1.3 Locating the Study in Academic Field

As the old saying goes, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.When entering a different socio-cultural context, people need to adapt.“Rome”as a hosting place for acculturation is not abstract, hypothetical, or homogeneous as it is often theorized about or operationalized in research.It is a specific, living, and complex community.Those who come into contact with the“Romans”may or may not belong to the same cultural groups; thus their interactions with each other and with the“Romans”（whom themselves might have been immigrants at an earlier time）together shapes what“the Romans do.”

“Popular society has presumed that with the existence of demographic diversity, contact will naturally follow, and groups will positively interact with each other... However, this presumption belies the various complex ways in which racial/ethnic groups have responded to such potential intercultural contact in diverse contexts.”（Halualani, Chitgopekar, Morrison, &Dodge, 2004, p.354）In this increasingly diverse world, a step outside the heritage-host pair analytical framework would allow a more culturally sensitive and expanded vision to frame relevant issues.In this sense, the study responds directly to Ward's（2008）call for research outside the Berry boxes.It offers a way to deal with the critics on the rigidity and limitation resulting from the typological or taxonomic nature of the bi-dimensional framework（Pick, 1997; Schönpflug, 1997）.

This paradigmatic shift in the academic understanding of the phenomenon in question can be illustrated by Figure 1.1

Figure 1.1 Typological and Network Representation of Cultures in Acculturation

When cultures in a multicultural setting are represented in the bi-dimensional framework's typology, they often appear as separate host-heritage dyads in analysis.Specific measures are developed for each pair in most studies.The network approach makes it possible to put together the ethno-cultures（A, B, C, and D）and the host culture in the same social context and visualize them side by side.This makes it easy to compare and contrast all cultures involved on the same ground.Moreover, by dropping the host-home dyad contrast and taking a relational network perspective, such an approach is able to account better for the complex nature of acculturation context today.Such a shift is significant for intercultural research in general as it echoes the call for studies“on the role that context of reception plays in the acculturation process.”（Schwartz, Unger, Zamboanga, &Szapocznik, 2010）More questions are raised when the common context for acculturation is multicultural rather than bicultural and this study will shed light on how they could be addressed in future studies.

Methodologically, the present study creates a link between the old and the new paradigms as a response to the critiques, making it possible to reference explanations provided by the old model, to validate or question them, and, at the same time, is not confined by its limitations.The testing of such an approach will have a transformative impact on acculturation studies as it challenges the most popular mindset in place now.As a result, the documentation of the procedures itself is of value to those who would like to pursue a similar line of research that integrates the strength of social psychology and social network analysis as recommended by Robins and Kashima（2008）.

The findings from this study are in line with the existing literature about the positive impacts of cultural integration on adaptation.But, they also point to new directions for theorizing about acculturation at both micro-and the meso-level using full-network analysis.Kuhn's（1996）observation of paradigm shift in the history of science suggests that the new paradigm should be able to draw the same conclusion as the old paradigm given the same input, but is also able to explain what the old paradigm cannot.It is hoped that the proposed theory could serve someone in the same way.The results also illustrate how full network analysis makes it possible to benefit from multi-level analysis, which is desired from the social ecological perspective in researching about human behavior in actual environment（Bronfebrenner, 1994）.

In addition, the findings about the particular community in this study will deepen our current understanding of acculturation experiences as it takes into consideration the presence of local multicultural connections.The implementation of this research also demonstrates that those who took part in the data collection have already benefited from their participation.The results of the study will shed light on how well the EWC is achieving its goal of cultivating multiculturalism, what issues or problems there are, and how the knowledge of the community network could help maintain such a healthy and integrated student body.Educators, community leaders, trainers, and consultants may draw insights from such an analysis and apply them to their own work with people of multiple cultural origins in acculturation.

However, these grand goals cannot be achieved single-handedly or in one shot. This study is an initial step to gauge whether the reframing of acculturation outside of the binary discourse makes a difference and how much insight it might inspire on ways to address questions about acculturation strategies and outcomes.The community is selected more for the convenience to explore the usefulness of network analysis in such a setting than for its demorgraphic representativeness.Thus, the results may not be easily generalizable to other culturally diverse communities.The testing of the SNA approach as an explanatory mechanism for acculturation and an alternative thinking paradigm that goes beyond framing the phenomenon dichotomously are the purposes of this study, so shall its results be examined and interpreted in this sense.Other limitations that pertain to the full network analysis are discussed in detail in subsequent chapters.

What Sir William Bragg once said that the important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them highlights the value of this study.It is not so concerned about collecting more data on acculturation about a particular group of sojourners, but is determined to explore how network thinking and analysis bring fresh perspectives to our understanding of acculturation.This approach can capture intercultural relations that are left out in the typology of the bi-dimensional framework.It also serves as an alternative methodological approach with regard to the measurement issues associated with the four-fold model.This network understanding of acculturation and what was found in this study are in line with the integration hypothesis（i.e., those who take an integration approach to acculturationadjust the best）, which is the most vigorously researched and debated in the bi-dimension framework.What's more, it also demonstrates the potential for SNA approach to offer a broader and contextual vision for theorizing about acculturation, which could not be accommodated easily in the typological models.