A theory of contact situations and the study of academic interaction

The concept of academic competence must be viewed within the context of globalization. The intensification of cultural contact in the current historical period has contributed greatly to the recognition and evaluation of variation in academic systems and to subsequent strategies of adjustment. Contact between varying academic systems is thus being ‘managed’ in the sense in which the word is used in management theory dealing with the noting, evaluation and adjustment of deviations from norms.

Theories of contact have existed for decades in linguistics as well as in the study of communication and other disciplines, but it is time to transform them into theories of contact in interaction in general. Contact situations must be viewed not merely as situations in which processes of linguistic misunderstanding occur, but as situations in which a number of social processes, including those of power, assert themselves. One of the concepts that must be accommodated in this scheme is contact between ‘major’ and ‘minor’ academic systems. Another question is that of the assimilation of academics (or acquirers of academic systems) from ‘minor’ systems into socially strong systems. In order not to remain within the constraints of old frameworks of cultural relativism, it is necessary to work towards a theoretically-based evaluation of academic patterns.