Whiteness, Technological Capital and Platformed Interculturality: COIL Experiences in Latin America

Domenack-Bracamonte W.; Romero-Delgado C.I.; Bacca Rozo J.E.; Martínez-Velasco A. · Journal of Intercultural Studies (2026) · DOI: 10.1080/07256868.2026.2636884

Resumen

The internationalisation of higher education in Latin America has increasingly incorporated internationalisation-at-home initiatives, among which Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) has become central. Often framed as a democratising strategy for fostering intercultural competence, these initiatives operate within platform-mediated environments shaped by symbolic hierarchies, technological inequalities, and regimes of professional visibility. This article examines how whiteness–understood not as a phenotypic attribute but as an ethos of modernity and legitimation–is performed within digitally mediated intercultural encounters. The study analyses a tri-national COIL experience involving communication students from private universities in Peru, Mexico, and Colombia, conducted through the professional networking platform LinkedIn. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research combines survey data from 119 students with qualitative analysis of 15 group-based digital self-presentation artefacts. Findings indicate that technological capital functions as a key symbolic divider, privileging visibility linked to technical fluency and professional respectability. A dissonance emerges between students’ declared commitments to intercultural openness and their interactional practices, which remain limited and exhibition-oriented. Cultural difference is frequently articulated through depoliticised and affectively safe repertoires, notably gastronomy. The article argues that digital internationalisation reconfigures interculturality as a regulated and aspirational practice aligned with global professional norms.

Instituciones: Universidad de Lima