This talk will discuss the complexities of different concepts which are today ubiquitous in discussions around intercultural, multicultural and transcultural issues and the ways in which these are adjectivized or adjectivize, that is, how they are qualified or qualify. These terms are too often used as universal abstractions, although they are deeply embedded in cultural, civilizational and historical contexts, which in fact are not themselves impermeable to each other. It is from here that the conceptual discussion about cosmopolitan and critical ‘intercultural responsibility’ will depart. Intercultural competence or intercultural communicative competence are notions that have provided important theoretical and empirical backgrounds to the also widespread idea of intercultural dialogue, however, they have also proved to fall behind the complexities of critical and cosmopolitan citizenship at different levels, local, national and global. These terms – intercultural competence and intercultural communicative competence – have also been recurrent in policy reports and recommmendations to be perceived and implemented in a thousand manners.
The conceptual framework here proposed involves several concepts – criticality, cosmopolitanism, interculturality and responsibility – that may be controversial and ambiguous but that are worth discussing. They depend on different philosophical, cultural and ideological foundations, and run across wide geographical areas, which this talk intends to touch by seeking support in plural bibliographical references. The argument will rely on the North-South metaphor, its historical and geographical divides as viewed from colonial, postcolonial and decolonial perspectives and supported by the theoretical framework of the “epistemologies of the South”. ‘Intercultural responsibility’ encompasses a reciprocal attitude of solidarity that is aware and respectful of linguistic and cultural varieties as well as of ideological or religious options. The focus of this talk will remain on plurilingualism and intercultural epistemological communication and exchange in transnational research.
For further information, please contact Anastasia Badder (anastasia.badder@uni.lu) or Constanze Tress (constanze.tress@uni.lu)