Discourses on governing diversity in Europe: Critical analysis of the White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue

Lähdesmäki, Tuuli; Wagener, Albin

doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2014.11.002

Cited by 23 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…European cultural politics is thus a risky endeavour, since it can be a means to impose a normative construction of the 'good citizen' . The promotion of intercultural dialogue can also become a uniformizing and monocultural project (Lähdesmäki and Wagener 2015).…”

Section: From Rule-based Harmonization To Learning From Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cultural diversity has become one of the key words in the European Union's (EU) policy rhetoric and governance, but terms such as identity, culture and inter-culturality often remain unclear and open to discursive manipulation (Lähdesmäki and Wagener 2015). While the analysis of policy discourses remains relevant, to better understand the role of cultural diversity in EU politics, it is also of utmost importance to direct attention to the effects of EU policies on the ground.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Learning from cultural diversity? The case of European Union-funded transnational projects on employment

Salgado

2018

Journal of Contemporary European Studies

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This article aims at analysing inter-cultural learning dynamics on the ground. For this purpose, I investigate dynamics of learning from cultural diversity in European Union-financed transnational projects on employment and vocational training. Taking into account literature on new modes of governance and policy learning, I propose first a framework for the study of learning in a context of cultural diversity. The empirical part of this article serves to illustrate under which circumstances flexible modes of governance (such as the EUprogrammes under analysis) lead to different types of learning. In cases of epistemic learning, project managers aimed at the transfer of one-size-fits all solutions and thus, cultural diversity appeared as an obstacle. Flexible governance arrangements in inter-cultural contexts also led to reflective learning (learning from diversity) and ultimately to innovation and empowerment. The understanding of learning from diversity required an in-depth qualitative analysis. Empirical evidence is drawn from document analysis and in-depth semi-structured interviews in France and the Netherlands.

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Section: From Rule-based Harmonization To Learning From Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning from cultural diversity? The case of European Union-funded transnational projects on employment

Salgado

2018

Journal of Contemporary European Studies

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“…‘United in diversity’ is the motto of the European Union (EU), which aims to signify ‘how Europeans have come together, in the form of the EU, to work for peace and prosperity, while at the same time being enriched by the continent’s many different cultures, traditions and languages’ (EUROPA, 2015: 1). Such proclamations are one part of a broader assemblage of debates taking place across the continent in which the term ‘diversity’ has been used with growing frequency to both describe contemporary socio-demographic changes that have arisen as a result of international (and intra-European) migrations and to anchor discussions over governance reform and the direction of social and economic policy (Lädesmäki and Wagener, 2015). The extent of socio-cultural diversity is growing, with official estimates stating that 9.9% of the EU’s population now consists of citizens born in a country different to the one in which they reside.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical urban cosmopolitanism and the governance of urban diversity in European cities

Raco

2016

European Urban and Regional Studies

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This paper draws on the findings of a cross-national EU project named DIVERCITIES that analyses the relationships between narratives and meanings of the term 'diversity' and their influence on the governance and planning of European cities. It is widely argued that there is a growing dissonance between the policy narratives and agendas found in metropolitan cities and amongst national governments. The former are characterised as being more pragmatic, tolerant, and open in their approaches than the latter. In exploring these governance dynamics, the paper builds on the work of Delanty to argue for a methodological approach grounded in what he terms critical cosmopolitanism, or a focus on the dynamic interactions between global and local influences on governmentalities and policy priorities. Much of the writing on critical cosmopolitanism has focused on questions of identity. This paper expands the concept and assesses its applicability to understandings and interpretations of urban politics and governance, through the lens of diversity narratives and the ways in which they are 'fixed' to broader political projects by regimes in different contexts. It argues that a range of meanings are being attached to 'diversity'. In some instances the term acts as a focus for more progressive forms of intervention. In others, however, it is being used to justify divisive forms of growth politics or acts as a lightning rod for existing discontents. The paper concludes by reflecting on the impacts of recent anti-globalisation and immigration politics across Europe and the fragility of existing fixes and policy assumptions.

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“…The meaning of the concept is produced from a hegemonic point of view, which generates power positions of a dialoguer and dialoguee to the "intercultural dialogue". As Lähdesmäki's and Wagener's (2015) analysis of this white paper indicates, immigrants and minority communities commonly represent the dialoguees in the policy discourse, the people to whom Europe's culture has to be delivered and introduced in order to make them the other part of the dialogue. As a policy, intercultural dialogue aims at the more effective integration in European societies that is, according to the white paper, "needed to allow immigrants to participate fully in the life of the host country.…”

Section: Tackling Challenges: the Council Of Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Dissonant Heritages and Memories in Contemporary Europe

Lähdesmäki¹,

Passerini²,

Kaasik-Krogerus³

et al. 2019

Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict

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This book series explores the relationship between cultural heritage and conflict. The key themes of the series are the heritage and memory of war and conflict, contested heritage, and competing memories. The series editors seek books that analyze the dynamics of the past from the perspective of tangible and intangible remnants, spaces, and traces as well as heritage appropriations and restitutions, significations, musealizations, and mediatizations in the present. Books in the series should address topics such as the politics of heritage and conflict, identity and trauma, mourning and reconciliation, nationalism and ethnicity, diaspora and intergenerational memories, painful heritage and terrorscapes, as well as the mediated reenactments of conflicted pasts. Dr. Ihab Saloul is associate professor of cultural studies, founder and research vice-director of the Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM) at University of Amsterdam. Saloul's interests include cultural memory and identity politics, narrative theory and visual analysis, conflict and trauma, Diaspora and migration as well as contemporary cultural thought in the Middle East. Professor Rob van der Laarse is research director of the Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM), and Westerbork Professor of Heritage of Conflict and War at VU University Amsterdam. Van der Laarse's research focuses on (early) modern European elite and intellectual cultures, cultural landscape, heritage and identity politics, and the cultural roots and postwar memory of the Holocaust and other forms of mass violence. Dr. Britt Baillie is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Wits City Institute, University of the Witwatersrand and a founding member of the Centre for Urban Conflict Studies at the University of Cambridge. Baillie's interests include the politics of cultural heritage, urban heritage, religious heritage, living heritage, heritage as commons, and contested heritage.

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Discourses on governing diversity in Europe: Critical analysis of the White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue

Cited by 23 publications

References 13 publications

Learning from cultural diversity? The case of European Union-funded transnational projects on employment

Learning from cultural diversity? The case of European Union-funded transnational projects on employment

Critical urban cosmopolitanism and the governance of urban diversity in European cities

Dissonant Heritages and Memories in Contemporary Europe

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