Meeting the Intercultural Challenge.

The chapters of this book are all based on presentations at the 25th Annual Congress of the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR), which took place at Munich, Germany, from May 28th to June 2nd, 1996. This anniversary congress, jointly organized by SIETAR-Deutschland, SIETAR-Europa and SIETAR-International, was intended to address issues that arise for interculturalists be they policy makers, practitioneers in business, training or education, or researchers from the political, societal, economic and technological changes that have taken place since the founding of SIETAR more than a quarter of a century ago. The problems resulting from such changes, and in particular, their possible solutions, pose the challenges interculturalists have to meet at the turn of the millennium. This book presents a selection of exemplary contributions that are grouped together into the selections of more general Global and Societal Challenges, more specific European Challenges in particular those that emerge since the fall of the iron curtain, Challenges of Diversity, arising from the growth of minorities of all kinds, Challenges for Organizations, Challenges for Education and Training, Challenges for Language Teaching, Challenges for Research: Approaches, Studies and Theories. These sections are framed by an introductory chapter on intercultural aspects related to Germany: The Host Country of the conference and by a final section that highlights those practical and ethical challenges that every interculturalist as an individual has to face.