CMST 339: Intercultural Communication in Global Contexts

Appadurai's Global "-scapes" & Academic Research Categories

πŸ§­πŸ‘·‍♂️ Ethnoscape

Definition (from Appadurai)

“landscape of persons who constitute the shifting world in which we live: tourists, immigrants, refugees, exiles, guestworkers, and other moving groups and persons” (Appadurai, 1990, p. 329).

Key Ideas from this -scape for research:

  • Ethnicities
  • Racial groups
  • Regional communities (e.g. "West Coast" "Pacific Northwest" as local examples)
  • Socio-political groups
  • Demographic groups (age, gender, etc. Importantly -- financial class may overlap with "finanscapes.")
  • Named or adopted communities (e.g. "immigrants" as a group in the country they have migrated to)

Example Academic Subjects/Fields for this -scape:

  • Social Science
  • Sociology
  • Ethnic Studies
  • Political Science

πŸ’Έ Finanscape

Definition (from Appadurai)

“currency markets, national stock exchanges, and commodity speculations move mega-monies through national turnstiles at blinding speed” (Appadurai, 1990, p. 330).

Things relating to money, finance, and the movement of financial capital. This "-scape" may include social "class" as it relates to money ("poor," "middle class," etc.).

Key Ideas from this -scape for research:

  • Privatization vs. Nationalization of services (e.g. "private health insurance" or "employer-connected insurance" vs. "universal healthcare")
  • Business models & profit
  • Capitalism
  • Corporations, Private Equity Markets
  • National capital & GDP ("Gross Domestic Product": "the market value of all final goods and services from a nation in a given year")
  • Marketing (as it relates to the gain of profit)

Example Academic Subjects/Fields for this -scape:

  • Business
  • Political Science
  • Economics
  • Socio-Economics (the intersections between sociology and the study of businesses/finance)

πŸ—³πŸ‘©‍βš–οΈ Ideoscape

Definition (from Appadurai)

“Also concatenations of images, but they are often directly political and frequently have to do with the ideologies of states and the counter-ideologies of movements explicitly oriented to capturing state power or a piece of it” (Appadurai, 1990, p. 331).

Groups and identities that are tied to political "belonging," could be regional, state, national categories. Also partisan groupings (e.g. "conservative," "liberal," etc.)

Key Ideas from this -scape for research:

  • Political groups
  • Partisan categories
  • Protest groups and movements
  • State categories (e.g. "Washingtonians" "United States"Americans" as local examples)
  • Socio-political groups
  • Political imagery, persuasion, or propaganda

Example Academic Subjects/Fields for this -scape:

  • Social Science
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Communication Studies
  • History

πŸ“ΊπŸ“Έ Mediascape

Definition (from Appadurai)

“refer both to the distribution of electronic capabilities to produce and disseminate information (newspapers, magazines, television stations and film production studios) which are now available to a growing number of private and public interests throughout the world, and to the images of the world created by these media” (p. 330). “Tend to be image centered, narrative-based accounts of strips of reality" (Appadurai, 1990, p. 331).

Key Ideas from this -scape for research:

  • Media messaging (press bias, effects of images in the media, stereotyping, etc.)
  • Popular culture
  • News reporting
  • Propaganda
  • Advertising
  • Bias
  • Mis-, Dis-, and Mal-information ("information disorder")

Example Academic Subjects/Fields for this -scape:

  • Communication Studies
  • Popular Culture Studies
  • Journalism Studies
  • Information Studies, especially: source evaluation / information disorder
  • Political Science
  • Psychology

πŸ“±πŸ“Ά Technoscape

Definition (from Appadurai)

“the global configuration, also ever fluid, of technology, and of the fact that technology, both high and low, both mechanical and informational, now moves at high speeds across various kinds of previously impervious boundaries” driven by “increasingly complex relationships between money flows, political possibilities, and the availability of both un- and highly skilled labor" (Appadurai, 1990, p. 329-330).

How technology connects us to communities and other groups and institutions (medical, workplace, academic)-- often outside of (or largely ignoring) other global boundaries (class, state borders, etc). 

Key Ideas from this -scape for research:

  • Technology - internet, social media, email, text messaging, services like WhatsApp, Venmo, TikTok, Twitter, etc.
  • Online healthcare information, patient portals, virtual medical appointments
  • "Health informatics"
  • Public health messaging and the internet
  • Cloud-based services & regional restrictions / barriers
  • Mis-, Dis-, and Mal-information ("information disorder") as it shows up online

Example Academic Subjects/Fields for this -scape:

  • Technology Studies
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Communication Studies

Research Skills - Building Searches

Begin a background search BROADLY: with a subject category or core topic idea

  • Example: Start with "body image" instead of "What are some of the ways images of photoshoped women affects teens' body image and self-esteem?"

In the image below, the student is browsing an overview article titled "Body Image Issues and Women" from the SAGE Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender to gather multiple keywords and ideas related to major connections researchers have made between women's body image, self-esteem, eating practices (or disorders), cultural body ideals, and other concepts (the highlighted terms):

(click image to enlarge)

background info article with words highlighted to show how you can pull search words from an article and then use those to construct future searches

Boolean Operators: AND, OR, NOT

AND / OR / NOT help you broaden or narrow your search results:

  • AND narrows and focuses your search - you get fewer, more relevant results

    • Ex: "medical care" AND teen* finds information on medical care specific to teens

  • OR broadens your search - you get more results

    • Ex: (teens OR youth) searches for both words

  • NOT omits results 

    • Ex: NOT "book reviews"


Video review: Boolean Operators (with a search example)

Source: "Boolean Operators" by Emily Wixson, Standard YouTube license

TRUNCATION (often: the asterisk - *)

Use an asterisk with the root of a search term to find multiple forms of the word:

  • Teen* = teen, teenaged, teenagers (all in the same search!)

Combine keywords and "core idea" phrases instead of full sentences in searches

Keep searches flexible using keywords to capture core ideas.

  • Ex: ethics AND medical care AND immigrants, instead of: Do immigrant communities receive an adequate standard of health care?

Try a variety of search keywords

Different search words, or using vocabulary you notice in an initial search, will lead to different results.

Look for and try relevant Subject Terms

In databases, subjects may be headings you can use to narrow a search (as a filter option, or a link). It is also worthwhile to pay attention to useful related results or related subjects / topics suggestions -- these links can lead to useful additional results or point to specialized terms used by a field of study.

Select "Subject Terms" in Academic Search Complete (or "Thesaurus" in ProQuest, "CINAHL Subject Headingsin CINAHL - you get the idea) to search a keyword and browse relevant subject categories. You can click on a term (or its "scope note" in CINAHL) to read a definition and more about how a subject heading is used in that database.  

  • Example: In this screenshot, you can see that instead of the common expression "blended families," Academic Search Complete uses the Subject Term: STEPFAMILIES.

(click on image to enlarge)

subject search showing alternative terms listed in text above image

What are keywords? (or: key ideas)

Keywords are the search terms you use to find information on your topic.

Keywords denote the core idea, concept, name, or event you want to learn about.

Tips on using keywords:
  • Keywords can be single terms or simple phrases
  • Keywords can be proper nouns, if relevant: "World Health Organization"
  • Put phrases in quotes to search the words as a phrase: "climate change" or "global warming"
  • Keywords have both synonyms and related terms

Ex: global warming = greenhouse emissions, carbon emissions, greenhouse effect, global warming AND environmental policy, or the Kyoto accord. 

Globalization "-scapes" Reference

These globalization "-scapes" definitions are from:
Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at Large Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,

as quoted in:

Powell, J. L., & Steel, R. (2011). Revisiting Appadurai: Globalizing scapes in a global world–The pervasiveness of economic and cultural powerInternational Journal of Innovative Interdisciplinary Research1(1), 74-80.