Baltic Sea Regional Cross-Cultural

Material Development Project

at Gotland University

Project Overview:

     Until relatively recently, East-West blockades prevented interaction among the nations of the Baltic Sea.  Today historical ties have been renewed, there is a new era of regional identity and cooperation, and the more than 85 million people who represent the different nations, cultures, traditions and environments along the Baltic Sea are rapidly moving toward more collaborative and cooperative association.  Developing greater cross-cultural understanding is essential to facilitating this process by providing people with the knowledge and skills needed to better understand, communicate and solve problems with one another.  

     A special project underway at Gotland University aims to advance this initiative.  Under the direction of Dr. Kenneth Cushner of Kent State University (USA) and Anastasia Muri of Gotland University, this project will produce training materials designed to introduce a wide range of concepts related to cross-cultural communication and interaction that are relevant to people in the Baltic region in a wide variety of sectors, including business, tourism, environment and education. 

     The pilot phase of the project, co-funded by the U. S. Fulbright Commission, the Nordic Council of Ministers and Gotland University.  involved project teams from Sweden (Gotland University), Russia (Novgorod State University, Petrozavodsk State University) and Estonia (University of Tartu) were involved with the initial phase. The next phase of the project will include 12 countries within the Baltic Sea drainage basin, including Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden and Ukraine.

Project Goal:

     The goal of this project is to produce a cross-cultural training publication based on Cushner and Brislin’s book, Intercultural Interactions: A Practical Guide, 2nd ed, 1996.  This publication pioneered the 18-theme culture-general assimilator (or sensitizer), a cross-cultural training tool designed to introduce issues that are common in people’s intercultural interactions regardless of where they are from, their particular role in society, and with whom they will interact.  The 18-theme framework is introduced to trainees through the use of a number of critical incidents – the most researched of all cross-cultural training approaches and the one that has demonstrated to have positive impact on people’s cognition, affect and behaviour.  This book continues to have widespread acceptance and broad application since the release of the first edition in 1986.  The basic model has been modified and used in a number of settings around the world, including the preparation of business people; health, social work and development professionals; multicultural educators; interpreters of the deaf; as the basis for curriculum development among people in regions of conflict; as well as in the training of astronauts preparing for trips to the international space station.  It is an ideal format to use within a region where people from many different backgrounds frequently interact. 



Read a description and reviews of Intercultural Interactions: A Practical Guide, 2nd ed.  (Cushner and Brislin, 1996, Sage Publications), the publication that introduced the culture-general assimilator.


View a PowerPoint presentation that explains the culture-general assimilator.


View sample critical incidents being developed for this project.

 
Research articles on the culture-general assimilator.

Be involved with this project.

Contact Project Coordinators for Further Information:

Dr. Kenneth Cushner
kcushner@kent.edu

Ms. Anastasia Muri
anastasia.mariamuri@hgo.se