|
Interview with Luca
Cianfriglia, director of the Gate Project
Porta Palazzo
 The
"Gate Project" is a public- private development agency founded in order to create,
foster and manage specific regeneration projects on the Area of Porta Palazzo in
Turin. In this historical and intercultural neighbourhood there is the "Balon", one of the biggest flea markets in Europe, a traditional meeting point between migrants and the local community.
The first part of the Gate Project’s activity on the Balon area started on 1998 with the aim to redefine the position to be given to irregular street merchants into the local context, in an urban area characterised by noise, sale of counterfeit goods and a lack of security (pick pocketing of the residents and abuses of power amongst the sellers). In 2001 the Gate Project participated in the setting up of an empowering process engaging informal leaders, between the pitchmen, to form the Vivibalon Association with the aim to manage the activities of the sellers and to mediate conflicts at market. Each Saturday several merchants take the role of
"Service Operators" to control the market. (read the interview...)
|
|
Museums are boring!
 This is the tenor of many people, young and old, who were not introduced by parents, friends or even their schools to the rich experience museums can offer. That exhibitions are, in terms of themes and concepts, still often likely to address an exclusive minority is another fact in modern museum landscape. The publication
"Museums as places for intercultural dialogue: selected practices from Europe" offers some ideas to counter this widespread tendency.
Twelve experts introduce the reader to a variety of innovative museum concepts from all over Europe, which have been developed in the course of the Places for Intercultural Dialogue (MAP for ID) initiative from December 2007 to November 2009, funded by the European Commission as part of the Grundtvig Lifelong Learning Programme. (more...)
Photo: Benedict Johnson © The Trustees of the British Museum
|
|
Barcelona, not yet a member but one of the club
 On 27 January 2010 Barcelona City Council announced
"Barcelona Intercultural Decalogue: A Strategy for Living in a city of diversity".
What are the three main objectives of this strategy? Firstly, it aims at defining and understanding dramatic rises in socio-cultural diversity in Barcelona. Secondly, it wants to seize the opportunities that present themselves through an increasingly diverse population. Thirdly, it strives to address the long term challenges posed by diversity and social cohesion.
(more...)
|
|
|
Intercultural Cities Book available!
After two years
of research and field work, the Intercultural cities programme published its
findings in a book called "Intercultural cities – Towards a model for
intercultural integration". The publication allows the reader to follow the
process of developing a truly intercultural city step by step by outlining the main ideas and
issues.
(more...)
|
|
Lausanne Launches
Intercultural Fund
On 26 August
2009 Lausanne City Council announced the mobilisation of 60,000 Swiss Francs
(42,000 Euros) for an intercultural fund. This is by no means a large sum of
money for a local authority. However, it represents a significant political and
ideological step in the right direction.
The limited
funding available requires a clear understanding of the selection criteria for
funding each project. Crucially each scheme has to impact at least one cultural
group, as well as the local Swiss inhabitants. It must also trigger debate and
exchange on cultural similarities and differences between the city’s
inhabitants. The initiative also needs to be innovative and achieve maximal
impact on the local population. (more...)
|
|
Intercultural policies of the modern city
On 27-28 April, the Development Centre "Democracy through Culture" in Kyiv organised the round table "Intercultural policies of the modern city"
to share the experiences of two cities participating in the Intercultural Cities programme, Lublin and Melitopol. Together with potential
new network members, the Shevchenko district in Kyiv and other cities, perspectives for the programme and its future development were discussed.(more...)
|
|
Youth
magazine 5+: Fostering Interculturalism
and Benefiting from Linguistic Diversity