Howard Giles, professor of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), is to give a lecture on Tuesday 23 March entitled Interpersonal and Intergroup Communication between Citizens and the Police: What Roles Do Personal and Social Identities Play during Interaction? The lecture, organised by the Information and Communication Sciences Department, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC), is to take place at 1 pm at the University's headquarters at Avinguda Tibidabo 39-43, Barcelona. There is to be a prior presentation from Dr Lluís Pastor, the department's director. The lecture is also to involve participation from Dr Maria Àngels Viladot, lecturer in the Psychology and Educational Sciences Department.
Venue
UOC
Avenida Tibidabo, 39
Barcelona
Espanya
When
23/03/2010 13.00h
Organized by
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Program
Based on an imaginary encounter between an older Caucasian police officer and three young female Afro-American students charged of jumping a stop sign, Giles will analyse the different interpersonal relationships generated in given contexts; situations involving differences in gender, culture, ethnicity, social and occupational status, age and other factors.
These are moments when interaction leads to individuals having to change their style of communication to accommodate the other person. Who accommodates whom? What are the results of this accommodating behaviour during the interaction between those taking part, for example, in encounters between the police and citizens? These are some of the questions that Giles will look to answer during his address.
The imbalance of power
According to Giles, of the social interactions of this kind, that between the police and citizens represents one of the clearest and most obvious examples of intergroup encounters in many countries and highlights the imbalance of power.
Howard Giles has studied a wide range of areas related to intercultural and intergroup communication, with over four hundred publications (including twenty books). He has a PhD from the University of Bristol, UK, where he was Chair of Social Psychology and, subsequently, Head of the Psychology Department. He emigrated to California over eighteen years ago where is professor (and formerly chair) of Communication at UCSB.