Piller, I. (2010). Intercultural communication: A Critical Introduction. Edinburgh University Press. 178 pages. ISBN 978-0-7846-3284-8. Reviewed by Jane Woodin University of Sheffield This book is a highly welcome contribution to intercultural communication literature, which, as the author rightly states, has been dominated until relatively recently by often stereotyped accounts of cultural differences described along national lines. In recent years this trend has been challenged by a number of alternative approaches, and Piller’s contribution stands out within them for a number of reasons. First, she combines discourse-analytic and sociolinguistic perspectives, highlighting the central role of language in intercultural communication and emphasizing the need for both micro- and macro-analysis in understanding in-context intercultural interactions (see also for example, Hua 2011). Second, Piller advocates a social justice and contextual approach to intercultural communication cautioning against the use of culture differences as a means for masking power difference and social exclusion. Piller supports her position using a wide-ranging array of research which successfully demonstrates the real-world social and political implications of ignoring cultural and linguistic difference or indeed explaining away injustice as cultural difference which can lead at times to fatal consequences. Her work is also peppered with personal and professional accounts as well as more formal research from her own and her students’ and colleagues’ lives, thus enabling readers of the book to identify with the content and arguments. Piller states that part of her motivation in writing the book is to represent more accurately the reality of everyday intercultural communication which is not clearly cut along national stereotypes but which is contextualized in real-life issues relating to language, access, equality and power: Intercultural communication in real life is embedded in economic, social and cultural globalization, transnational migration and overseas study. The main challenges of intercultural communication are linguistic challenges of language learning, the discursive challenges of stereotyping, and the social challenges of inclusion and justice.’ (p. 1). The 11 chapters take the reader on a journey from a discussion of the concept of culture (a standard starting point for intercultural communication textbooks) through to a justification of her position that the study of intercultural communication needs to consider the politics of inclusion and commit itself to equality and inclusivity. This position leads her to argue throughout her book for a change from the central question in intercultural communication studies from ‘How does group X communicate?’ to one drawn from Scollon and Scollon’s (2001, p. 545) mediated discourse approach, Book Reviews  417 © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd