Intercultural Dialogue And Multi Level Governance In Europe

This book offers an interdisciplinary and in-depth analysis of the relationship between intercultural dialogue and multi-level governance, seen from a human rights-based perspective. It brings together papers that were originally presented at international workshops organised by the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of the University of Padua in 2010-2011 with some additional contributions. The authors deal with a broad and diversified framework of concepts, policy approaches and linkages between multi-level governance and intercultural dialogue, particularly in the fields of education and civil society participation. The volume follows a multi-disciplinary approach and presents these readings and reflections for an audience of scholars, as well as individuals and organisations interested in issues around human rights, governance, education and civil society. Its innovative approach addresses the complex issues of today's societies, which are in need of sustainable, coherent and responsible answers at both the conceptual and the policy level. In short, the book proposes a reading of interconnecting trajectories from governance building, education and civil society to intercultural dialogue in Europe. It is grounded in a human rights perspective and responds to the need for a policy-oriented but value-driven European future.

European politics has been reshaped in recent decades by a dual process of centralization and decentralization. At the same time that authority in many policy areas has shifted to the suprantional level of the European Union, so national governments have given subnational regions within countries more say over the lives of their citizens. At the forefront of scholars who characterize this dual process as Omulti-level governance,OLiesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks argue that its emergence in the second half of the twentieth century is a watershed in the political development of Europe. Hooghe and Marks explain why multi-level governance has taken place and how it shapes conflict in national and European political arenas. Drawing on a rich body of original research, the book is at the same time written in a clear and accessible style for undergraduates and non-experts.

This book examines the relationship between two policy approaches for managing the cultural diversity of contemporary societies: interculturalism and multiculturalism. The relationship between these two approaches has been a matter of intense debate in recent years. Some commentators argue that they represent two very different approaches, while others argue that interculturalism merely re-emphasises some of the core elements of present day multiculturalism. The debate arises, in part, because multiculturalism can take a variety of different forms, which makes it difficult to identify its key features in order to compare it with interculturalism. The debate has gained added momentum from the backlash against multiculturalism in recent years, and from the Council of Europe’s prominent championing of interculturalism as an alternative approach. This book aims to clarify the concepts of interculturalism and multiculturalism, and to bring the various arguments together in a way that will assist politicians, policy makers, practitioners and interested lay people to understand the concerns that are driving the different orientations. The book is also intended to facilitate a comparison of the policy implications of interculturalism and multiculturalism. To this end, each chapter concludes with a concise statement of the implications for policy that follow from the viewpoint that has been expressed.

This book provides an original, rigorous and theoretically-grounded investigation into varying EU efforts to advance intercultural dialogue (ICD) in the framework of its foreign policy towards the Mediterranean during the period 1990-2014. From the end of the Cold War, the EU has increasingly invested in both rhetoric and resources on ICD promotion. In spite of this commitment, the EU has never offered a clear and permanent understanding of what this concept entails and has been actually aimed at. By adopting a FPA standpoint and approaching ICD as one of the foreign policy instruments developed by the EU to address the relations with its Mediterranean partners, this book exposes the causes and the modalities of the contradictory development of this relevant and long standing element of EU foreign policy. De Perini investigates change and continuity in the promotion of this tool, and provides in-depth knowledge of what ICD has actually meant for the EU: from the development and launch of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership or Barcelona Process, to the revision of the European Neighbourhood Policy following the Arab uprisings. The book shows that the EU’s advancement of ICD in its foreign policy has gone through three distinct phases: ‘emergence’ (1990-2001), ‘consolidation’ (2001-2010) and ‘professionalisation’ (2010-2014). Empirically the book provides the first comprehensive and integrative analysis of all aspects of EU efforts to promote ICD. The book exposes a series of trends, limits and contradictions of EU foreign policy which are increasingly relevant today. In particular, it shows that over the last twenty-five years, the EU has addressed a set of persistent challenges characterising its relations with Mediterranean countries and people, namely challenges connected to regional conflicts, religious fundamentalisms, xenophobic attitudes towards Arab/Muslim migrants and related social tensions. As these challenges are still major issues in the current EU agenda and in the broader debate about EU foreign policy, this book provides rich and original empirical knowledge to an understanding of how the EU has decided to address these phenomena at different moments of its recent history.

This edited collection brings together distinguished scholars across a range of academic disciplines to explore how the European Union engages with culture. The book examines the ways in which cultural issues have been framed at the EU level and the policies and instruments to which they have given vent.

Modern societies are inconceivable as isolated and mono-cultural entities. The interaction of various cultures is not only a fact of life for most Europeans, it also enriches our societies. However, we also witness tensions between cultures. Intercultural dialogue is therefore one of the political priorities of the Council of Europe, as shown most prominently by the adoption of the White Paper "Living Together as Equals in Dignity" in May 2008. Higher education, by its history and contemporary practice, is a natural partner in and promoter of intercultural dialogue and understanding. Higher education institutions and campuses are themselves multicultural societies, and as such are the focus of the present volume. A second volume will examine the role of higher education in furthering intercultural dialogue and understanding in broader society.