Designing Communication Action Patterns For Global Communication And Cooperation : A Discourse Ethical Approach

Designing intercultural communication and cooperation systems involves at least two central issues, i.e., concepts for modeling communication and the legitimacy of communication norms and conventions established through modeling and designing. This paper discusses the concept of genre in regard to modeling communication and reflects on how discourse-ethical principles may inform the design of intercultural genres (or communication action patterns). It also describes a model for the collaborative construction of communicative action patterns that may form part of an information system, which supports communication and cooperation in virtual intercultural teams. In addition, it provides a set of general communication claims, which – if challenged – may lead to breakdowns in genre-based communication. Finally, it discusses the shortcomings of the approach and provides suggestions for further research.