The Law and Cross-cultural Dynamics in Europe

Meeting of the Cross-cultural Skills in the Social Services workgroup, Division of Research and Development in Social Cohesion, Council of Europe, February 17-18, 2009, Paris.

We met :

 to launch a discussion on the legal frameworks that would :
— allow our societies to change toward a democratic management of cultural diversity,
— and help to integrate into the European institutions, essentially in the services, the concept of reasonable accommodation ;
— to think about the relevance of introducing, in Europe, the concept of reasonable accommodation for a better interaction with migrants ;

 to draw up a proposal for a legal framework that can introduce / encourage cross-culturalism and institutional change in the multicultural European societies.

I was invited more especially to discuss the potential of such concepts as "reasonable accommodation," "multiculturalism," "complex equality," "multicultural and inclusive citizenship,” “minorities’ rights,” and "cultural rights."

My outlook is one of a Law anthropologist who has been interested for more than ten years in a more cross-cultural reinvention of our living together and who explores, more particularly, the cross-cultural challenges of contemporary normative transformations, which are marked by a transition from more pyramidal and state-centered forms of government toward more reticular, more participatory, and more dialog-based forms of governance.

Christoph Eberhard
Dialog / Human Rights and Cross-cultural Dialog

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I. Framework of our considerations

II. Some basic points for considering the challenges of cross-culturalism in the consideration of cross-cultural skills in the social services

1) Cross-cultural dialog can only take place over time.
2) Cross-cultural dynamics only exist in specific situations. They are therefore fundamentally pluralistic.
3) Every human being is individually and collectively naturally ethnocentric.
4) Cross-culturalism is a dynamic reality.
5) Cross-cultural dynamics have different stages and time frames.

III. Basic options and objectives of cross-cultural action

1) Assimilation
2) Mono-culturalism
3) Multi-culturalism
4) Cross-culturalism

IV. Some specific proposals for legal frameworks to promote cross-cultural dynamics in Europe

1) Integrate cross-cultural dialog into the processes of public services.
2) Consider cross-cultural dynamics as more than simply bicultural dynamics.
3) Recognize the limits of the Institution and the wealth of community knowledge and know-how.
4) Avoid politicizing the challenges by recognizing the complexity of situations.
5) Put the responsibility of actors back into the basic values.