Reflexivity and Self-Presentation in Multicultural Encounters: Making Sense of Self and Other

Abstract

International audienceThis chapter highlights ways in which reflexivity, as a process involved in multimodal communication, shapes our multicultural encounters. Following the symbolic interactionists, reflexivity is presented here as a basic process in all interpersonal communication, structuring everyday interactions on the level of intersubjectivity. The chapter will discuss the way participants may (consciously or unconsciously) develop self-presentation strategies (Goffman), including identity strategies (Camilleri), or adopt strategic “orientations” to their relationships with Others, along with the underlying questions of agency and intentionality and the types and limits of (conscious) reflexivity as it occurs in interpersonal communication