The practice of multimodal approaches, the challenge of cross-cultural communication, and the search for responses

The development of multimodal approaches presents an opportunity for human beings to increase their competence in managing complexity, while at the sa me time brings a challenge of cross-cultural communication. Some claim that two approaches have been proposed for tackling this challenge: an approach of "frameworks" and an approach of "discourse." Some go further to contend dropping frameworks and taking up discourse. This paper argues that, if it is true that there exist these two approaches, neither the "frameworks" no r the "discourse" approach alone is sufficient. It is suggested that resear chers and practitioners may be better equipped by participating in discours es with and among frameworks. Employing three metaphors, this paper propose s that, in the way "force-fields" and "constellations" require and imply ea ch other, both frameworks and discourse ari: necessary for human beings to act as a "Peircian fiber-cable" in social problem-solving.