MARPE Diplo: Developing a European Higher Education curriculum in public, corporate and civic diplomacy Erasmus Project

Project Title

MARPE Diplo: Developing a European Higher Education curriculum in public, corporate and civic diplomacy

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The project “MARPE Diplo: Developing a European Higher Education curriculum in public, corporate and civic diplomacy” initially aimed to explore Public, Corporate and Civic Diplomacy, to research and to develop its wider applications in the context of business and civil society communication. However, based on the ongoing conceptual reflections, the triad became “Public, Organisational and Civil Society Diplomacy”, an emerging discipline in the fields of international relations and communication sciences, political sciences and strategic studies. Public diplomacy is strongly American driven so there is a real opportunity to develop a proper European perspective drawing on public sphere (Habermas) and network society influences (Castells) as there is an increasing need for showing more transparency and sensitivity over operations, processes and overall governance. Organisational diplomacy includes corporate/profit as well as non-for-profit organisations. Civil Society considers the citizens as independent from the state.
Developing a European Body of Knowledge in Public, Organisational and Civil Society Diplomacy requires not only a transnational approach, but also a very diverse stakeholder map. A wide range of stakeholders was engaged in this process including business, civil society, communication practitioners, associations, diplomats and other members from foreign affairs, academics from communication and other disciplines, as well as their students.

The level of involvement of each stakeholder varied, depending on the activity/event/output, on the desired impact and on the COVID situation. A number of approximately 55000 persons took part or benefited from the3-year project activities. The activities were endorsed by dedicated and existing digital platforms from both the strategic and associated partners. The project implemented co-creational processes at the heart of its strategy, which ties in with the strategy of taking an elite discipline and seeking to widen its development and application. Co-creation has become an important approach in PR and communication sciences where the voices and views of stakeholders and publics are increasingly influential in the positioning and reputation of organisations. The impact of social media has amplified these processes. The co-creational approach influenced the way that the project team researched and defined the topics with stakeholders and publics, the way that governmental, business and civic movements’ agendas were framed and the way that developing practice was explored; it also generated important opportunities for participants in their involvement and shaping of the project.
The intellectual outputs of the project give a clear perspective on its results. Through consultation, exploration, reflection and dissemination, the project contributes to the democratisation of both the concepts and the practices associated with public, organisational and civil society diplomacy. The main result, to which both academic and professional outputs contribute, are the communication-driven, Europe-inspired perspective, and the substantial advancement towards establishing public, organisational and civil society diplomacy as a new field of research and practice, embedding it in a new epistemic community. The dissemination activities ensured a maximum impact through their variety, expertise involved, connections to academic and professional bodies of the partners, innovative pedagogical approach, relevance and contribution of the topic to the idea of European Citizenship. An elitist field is now accessible to new categories of stakeholders, empowering citizens and giving them the processes, the tools, the strategic thinking and the voice to make themselves known in the public sphere while shaping it. The impact on professional commercial and non-for-profit bodies is generated through the emergence and democratisation of a new set of competences and organisational practices. This benefits a large number of European students and life-long-learners with access to open source outputs of the project (e.g. curriculum, publications, e-learning platform, videos). Students, particularly at MA level, will be the beneficiaries of several project outputs, playing a validator role by using them and giving feedback.
A long-term benefit for academia is reflected in the publication of the research results; for the profit sector this is the advantage of a new approach to the relationship with the public sphere, the governmental structure and the civil society organisations from a bottom-up perspective. For students, lifelong learning participants and participating institutions, the long-term benefit is their consciousness of their civic and social responsibility beside the access to a new field of study, a new professional/career option and the unified perspective on Public, Organisational and Civil Society Diplomacy generated by the implementation of 2 curricula at HE level.

Project Website

http://marpenetwork.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 170495 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITE DE LORRAINE & Country: FR

Project Partners

• ARTEVELDEHOGESCHOOL
• FUNDACION UNIVERSITARIA SAN PABLO-CEU – UNIVERSIDAD CEU CARDENAL HERRERA
• UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA
• UNIVERSITATEA DIN BUCURESTI