Paradigms and communication

Abstract Different structures of reasoning which exist in different cultures, professions, and disciplines are called different “logical models”, “logics”, “epistemologies”, etc., depending on disciplines. For the sake of brevity they are called different “paradigms” in this paper. This paper proposes the exploration of paradigmatology and its application to cross-disciplinary, cross-professional and cross-cultural communication. The paper consists of introductory sections and three main parts. The first main part discusses three paradigms, whose differences frequently cause frustration and frictions in interdisciplinary and interprofessional work, especially in urban planning, environmental design, etc. The second part discusses existence of literature on the paradigmatic aspects of cross-cultural communication, and the theoretical and conceptual tools available for the identification and analysis of misunderstandings in cross-paradigmatic communication. It mentions paucity of literature on cross-disciplinary and cross-professional communication and on methods for improvement of cross-paradigmatic communication. Demonopolarization and transspection are proposed. Finally, transparadigmatic process as the process to create not-yet-existing paradigms is discussed.