Context and relevance a of the project

 

We live in a globalised and increasingly multicultural society, in which migratory movements contribute to the intermingling of population groups, leading to the coexistence of different cultures and the shaping of composite identities. How can we turn this cosmopolitanism into a richness and a factor of development instead of being a source of tensions and identitary closure? Against this background, the creation of a community depends on the conditions that we would be able to create in order to develop intercultural dialogue, and on the way we would receive the representatives of foreign cultures and combine diversity with the construction of common points of reference.

Europe is facing a paradox: on the one hand she needs migrants to ensure her influence at a global level and a over dramatisation of the migratory phenomenon in political discourse which is compounded by the current crisis and corroborated by the hardening of European borders. Promoting migration as a factor of human development and richness is of utter importance and it involves taking the other into consideration – in what distinguishes him/her and makes them different, knowing the history of migratory movements, promoting the diversity of migrants’ paths and recognition of the role of migrants in our European society.

European integration has been weakened by an economic and social crisis that has affected some countries much more acutely thank others, in particularly Southern countries. In view of this, what kind of multi-lateral cooperation can we imagine to strengthen cohesion in this space and rebuild solidarity? How can we reconsider inter-regional cooperation and create new synergies drawing on existing territorial networks?

In response to the economic crisis, Europe has been seeking to devise new strategies to develop intelligent growth. Collective intelligence that involves the co-construction of knowledge and knowledge sharing is a critical resource for the production of new values for tomorrow’s Europe. The resources to be mobilized draw on the ability to create encounters, to try out new models of governance and cooperation, and to put creative communities into action.

The low turn-out in the last European elections reinforces the shared assessment at national level of a crisis of confidence and the lack of recognition of political elites, resulting in the rise of extremist movements  that are at odds with European values. How can we rebuild citizens’ political acknowledgement to mobilize them again with regard to the issues of tomorrow and reactivate the democratic system? What contributory steps can we take to promote the acknowledgment of citizens’ diversity at local and European level?

With this project, we aim to reclaim and acknowledge a part of the population that is often made invisible and under-represented. «To tell a life story, you need multiple writings and approaches. That of testimonies, which renders the immediate language of the experience […] There are indeed multiple voices to embrace the world and tell the truth of existences.»

Le Parlement des Invisibles, Pierre Rosanvallon.