Category: Resources in ICD

Panorama: Resources for Intercultural Dialogue

Panorama is a resource collection for intercultural dialogue established by the Platform for Intercultural Europe in 2009, including definitions, case studies, organizations, events, and bibliographies.

“The Platform for Intercultural Europe, which was initiated in 2006 (as the Civil Society Platform for Intercultural Dialogue) by Culture Action Europe and the European Cultural Foundation (ECF), with the support of the Network of European Foundations (NEF) and on the occasion of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. Hundreds of civil society organisations and their individuals engaged in intercultural action across Europe – at local, national and international level, have participated in the Platform during its informal phase; after establishing as an association, the Platform is open to subscribing members.

The core principle of the Platform is cross-sectoral engagement – connecting and bringing people together from all sectors of the Interculturalism debate, from arts and culture, to education, to social and youth policies, to human rights policies etc.

The resource collection is about Intercultural Dialogue in Europe and concentrates on the European understanding and practice. There are only few key international resources included in the listings. We present English language resources here, with the hope that the next phase will be multi-language based. We collect resources related mainly to “pan-European” level. National strategies on Intercultural Dialogue, specific national and regional examples are not within the scope of this Inventory as of the limitation of numerous local languages.”

For further information, see Panorama‘s site.

Multiculturalism as a solution, not a problem

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently made headlines when she pronounced multiculturalism in Germany a failure. Shortly before, a Globe and Mail editorial argued that Canadians should eradicate “multiculturalism” from their vocabulary and refocus on “citizenship.” Multiculturalism isn’t just out of style, these statements suggest – it’s dangerous for building unity in increasingly diverse societies.

Unfortunately, both analyses are dead wrong.

Social scientists can measure multiculturalism in a given society by examining the number and content of public policies and government pronouncements around cultural recognition and accommodation. Such indices show that Germany is not, and has never been, a multicultural society.

Multiculturalism can’t have failed in Germany because it was never tried. Turkish guest workers and other immigrants were never welcomed as future citizens – only as temporary labour. If Germans are now concerned about the consequences, the blame certainly doesn’t lie with multiculturalism.

These indices also group countries such as France and Norway with Germany as least multicultural, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United States as moderately multicultural, and Australia and Canada as most multicultural.

Have Canada’s past practices and policies hurt attempts to forge common citizenship out of diversity?

Absolutely not.”

For further details, see the original article by Irene Bloemraad in the Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail.