فصلنامه تحقیقات فرهنگی ایران
سال هفدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 65، بهار 1403)

The intercultural communication is one of the important fields of communication, which requires more research and attention due to the expansion of intercultural philosophical studies. One of the reasons for the importance of this field is the formation of various communications that play an essential role in the image-building and branding of nations and cultures.
The more objective presence of this type of communication is caused by the mobility and movement of human beings in real and virtual spaces where intercultural communication should expand from the limited circle of face-to-face to everyone-to-everyone communication and do not stop in individual or interpersonal or even group domain.
By the way, one of the important discussions in this field is whether different cultures mean those of other nations, or whether a multicultural society with different people and cultures falls under the intercultural communication category.
The communication between people with different cultures in a society cannot be called intercultural based on the intercultural communication discipline.  Probably, one of the reasons is that it is not possible to make a serious distinction between the people of a society dominated by common culture. What distinguish such a society are views, behaviors and rituals that can be affected by the history and geography as well as intergenerational education in particular regions.
Despite the fact that the aforementioned situation has not yet entered the serious discussions of intercultural communication, but it can be said that various topics have been raised in this field that can create a change in the existing perspectives although, some of the definitions in this field are indicative of the scope of examples of intercultural communication in different situations. For brevity, here, a definition is being mentioned and explained.
Fred E. Jandt believes that "intercultural communication emerges at the time when people with different cultures or sub-cultures communicate with each other" (Jandt, 1995: 408). According to him, one of the reasons for intercultural communication is the feeling of being different. He says that "a person strives to know the secrets of intercultural communication when he sees himself different from others in a cultural sense"(Ibid, 1885:7)
In other words, communication between individuals with different cultures or sub-cultures in a wider culture can be called intercultural. One of the reasons for this naming is the feeling of distinction of one person from another. Therefore, the domain of intercultural communication can be much wider than what is being currently discussed in this field of study.
Despite the fact that studies and researches related to intercultural communication has become an important academic discipline in many universities around the world, unfortunately in Iran, which is heavily involved in intercultural communication with different nations, both inside and outside, this field of study has not yet received serious attention either at academic level or social level. What is more regrettable and surprising is very limited authored and translated books in this field.
Taking into account this scenario, the author tried to translate and compile the most important book in the field of intercultural communication by William B. Gudykunst entitled "Theorizing about Intercultural Communication" (Gudykunst, 2016) in two volumes that published by Imam Sadiq University Publications in 2016.
This book contains the most important ideas in the intercultural communication field. In other words, this is an encyclopedia of intercultural communication that has presented theoretical aspects in a wide and comprehensive way.
One of the problems of theoretical topics, especially in their teaching at the university level, is the lack of researches or case studies about related theories. In fact, theoretical approaches are not accompanied by practical studies, and this itself creates a kind of abstract orientation in the mind, which is far from practical utility.
On the other side, their validity can be evaluated by combining theoretical approaches with practical examples, hence; there is possibility of theoretical and practical matching.
By this way, this special issue on Intercultural Communication, the journal has tried to publish a number of articles related to this field in a thematic form, which have been written to a large extent with a practical approach and using intercultural theories; with the hope that professors, researchers and students will make more efforts and enrich this important field of communication with wider research activities.

Considering the paramount influence of culture on linguistic communication among human beings, the expansion of intercultural communication competence in learners in the process of language learning is highly imperative. Due to the lack of field research on this subject, the present study intends to investigate non-Iranian Persian language learners’ views on culture and intercultural communication competence. The study sample consists of 104 Persian language learners from different countries who are studying in Iran. The results of this study are based on the analysis of the data obtained via a structured questionnaire. Accordingly, Persian language learners believed that instructors enhanced their language skills and enabled them to use Persian for academic purposes. But they argued that the level of motivation of teachers to teach them was not satisfactory. In addition, the findings revealed that, since the participants were residing in Iran at the time of the study, they were largely familiar with the country, culture, and people of Iran. However, they were not satisfied with the amount of time devoted to culture and intercultural communication skills in Persian language textbooks intended for non-Persian speakers. One of the implications of the study was that intercultural communication skills need to be addressed in Persian language classrooms so that the learners could acquire intercultural communication competence.

The study emphasizes the exacerbated areas of conflict and distance between religions and sects in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan. Within the framework of a qualitative study and based on the grounded theory, interviews were conducted with 25 residents of the province over a six-month period. Following the principle of theoretical sampling, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants. The findings were coded and analyzed through the Strauss and Corbin method. In open coding, the interviews were read multiple times, resulting in the extraction of approximately 95 meaningful concepts. These were then synthesized into 7 main and abstract categories as well as 16 subcategories. Finally, a core category "conflicting forces and disintegration of interactions between religions and sects," which is comprehensive and concise, was extracted capturing all the main categories and narrative of the data. This research demonstrates that factors such as discrimination, non-acceptance of others, lack of wisdom among some religious scholars, and the absence of free discourse in a socio-cultural context shaped by economic problems and influenced by geographical factors as well as the intervention of factors such as extreme ethnic and religious prejudices, led to the formation of an extremist and biased network with internal and external interests, which work towards preventing interaction between religions and sects. The outcome of this process is humiliating and insulting actions of people, as well as a change in their perception of religion.

The phenomena, through which, a person knows himself and others is an identity. The purpose of this study is to investigate the situation and analyze identity networks of youths from different ethnicities as well as to understand their complexities and priorities. Highlighting these networks can help us understand the identity patterns of Iranian teenagers. As such, the identity elements of youths have been investigated based on the compositional theoretical framework. In this research, a quantitative approach was taken using a survey technique and the data collection tool was a questionnaire. The statistical population consisted of youths in the cities of Zahedan, Ahvaz, Urmia, Sanandaj and Gorgan. In this study, the statistical sample includes 2000 people. After collecting the data, SPSS, AMOS and UCINET software were used and the dimensions of identity were drawn in the form of tables and graphs. With reference to the analysis of the network of identity resources of youths, it can be said that civic identity is not related to the rest of identity resources, and this lack of connection includes the structures within the range of national identity as well as the remaining structures of identity dimensions. Referring to this issue, it seems that cultural structures play an infrastructural and fundamental role in identifying adolescence, and the behavioral, historical and political dimensions of identity are influenced by culture and since the culture element is motivational, cognitive and behavioral; it is the main factor of communication between all identity domains of a person.

Nonfiction is a new type of narrative literature influenced by the praxis of cultural-political discourses in the representation of reality. The dominant discourse seeks to display its desired patterns of action and life, with fictional literature being one of its channels. This study was conducted with the aim to highlight the semantic construction of Afghan immigrant women in the contemporary fictional literature in Afghanistan through the theoretical perspective of Homi K. Bhabha and Theodor W. Adorno. It also aims to identify the representations of these women in the nonfiction literary genre and interpret them according to the cultural context of the destination. To achieve this goal, "Border" from Why Shouldn’t Make Darkness My God? A collection of short stories by Masoumeh Jafari, a contemporary Afghan writer, was selected as the case study. It was analyzed using Seymour Chatman's narrative method in three sections of story, discourse, and ideology to illustrate the concept of Afghan immigrant women from lingual and ideological perspectives. The findings show that the identity of Afghan immigrant women was changed according to the cultural discourse governing the society, leading to identity diffusion (confusion) and their re-immigration to new land rather than their homeland to deal with this crisis. The interruption and cultural interference of the host society with the Afghan immigrant women is represented through the marginal and protesting voice of the author of "Border" to the existing situation and the context of the dominant realities, reflecting the "critical" function and "emancipation" of art in the analysis and criticism of the structures of domination and oppression. 

The presence of foreign students in Iran is one of the most important platforms where one can understand the depth and dimensions of intercultural communication. Such a communication includes interpersonal, intertextual, intersubjective and interactive ones leading to common understanding and connection between actors from different cultural fields. The purpose of this article is to show the different dimensions of intercultural communication among foreign students at Al-Mustafa University in Mashhad. Here intercultural communication has been examined with an emphasis on socializing and friendship in the interpersonal dimension; on familiarity with language and literature, customs and cultural heritage in the inter-textual dimension; on the perceptions before and after attending the university in the inter-mental dimension;  on exchange and economic interaction and in the political dimension, with emphasis on the differences and animosity in the relationships between people with different cultural backgrounds. This research was conducted based on a disproportionate stratified sample consisting of 180 foreign students from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and African countries. The results show that, firstly, there is a meaningful interaction between the four dimensions of intercultural communication; Secondly, the amount of intercultural communication among students is average or below average. Thirdly, acquaintance of students with language, literature, and culture and having a positive perception of each other create common understanding, which in turn strengthens and facilitates their intercultural communication. Fourthly, distrust, stereotyped and ethnocentric thinking, and the lack of a common language hinder the formation of stable and effective intercultural communication.

The hymn "Salam Farmandeh" was a phenomenon that was reproduced in at least 35 copies in different languages and dialects less than a year after its first launch in Iran. From the perspective of an intercultural communication that can be seen as a cultural phenomenon, this anthem was also reproduced in the language of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The aim of this research is to investigate the comparative discourse analysis of Persian and Turkish versions with an intercultural communication approach. The data analysis is based on two methods of semiotics and discourse. The theoretical framework of the research is based on the theories of diffusion and, identity negotiation.  The findings show that this hymn, in general, is understood and reproduced outside the borders of Iran, especially for Shia minorities in the Caucasus, as a manifestation of a cultural resistance against the globalized western culture. The discourse governing the Turkish version is formed around three basic aspects: "Introducing Imam Zaman (AS) to the youth", "Actively waiting for his reappearance “and "Building the future of Azerbaijan, according to its religious identity". In comparing the Turkish version with the Persian one, the two basic meanings of "introducing Imam Zaman to teenagers" and "actively waiting for the appearance of Imam Zaman" were repeated, around which the discourse of the Persian version was also formed.