Key words and phrases

Campos-Delgado (2018) argues that cartography is a “power-knowledge instrument applied to shape the notion of the state and the fixity of its borders” and used as an instrument to assert control over a government’s territory. Described by Brotton (2013, 6) as an act of ‘symbiotic alchemy’, it has been a vehicle to express ideas or beliefs that shape a world view at specific points in time. More broadly, maps, the cultural product of cartography are “storytelling tools that help to inculcate place consciousness, outline identities, and legitimize geopolitical ambitions” (Bueno Lacy and van Houtum 2015; Jones 2016; Mezzadra and Neilson 2013; McCall 2014 as cited in Campos-Delgado (2018)).

A community is a group of individuals who share things in common with one another and consider themselves to feel connected to each other as a result. Each of us form part of a complex matrix of many different coexisting and overlapping communities “effortlessly shifting gears as we move among them” (Graves, 2005, p 25).

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See Ely and Sunny 1996.

Critical theory is “committed to unveiling the political stakes that anchor cultural practices – research and scholarly practices no less than the everyday” and critical theorists are “committed to the excavation of the political underpinnings of all modes of representation, including the scientific” (Conquergood (2009), p 179).

“Critical thinking is reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do” (Ennis, 2015, p.32)

“Incisive, seeing through complexity and obscurity. Logical, deploying evidence towards a clear position. Deep, involving higher level skills of analysis, synthesis and judgement” (McMillan and Weyers, 2012, p.4)

“Critical thinking is associated with reasoning or with our capacity for rational thought. The word ‘rational’ means ‘using reasons’ to solve problems. Reasoning starts with ourselves. It includes:​

• having reasons for what we believe and do, and being aware of these;​
• critically evaluating our own beliefs and actions;​
• being able to present to others the reasons for our beliefs and actions.”​ (Cottrell, 2017, p.3).

“Critical thinking involves first discovering the who, what when where and how of things-finding the answers to those eternal questions of the inquisitive child-and then utilizing that knowledge in a manner that enables you to determine what matters most.” (hooks, 2013, p.9)

Cross-cultural competencies are “core practices that cut across cultures or, in its more relativist orientation, in advocating for culturally sensitive social or professional interventions that take into greater account the diversity and difference across groups and communities” (Benessaieh, 2010, p 23)

1. Culture consists of activities such as the arts and philosophy, which are considered to be important for the development of civilization and of people’s minds. 
2. A culture is a particular society or civilization, especially considered in relation to its beliefs, way of life, or art. 
3. The culture of a particular organization or group consists of the habits of the people in it and the way they generally behave. (Collins English Dictionary, accessed 26/1/2025)

See also the discussion of “culture” in Benessaieh (2010), pp 11-15 where he discusses the modern-day evolution of the idea of culture(s) from “isolated or bounded systems” to more complex configurations of interconnectedness where each culture can no longer be studies in isolation from one another.

Ethnolography is both a method of social science and a genre of social science text [expand] (Conquergood (2009), 179)

According to Bennesaieh (2010), “the term “interculturality” has different meanings in different context. It can be used to designate the complex processes and situations involving “the right to difference in relations of a dualistic nature between minorities or marginalised culture… which have historically tended to be tense or conflictive” (p 19). In education, the term has been used to “express the need for greater dialogue between groups, communities and nations that perceive themselves as culturally distinct collectivities driven to defend and cultivate their rights to difference” (p 19). In the business context it can mean “management strategies for situations of misunderstandings or conflicts of a cultural nature among workers, or between a foreign firm and its environment”. It designates complex processes and situations

Intercultural education refers to the educational paradigm aiming towards the direction of social equality regardless of race, culture, language, social characteristics ascribed to class, gender or disability (Michael & Rajuan, 2009).

“… as suggested by Welsch (1999), transculturality invites us to consider the intermingling of presumably distinct cultures and the blurry lines between them, and to carefully examine the “global situation” (ensuing Tsing 2000, and echoing Robertson 1990 on the “global condition”) of individuals, communities and societies that increasingly draw from expanded, tremendously pluralised cultural repertories in their everyday life practice and imaginary.” (Benessaieh (2010), p 11). He says it is the “consequence of the inner differentiation and complexity of modern cultures […], which also interpenetrate or emerge from one another” (Welsch, 1999, 197). Benessaieh has also described it as “the embodied situation of cultural plurality” (p 16) that exist under cultural globalisation and a “heightened interdisciplinary landscape” (Bennesaieh, p 20) and is distinct from the term “transculturation” defined below. Transculturality emphasises “commonality and connectedness, viewing culture as mobile flows in close interaction with one another, where negotiation and change operate alongside conflict” (p19).

Is a term defined by Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz in 1947 and involved the study of the “processes of resistance, exchange, appropriations that have come into close contact with one another in the context of Cuban slaver economy since colonial times” (emphasis added) (Bennesaieh, 2010, p 16). Today, in practice is understood to be a process where a dominant culture appropriates and transforms the cultural practices of a culturally non-dominant group, or sometimes, vice versa (ibid).

Realia are words and phrases often used in the mass media that designate objects and concepts closely linked with a national culture and can create complexity when translating texts from one language to another (Ketevann and Parashishvili (2014), p 8).

Researcher positionally reflects the position the researcher has chosen to take with respect to the social and political context (or “one defined reality, fixed, measurable and observable”¹) of their own research, including ontological assumptions (an individual’s beliefs about the nature of knowledge), epistemological assumptions (objective and quantifiable knowledge). All of these assumptions can be influenced by an individual’s geographic location, political affiliations, socio-economic standing (class), race and ethnicity, religious beliefs, gender, sexuality and disabilities. See Holmes & Darwin (2020) for further discussion.

Multiculturalism, sometimes used interchangeably with cosmopolitanism describes societies that experience a high degree of cultural diversity through migrational inflows and/or opens to such diversity and is used to characterise specific public policies for managing culturally diverse societies and promoting cultural pluralism in the industrial world (Bennesaieh, 2010, p 17).

Nonequivalent vocabulary is defined as words and word-combinations that denote “the notions of a nation which are unfamiliar to another one. They are associated with specific cultural elements existing within a particular culture but those that cannot be found in another; they also include the words that cannot be translated into a target language using one single word…” (Kostomarov & Vereshagin, 1990, p 53 as cited in Ketevan (2014), p 9).

An unprecedented stage of rapidly increasing economic, social and cultural interconnectedness as a result of improved communication and media technologies, migration and greater mobility, among other things. (Held and McGrew (2000)).

Reflexivity informs positionally and is the concept that researchers should acknowledge and disclose their selves and their preconceptions in their research, seeking to understand their role in it (Cohen et al, 2011).

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Worlds in this context is a metaphor used by Jay Springett. for certain types of cultural and cognitive structures that have an inside and an outside and have certain rules or at least a sense of coherency. He proposes that worlds ae the first new medium of this century. Eg, Twitter is a world, Slack is a world – there is a technical apparatus which is operating, that we are socially talking to one another with.

People identify with and produce media for – see Henry Jenkins. See interview with Jay Springett.

An arts worker is an individual who spends at least some of their paid working time in one or more of the following categories: arts professional (e.g. curator, gallerist, creative producer); arts technician (e.g. studio technician, exhibition installer); arts educator (e.g. lecturer, workshop leader); arts researcher (e.g. academic, market analyst); cultural advisor; community arts and cultural development worker; and designer (e.g. graphic designer, web/digital designer). [Australian and New Zealand Standard Classfication of Occupations (ANZSCO), ABS 2021b)].