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Acculturation Processes and Intercultural Relations: Locals and Immigrants in Analogical...
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Acculturation Processes and Intercultural Relations: Locals and Immigrants in Analogical and Digital Societies

A special issue of Societies (ISSN 2075-4698).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2021) | Viewed by 10830

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Mancini Tiziana

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Humanities Social Sciences and Cultural Industries, Università di Parma, 43121 Parma, Italy
Interests: cultural psychology; culture studies; group dynamics; social psychology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Chiara Imperato

E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor
Department of Humanities Social Sciences and Cultural Industries, University of Parma, 43121 Parma, Italy
Interests: intergroup relations; virtual contact; online discrimination
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of Societies, we are organizing a Special Issue about the acculturation processes and intercultural relations in analogical and digital societies. We look forward to contributions focused on relations between locals and international and/or domestic immigrants worldwide.

In an increasingly multicultural and globalized world, literature is highlighting the pervasiveness of acculturation processes (e.g., Berry and Sam, 2010), and studies have been conducted on factors that affect both immigrant-based and globalization-based acculturation processes. Acculturation orientations of immigrants, locals’ expectations of how immigrants should acculturate, and locals’ proximal acculturation, i.e., the preference of the locals for adopting immigrants’ culture and/or maintaining their national culture, are all strictly related to intercultural relations’ quality and reinforcing or reducing prejudice, discrimination, and hate speech toward immigrants. It is known that contact with cultural otherness is not only inevitable in a globalized society, but it is also the main means through which intercultural relations can be improved. Based on Allport’s (1954) contact hypothesis, a large number of empirical studies and meta-analyses confirmed the positive effect of contact in promoting intercultural dialogue, and online contact studies have shown that digital contacts can promote harmony between different cultural groups, as can analogical contacts (Imperato et al., 2021).

Based on these premises, this Special Issue invites the submission of high-quality empirical papers, reviews, and meta-analyses to advance the understanding of the psychological and social factors and mechanisms that underlie the construction of harmonious (versus conflictual) analogical and/or digital multicultural societies.

We would appreciate the use of a range of theoretical and methodological approaches, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. We encourage interdisciplinary and intersectoral perspectives. We particularly welcome high-quality case studies and experimental studies of acculturation and intercultural relations in digital contexts. Suggested themes might relate to, but are certainly not limited to, locals’ globalization-based acculturation processes, locals’ prejudice and discrimination toward immigrants, sustainability of intercultural relations in analogical and digital contexts, intercultural relations during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, and contact-based programs to reduce discrimination, prejudice, and hate speech toward immigrants.

Contributions must follow one of the three categories (article/review/conceptual paper) of papers of the journal and address the topic of the Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Mancini Tiziana
Ms. Chiara Imperato
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as conceptual papers are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Societies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • acculturation
  • inter-cultural relations
  • ethnic prejudice
  • racism
  • ethnic discrimination
  • hate speech
  • intergroup contact
  • e-contact
  • immigrants
  • locals

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 813 KiB  
Article
Humble and Kind: Cultural Humility as a Buffer of the Association between Social Dominance Orientation and Prejudice
by Emilio Paolo Visintin and Marika Rullo
Societies 2021, 11(4), 117; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/soc11040117 - 24 Sep 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2742
Abstract
With the rise of prejudice and discrimination against ethnic and immigrant minorities, strategies to reduce prejudice and discrimination, and to counteract the impact of intolerant, anti-egalitarian ideologies, are needed. Here we focused on cultural humility, i.e., the ability to have a humble and [...] Read more.
With the rise of prejudice and discrimination against ethnic and immigrant minorities, strategies to reduce prejudice and discrimination, and to counteract the impact of intolerant, anti-egalitarian ideologies, are needed. Here we focused on cultural humility, i.e., the ability to have a humble and other-oriented approach to others’ cultural backgrounds, resulting from self-examination and critical thinking about structural privileges and inequalities. In this research we proposed that cultural humility might attenuate the effects of intolerant, anti-egalitarian ideologies such as social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) on negative intergroup attitudes and perceptions. In a correlational study conducted in Italy, we found that cultural humility moderated the associations between SDO and prejudice toward immigrants, as well as between SDO and perceptions of threat posed by immigrants. Specifically, the associations of SDO with prejudice and threat were lower among respondents with high cultural humility compared to respondents with low cultural humility. Conversely, cultural humility did not moderate the effects of RWA on prejudice and threat. Findings are discussed considering the motivations underlying prejudice of high-SDO and high-RWA individuals, and proposing cultural humility training to foster positive intergroup relations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Acculturation Processes and Intercultural Relations: Locals and Immigrants in Analogical and Digital Societies)
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17 pages, 316 KiB  
Article
Slumming on Social Media? E-Mediated Tourist Gaze and Social Representations of Indian, South African, and Brazilian Slum Tourism Destinations
by Mauro Sarrica, Isabella Rega, Alessandro Inversini and Laura Soledad Norton
Societies 2021, 11(3), 106; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc11030106 - 01 Sep 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3998
Abstract
Slum tourism is a hotly debated genre of travel. While it may foster intercultural encounters with marginalised “others”, it is also accused of reinforcing stereotypes and exploitation. Both aspects are amplified by the communication through social media of the slum tourism experience, that [...] Read more.
Slum tourism is a hotly debated genre of travel. While it may foster intercultural encounters with marginalised “others”, it is also accused of reinforcing stereotypes and exploitation. Both aspects are amplified by the communication through social media of the slum tourism experience, that contribute to challenge or confirm stigmatizing representations of slums and their inhabitants. Based on the theoretical constructs of the tourist gaze and of social representations, this article addresses this particular type of digital contact. A lexicometric approach was used to analyse an extensive corpus of reviews on TripAdvisor (N = 8126). The findings not only confirm common themes already identified by the literature: the eye-opening component of touring poverty and the gatekeeping function of guides; but also show the emergence of context-dependent specificities, such as a hedonistic feature in the Cape Town region; or the integration of favelas within the representations of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Furthermore, the results show the tension between the “othering” and the “sameing” mechanisms, making this tourism practice a space in which shallow and deep tourist gazes interact and co-exist, and are crucially mediated by the gatekeeper of the tours: the guide. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Acculturation Processes and Intercultural Relations: Locals and Immigrants in Analogical and Digital Societies)
23 pages, 1119 KiB  
Article
Intergroup Dialogues in the Landscape of Digital Societies: How Does the Dialogical Self Affect Intercultural Relations in Online Contexts?
by Chiara Imperato and Tiziana Mancini
Societies 2021, 11(3), 84; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/soc11030084 - 21 Jul 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2951
Abstract
The effects of intergroup dialogues on intercultural relations in digital societies and the growing conflict, inflammatory and hate speech phenomena characterizing these environments are receiving increasing attention in socio-psychological studies. Based on Allport’s contact theory, scholars have shown that online intercultural contact reduces [...] Read more.
The effects of intergroup dialogues on intercultural relations in digital societies and the growing conflict, inflammatory and hate speech phenomena characterizing these environments are receiving increasing attention in socio-psychological studies. Based on Allport’s contact theory, scholars have shown that online intercultural contact reduces ethnic prejudice and discrimination, although it is not yet clear when and how this occurs. By analyzing the role of the Dialogical Self in online intercultural dialogues, we aim to understand how individuals position themselves and others at three levels of inclusiveness—personal, social, and human—and how this process is associated with attitudes towards the interlocutor, intergroup bias and prejudice, whilst also considering the inclusion of the Other in the Self and ethnic/racial identity. An experimental procedure was administered via the Qualtrics platform, and data were collected among 118 undergraduate Italian students through an anonymous questionnaire. From ANOVA and moderation analysis, it emerged that the social level of inclusiveness was positively associated with ethnic/racial identity and intergroup bias. Furthermore, the human level of inclusiveness was associated with the inclusion of the Other in the Self and ethnic/racial identity, and unexpectedly, also with intergroup bias. We conclude that when people interact online as “human beings”, the positive effect of online dialogue fails, hindering the differentiation processes necessary to define one’s own and the interlocutor’s identities. We discuss the effects of intercultural dialogue in the landscape of digital societies and the relevance of our findings for theory, research and practice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Acculturation Processes and Intercultural Relations: Locals and Immigrants in Analogical and Digital Societies)
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