Dublin, Intercultural City

The Lantern Centre Dublin is an organization for interfaith and intercultural dialogue.  This past week they hosted a discussion on the the Council of Europe’s Intercultural Cities project.

Representatives from the Council of Europe, Dublin City Council, the Lantern Centre  attended, along with representatives of various community groups, such as churches, libraries, migrant support groups, drug rehabilitation groups, etc. The Council of Europe provided a brief overview of the Intercultural Cities project, and later opened the floor to discussion to hear the concerns of those working at ground level in Dublin. Here’s a brief run-down of the content of the day:

The Intercultural Cities project is an initiative to bring people together and to use diversity as a great advantage. The reality of city life ist that strangers live alongside one another, frequenty in a sense of anonymity, without ever interacting.

This COE project recognizes that there are many obstacles to developing a cityscape that truely celebrates its diversity: agendas are usually dictated by the national governments and media, social and economic opportunites and issues get overshadowed by culture wars, discussions become fixated on extremes, and the normal everyday stuff gets overlooked.

Cities and their inhabitants are called upon to reflect on themselves: how do we view diversity? Is it something threatening to us, something annoying, or does it represent an opportunity? How do we live diversity? Do we avoid it? Embrace it? Use it?

The business world makes use of diversity, recognizing that diverisity brings prosperity. A more varied talent pool to draw upon means more skills, ideas, innovation, creativity, solutions, etc. They realize that diversity can be a means to a more prosperous end.

Would it not, therefore, make sense to use and celebrate such this vibrancy? In order to do this, certain things need to be in place.

At a policy level, rights and responsiblities need to be clearly mapped out. Discrimination needs to be outlawed. A single diverse public sphere needs to be created, one in which resources and places are made available for bridge building to occur. Some policy for dealing with conflict in a constructive manner needs to be in place.

At an individual level, we need to realize that in order to truely thrive through diversity, that all sides need to change. It is not the sole responsiblity of newcomers to adapt to the native inhabitants. Integration is a two-way street. The native inhabitants are obliged to help newcomers settle in, develop a foundation upon which they can build a good life, language skills in order to successfully communicate.

All parties need to realize that tolerance of the other is only half the battle. Community groups and individuals in intercultural cities need to be interdisciplinary and interconnected. We need to create reasons and incentives to interact with one another. We need places, agents, and tools to do so.

Sounds pretty complex and complicated, huh? Well, it is and it isn’t. At a very basic human level, it all starts with nothing more than a friendly smile.

Sounds pretty complex and complicated, huh? Well, it is and it isn’t. At a very basic human level, it all starts with nothing more than a friendly smile.