Role of Intercultural Communication in Multicultural or Culturally Diverse Societies

This Special Issue (SI) explores how language, identity, and power intersect in multilingual, multicultural, and digitally mediated environments—from households and classrooms to boardrooms and online platforms. The SI centers on historically underrepresented perspectives in the field, especially those from non-Western and Global South contexts. Challenging the dominance of Western-centric frameworks, the contributors highlight how colonial legacies, indigenous knowledge, and regional dynamics reshape intercultural theory and practice. In the opening article, “knowledge strategies” are introduced that position indigenous perspectives as global contributions, reframing community building as a third key dimension of intercultural communication alongside interaction and exchange. Subsequent articles adopt a decolonial, multilingual, and multiscalar lens. Topics include family language policy, bilingual development, youth identity in digitally saturated settings, and multilingualism in corporate communication. Digital media emerges as both a communication tool and a contested space where ideology and identity are negotiated. Two articles examine how media shape public discourse. The SI concludes with a study exploring students’ development of intercultural competencies and proposing inclusive co-curricular strategies. Together, these contributions reconceptualize intercultural communication as a dynamic, plural, and power-laden process. By amplifying diverse voices, this SI expands the field’s boundaries and advances a more inclusive global conversation on what it means to communicate—and coexist—across cultures.