COE Intercultural Cities – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Intercultural Cities: Refugees & Diverse Societies Videos

The Council of Europe’s Intercultural Cities Programme has prepared 2 versions of a video (about 10 minutes long and 3 minutes short) on refugees and diverse societies, and made them publicly available.

Their goal is to raise awareness among policy makers, practitioners and the wider public to the main principles of the intercultural cities successful approach to refugee inclusion. The longer version includes examples drawn from ICC member cities. The shorter version is intended just for general awareness of major issues.

The Intercultural cities programme supports local and regional authorities worldwide in reviewing their policies through an intercultural and intersectional lens, and accompany them developing comprehensive intercultural strategies to help them manage diversity positively and realise the diversity advantage. The programme provides a set of analytical and practical tools to help local stakeholders through the various stages of the process.

Intercultural Competence Training for Local Officials

Webinar: Intercultural competence training for local officials: Why and how, Intercultural Cities Programme, EU. 7 July 2022, 3-5pm CEST.

The ICC programme is pleased to open the registrations for the webinar “Intercultural competence training for local officials – Why and how”. The webinar will be held on Thursday 7 July 2022 from 3 pm to 5 pm (CEST). It is open to the public, and free to attend. This event will present the benefits of intercultural competence training for city staff and zoom in on how cities can work to implement large scale training for all local officials. The webinar will combine presentations from cities, ICC experts and ongoing projects to present the many ways intercultural competence training can be implemented across local authorities. Don’t forget to register if you want to be kept informed about the webinar and receive the link to attend.

Intercultural Cities: Good Practice Examples

The Council of Europe’s Intercultural Cities Programme has documented extensive examples of good practice, and made them publicly available.

The Intercultural city aims at building its policies and identity on the explicit acknowledgement that diversity can be a resource for the development of the society. The first step is the adoption (and implementation) of strategies that facilitate positive intercultural encounters and exchanges, and promote equal and active participation of residents and communities in the development of the city, thus responding to the needs of a diverse population. The Intercultural integration policy model is based on extensive research evidence, on a range of international legal instruments, and on the collective input of the cities member of the Intercultural Cities programme that share their good practice examples on how to better manage diversity, address possible conflicts, and benefit from the diversity advantage. This section of their website offers examples of intercultural approaches that facilitate the development and implementation of intercultural strategies.

The Intercultural cities programme supports local and regional authorities worldwide in reviewing their policies through an intercultural and intersectional lens, and accompany them developing comprehensive intercultural strategies to help them manage diversity positively and realise the diversity advantage. The programme proposes a set of analytical and practical tools to help local stakeholders through the various stages of the process.

Intercultural Cities: Inter-City Grants 2022

Inter-city grants 2022, Intercultural Cities, Council of Europe. (No deadline; this is an announcement of what has already been awarded.)

“For the third time the Intercultural Cities programme has launched the inter-city grants’ scheme for member cities of the international and national networks. The grants aim to support local innovative projects and methodologies promoting equality, the diversity advantage, and meaningful intercultural interactions in diverse societies. As in the past years, projects involving joint actions of cities have been prioritised with the view to enable peer learning, cross-border or national cooperation across local authorities. The projects aim to test solutions and strategies which can be applied widely across the ICC network in common areas of concern.”

The projects should be of interest to anyone attempting to coordinate activities at a city level, but across city (or country) boundaries.

The Intercultural cities programme (ICC) is sponsored by the Council of Europe; it supports cities in reviewing their policies through an intercultural lens and developing comprehensive intercultural strategies to help them manage diversity positively and realise the diversity advantage.

Intercultural Competencies Applied to Public Administration (Spain)

Guide on Intercultural competencies applied to the development of public administration projects, Intercultural Cities Programme, Spain.

In response to a grant from the Intercultural Cities Programme, several cities in Spain have successfully concluded a project on developing the intercultural skills of public administration staff as a key element for advancing further in the building of strong intercultural cities and territories. The assumption is that an intercultural competent staff at the service of the public administration will result in better municipal services, increase users’ satisfaction, and contribute to greater trust and sense of belonging.

The project responds to the existing gap in documentation by designing a practical handbook for city officials, transforming the concept of intercultural competence into practical language for local administration officers, defining the basics of an intercultural competent public action, and training local administration staff.

Webinar: Interculturalism and Anti-Racism in Cities

Interculturalism and anti-racism in cities, Webinar, Intercultural Cities (ICC) and Laboratory for Research on Intercultural Relations (LABRRI) at the University of Montreal, 26 February 2021, at 9 a.m. (Canada; 3 p.m. CET), online.

In cities across the world, proponents of interculturalism (an approach focused on communication and positive interactions) and anti-racism (an approach more concerned with social and racial discrimination) have been active in the fight for justice and equality. While activists in these two fields clearly have shared goals, the two approaches are sometimes at odds with each in terms of the strategies that should be used to affect change. While it is often argued that the two approaches are complementary, there is also a tendency to subordinate one approach to the other, without asking fundamental questions about which approach is best suited to address a particular set of issues at a particular moment in time.

This webinar, which is aimed at people whose work involves trying to make cities more inclusive places, will address the tensions between interculturalism and anti-racism in an attempt to find ways in which the two can better support each other’s efforts in the global fight for economic equality and social justice.

Museums in an Intercultural Context

The result of a collaboration between the Department of Cultural Management at the Universiteit Antwerpen (Flanders, Belgium) and the Department of Museum Studies at the Université du Québec a Montréal (Quebec, Canada), an intercultural tool aimed at museums in urban context has recently been published. The grid was conceived as an analytical framework for a research project entitled The city museum in an intercultural context. Fostering dialogue in culturally diverse urban environments: perspectives from Montreal, Antwerp, Ghent and Rotterdam.

Inspired by the Council of Europe’s Intercultural Cities programme, collaboration between researchers and students at both universities involved an analysis of four city museums in Quebec, Flanders and the Netherlands and how they approached intercultural dialogue.

The analytical grid produced in the context of the research project can be used by all types of museums and heritage institutions wishing to reflect upon their engagement with diverse communities. Museums may find it useful for initiating brainstorming sessions and self-assessment exercises, supporting planning processes, conducting intercultural project evaluations or facilitating benchmarking and the exchange of strategic information. Researchers in the heritage and cultural management fields may also find it useful for collecting, analysing and comparing data on issues related to diversity and intercultural dialogue in the museum sector.

The grid addresses three levels of analysis:
*Environmental analysis, including the sociodemographic environment of the city, the policy environment of the museum, the institutional environment of the museum and the governance environment of the museum.
*Museum analysis, including an institutional overview of the museum and an intercultural audit of the museum.
*Project analysis, including an analysis of projects with intercultural components.

Museum professionals and researchers may use one or several of these sections, depending on their needs. Data can be collected using a variety of means, including interviews with museum staff, examination of strategic documents and field observation.

The intercultural tool for museums is available for free.

Original article published by Asia-Europe Museum Network.

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