This book assembles a selection of essays on Discourse and Intercultural Relations presented at Murcia University in September 2004. After the recent outburst of the East-West conflict intercultural relations and the challenges embedded in intercultural communication are of increasing importance. This compilation unravels these topics from the point of view of Discourse Analysis and Cultural Studies. The main aim is to highlight the discursive strategies employed by the dominant political elite in a variety of contexts to maintain and reinforce their power position in intercultural encounters. The paramount concern is, therefore, to reflect upon the interrelations between language, power and discourse (in the Foucaultian sense).

Within a broad theoretical framework, the contributions are divided into two main parts. Part I includes papers which work within the field of Critical Discourse Studies and explore ideological issues, such as the concept of 'otherness', identity, race and the mass media's manipulation of public opinion. Part II adopts a more culturally based stance covering topics, such as intercultural competence, hybridity, intercultural education etc. Contents:

Dagmar Scheu/José Saura Sánchez: Introduction - Teun A. van Dijk: Macro contexts - Irina Oukhanova-Shmygova: Culturally-biased speech behaviour patterns of Russian and Belarussian politicians - Alfonso García Martínez/Antonia Ma Sánchez Lázaro: Symbolic racism and its concretion in immigration - Dagmar Scheu/Elena Zamora Sánchez: Recontextualization in public discourses of the consequences of the East-West conflict: The case of José Couso - José Saura Sánchez: Prototypical discourses: The linguistic construction of intercultural relations - María D. López Maestre: Investigating language and ideology in discourse on immigration: A corpus-based critical approach - Alvino E. Fantini: Intercultural competence: Exploring its multiple dimensions - Gregory B. Lee: Consuming cultures: Translating the global, homogenizing the local - Florent Villard: Europeanized culture, hybridity and the question of the intercultural in 1930s China: The position of Qu Qiubai (1899-1935) - David Walton: Getting at language, power and ideology after 9/11: An intervention into 'Bushness Studies' - Alvino E. Fantini: Exploring bilingualism: Its development, use and effects - Dora Sales Salvador: Awareness in an immigrant-receiving society: Intercultural mediation and translation/interpretation in public services - Roberto Ortí Teruel: An approach to the Arabic communicative model from the field of conversation analysis - Ignacio Sada García: Intercultural education and educational centres abroad.