Tag: cultural contracts theory

Key Concept #47: Cultural Contracts Theory by Ronald L. Jackson II

Key Concepts in ICDThe next issue of Key Concepts in intercultural Dialogue is now available. This is KC47: Cultural Contracts Theory by Ronald L. Jackson II. As always, all Key Concepts are available as free PDFs; just click on the thumbnail to download. Lists organized  chronologically by publication date and number, alphabetically by concept in English, and by languages into which they have been translated, are available, as is a page of acknowledgments with the names of all authors, translators, and reviewers.

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Jackson, R. L. (2015). Cultural contracts theory. Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, 47. Available from: https://centerforinterculturaldialogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/key-concept-cultural-contracts-theory.pdf

The Center for Intercultural Dialogue publishes a series of short briefs describing Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue. Different people, working in different countries and disciplines, use different vocabulary to describe their interests, yet these terms overlap. Our goal is to provide some of the assumptions and history attached to each concept for those unfamiliar with it. As there are other concepts you would like to see included, send an email to the series editor, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz. If there are concepts you would like to prepare, provide a brief explanation of why you think the concept is central to the study of intercultural dialogue, and why you are the obvious person to write up that concept. Feel free to propose terms in any language, especially if they expand our ability to discuss an aspect of intercultural dialogue that is not easy to translate into English.

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Ronald L. Jackson II Profile

ProfilesRonald L. Jackson II (Ph.D., Howard University) was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. He grew up in a very proud working class family.

Ronald L. Jackson II

His mother worked during the day in the financial aid office at the University of Cincinnati, and then went to her second job as a courier for UPS. On the weekends she worked as a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Army where she retired as a Sergeant First Class.  His father is an ordained minister who worked as a salesman and, much later after earning his doctorate degree, as owner of a tutoring business.

In articles like “Mommy there’s a N***** at the Door” published in the Journal of Counseling and Development Ron recalls countless stories of how he was mistreated as a child and young adult in Cincinnati because of the mere color of his skin.  This compelled him to write about racism and White privilege.  It also led him to explore the social construction of identity. After dabbling a bit in theories of identity Jackson decided he would create a couple of his own.  Because he was so enamored with Stella Ting Toomey’s work around identity negotiation he developed a theory that would try to make sense of what people are actually negotiating when they say they are negotiating cultural identity.  With feedback from two of his mentors, Bill Starosta and Molefi Asante, he coined “Cultural Contracts Theory.”  He reasoned that it is actually one’s worldview that is at stake in these daily and instantaneous identity negotiations. As he began to unravel the publicly assigned meanings inherent in his own identity as an African American male, he wrote extensively about Black masculinities, beginning with an essay called “Black manhood as xenophobe” published in the Journal of Black Studies.  The logical next step was to conceptualize this, so he along with one of his Penn State students Celnisha Dangerfield created the Black Masculine Identity Theory.

Currently, Ron Jackson is professor of communication at University of Cincinnati, and author of 14 books.  He has previously served on the faculty in the departments of communication at Xavier University, Shippensburg University, Penn State University, and University of Illinois.  He is also developing digital education materials for popular consumption.  His most recent books include Interpreting Tyler Perry, Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation (which just won a Will Eisner Award for Best Academic/Scholarly Book in the Comics Industry), and Communicating Marginalized Masculinities.  Ron is also a candidate for NCA 2nd Vice President.  You can read more about his work at www.jacksonfornca.com.

Work for CID:
Ron Jackson wrote KC47: Cultural Contracts Theory.