Call for Papers – JCCP Special Issue on Culture Competence

Among the applied goals of cross-cultural psychology is the promotion of effective psychological and behavioral functioning in cultural, multicultural, and transcultural contexts. We therefore are pleased to issue this call for papers that will be considered for inclusion in a special issue with the tentative title, Cross-Cultural  Competence.  We encourage the submission of manuscripts that address one or more of the following questions, concepts and perspectives:

1. What is the nature of cross-cultural competence?  How might it be defined and measured? Does cross-cultural competence require critical reflection on how culture affects one‚Äôs own thought and behavior?  Does  this kind of competence require motivation to learn and appreciate other cultures, skills that result from the acquisition of cultural knowledge and accuracy representing other cultures?  Does cross-cultural competence involve effective appropriation, management, and creation of cultural resources to advance the valued goals of individuals, social groups, and humankind?
2. Does cross-cultural competence consist of both culture-specific and culture-general competence?  In other words, is it a ‚Äúuniversal‚Äù phenomenon or must it always be understood in culture-specific terms?
3. What is the constellation of knowledge, skills, abilities, aptitudes, experience, values and other characteristics of individuals who are considered to be highly cross-culturally competent?  Do such people manifest a certain pattern of personality dispositions or traits? If so, are these learned or unlearned, and what is the evidence for this position?
4. Can cross-cultural competence be promoted through continued interaction with others through specific, targeted training that may be sponsored by government agencies, international corporations, or institutions of higher learning? Have training programs proven to be effective in the development of cross-cultural competence?  If so, what is the evidence for this?
5. To what extent do personal, social and situational factors either increase or decrease the likelihood of exhibiting cross-culturally-competent behaviors?  Similarly, what are the roles of personal and social factors such as age, gender, linguistic skills, marital status, religion, occupation, and social network in the development of competency across cultures? 

The above questions and concepts do not necessarily exhaust the kind of queries and explorations that we hope the papers in the special issue will address.  We seek both empirical, data-oriented manuscripts as well as review and/or speculative papers that may help explain the nature of cross-cultural competence.  Interested individuals are urged to contact us with suggestions of possible topics or if there is uncertainty about the appropriateness of what you are considering as a possible submission. There are no specific a priori space limitations. However, we do want to include as many papers as possible. If there are insufficient papers for a special issue, an alternative would be to publish a special section of a regular issue.  If the Call for Papers is successful, we would expect the special issue/secintion to be published in 2012.

Proposals, or abstracts, should be sufficiently detailed to permit the evaluation of their relevance for the special issue. Please send your proposals by August 15, 2011 to Walter J. Lonner, JCCP Special Issues Editor (walt.lonner@wwu.edu . The names and e-mail addresses of the other three co-editors are given below.

After proposals have been reviewed, selected papers will be invited for submission and a new deadline to complete the papers will be given. 

CY-Chiu (cy.cychiu@gmail.com),  Associate Editor, JCCP

David Matsumoto (dm@sfsu.edu),  Editor, JCCP

Colleen Ward (Colleen.Ward@vuw.ac.nz), Consulting Editor, JCCP