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Communication is the basic concept in explaining globalization. Globalization can be observed as the worldwide expansion of a functionally differentiated European society through intercultural communication. In this society, since the 17th century, intercultural communication has assumed the form of a modernist ethnocentrism based on values such as knowledge, pluralism and individualism. During the 20th century, historical changes created the necessity for new forms of intercultural communication. In the last decade of that century, a transcultural form of communication based on dialogue was proposed as a basis for cross-cultural adaptation, a creation of multicultural identities and a construction of a hybrid multicultural society. However, this transcultural form creates paradoxes and difficulties in intercultural communication, mixing the preservation of cultural difference with the search for synthesis. Consequently, a new form of intercultural dialogue, dealing with incommensurable differences and managing conflicts, is needed to create coordination among different cultural perspectives

Latin American communication research shows an increasing convergence with cultural studies in terms of its ability to analyze communication and cultural industries as a matrix for both the disruption and reorganization of the social experience. The article argues that it is imperative to reflect on the way in which communication has been transformed into a highly effective mechanism for the insertion of all cultures - whether ethnic, national or local - into the sphere of the market. The article explores the changing configurations in the field of communication research in Latin America, noting the shift in focus from mediation to media and the increasing contribution of an ethnographic perspective, which seems particularly promising when applied to the younger generation’s cultural trajectories.

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Three generations of human rights are evident: the civil or freedom rights; the economic and social rights; and, currently, the solidarity or collective rights, including cultural rights. The principle of the right to communicate contains both the passive and the active right of the receiver to inform and to be informed. That the right to communicate is a fundamental human right clearly signals that participatory democratization brings a redistribution of power. Both individual and social rights are included in this right. Thus, there is an urgent need for a global ethics that begins from a global cultural perspective.

Chapter in Many Voices, One Vision: The Right to Communicate in Practice, edited by Philip Lee. Penang: Southbound, 2004. ISBN 983-9054-40-6

This volume provides the reader with an up-to-date overview of the emerging debates over the role of language rights and linguistic diversity within political theory. It brings together many of the leading political theorists who work in the field, together with some of the most important social scientists, with the aim of exploring how political theorists can conceptualize issues of language rights and contribute to public debates on language policy. The thirteen essays in this volume highlight both the empirical constraints and normative complexities of language policy, and identify the important challenges and opportunities that linguistic diversity raises for contemporary political theory.

The Indian concept of kshetra 'field, region' views the issues of heritage and rights of speech communities in a pluralistic framework, highlighting the characteristics of shifting language boundaries and identities, and the underlying communication ethos in the South Asian region. The paper critically reviews the phenomena of language Rights being essentially cultural, fulfilling the human urge of gratification to a particular heritage. It questions the present-day thrust on defining language rights in political terms, and instead pleads for generating awareness among speech communities to articulate these communication rights on a broader canvas transcending political and bureaucratic institutions.

Documents & analyzes the destruction of native languages & cultures that is taking place today & proposes alternative models & practices. A multi-disciplinary work drawing on education, applied language studies, sociology, psychology, & human rights.

Linguistic Human Rights (LHR) is a fast growing new area of study combining the principles of national and international law with the study of language as a central dimension of ethnicity. Implementation of these principles is aimed at ensuring that no state or society violates these basic rights. This path breaking study broadens our knowledge of the important role of language in minority rights and in social and political struggles for LHRs. Exploring the interactions of linguistic diversity, biodiversity, the free market and human rights, the contributors present case studies to highlight such issues as Kurdish satellite TV attempting to create a virtual state on the air through trying to achieve basic LHR's for Kurds in Turkey; the implementation of LHRs in the Baltic states; and the obstacles met in education by Roma and the deaf in Hungary because of lack of appropriate LHRs. Language: A Right and a Resource is a valuable multi-disciplinary text which can be used in a variety of different areas of study in the legal profession, linguistics, cultural and political studies.

This article analyses instruments adopted by the UN, UNESCO and regional organizations dealing with cultural rights. It presents the procedures aimed at the verification and control of the implementation of cultural rights based on reports and, in the case of UNESCO, on communications. The analysis leads to the conclusion that cultural rights are an underdeveloped category of human rights, often proclaimed by declarations and recommendations which at best can be qualified as `soft law'. Therefore they need further development, codification and strengthening of international control of their implementation.

This article argues that the cultural problem of the Information Society can be defined in terms of conditions determining the production, distribution and access to expression. The conceptualization of culture and cultural rights is explored by organizing cultural debates into three models, with a critical common ground then identified in each regarding the significance of the concern for expression. This problematization then serves as a way of addressing a number of critical dimensions in the policy debates of the Information Society emerging in world trade agreements. It is held that cultural rights and the conditions of expression can be articulated as a product of forms of information policy, such as: intellectual property laws, universal service and access to critical features of networks in the production and distribution of expression; the number of information providers, producers and distributors favored by competition policies; and the structure of positive and negative information rights implemented as content regulation under constitutional, statutory and regulatory obligations. The article examines the treatment of this set of information policies in a few emerging world trade agreements for the information sector, and the analysis concludes that the current world trade paradigm of the Information Society stands to transform profoundly the structure of content in the information age in favor of concentration of expression under proprietary governance. The implications of this change and criteria for evaluating cultural rights and information rights are provided.

This paper looks at policies of linguistic expansion worldwide, in particular at English in the colonial and postcolonial periods. It addresses the issue of whether the expansion of English in continental Europe represents a threat or a blessing. It considers some of the ambiguities in English being promoted, particularly in connection with ESL expertise, as a language serving `international' purposes and simultaneously British and American interests. It considers the attitude of continental European scientists to needing to publish in English and implications for the ecology of languages in Europe.

Analyzing linguistic rights worldwide, this volume describes what linguistic human rights are, who has and who does not have them and why and suggests which linguistic rights should be regarded as basic human rights.

Technology makes it possible to blanket the entire world with a single human voice, or to communicate across vast distances by means of the telephone. What is true of the international dimension of human communication is equally true of the national: communications technology has made possible levels of intra-national communication undreamed of before. Such technology can be used to strengthen the rights of the individual or to suppress them. The same is true of modes of communication as is true of the media: in a world of increasing inequality, both haves and have-nots, suppliers and clients, must find a new accommodation. The right to communicate implies linguistic equality regardless of frontiers.

Those persons actively concerned with the right to communicate have, quite naturally, described this right within their own particular cultural perspectives. Thus, whether a right to inform or a right to privacy or a right to seek information are viewed as most important depends on how communication functions in a particular cultural context.