On 13-15 December 2005 Interarts organized, with the support of the Department of Culture of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, a series of seminars on Cultural Diversity.
The objective of the three seminars was to tackle the issue of cultural diversity from different angles and connect the international debate with the daily life in Catalonia. The speakers and moderators represented eight different countries and discussed the different aspects of diversity from legal frameworks to personal stories.
The first session, with Nina Obuljen and Mary Ann DeVlieg, moved from the historical settings, provisions and challenges of the Convention on Cultural Diversity to its meaning to the creative sector and included some concrete proposals for follow-up and further development.
The second session, with Olu Alake, Ab Cherribi and Carme Junyent, moved from understanding and questioning the concept of identity and multiple identities to the description of the positive and negative changes in policies, attitudes and citizenship in multicultural Europe to the situation of linguistic diversity in European cities.
The third session, with André Martinez, Merja Määttänen and Jordi Pardo, included issues of daily life interaction in the framework of diversity from audiovisual democracy to the relationship between security, diversity, policies and integration/assimilation/acceptance.
Available to download:
- Programme of the seminars
- Nina Obuljen: The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions: making it work
- Mary Ann DeVlieg: On the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions
- Olu Alake: And who am I? Cultural diversity, identities and difference