COMMUNICATION, CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND SOLIDARITY Erasmus Project

Project Title

COMMUNICATION, CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND SOLIDARITY

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal); Social dialogue; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

At the beginning of our project, the issue of migration was in the headlines of the European media.Today, at the end of the Codes program, France is debating the draft of the law on global security, in Romania, several cases of discrimination are provoking lively debates in the public sphere, Greece fears the consequences of a possible regional conflict, with a tragic effect on migrants coming from Turkey, while in the Mediterranean area exceptional measures have been taken (temporary regularisation of asylum seekers in Portugal, the acceptance of the Viking Ocean boat in Sicily). Italian legal authorities, on the basis of risk indicators from the European Commission, decided that the Covid 19 pandemic in the countries of origin could be among the “contributing causes” justifying the hosting of refugees.
At the same time, the issue of taking charge of cultural diversity in organizations is evolving, partly confirming our initial hypotheses, i.e. the crystallization of a real need for specific skills. Diversity labels are being introduced in several countries (following the model of AFNOR France) and the function of Diversity Manager is now almost naturally integrated into company organization charts at the European level.

In this context, our aim during the CODES program was to think and propose a knowledge and rational logics (in the Weberian sense of the term), in order to allow a less emotional view of cultural diversity. The skill-based approach enabled our team to further formalize a professionalizing dimension of our university training module. Finally, the rapprochement between researchers, students, representatives of organizations, and the media has enabled us throughout these three years to better articulate points of view, a condition for offering together relevant tools in this field, but also, more generally, for a consolidation of the social link and better inclusion of the Other.

Our objective, the realization of a training module in the field of cultural diversity management in organizations has been achieved. Throughout the program, the process was focused on co-construction between the members of the CODES Consortium, who have actively participated in the design and implementation phase of the various stages and actions of the program. The students were also invited to be actors in the program, especially in the framework of the Module-Test activity, which enabled us to understand their expectations and to adapt the module according to their assessment. In this way, the module will be more easily integrated into the framework of our Master’s and/or Bachelor’s level courses. Similarly, in each member country of the Consortium, stakeholders (trainers, representatives of NGOs, local and regional authorities, and media) participated in the dissemination activities, which also provided us the opportunity to debate on the project’s theme and to integrate their points of view into the content of our training module.

Thus, the main stages of the CODES program, corresponding to the deliverables achieved, were :
– An inventory of research in the human and social sciences and the theories of cultural diversity, with a view to their application in the discourse and professional practices of organizational actors.
– Production of the CODES Competence Framework, drawn up jointly by the members of the Consortium and their associates.
– Adaptation of the CODES Curricula to the expectations of stakeholders (particularly through workshops).
– Adaptation of the architecture of the module and the teaching methods to the students’ expectations (via the learning activity).
– Setting up a system of digital teaching tools and dissemination tools using free (Open Source) software: moodle and MOOC CODES, Web-doc, Database.

Our CODES program thus represents harmonization of practices based on the specificities of each of the five-member countries of the Consortium: France, Italy, Greece, Portugal, and Romania. As an illustration of the items of the program, the CODES Consortium remains an example of a multicultural system in the academic field. This comparative and inclusive approach has enabled us to identify national specificities (taking into account history, customs, policies, economy), but also common approaches, a real contribution to the development of a European vision of the management of cultural diversity.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 317112 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITE LUMIERE LYON 2 & Country: FR

Project Partners

• EUROPA-UNIVERSITAT FLENSBURG
• Open-DSI
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA
• UNIVERSIDADE DE COIMBRA
• UNIVERSITATEA DIN BUCURESTI
• PANTEIO PANEPISTIMIO KOINONIKON KAIPOLITIKON EPISTIMON