Mori-Joe - exploring magical paths

Book excerpt: This is a book about Mori-Joe and the cultural and spiritual journey she embarks on. After spending her formative years in Germany she moves to South Africa with her parents, where exciting new worlds await her. Somehow these worlds are already uncannily familiar to her. Her journey is told in the form of a didactic narrative. It is an amazing story on the one hand, on the other a biographical excerpt that has its roots in a set of profound cross-cultural scenarios. Mori-Joe's story is based on David S. Hoopes' cross-cultural personality development methodologies and cleverly conceptualises this into a humorous and entertaining narrative. Found at the end of the story is a compact, scientific 'user guide' on intercultural personality development with select references to the literature that has been consulted on this subject. The book has been written as a novel in a style that is both palatable to young people and adults alike, as it is to persons in a professional context devoted to the subject of cross-cultural development and learning. It can be adopted by schools and universities as foundational material for an understanding of the subject, as well as for topics like psychobiography and anti-racism. Claude-Hélène Mayer holds a Master and Doctorate in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from the University of Göttingen, Germany, and a Doctorate in Management from Rhodes University, Grahamstown. Her research areas are cross-cultural conflict management, identity, value and health in organisational contexts. She is currently Professor of Intercultural Business Communication at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg, Germany, and Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. PD Dr. habil. Claude-Hélène Mayer, PhD (RU) ist Visiting Professor an der University of South Africa, Pretoria, Distinguished Visiting Professor (2013) und Senior Research Associate an der Rhodes University, Grahamstown, sowie Privatdozentin am Lehrstuhl für Sprachgebrauch und Therapeutische Kommunikation, Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder). Sie ist interkulturelle Trainerin, Mediatorin & Ausbilderin für Mediation (BM), systemische Beraterin (NIS) und systemische Familientherapeutin (SG), Hypnosetherapeutin (TIM) und integrierte Lerntherapeutin (ILT). Ihre Forschungsthemen sind interkulturelle Gesundheit in Organisationen, interkulturelles Konfliktmanagement und Mediation sowie Beratung. Sie ist Autorin mehrerer Kinderbücher, Fachbücher, wissenschaftlicher Artikel und Monographien.