Intercultural Learning Hub

Resources for Practitioners: Articles and Videos

Edward T. Hall, Proxemic Theory, 1966 (Article)
This article details Proxemic Theory from Anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher, Edward T. Hall.
“Don’t stand so close to me!” How does your culture affect your attitude to personal space? (Article)
This LinkedIn article sheds light on cultural differences in proxemics.
When Does Close Become Too Close? (Article)
This Psychology Today article presents a research study in which Edward T. Hall's claims that high contact and low contact cultures dictate spatial comfort are not supported. Rather, gender, age, and a country's annual temperatures were the strongest predictors of space preferences.
Context of Cultures: High and Low (Article)
This resource discusses high and low context cultures and how these cultural general frameworks inform how space is seen cross-culturally.
Commuter Proxemics in Japan (Video - 13 sec)
This video shows commuters in Japan and could be used as a discussion starter in a group to begin unpacking how space is used across cultures.
COVID Expanded the Boundaries of Personal Space—Maybe for Good (Article)
This article discusses how COVID impacted personal space rules.
Understanding Proxemics through Restrooms: A “Hands-Off” Approach to Personal Space and Communication (Article)
This article presents an activity that discusses space in public restrooms.
Proxemics in Conversations Across Cultures Demonstration (Video - 4 mins)
This video demonstrates the Proxemics in Conversations Across Cultures Activity.

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Kelsey Patton onto Proxemics
@ 10:04 am on 31 May 2024

Proxemics Activities

Draw a House (45 min)
In this activity, participants are asked to draw a floor plan of a house based on their own experiences and understandings of how houses are typically arranged. They will then compare their floor plans and discuss the differences between them.
Fence in or Fence out (45 min)
Through this activity, participants learn about how their own and other cultures think about and use land/space.
Mental Mapping (20 min)
In this activity, participants draw, share, and compare their own mental maps of a shared space in order to better understand how other people experience the same space differently.
The Mockingbird (10 min)
In this activity, participants learn to model and articulate the concept of cultural distance.
Nonverbal Communication: Proxemics Surveys (45 min)
These surveys explore our sense of personal space and how it is influenced by culture (gender, age, ethnicity and profession, as well as by nation).
Oxford University Press Nonverbal Communication Activities (duration variable)
This resource includes 9 activities to introduce nonverbal communication and culture.
Proxemics in Conversation Across Cultures (15 minutes)
In this short activity, participants begin by having a conversation at a distance and slowly close the gap in distance. They then debrief how it made them feel and discuss how culture informs proxemic behavior and articulate their own cultural rules for using distance and space.

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Kelsey Patton onto Proxemics
@ 4:14 pm on 14 May 2024

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Resources for Practitioners: Articles and Videos

Proxemics Activities