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The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate insights into the identity construction and development of a selected single male individual in Cape Town, South Africa. It aims at increasing the in-depth understanding of the complexities of identity construction in a transcultural setting and provides emic perspectives on a micro-individual level over a period of ten years.

This research study is based on the post-modernist premise by considering phenomenological and interpretative paradigms most relevant. It is a longitudinal study, conducted with a single individual over a period of ten years by using various research methods as well as triangulation of methods, theories and data. Data were analysed through content analysis.

This research provides in-depth information on the struggle of a single person to construct and re-construct his identity and find answers to the question “Who am I?” in the multifaceted and hypercomplex transcultural environment of Cape Town. It shows the attempts to developing a coherent multiple identity over a period of ten years, reconstructing the past, creating the present and envisioning the future.

This research has practical implications for practitioners working with identity (development) in transcultural settings. It provides important in-depth information on “nomadic identities” for coaching, counselling or therapies in transcultural settings.

This paper provides new and original insights into long-term identity development of an individual in a transcultural urban space.

The purpose of this paper is to explain, in the context of the massification and internationalisation of higher education, how Web 2.0 and its socially oriented knowledge system (episteme) has the potential to counter the current neo‐colonial disprivileging of non‐mainstream knowledge systems and discourses.

The paper, drawing on postcolonial, epistemological, and Web 2.0 learning literatures, first deconstructs the continued dominance of the traditional academic discourse in transcultural settings. It then illustrates how Web 2.0's non‐foundational approach to the nature of knowledge gives it the capacity to construct postcolonial transcultural learning zones that are inherently open to other knowledge systems and discourses.

The paper concludes that the socially oriented knowledge system or episteme of Web 2.0 enables educators to create postcolonial, meaning more epistemically inclusive, transcultural learning zones in which no one knowledge system or discourse is automatically privileged.

The paper highlights the role Web 2.0 can play in negating the colonialising impact of dominant educational practices that disprivilege non mainstream knowledge systems and discourses that have entered university learning environments through massification and internationalisation.

The paper addresses a significant gap in the literature by highlighting the pivotal but much neglected role of epistemology in Web 2.0 as well as in the internationalisation and massification of higher education. More specifically, it indicates how the respectful acceptance of different knowledge systems and discourses can create postcolonial architectures of learning and promote a more egalitarian form of cosmopolitanism.

Describes the results of a two‐year research programme, part of which has been carried out in partnership with the management teams of major companies with international activities. The programme has taken a fresh look at the subject of transcultural management, both in its national and corporate manifestation, and has built on the existing models of culture to develop a novel audit system by which intercultural and intracultural diversity may be assessed and managed. The system provides opportunities for the avoidance of conflict. It may also, however, be used to provide enhanced competitive advantage through the harnessing of the considerable synergies which exist between apparently conflicting cultural opposites.

This chapter sets out to explore consumer-centred experiential luxury from the perspective of a human body. We focus on the various practices related to a yoga retreat holiday experience in luxury hotel premises, such as encounters with hotel facilities, employees, nature and atmosphere besides yoga practice. Attention to bodily practices and affectivities on a yoga retreat holiday experience enables discussing intangible luxury beyond the traditional debate of luxury as related to product or brand features or experiential luxury focused only on the cognitive multisensory perceptions. The autoethnographic approach supports unwrapping the subtle affectual sensations building individual luxury in the experience setting. The data are gathered along with the first author's fieldwork during her three yoga retreat holidays in Thailand. The embodied investigation of tourist practices inducing luxury in the premises of a luxury hotel enriches the discussion of the co-creation between human bodies and the experience setting. It draws attention to the dynamic, situational and sensitive nature of luxury in the contemporary touristic experience of a yoga retreat holiday. It also advances the existing research on the body, practice and knowing by featuring the way luxury is emerging within the practice of yoga retreat holiday. By challenging the paradigm of luxury sensed only through our five external senses, our findings on the being, doing and moving body deepen the understanding of the co-creation and sensitiveness, affecting the subjective, transparent and embodied understanding of luxury experience.

With the emergence of the European Community, a new type of transcultural and transformation leadership is required on the Continent. Examines the why and the what of preparing executives and managers for the new work culture now in the process of creation. For both the global marketplace and cultural renewal among the nations from the Atlantic to the Urals, provides insight into the leadership qualities to cultivate, in terms of technical competence, people skills, conceptual skills, judgement and character, as well as the characteristics for meta‐industrial leading. These include providing more open communication/information, creating more autonomy/participation, promoting the intrapreneurial/ entrepreneurial spirit, enhancing the quality of work life, generating innovative/high performing norms and standards, utilizing informal, synergistic organizational relations, advancing technology venturing and research/development. Considers innovative strategies of human resource management and development.

This paper explains the concept of cultural synergy and provides a contrast of societies that could be characterized as having high or low synergy, as well as organizational culture that reflects high and low synergy. Within organizations, the research insights reported here center on behaviors and practices that contribute to synergy and success among teams, particularly in terms of international projects. The concluding section describes people who are truly “professionals” in their attitude toward their career and work, and how they can mutually benefit from the practice of synergy. Real European leaders actively create a better future through synergistic efforts with fellow professionals. The knowledge work culture favors cooperation, alliances, and partnership, not excessive individualist actions and competition. This trend is evident, as well as necessary, in corporations and industries, in government and academic institutions, in non‐profit agencies and unions, in trade and professional associations of all types. In an information or knowledge society, collaboration in sharing ideas and insights is the key to survival, problem solving, and growth. But high synergy behavior must be cultivated in personnel, so we need to use research findings, such as those outlined in this paper, to facilitate teamwork and ensure professional synergy. In addition to fostering such learning in our formal education and training systems, we also should take advantage of the increasing capabilities offered to us for both personal and electronic networking. Contemporary global leaders, then, seek to be effective bridge builders between the cultural realities or worlds of both past and future. Cultivating a synergistic mind‐set accelerates this process.

My encounter with ‘interculturality’ was partly occasioned by the fact of being born in Belgium at a period in time where growing up with multilinguality was a matter of normality and partly by then living and working in eight countries across all continents. Working in local communities and later in academic contexts sharpened my awareness about the importance of language in the transference of knowledge and interlinguistic exchanges of knowledges. Especially knowledges pertaining to the underlying ontological and epistemological differences and shadings of meanings and that require contextual understanding of these meanings are at the core of the chapter. The regular mistranslations occurring from social science texts originally written in other-than-English languages caused original meanings to get lost in translation. Some of the consequences of such mistranslations are examined, focussing on education and possible futures in our ‘pluriverse’, especially in the present epoch where global conversations are ever more important to address our predicaments, facing ecological disaster, extinction and the potential un-liveability for humans and so many other species of the earth. Including the non-human in our relational considerations for a possible future enlarges the need for new and interculturally understandable knowledge systems and the positivist and other epistemological inclinations in the dominant West will not make this any easier considering our rather sad record during the past four centuries.

Wherever television is a commercial venture which earns a significant percentage of revenues from advertising, it tends to be transformed to better serve the needs of ad agencies and their clients. One oft raised complaint is that in an attempt to raise ratings and viewership, advertisers insist that shows cater to the “lowest common denominator” of society; as a result, quality programming is often compromised, eliminated, or banished to time periods when viewing is inconvenient. Programme diversity is also undermined. This paper suggests that the strategies of commercial television often restrict high quality programming even if the actual sponsors are committed to quality and diversity. This is done to create an environment which will best serve the majority of sponsors, and thus attract maximum advertising revenues. A history of Voice of Firestone (a long‐lived programme on U.S. Radio and TV) will be used as an example of this tendency. In an era when Europe is becoming more involved with commercial television, the lesson of such examples is especially significant.

The UK is a popular educational hub for international students from different parts of the world. These students often face different transitional challenges, which have a significant impact on the success or failure of their studies. The purpose of this paper is to systematically investigate the issues and challenges confronting international students in the UK in their efforts to acquire academic knowledge and achieve personal development.

A total of 104 UK-based international students in five higher education institutes in London from 25 countries participated in this study. The study was undertaken qualitatively through 21 semi-structured and 13 focus group interviews.

The findings reveal that the process of transitional adjustment is affected by various issues, all of which determine the duration of the students’ involvement in each stage of the transitional process. International students in the UK experience language/accent-related difficulties; impaired communication; and a difficult adjustment to the British education system and culture.

The extent to which the findings of this research can be generalised is constrained by the limited scope of the research.

In choosing to study in the UK, international students primarily seek to obtain a qualification, other life experiences, and cultural assimilation. The students’ parents, institutions and the UK authorities (such as the Department of Education) have an important role in ensuring that the students achieve success. While the roles of parents and the UK authorities are not the focus of this paper, their supportive roles certainly allow students to complete the different stages of the process of transitional adjustment quickly and smoothly.

The study offers valuable insight into understanding the challenges facing international students in acquiring knowledge in a foreign land. The paper contributes to the pedagogic literature on this topic by proposing a three-stage scaffolding model.

This paper aims to explore the interrelationship between the fields of education and workforce in the context of post‐industrial societies. It seeks to analyze key challenges associated with the match (and mismatch) of skill supply and demand between education and the work force.

Using a “purposeful sample”, the study provides an evidence‐based analysis that explores how and to what extent soft skills are currently required by world recognized organizations such as Greenpeace, World Bank, OECD, Google, Apple and Samsung.

After a revision of different perspectives to identify and categorize the key skills of the twenty‐first century, the study describes seven non‐technical cognitive and social key skills called soft skills for innovation.

After exploring a small sample size of five recent job vacancies promoted by six major international organizations, the study analyzes the current demand for soft skills for innovation such as, collaboration, critical thinking, contextual learning, searching, synthesizing and disseminating information, communication, self‐direction and creativity. The methodology adopted and the data retrieval process can be replicated with either a larger sample or more focused workforce sectors.

The described “skills mismatch” emphasizes the importance of creating different strategies and tools that facilitate the recognition of skills acquired independently of educational contexts.

This study contributes to the current and ongoing discussions regarding relevant key soft skills for graduates and future employees providing an updated idea of skills demanded by world class organizations.

The paper provides evidence‐based information (data available online) that can contribute to rethinking curriculums and exploring “blended” models that mix real life and teaching contexts stimulating the development of soft skills for innovation.