to learn from ambiguity. As higher education continues to globalize, these lessons remain essential for scholars, administrators, and students seeking to engage meaningfully across borders.
To strengthen future cross-border collaborations, institutions may consider establishing shared communication protocols and early expectation-alignment mechanisms. Supporting coordinators with clearer intercultural mediation structures will also help reduce uncertainty and enhance cooperation. In 2026, our Malaysian partners will host the next global conference. The experiences gained from this tri-national collaboration have prepared me more fully for the upcoming event, and I look forward to applying these intercultural insights in a new context. References
Li, X., Chen, L., & Liu, Y. (2025). An exploratory study of ASEAN students’ engagement dynamics with local communities in China, Japan, and South Korea. Higher Education, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-025-01402-6
Author bio
Paichou Huang is a PhD candidate at the Department of Management Sciences, Tamkang University, Taiwan. Her work focuses on the internationalization of higher education, international education, and student mobility. With extensive experience in cross-border educational practice since the early 1990s, her current research interests also include global competence and intercultural learning in higher education contexts. |
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Heureux qui, comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage, / Ou comme celui‑là qui conquit la Toison,/ Et puis est retourné, plein d’usage et raison, / Vivre entre ses parents le reste de son âge! (Du Bellay, 1558/1967, sonnet 31)
En Transylvanie, ma terre natale quittée il y a presque vingt ans, la Fête des Morts – Ziua Morților – demeure un rituel familial : le 1ᵉʳ novembre, on fleurit et on illumine les tombes pour honorer les disparus. Moins connue qu’Halloween ou Día de los Muertos, elle reflète l’hybridation d’une région où se mêlent traditions orthodoxes, catholiques et protestantes.
Cette année, j’y ai emmené ma fille pour la première fois. Elle n’a pas connu mes ancêtres ni le sens de la fête. Devant les collines dénudées baignées de la lumière de miel d’octobre, j’ai senti combien ce paysage m’avait manqué. Alors une question est montée en surface : ce rituel est‑il pour moi — pour ne pas me perdre — ou pour elle, née ailleurs et élevée entre plusieurs mondes ?
Comme beaucoup d’enfants qui évoluent entre plusieurs langues, pays et héritages culturels, ma fille incarne ces identités globales qui se construisent autour de plusieurs référents. Cet essai est une réflexion sur la continuité intergénérationnelle dans la vie des individus aux identités culturelles croisées et itinérantes : immigrés, expatriés, third culture kids, etc.
Le multiculturalisme et l’immigration ne sont pas nouveaux, mais la complexité croissante des mixités et la rapidité des mobilités nous obligent à repenser les identités en mouvement. « Le métissage mélange des êtres humains dans la mondialisation : l’enfant né du métissage apparaît comme paradigme d’humanité » [1].
Continuité intergénérationnelle symbolique Religieux ou non, les rituels de famille assurent la transmission des lignées identitaires. Quand les héritages culturels sont multiples, le passage de récits nourrit des besoins d’identité.
Les choix culturels du parent éducateur : Les enfants nés de couples d’origine mixte ne choisissent ni leur multiculturalité ni la mobilité qui l’accompagne. Il revient donc aux parents de soutenir leur besoin d’appartenance en leur donnant les moyens de construire leurs propres choix. Pour ma part, ce geste relève autant du désir de transmettre que de la responsabilité envers l’enfant qui m’accompagne dans mon nomadisme : sans territorialiser son identité [2], je peux lui offrir nos récits fondateurs. La force de cette transmission verticale fait d’un « enfant né du métissage un paradigme d’humanité ».
Racines, langues et pensées : entre un multiculturalisme sédentaire et les nomades de la société monde De retour dans le paysage de mon enfance, j’ai réfléchi au déracinement. Le lieu où l’on grandit est celui où naissent nos premiers liens d’appartenance. Les mots qui décrivent l’éloignement de nos origines évoquent souvent la violence de la rupture d’un cadre familier.
Dans la langue, le rapport à la terre et les liens avec nos aïeuls se superposent dans la métaphore des racines. L’expérience physique inspire un concept, une métaphore, qui à son tour sert à coder et décoder l’expérience du monde : le français déraciner vient du latin radix (« racine »), signifiant « arracher avec les racines ». L’anglais to uproot signifie « remove from fixed position ». Le roumain a dezrădăcina combine le préfixe dez (« enlever ») et rădăcină (« racine »). Ces trois langues partagent la même origine latine (radix) et la métaphore des racines comme repères culturels. Malkki[3] note que « la naturalisation des liens entre individus et lieux se construit à travers des métaphores d’ordre botanique » et Appadurai [4] observe la puissance structurante du « botanical model of belonging ». Alors quelles images inspirent les peuples qui se déplacent dans le sable ou la neige, afin de parler d’appartenance, de rupture ou de continuité ? Pour les nomades qui parcourent des itinéraires civilisationnels, la métaphore des racines ne suffit plus à dire la diversité des façons d’habiter le monde. Mieux vaut parler de lignages : des fils transmis qui s’entrecroisent et créent des motifs inattendus. Le fil devient alors une promesse de cohérence face au risque d’errance — celui que Pénélope tisse et détisse pour préserver son engagement envers Ulysse, ou celui qu’Ariane tend à Thésée pour lui permettre de retrouver son chemin dans le labyrinthe [5].
La cognition fonctionne par métaphores : nos conceptualisations, enracinées dans l’expérience, façonnent autant notre manière de penser que de nous exprimer [6]. L’anthropologue H. Claudot‑Hawad (2006) met en évidence le mot تكارير (Takārīr), pluriel de Takrūrī, qui désigne, chez certains groupes Touaregs du Sahara central, des individus « passeurs » ou « carrefours » dans l’espace social. Le Tikrurū incarne ainsi une figure du métis culturel, capable de naviguer entre plusieurs mondes sans appartenir exclusivement à l’un d’eux [7]. Cette réflexion résonne avec ma propre expérience du déracinement, vécue à travers trois langues.
Dans le cas des généalogies multiculturelles, il revient aux parents nomades de réinventer la pensée de l’enracinement par d’autres formes de liens vivants. La multiplicité des identités n’est pas que culturelle. À l’époque où les tests ADN sont devenus accessibles, les données de la généalogie génétique montrent que les individus et les groupes humains sont le produit de circulations, de flux migratoires et de mélanges continus, bien davantage que de communautés homogènes et territorialisées. Le propre de l’humanité est de se mélanger [8].
De qui descends‑tu ? Belonging : le besoin d’appartenances Malgré le déracinement territorial de ses parents, prendre conscience de son ascendance permet à un enfant d’explorer ses propres réponses aux questions identitaires : Qui suis‑je ? À quelles cultures puis‑je participer ? Il est parfois plus juste de remplacer la question « D’où viens‑tu ? » par « De qui descends‑tu ? » — en roumain : De unde ești ? Tu de‑al cui ești ? La notion d’adhérences multiples (Pierre & Sauquet) [9] me semble appropriée pour décrire la fluidité inhérente des identités, qui n’est qu’en partie liée aux mouvements spatiaux.
Comme l’observait Simone Weil [10], « chaque être humain a besoin de multiples racines, et reçoit une grande partie de sa vie morale, intellectuelle et spirituelle des milieux auxquels il appartient naturellement ». Toute identité est ainsi plurielle, composite, et façonnée par une multitude d’influences en constante évolution. Le mouvement migratoire ne fait qu’amplifier — parfois au carré — cette nature composite : il oblige l’individu nomade à porter au niveau conscient des éléments culturels qui, autrement, resteraient implicites. Passer d’une langue à l’autre n’est alors que l’une des expressions de ce déplacement continu entre différents systèmes de référence, tout en gardant un centre d’équilibre personnel.
Confrontées à la réalité de nos identités, les métaphores végétales sédentaires et monocentriques perdent leur pertinence. Les multiples adhérences ne sont pas que l’apanage de la mobilité ou de la mixité ethnique. Dans leur Abécédaire, Ph. Pierre & M. Sauquet [11] constatent qu’il est rare qu’un individu se rattache complètement, sans nuances, durablement à l’une ou à l’autre de ces ancres culturelles et que les adhérences se croisent et se multiplient : « Une adhérence, même héritée, ne joue pleinement son rôle de marqueur d’identité que si l’on accepte, choisit ou veut la considérer comme telle et la situer ou non dans une série d’histoires qui sont celles de ma vie. »
Nomadisme moderne et héritages Quitter le nid est un acte fondateur dans la construction de toute identité. Plus les distances — géographiques ou culturelles — sont grandes, plus la mutation interne est profonde. Cette souffrance est‑elle propre à la première génération, ou la transmettons‑nous ?
Nos enfants n’héritent pas de nos appartenances à l’état pur. Dans les familles mélangées et mobiles, notre rôle de parents est de rendre visibles les histoires de vie comme autant de lignes fondatrices. Le transnationalisme n’est pas un principe d’identité, mais un mode de vie qui décentre l’importance du lieu : ce sont les liens qui produisent la continuité, et non les racines. Dans la lignée de Gilles Deleuze et Félix Guattari, Ph. Pierre nous rappelle que « le lien fait le lieu […] Il s’agit d’établir, en rhizome, le maximum de connections, de faire pont, de vivre des liens de correspondance dans un déplacement en archipel » [12].
Conclusion Pour moi, la révélation que je peux changer en échangeant avec l’Autre sans ne me perdre ni me dénaturer (É. Glissant) [13] s’est construite progressivement, dans une succession incessante de mises en doute et d’affirmations de soi. J’emprunte l’analogie de Ph. Pierre, qui décrit le lien entre identité et culture comme une figure de la « fermeture éclair » qui rapproche et fait converger les deux ensembles, les articule et les unifie comme un nouveau signifiant [14]. Devenir parent nous amène à expliquer nos gestes afin de mieux les transmettre. La socialisation avec les absents — dans le temps ou dans l’espace — devient une forme essentielle d’ancrage. Les familles en mouvement cultivent ainsi des rituels contre l’amnésie : célébrations communes (comme la Fête des Morts), gestes familiaux partagés, ou encore des rituels intimes comme les appels vidéo réguliers avec les grands‑parents. Autant de petites continuités qui recréent, au fil du temps, une cohérence pour l’enfant dans la pluralité de ses mondes. Dans une société‑monde marquée par la mobilité et la mixité culturelle, les récits ne transmettent pas seulement des mémoires : ils offrent une cohérence psychologique. Comme conteuse, enseignante et mère, je choisis délibérément la narration culturelle. Un enfant peut vivre sereinement son identité plurielle si nous lui ouvrons des appartenances où ancrer ses propres réponses. Transmettre nos récits, nos rituels et nos mémoires familiales est une responsabilité envers ces enfants qui héritent de trajectoires multiples et doivent apprendre à naviguer les errances sans perdre leur centre. Les mobilités rendues possibles par les bouleversements de la fin du XXᵉ siècle (chute du Mur de Berlin, programme Erasmus, loterie des visas américains, etc.), suivies de l’instantanéité digitale, ont créé de nouveaux nomades. Face à cela, respecter les identités plurielles devient essentiel à la résilience interculturelle — et peut-être une manière de pratiquer la paix au quotidien.
Notes de fin [1] Cf. Audinet, J. (1999). Le temps du métissage. Les Éditions de l’Atelier, cité par Philippe Pierre. [2] Malkki, L. H. (1992). National Geographic: The rooting of peoples and the territorialization of national identity among scholars and refugees. Cultural Anthropology, 7(1), 24–44. https://doi.org/10.1525/can.1992.7.1.02a00030 [3] Malkki, L. H. (1992). National Geographic: The rooting of peoples and the territorialization of national identity among scholars and refugees. Cultural Anthropology, 7(1), 24–44. https://doi.org/10.1525/can.1992.7.1.02a00030 [4] Appadurai, A. (1988). The social life of things: Commodities in cultural perspective. Cambridge University Press. [6] Deliyianni, D., & Voga, M. (2022). La métaphore du tissage en grec : de la toile de Pénélope à la méthode ana-lytique. In M. Carminati & M.-J. Verny (Eds.), Figures de l’errance et du labyrinthe. Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pulm.21342 [7] Claudot‑Hawad, H. (2006). Sahara et nomadisme. L’envers du décor. Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée, (111–112/2), 221–244. https://doi.org/10.4000/remmm.2878 [8] Reich, D. (2018). Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past. Oxford University Press. [9] Pierre, P., & Sauquet, M. (2024). Abécédaire de l’interculturel : 50 mots à prendre en compte par temps d’intolérance. Éditions Charles Léopold Mayer. [10] Weil, S. (1949). L’enracinement : Prélude à une déclaration des devoirs envers l’être humain. Gallimard. [11] Pierre, P., & Sauquet, M. (2024, 6 septembre). Abécédaire de l’interculturel : 50 mots à prendre en compte par temps d’intolérance. Éditions Charles Léopold Mayer. [12] Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). Mille Plateaux : Capitalisme et schizophrénie. Les Éditions de Minuit. (Traduction : A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. University of Minnesota Press.) [13] Glissant, É. (2005). La Cohée du Lamentin. Gallimard. [14] Pierre, P. (2022). Des identités plurielles dans la société monde : Actualité de la pensée de Renaud Sainsaulieu. Annexe 3 de P. Pierre & M. Sauquet (dirs.), L’archipel humain : Vivre la rencontre interculturelle. Paris : Éditions Charles Léopold Mayer.
Article Summary in English (AI Generated)
This essay examines intergenerational continuity and identity formation among individuals whose lives are shaped by mobility, mixed cultural heritage, and multilingual environments. It argues that children raised between cultures inherit not fixed identities but constellations of narratives, memories, and symbolic lineages. Drawing on anthropology (Malkki, Appadurai, Claudot-Hawad), philosophy (Weil, Glissant), and intercultural theory (Pierre & Sauquet), the text shows that traditional botanical metaphors of “roots” inadequately represent the fluid belonging experienced by contemporary nomads. Alternative metaphors—threads, passages, rhizomes—better capture identities formed through crossings, movement, and relational continuity. The essay highlights the pedagogical and ethical responsibility of caregivers to transmit stories and rituals without territorializing identity, allowing children to build their own foundations of belonging. In a world marked by intensified mobility, hybridity, and digital immediacy, cultivating plural and flexible identities emerges as essential to psychological coherence, intercultural resilience, and everyday practices that support peaceful coexistence.
Author bio
Luciana Lallaizon holds an MA in Educational Management and an MA in Francophone Literature. With over twenty years of experience across Europe and North America, she works at the intersection of learning design, intercultural facilitation, and international cooperation. A member of the World Council for Intercultural and Global Competence since 2023, she coordinates the Francophorum working group. Her essay explores shared humanity through the lenses of migration, memory, and constructing identities. |
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As 2025 draws to a close, we mark five years since COVID-19 devastated the world and reshaped global history. Millions died within days of developing a cough, alone, without warning, without a final touch, funeral, or memorial. Those left behind were forced to grieve in isolation. Yet for such a seismic event, the rush to move on has been at breakneck speed. The world is guilty of a collective failure to acknowledge, ritualize, or memorialize the largest mass-bereavement event of the 21st century. One truth is increasingly impossible to ignore: we have not paused. There has been no global moment of breath, no international day of remembrance, no unified space for mourning the millions who died. While the speed and enormity of COVID-19 were extraordinary, that cannot justify the continued neglect of those still grappling with a “living hell” five years later - a failure to acknowledge, reflect, and provide support. The absence of meaningful remembrance is not an administrative oversight, it is an intercultural and far-reaching human-rights issue. Drawing on testimonies from my award-winning podcast Stolen Goodbyes, this article explores how political apathy, fragmented memorial efforts, disrupted ritual practices, and structural inequalities left bereaved families experiencing a total lack of empathy, visibility, and acknowledgment. For many, the pandemic feels as though it “never happened,” creating a landscape of unfinished or denied grief. As Linsey Simmonds, who lost her father Kevin Morgans in Wales, told me: “In February 2020, we were living our lives as normal. In March, we were all terrified we were going to get this virus. In May, my father had died from it. The families that suffered loss weren’t ready. It’s not normal loss. For the ones who died and their families it was absolutely catastrophic.”
Identity Loss and Compounded Grief
Bereavement often shakes a person’s sense of identity - who am I now, where do I belong, what anchors remain? For millions of pandemic-bereaved families, this rupture happened two or three times over, and without a final goodbye. Alastair MacVicar from Branston in England lost his mother Jean, father Keith, and sister Jayne within 14 days. Soon after, he lost his mother-in-law. Such multiple losses produce what psychologists call “identity collapse,” yet COVID-19 families were often left to navigate this alone. Another podcast guest, Sally Gardiner lost her husband Trevor just four months after their wedding. He was 59. “It was like the foundations of my life fractured all at once,” she said. “Nothing made sense anymore.” This devastation was not supported by meaningful public acknowledgment, contributing to what I’ve called “distorted grief.”
Distorted Grief and the Psychological Aftershocks
Season Three of Stolen Goodbyes, “Distorted Grief,” reveals unique and enduring psychological effects of the pandemic - derealization, hypervigilance, trauma loops, catastrophic thinking - often aggravated by isolation and lack of ritual. Emma Charlesworth from Kent in the UK lost her husband Charlie in April 2020 at the age of 45. “In August 2020, I fell apart,” she said. “In July 2021 after the memorial service - the first time I’d seen people since his death - I completely broke. I was in counseling for 13 months. In February 2022, I had a meltdown and was signed off work for nine weeks. I was off longer than when he died.” Her grief became intertwined with trauma: “I couldn’t be at home too much - where he fell ill - because it triggered me. I don’t say no to anyone now because what if something happens to them? You go to the worst-case scenario because you lived the worst-case scenario.” Her 12-year-old daughter Rebekah said: “It’s two years now. I’m meant to be OK, but I’m not.”
Disenfranchised Grief and Cultural Minimization Experts have highlighted that COVID grief often qualifies as disenfranchised grief, a loss society does not acknowledge or validate as it does cancer for example. Sociologists note that families are sometimes blamed for preexisting conditions, while public recognition of their loss is minimized. Dehumanization in hospitals, bodies in plastic or behind shields, intensified the sense of delegitimized grief.
The Intercultural Dimensions of Unfinished Grief Across cultures, mourning encompasses ritual, identity, community, and worldview. The pandemic stripped millions of the right to enact these practices. Funerals were banned. Bodies were sealed. Borders were closed. Hospital rooms became inaccessible. This created profound “cultural fractures.” Carole Caudwell from Sussex, England, whose mother Irene survived four strokes only to die on a COVID ward despite being COVID-negative, said: “I feel robbed not just of my mum, but of everything that goes with a death.” Intercultural competence frameworks explain the long-term consequences. Preventing culturally meaningful mourning risks: These harms disproportionately affected racialized, migrant, and marginalized communities.
Why Some Lives Were Publicly Grieved — and Others Erased COVID-19 revealed stark inequalities in whose deaths were publicly acknowledged. Public mourning followed hierarchies: Ordinary citizens, particularly care-home residents, migrants, low-wage laborers, and ethnic minorities, were counted statistically but not culturally remembered. Families repeatedly said their loved ones “didn’t fit the narrative.” Another podcast guest, Jane Smith, who lost her husband Goff, said: “It’s barbaric. We just couldn’t say goodbye. People who go to funerals don’t understand what it’s like to not be allowed one. Five years on, it’s as if it didn’t exist. Every town has a war memorial, why can’t there be something that lists the people who died from COVID? To show they mattered.” Denial reinforced erasure. Jane recalled a hospital nurse saying: “We don’t test for COVID anymore because no one died from COVID, did they?” “It was like a stab in my chest,” she said. Another guest, Susie Hill, who lost her father John Leigh, noted: “If you don’t believe in COVID, you can’t believe in long COVID. Two million in the UK have it. With any other disease, we’d be researching and funding it.”
Global Memorialisation: Fragmented, Uneven, Politicized Five years on, global memorialisation remains inconsistent: United States: No national memorial; temporary displays dismantled; debates polarized. United Kingdom: Scattered patchwork; national memorials stalled; Memorial Day passed with minimal recognition. Latin America: Strong grassroots memorials (photos, murals) but limited state investment. Europe: Patchy responses; many early commitments abandoned. Asia: Memorial efforts shaped by political sensitivities around blame. Africa: Community-led remembrance, limited national visibility.
The absence of a shared global framework leaves remembrance vulnerable to politics and public fatigue.
The Right to Pause: A Human-Rights Approach
A universal Right to Pause recognizes that mourning is not a private luxury but a collective, cultural, and human-rights necessity. Such a right affirms: every person’s right to grieve in culturally meaningful ways every community’s right to public acknowledgment of loss every society’s responsibility to remember every government’s duty to learn from failure
Intercultural competence is essential. Memorialization must reflect plural identities, worldviews, and cultural practices.
Connections Forged in Grief
Despite limited official support, the pandemic unexpectedly forged powerful global bonds. Emma Charlesworth in Kent and Pamela Addison in New Jersey both lost their husbands in April 2020. Their friendship became a lifeline. Kristie Cervantes, a teacher from Illinois, lost her husband Rey in December 2020. Seven months later she met Jorge, who shared her understanding of grief through his blog. Love grew from shared loss. Charles Persinger from Swindon lost his mother Susan, 74, and wife Katie, 51, within six weeks. “I lost the two most important women in my life. I didn’t know how to keep living,” he said. “But the human capacity to love is endless, no matter what we’ve been through.” Through the Covid Bereaved Families for Justice group, he found community — and Lynda, whose father also died of COVID.
Conclusion: The Global Lesson
COVID-19 was not only a public health emergency; it was an emotional, cultural, and intercultural crisis. Five years on, we still fail to understand or support the most complex losses. Without a global Right to Pause, grounded in empathy, intercultural understanding, and human dignity, we risk repeating catastrophic mistakes. Mass trauma must not be consigned to the history books, forgotten without lessons learned. The pandemic also created extraordinary global networks of kindness and support. But as Emma Charlesworth reflected, “I was lucky. The kindness extended to me, and still is, in school runs and small gestures, but we’ve forgotten how to be kind. That legacy is lost. We’ve gone back to how we were before. It almost feels like it never happened. Honestly, what have we learned from the pandemic? The millions who suffered loss, mental health challenges, or long COVID are still impacted. We cannot forget that, financially, emotionally, or socially. If we do, we learn nothing from it. Her words remind us that the question is no longer only how we remember the past, it is which lessons we truly choose to carry forward. If we forget, we are condemned to repeat everything that went wrong.
References Stolen Goodbyes podcast, British Library archive Testoni, I., et al. “The COVID-19 Disappeared: From Traumatic to Ambiguous Loss and the Role of the Internet for the Bereaved in Italy.” National Library of Medicine
Author Bio
Karen Rice is an award-winning journalist, international media and human rights adviser, and host of the award-winning podcast Stolen Goodbyes, documenting global experiences of pandemic loss and bereavement. She has worked with the UN, EU, BBC Media Action, and Thomson Reuters Foundation. |
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In pursuit of a global ethic, Johnson (2025) wrote, “Members of the Caux Roundtable for Moral Capitalism hope to set a world standard by which to judge business behavior” (p. 379). Yet the principles advanced by the Roundtable both predate capitalism and extend far beyond its scope. At a time when many democracies increasingly seek pragmatic governance by business leaders, the Caux Principles appear even more relevant than when the Round Table leaders first convened in 1986 (Caux Round Table, n.d.). Borrowing from Johnson’s (2025) summary, this research examines the Caux Round Table Principles through a global leadership lens, transforming these business-focused guidelines into a universal framework for intercultural governance. By tracing historical leadership shifts from militaristic to bureaucratic to profit-driven, and applying contemporary concerns as expressed through Gen Z activism, this manuscript advances a remedy to extant corruption risks and diminished human dignity in the corporate model of global governance through a care-based, responsible model of intercultural leadership.
Capitalism as an economic system gained comparative prominence alongside the rise of Marxism in the nineteenth century, although the term referring to the ownership of goods appeared as early as the mid-seventeenth century (Berend, 2015). Before capitalism or any other modern economic framework for national or cultural governance, nation-states were governed by military leadership through coercion, capital, and capitalized coercion (Tilly, 1990, in Johnson, 1995). From dynastic China to feudal Europe and Islamic caliphates, “war made the state, and the state made war” (Tilly, 1985, p. 169). Even in the United States, military achievement remained a pathway to political leadership well into the twentieth century, exemplified by the presidency of General Dwight Eisenhower. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, governance in industrializing Western nations began to shift toward the bureaucrat – an institutional administrator with a foundation in legal practice (Holton and Turner, 2011). Lawyers became disproportionately represented among the presidents and legislators of democratic societies (Mattozzi and Merlo, 2007). Since the late twentieth century, however, leadership in both developed and developing nations has increasingly taken on the characteristics of the corporate CEO. As globalization accelerated, democratic electorates placed individuals with business expertise and entrepreneurial success at the helm, reflecting a belief that market achievement is synonymous with national greatness (Weeks, 2014). Examples include Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand, Sebastian Pinera of Chile, and U.S. President Donald Trump (Lewis et al., 2018; Pleines, 2019). While voters may be expressing frustration with bloated bureaucracies and inefficiency, political and historical scholars warn of risks associated with corporate-style governance, including institutional instability, conflicts of interest, cronyism, and the leveraging of public office for private gain (Crouch, 2004; Frye, 2010; Winters, 2011).
In 1986, amid increasing globalization and concerns about “social and economic threats to world peace and stability” (Caux Round Table, n.d., “About,” para. 5) the Caux Principles for Business were drafted and formally adopted in 1995. The Round Table leadership asserts that these guidelines constitute “the most comprehensive statement of responsible business practice ever formulated by business leaders, for business leaders” (Caux Round Table, n.d., “About,” para.7) Yet the governance practices of some business-oriented leaders illustrate the disjunction between the moral aspirations of the Caux principles and the unethical performances of those elected. Italy’s Berlusconi was convicted of tax fraud in 2013 (BBC, 2013). Thailand’s Shinawatra was accused of corruption and convicted in absentia of abuse of power in 2008 (Los Angeles Times, 2008). Pinera faced charges before, during, and after his presidency, although his formal impeachment was dismissed (Politzer et al., 2021); and Trump has faced four criminal cases during his political career, with one conviction and one unconditional discharge to date (O’Kruk and Merrill, 2023). These examples highlight the gap between the Caux vision of moral capitalism and the ethical performance of national leaders with business backgrounds.
Johnson (2025) offered the Caux principles as one model for universal ethics. While the core principles were drafted with international business in minds (Caux Round Table, n.d.), Johnson’s commentary renders the principles actionable, thus distinguishing them from other global moral standards (Johnson, 2025). The Caux Round Table goes even further, articulating Stakeholder Management Guidelines, Principles for Government, Principles for Good Citizenship, and Principles for NGOs (Caux Round Table, n.d). Despite the aforementioned lapses in ethical conduct by elected businessmen turned national leaders, the Caux Business Principles, considered in a global context and with a few word substitutions to broaden their scope, provide aspirational standards for global human relationships. The difference: wherein generalizable ethical theories emphasize morals, virtues, or justice, ethics of care (Gilligan, 1982; Held, 2005) seek to identify actionable behaviors and consideration for the effect on the individual.
Consider the following: in place of “corporation” or “companies,” ethics of care would personalize and prioritize the people involved, as expressed by humanity, nations, cultures and communities. Shareholders and stakeholders become, respectively, leaders and followers; the lives they come in contact with are represented by in-group and out-group members. Caux Principle 1, as summarized by Johnson (2025) would therefore read:
The responsibilities of Humanity: Beyond leaders toward followers. Nations, cultures, and communities have a responsibility to improve the lives of everyone they come in contact with, starting with in-group and out-group members, and then reaching outward to local, national, regional, and global communities. Caux Principle 2 would advise:
The economic and social impact of Humanity: Toward innovation, justice, and world community. Leaders in foreign countries should not only create jobs and wealth but also foster better social conditions — education, welfare, and human rights. Humanity has an obligation to enrich the world community through innovation, the wise use of resources, and fair competition. In addition to supporting the economy, this more humane framework would add to Principle 3:
Human behavior: Beyond the letter of law toward a spirit of trust. Nations, cultures, and communities ought to promote honesty, transparency, integrity, and keeping promises. These behaviors make it easier to conduct international relations of all kinds, including business, and to support enhanced social conditions and a global economy. Principle 4 would address not only business leaders, but all leaders, and not just trade, but any interaction, with goodwill:
Respect for rules: Beyond any friction toward cooperation. Leaders must respect both international and local laws in order to reduce wars and to promote the free flow of goods, services, and goodwill. In addition to goodwill, the intercultural exchange framed by Principle 5 would be further enriched with: compassion, education, general welfare, and human rights:
Support for multilateral compassion:
Beyond isolation toward world community. Leaders should support international systems and agreements and eliminate domestic measures that undermine education, general welfare, and human rights. Principle 6 speaks to all citizens and all global leaders.
Respect for the environment:
Beyond protection toward enhancement. A leader ought to protect and, if possible, improve the physical environment through sustainable development and cutting back on the wasteful use of natural resources. Concluding with Principle 7, which should be a forgone conclusion of fairness and justice for all people.
Avoidance of illicit operations: Beyond profit toward peace. Leaders must ensure that their nations, cultures, and communities aren’t involved in such forbidden activities as bribery, money laundering, support of terrorism, drug trafficking, and organized crime. These simple substitutions – replacing corporations with humanity, businesses with leaders, and organizations with nations, cultures, and communities – transform the Caux Principles into a guide for moral conduct across both business and political contexts. Furthermore, by shifting our ethical framework to consider “compassion” before trade or profit, and to think of “education, general welfare, and human rights” as non-transactional, we expand our ethical conceptualization of capitalism, global economic systems, and CEO leaders who prioritize global morality and human well-being above material goods and power. Just as bureaucratic administrators have followed militarist leaders, and deal-making entrepreneurs have vowed to right-size government inefficiencies, leadership ethics continue to evolve. Corporate-style governance, rife with conflicts of interest and corruption, has already been met with “Gen Z” protests (Pickard, 2020; Vromen at al., 2016; deMoor, 2021; Fisher and Nasrin, 2021) offering a collective critique of capitalism and demanding accountability for state inaction and intergenerational injustice. The act of replacing corporations with humanity and profit with compassion portends a future guided by “ethics of care” (Held, 2005); a future in which social policy and justice support caregiving and well-being as central to human flourishing. As imagined by the Caux Roundtable, a future in which kyosei, defined as living and working together for the common good (Johnson, 2025), human dignity, and ethics of care define social practice and offer meaningful moral guidance for a rapidly globalizing world.
References
Berend, I. T. (2015). Capitalism. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 94–98.
Crouch, C. (2004). Post-democracy. Polity.
de Moor, J. (2021). Lifestyle Politics, Radical Activism and the Youth Climate Movement. Journal of Youth Studies, 24(3), 262–277.
Fisher, D. R., & Nasrin, S. (2021). Youth Climate Activism: Moving Beyond Individualized Environmentalism. Global Environmental Politics, 21(3), 1–27.
Frye, T. (2010). Building states and markets after communism: The perils of polarized democracy. Cambridge University Press.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: psychological theory and women's development. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Held, V. (2005). The ethics of care: Personal, political, and global. Oxford University Press.
Holton, R. J., & Turner, B. S. (2011). Max Weber on economy and society (1st ed.). Routledge.
Johnson, C. E. (2025). Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership: Casting light or Shadow. SAGE.
Johnson, C. H. (1995). [Rev. of Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990–1990. By Charles Tilly (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Basil Blackwell, 1990. xi plus 269pp.)]. Journal of Social History, 29(1), 173–174.
Lewis, D.E., Bernhard, P., and You, E. (2018). President Trump as manager: Reflections on the first year. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 48(3), 480-501.
MacKinnon, Ian (21 October 2008). “Former Thai PM Thaksin found guilty of corruption.” The Guardian.
Mattozzi, A., & Merlo, A. (2007). Political careers or career politicians? National Bureau of Economic Research.
O'Kruk, Amy; Merrill, Curt (December 11, 2023) [July 2023]. Donald Trump's criminal cases, In one place. CNN.
Pickard, S. (2020). Politics, Protest and Young People: Political Participation and Dissent. Palgrave Macmillan.
Pleines, H. (2019). The political role of business magnates in competitive authoritarian regimes. Jahrbuch Für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook, 60(2), 299–334.
Tilly, C. (1985). “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime,” in Peter Evans, et al. eds., Bringing the state back in. Cambridge University Press. pp. 169-186.
Vromen, A., Loader, B., Xenos, M., & Bailo, F. (2016). Everyday Making Through Facebook Engagement: Young Citizens’ Political Interactions in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Political Studies, 64(3), 513–533.
Weeks, J. L. P. (2014). Dictators at war and peace. Cornell University Press.
Winters, J. (2011). Oligarchy. Cambridge University Press.
Author bio Linda Safford is a first-year doctoral student in Global Leadership at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College in the US; a late-career scholar-practitioner with extensive experience in nonprofit organizational leadership and institutional change. Her research focuses on ethical dissent and subversive leadership̶ when established norms, policies, or leadership paradigms become barriers to moral action and demand resistance to systemic injustice or ethical contradiction. Linda is also Senior Director of Philanthropy at Eastern Washington University.
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Our world today is simultaneously more connected and more fragmented than ever before. Technological advances mean we can interact with people in different time zones instantly, sharing ideas, opinions, and digital experiences with unprecedented speed. Yet beneath this layer of hyperconnectivity, rifts persist, ranging from cultural misunderstandings and socioeconomic inequalities to intensifying political polarization. These cleavages manifest in community tensions, social media echo chambers, and even in local classrooms, where genuine dialogue can be stifled by ideological discord. As a first-year predoctoral fellow in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership with a concentration in Global Studies in Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, I’ve observed how these tensions often map directly onto higher education. Institutions that should be forums for open exchange sometimes replicate the divisions of the broader society. This paradox—connection via technology versus emotional or ideological distance—motivates much of my research and reflection. Specifically, I have become passionate about examining how intercultural competence and global competence can help bridge these divides, transforming higher education into a more inclusive, open, and empathetic environment.
Personal Background: From Local Roots to Global Engagement Growing up in a community where international travel felt out of reach, I never imagined I would one day embark on multiple study-abroad experiences and international conferences. My primary concerns were finishing high school and navigating the complexities of college admissions—global travel seemed like an unthinkable luxury. Yet, with the support of committed mentors, scholarship opportunities, and my own determination, I found doors opening to experiences that would reshape my worldview. A key turning point came in the Fall of 2022 when I studied at Korea University, funded by scholarships from Benjamin A. Gilman International and Fund for Education Abroad. Eager to immerse myself in a different culture, I stepped off the plane in Seoul filled with equal parts excitement and anxiety. The city’s vibrant blend of modern skyscrapers and centuries-old temples mirrored the complexity of Korean society: a place where historical traditions coexist with rapid technological advancement. Living in Seoul forced me to adapt, sometimes uncomfortably. Language barriers tested my patience and humility. Group projects with classmates from Korea and other parts of Asia quickly revealed that my assumptions—about how to communicate ideas, how to approach deadlines, and how to structure arguments—were deeply shaped by my American upbringing. Yet these challenges also prompted tremendous personal growth: every new perspective showed me how cultural norms shape behaviors, values, and interpretations of what is “normal.” When I returned to South Korea and visited Taiwan in November 2024, I felt a sense of “coming full circle.” The culture shock had lessened, replaced by the excitement of reconnecting with people I had met during my initial study abroad, as well as forging new friendships. Observing how much my worldview had expanded since 2022 was profoundly affirming. Meanwhile, traveling to Kuala Lumpur in February 2025 for the World Economic & Leadership Forum took this cross-cultural immersion to another level—collaborating on policy ideas with peers from multiple continents brought home the reality that solving global challenges requires inclusive, empathetic dialogue. Finally, in March 2025, I participated in a spring break study-abroad program to Italy, where I found yet another culture’s rhythms to appreciate. From strolling through Renaissance-era streets in Florence to sharing meals with local university students, I gained fresh insight into how historical contexts shape current social structures. Comparing my experiences in Europe with those in East Asia underscored both the diversity of global cultures and the universality of human creativity, resilience, and community-building. Each of these journeys—to Seoul, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, and Italy—has contributed strands to the tapestry of my identity. They have also fortified my commitment to exploring and promoting intercultural and global competence within higher education. While personal travel broadens horizons, it also illuminates the broader geopolitical context in which these cultural exchanges occur. The last few years have seen an upswing in political polarization worldwide, including the United States. Policies and rhetoric emerging from the current U.S. administration have added fuel to debates on topics like immigration, international trade, and global climate accords, causing reverberations well beyond American borders. Whether it’s adjusting student visa policies or altering funding for academic programs that foster language learning and cultural exchange, political changes can reshape the landscape of higher education. During conversations at the World Economic & Leadership Forum, I heard firsthand how the rest of the world often views shifts in U.S. policy. Some delegates expressed concerns about increased isolationism, while others underscored the continuing importance of diplomatic ties and educational partnerships with American institutions. Domestically, these political tensions can inflame polarization on college campuses. Students and faculty who identify with one political ideology might feel marginalized or embattled, and controversies over free speech and diversity initiatives have erupted on multiple fronts. Seen from a global perspective, this climate of ideological division highlights the urgent need for students to develop skills that go beyond rhetoric: skills centered on empathetic communication, cross-cultural understanding, and collaborative leadership.
Higher Education as Both Mirror and Catalyst Universities reflect the social, cultural, and political currents of the world around them. As microcosms of society, they inevitably replicate its tensions—from the complexities of racial inequities to ideological standoffs on policy issues. Lectures and seminars can become battlegrounds for conflicting viewpoints, mirroring the polarization seen in the national news. Yet higher education also has immense potential to serve as a catalyst for positive change. Because universities are intentional learning spaces, they can be redesigned—or at least guided—to promote meaningful engagement across differences. In my time at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, I have benefited from professors who integrate global case studies into syllabi, fostering robust discussions that link local challenges to international contexts. I have met international students whose perspectives expand classroom dialogue, complicating neat narratives about “how things should be.” And I have participated in student-led cultural organizations that champion campus-wide events, encouraging attendees to learn about regional traditions, cuisines, and languages. If properly harnessed, these aspects of higher education can shape not only individual mindsets but also collective approaches to problem-solving. For instance, research collaborations that span continents and cultural groups can yield more innovative solutions—whether tackling environmental challenges, designing inclusive education policies, or addressing public health crises. In short, higher education can either entrench existing divides or act as an incubator for intercultural and global competence, depending on how it’s structured and led.
Intercultural Competence: Lessons from the Field From my experiences in multiple countries and classroom settings, I’ve identified four core lessons about intercultural competence: Reflective Self-Awareness:
Before we can appreciate others’ perspectives, we must confront our own biases and assumptions. In Seoul, I noticed how the default “American” lens guided my expectations about everything from learning styles to notions of hospitality. Realizing this was a humbling experience: if my mental model for normalcy did not match my host environment, perhaps it wasn’t universal in the first place. Journaling and open conversations with local classmates proved invaluable, helping me unpack and recalibrate my assumptions. Dialogue Over Debate:
In academia, debating is often prized. However, in international and intercultural contexts, a relentless focus on “winning” can quickly alienate or silence others. Real dialogue, by contrast, is premised on listening deeply, asking clarifying questions, and remaining open to the possibility that your own views might evolve. Engaging in group projects at Korea University or roundtable discussions at the World Economic & Leadership Forum taught me that dialogue fosters mutual respect, even when disagreements persist. Adaptability and Humility:
Learning to order food in a second language or adopting local etiquette might feel like small steps, but they embody respect and openness to new experiences. Traveling through Taiwan and Italy, I noticed how daily routines—like eating schedules, norms about personal space, or forms of polite address—differ. Adapting to these nuances signaled willingness to learn from my environment rather than imposing my preferences on it. Sustaining Global Community:
Intercultural competence doesn’t end when the flight home lands. The friendships and professional connections made abroad need consistent nurturing—through shared projects, regular communication, and sometimes virtual meetups.
These bonds transcend physical distance, reminding us that a truly global community is built on ongoing reciprocity and shared interests. Keeping in touch with friends from Korea University or delegates from Kuala Lumpur has not only enriched my personal life but also sharpened my research insights on policy and cultural shifts.
Global Competence: Linking Local Policies and International Realities While intercultural competence centers on interpersonal understanding, global competence expands this scope to include the systemic and structural forces that connect communities across borders. The global economy, climate change, migration patterns, technological innovation—these are phenomena that defy neat geographical confines. Recognizing these realities demands a broader lens, one that sees how local decisions resonate internationally. In my graduate coursework, we’ve studied how educational reforms in one country can affect pedagogical trends in another, either through policy emulation, international benchmarks, or research collaborations. My time in Kuala Lumpur, conversing with peers from Europe, Asia, and the Americas, reinforced the notion that global policy discussions are not abstract—they influence budgets, human capital development, and community well-being in concrete ways. And while the United States continues to hold significant sway on the world stage, unilateral decisions made in Washington, D.C., can trigger ripple effects that shape the lives of people from Seoul to Rome, Taipei to Kuala Lumpur. Global competence requires understanding these linkages and acknowledging that our actions—whether they revolve around voting, policy advocacy, or daily choices—are part of a larger, interdependent web. In an era marked by the climate crisis, pandemics, and socioeconomic inequalities, developing a globally attuned mindset is vital for any field, from education policy to engineering.
The Path Forward: Higher Education as an Intercultural Connector Drawing from my personal background, academic research, and real-world immersion, I see multiple pathways for universities to bolster intercultural and global competence: Intentional Curriculum Design:
Incorporate global case studies and comparative perspectives across all disciplines, not just international studies programs. Encouraging students to analyze issues through multiple cultural or national lenses can expand critical thinking skills and reduce parochialism. Equitable Access to Study Abroad:
Scholarships like the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship and the Fund for Education Abroad changed my life trajectory. By removing financial barriers, such programs democratize global learning, ensuring that underrepresented students—who may have never left their home state—have the chance to engage with the world firsthand. Campus Dialogues on Politics and Social Issues:
In times of heightened political tensions, structured forums can facilitate meaningful discussion around contentious topics. Rather than stifling free speech, these forums can model respectful listening and evidence-based argumentation, helping students navigate differences productively. Cross-Border Research Initiatives:
University-sponsored grants or partnerships with international institutions can lead to collaborative research projects that tackle global challenges. Whether addressing sustainability, public health, or cross-cultural pedagogies, such work enriches academic knowledge and yields practical benefits for diverse communities. Continuous Reflective Practice:
It’s not enough to have a one-time intercultural training. Students and faculty should be encouraged to engage in ongoing reflection and dialogue—through seminars, mentorship programs, and campus clubs—that keep the conversation about cultural humility and global responsibility alive.
Toward a More Connected Future
My journey—from a local upbringing in South Carolina, USA with minimal exposure to the larger world, to study-abroad experiences in South Korea and Italy, to participation in an international forum and conferences in South Korea and Kuala Lumpur, to cultural travel through Taiwan and Vienna, Austria—has revealed the profound impact of intercultural and global competence. These competencies are more than academic buzzwords; they are tools for navigating an era defined by both unprecedented connectivity and fractious political, social, and cultural divides. In the United States, current debates over immigration, trade, and global engagement serve as stark reminders that our national policies do not exist in a vacuum. Higher education can respond by cultivating leaders capable of empathetic engagement and cross-cultural collaboration. By weaving global perspectives into the curriculum and championing dialogues that transcend ideological silos, universities can equip students with the cultural fluency, adaptability, and moral imagination necessary to tackle the challenges of our interconnected future. The potential is vast—and so is the urgency. As local communities and global networks become increasingly interdependent, we cannot afford to rely solely on surface-level connections or partisan rhetoric. The formation of genuine intercultural bonds, the pursuit of nuanced global knowledge, and the cultivation of leaders who see themselves as part of a shared human family stand as our best hope for forging unity in an age where fragmentation often seems to dominate. My hope is that my own story, marked by scholarship-supported travel and immersive learning, can serve as a beacon for others who believe in the transformative power of education and the possibility of bridging divides through open hearts, open minds, and bold curiosity.
Author bio Logan Pender is a second-year Ed.M. student in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the U.S. A Gilman scholar and alumni ambassador as well as a McNair Scholar alumnus, his work focuses on decolonizing U.S. education abroad and advancing education as a tool for diplomacy. He’s a 2025 LeadNext Fellow with The Asia Foundation and plans to pursue a Ph.D. and become a university president rooted in access, inclusion, and global engagement. He can be contacted at Lpender2@illinois.edu. |
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A Tale of Travel and New Insights In June 2025, we embarked on an Erasmus+ staff mobility visit to Stellenbosch University, South Africa, home to the UNESCO Chair on Intercultural Competence, chaired by Darla K. Deardorff along with co-chairs Precious Simba and Divinia Jithoo. During our time there, we explored contextual uses of the UNESCO Story Circles methodology, engaging in rich discussion with Dr Precious Simba, UNESCO Co-Chair, on the application of Story Circles as an intercultural learning tool for healthcare students. We were also privileged to observe Mr Werner de Wit (Principal Coordinator, UNESCO Chair) facilitate an international summer school UNESCO Story Circle session on campus. We are deeply aware of the importance of fostering intercultural competency development in healthcare education in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The principles underpinning UNESCO Story Circles—dignity and respect, curiosity, deep listening for understanding, self-awareness, empathy, resilience, critical thinking, relationship-building and conflict resolution—are essential attributes for tomorrow’s workforce as they prepare to meet global healthcare challenges. We have formed an exciting and inspiring new partnership, with opportunities for train-the-trainer sessions, collaborative research, and contribution to the development of a global Story Circles database.
The Next Chapter
Building on three successful pilot sessions in 2024/25 with UL graduate-entry medical students, members of the Irish Network of Healthcare Educators (INHED), and UL School of Medicine staff, the Stellenbosch visit has informed our strategic direction for broader Story Circles implementation. In August 2025, we introduced Story Circles at orientation for all incoming Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (BMBS) and Master’s in Public Health (MPH) students. Over 200 participants from diverse national backgrounds participated, and survey data from these sessions will guide future iterations. Our shared goal is to embed inclusive, intercultural competency learning across all healthcare programmes. Through this, we aim to foster professional identity development, personal growth, and more empathetic, culturally responsive healthcare interactions.
Selected medical student quotes (ULSoM BMBS, 2024): “I gained some new insights that would be beneficial in helping me to treat patients and have interactions with different individuals from different backgrounds” “The skills I learned will be used in all aspects of my life – professionally, personally, socially” “Challenged me to reflect on topics I’ve never spoken about out loud”
References
Author bio Dr. Clare Conway is an Associate Professor in Medical Education at the University of Limerick in Ireland, specializing in international student transitions, clinical electives and PBL. She holds degrees from Limerick (MSc HPE), Dundee (MBChB) and Edinburgh (BSc Hons), with clinical training in Paediatrics. Clare is a dedicated advocate for EDI and has pioneered innovative partnerships to integrate cultural competency development into curricula. She is an FHEA Fellow and member of AoME and INHED.
Dr Lucie Pollard is Director of Academic Operations and EDI Lead at the University of Limerick School of Medicine in Ireland. Previously, she directed the University of the West of Scotland’s London Campus and held senior roles at the University of Greenwich. She holds a PhD in Human Nutrition from King’s College London and an Executive MBA. Her research focuses on student engagement and belonging in diverse classrooms, notably co-authoring Cultural Journeys in Higher Education.
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