This paper investigates how scientific cultures in intercultural education research are constituted through processes of self-organization and network formation, as manifested in publication and citation behavior and practices. Drawing on the concept of social epistemology, we advocate a meta-cultural awareness that resists epistemic standardization and fosters self-critical scientific practice. We use data from the Scimago Journal Ranking networks for selected education journals titled “cultur*” and from Scopus citations. We reveal dominant epistemic clusters and the implicit socioepistemic constellations within research communities related to intercultural education and adjacent disciplines in Italy. We examine whether the discursive space of authors affiliated with institutions in Italy differs from the general, international discursive space and identify the epistemic clusters that emerge from citation patterns. The results indicate that, while the national discursive space is shaped by influential authors with affiliations to Italy, the discourse is consistent with international discourse in the field of intercultural education and related fields.
Groß et al. (Wed,) studied this question.