Intercultural dialogue

In this paper I discuss in a critical manner what I believe to be some of the more interesting contributions of Anthony Steinbock’s book Home and Beyond: Generative Phenomenology after Husserl. I will thus refer mainly to his clarification of the constitution of familiar and alien objects or states of affairs through appropriation and transgression. In connection with this I will try to put forward some of the advantages and implications of a phenomenological approach to the problem of historicity in terms of generativity.  However, I will also discuss some of the limitations and problems of Steinbock’s approach. I believe that most if not all of these problems are related to his understanding of the relationship between static, genetic and generative phenomenological methods. Therefore I will devote some lines to discuss this issue and to rethink some of Steinbock’s main theses under the light of another way of understanding the relationship between these methods as well as the task of the philosophical inquiry proposed by phenomenology.

Ubuntu is an African moral force and worldview that has held its primal societies peacefully together. It is interesting to observe that contemporary awareness of this concept in scholarship particularly associates Ubuntu with potentials to inspire global dialogue and peace efforts aimed at achieving harmonious human coexistence. Surprisingly though, this irenic dimension of Ubuntu has not received any systematic discourse as the literature on the concept shows. Accordingly, employing the human relations approach, this chapter draws on the pervasive literature on the intersections of Ubuntu and dialogue and particularly explores the intrinsic dialogic dimensions of Ubuntu for global peacebuilding efforts. Its basic presupposition is that the emphasis placed on the value of human relationship and peaceful coexistence by both concepts not only requires a systematic discourse, but also shows that indigenous cultural resources are available and viable for local and global conflict resolution efforts.

I respond to Jonathan Chimakonam's paper in which he presents an approach to dialogue in philosophical space, and raises questions about my own approach. I raise four questions to his understanding of conversation. First, I ask him for more details on his conception of conversation. Second, what happens if not everyone cares to enter into conversation? Third, is conversation a prerequisite to philosophy, or a part of philosophy? And fourth, how does wonder fit into conversation in and about place?

The Structure of Iki and the Listening to the Voice of Being. Reflections
on Language between Shūzō Kuki and Martin Heidegger
This essay aims to establish the possibility of a dialogue between different
linguistic and aesthetic experiences: are Western culture and Japanese
culture able to grasp the same essence of language and of artistic
experience? Is there a profound identity, typical of every culture, that
renders a genuine dialogue between civilizations impossible? This article
will attempt to answer these basic questions by analysing Heidegger’s
essay entitled Between a Japanese and an Inquirer, contained in the collection
of writings On the Way to Language. This dialogue involves Heidegger
(the “Inquirer”) and Tomio Tezuka (the “Japanese”) and starts
with a reference to the Japanese notion of iki. The first part of this essay
is therefore dedicated to the analysis of this concept, which is described in Shūzō Kuki’s masterpiece The structure of iki. In the second part, the
article refers to Heidegger’s distinction between verbal language and
language as the “house of being”. Through investigating pivotal notions
such as hermeneutics, Lichtung, alétheia, and the “ringing of silence”
(Geläut der Stille), the final goal of the essay is to explore the possibility
of a common listening to the language of being beyond any cultural difference.
The conclusion will show how in the Japanese expression Koto
ba and in the German expression Die Sage the silent essence of the preverbal
language seems to shine almost in the same way for the “Japanese”
as for the “Inquirer”.

The Year 1968 in Czechoslovakia – exceptional case from political, social and religious point of view in European context
This study presents specific moments of the historical development of the year 1968 in Czechoslovakia. Not only political, social and religious situation in this country differed in many aspects from other states of the soviet block but also the dynamic development of the year 1968 and his reception differed from westeuropean countries. Author analyses also bold experiments such as ecumenical and Marxist-Christian dialogs. 
1968, history of Czechoslovakia, ecumenical dialog, Marxist-Christian dialog

Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der spezifischen Zügen der historischen Entwicklung des Jahres 1968 in der damaligen tschechoslowakischen Gesellschaft. Die politische, gesellschaftliche und auch kirchliche Situation in der Tschechoslowakei unterschied sich in vielerlei Hinsicht von der in anderen Ländern des sowjetischen Blocks aber auch von der Ereignissen in der westeuropäischen Ländern. Autor analysiert auch sehr interessanten Experimenten wie ökumenischen oder christlich-marxistischen Dialog.

The article discusses the definition of inculturation of Christianity in the missionary activity of the Roman Catholic Church. With respect to the research methodology of the study of this definition, the author refers directly to the analysis of official documents of the Vatican, namely the declarations and constitutions of The Second Vatican Council and the encyclicals and Apostolic Exhortations of pontiffs of the Catholic Church. Ethno-religious expeditions committed by the author during the period from 2009 to 2015 also became the basis for this article.
В статье рассматривается понятие инкультурации христианства в миссионер- ской деятельности Римско-католической церкви. В отношении методологии исследования понятия инкультурации христианства автор обращается непосредственно к анализу официальных документов Ватикана, а именно к декларациям и конституциям II Ватиканского собора, к энцикликам и апостольским обращениям понтификов католической церкви. Также основой данной статьи стали этнорелигиоведческие экспедиции автора, совершённые в период с 2009 по 2015 гг.

En este artículo intento mostrar que los mecanismos de rendición de cuentas alrededor de los Estudios de Impacto Ambiental (destinados, precisamente, a crear un clima social favorable) entorpecen la visión de una política de la naturaleza. Argumentaré tres razones que me parecen las más relevantes. Y, al final, presentaré una alternativa que se basa en un experimento social que difiere de los mecanismos institucionalizados.

Enlace: https://revistaideele.com/ideele/content/%c2%bfnecesitamos-un-clima-social-favorable-o-una-pol%c3%adtica-de-la-naturaleza-reflexiones-sobre-t%c3%ada

La ignorancia ser vencida el día que (..) los hombres llamados civilizados bajen de su pedestal y reconozcan con humilde lucidez que también ellos son una variedad de indígenas." (FINKIELKRAUT:1987:61) Todo acto educativo es, antes que nada, un acto de comunicación. Sin comunicación, sin una puesta en común, en el sentido más etimológico del término, se hace difícil entender la educación (1). En nuestro caso, el referente lo constituyen los procesos educativos que acontecen en contextos multiculturales. Lo cual quiere decir que cualquier propuesta de educación intercultural que se pretenda implementar ha de estar fundamentada no sólo en el conocimiento de las culturas en interacción, sino, sobre todo, en un análisis exhaustivo de los mecanismos que regulan los encuentros entre personas de diferente cultura. Es a partir de dicho análisis que podemos aspirar a elaborar currículums y programas educativos auténticamente interculturales.

Luisa Conti Dialogue is a concept replete with great potentiality for the re-orientating process towards the more inclusive transformation of society, which indeed the Covid-19 pandemic has made even more urgent. This study verifies this statement, while also identifying the specific factors which have had a meaningful impact upon the engagement of people, embedded in their various communities. The undertaken research shows that these factors –related to the agents’ own role in the community, to their personal relationship with others and to their own perception of the general context– are interdependent and intersubjective. Indeed, feedback loops have emerged with an evident impact on the well-being of the community members and, therefore, of the community itself. The analysis of the data shows that a genuine dialogic culture, defined as a culture of acknowledging differences, embracing them with respectful openness and facilitating their expression through a non-hierarchical attitude, fosters positive feedback loops and, therefore, the development of sustainable communities. Communities, on the other hand, in which exclusion is tolerated place themselves in danger. The widespread reproduction of subtle discriminating practices, which were observed also in the framework of this study, remain thus alarming. Underlying the research design is indeed the formation process of international online communities in the context of an online simulation game. The crossmatching of the individual reflections of the members and the observation of their behaviour shows how their actions and interactions are entangled with handed down power structures, such as racism and sexism. Establishing an inclusive community implies therefore one fundamental condition: tackling the reproduction of power dynamics through conscious power-sharing.

La siguiente investigación analiza la educación con capacidad dialógica como principal característica de la pedagogía de la confianza como estrategia emancipadora contemporánea. Posibilidad que se sustenta sobre el reconocimiento de la diversidad cultural, la escucha ante los modos de ser que La Otredad ofrece, el encuentro intersubjetivo a modo de suceso que teje libertad. La educción se convierte en evento que humaniza en la medida que coordina praxis democráticas, promoviendo la expresión de la solidaridad y compasión como haberes específicamente humanos. Se trata de un análisis bibliográfico desde el enfoque racionalista-deductivo.
The following research analyzes education with dialogic capacity as the main characteristic of the pedagogy of trust as a contemporary emancipatory strategy. Este trabajo está depositado en Zenodo:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4963580
Possibility that is based on the recognition of cultural diversity, listening to the ways of
being That Otherness offers, the intersubjective encounter as an event that weaves
freedom. Education becomes an event that humanizes to the extent that it coordinates
democratic praxis, promoting the expression of solidarity and compassion as
specifically human assets. It is a bibliographic analysis from the rationalist-deductive
approach.

Multiculturalism is an emerging issue in research and in the political agenda, especially with regard to the recent migratory waves in Europe. The pivotal role of urban policies in intercultural integration has been increasingly recognized and today cities represent the forefront for improving cultural diversity and social cohesion.
Against this background, the paper explores what some cities are doing to be more inclusive, and points out the main challenges that communities are facing in order to provide for equitable outcomes in terms of social and spatial justice. Many initiatives and projects demonstrate the role of bottom-up initiatives and of community engagement. These are often activated by local policies that encourage the work of cross-cutting networks and embody clear visions of land development in an intercultural approach. The local scale represents both a privileged point of view to measure the level of inclusion in contemporary cities and a field for testing multicultural urban project.
In this perspective, urban planners can contribute to the identification of the needs of multi-ethnic and multi-cultural groups, thus transforming urban spaces and services for an intercultural local development also through community engagement and participation in regeneration processes.

Após uma tragédia familiar e a situação política insegura na Índia,a família Kadam, em que a paixão pela cozinha é partilhada por todos os seus membros, decide emigrar, primeiro para a Inglaterra, onde consegue ter uma casa modesta junto do aeroporto de Hithrow. Dado o barulho e o clima pouco propício para o sabor dos legumes, a família opta por continur o caminho. Tendo-se perdido numa aldeia no Sul da França, deduzem que não há coincidências e abrem um típico restaurante indiano, barulhento, pouco higiénico para as condições europeias, repleto de cheiros e sabores exóticos. O problema é que apenas a cem passos de distância já existe um restaurante francês de alta categoria, com a clientela já habituda à qualidade e estilo sofisticado. É então que começa a guerra não apenas entre os donod de dois restaurantes, o indiano viúvo e a antipática e inacessível francesa, como também guerra entre culturas, entre os "autóctones" e os "intrusos", levantando questões da imigração, racismo, tolerância, adaptação às novas culturas, tradição e contactos interculturais. Hassan al Kadam, o jovem cozinheiro indiano compreende a necessidade de manter a sua cultura de origem, aceitando o que considera bom e útil na cultura do seu país de acolhimento. Nisso, é ajudado pela jovem ajudante de cozinha no restaurante francês de luxo,por quem chega a apaixonar-se.
Muito mais do que um filme sobre a cozinha, cheiros, sabores e amor, "A Viagem dos Cem Passos" é uma história sobe o autoconhecimento, o Outro, a amizade e a não discriminação.

This paper is a short commentary on the article named “Discourses on governing diversity in Europe: Critical analysis of the White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue”, written by Lähdesmäki and Wagener, published in International Journal of Cultural Relations in 2015.
After a short introduction to the issue area of the paper and a summary of the article, the personal assessment has been provided.

INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE IN THE EURO-MEDITERRANEAN REGION: A FOCUS ON YOUTHS AS ACTIVE AGENTS FOR CHANGE Karen Mamo, M.S., M.A. George Mason University, University of Malta, 2012 Dissertation Director: Dr. Monika Wohlfeld This thesis analysis focuses on the levels of interaction in the EuroMed region. Intercultural dialogue is the main frame of analysis and levels of interaction are translated from opinion poll surveys carried out in a 10 year time frame. Subsequently youths are individuated as the pivotal component for the successful spread of values: of tolerance, mutual respect and understanding. Theories of intercultural dialogue are analysed vis-àvis opinion poll results and on-going youth programs. The argument presented in this research project rests on the notion that the intermingled relationship between education, training and employment has a direct influence on the role of misperceptions and the future peaceful transformation of the region.

Mirroring Jacques Delors’ much quoted ‘No one falls in love with a common market,’ there has been an increased emphasis on ‘culture’ as a vital tool in the European Union (EU) integration process. Yet, how these programs for ‘cultural exchange and dialogue’ affect artistic production, and reception, is rarely discussed. Drawing on interviews with actors in Berlin and Istanbul who engage with cultural policy in the European arena (2005–2008), this paper aims to illuminate the tensions that this nascent European cultural policy has engendered, not least with regard to the EU stipulations on national cultural sovereignty. I argue that while EU cultural initiatives indeed produce a kind of ‘Europeanization,’ they do so mainly through thematic and institutional incorporation. However, this type of integration tends to recast power differentials within the EU and beyond, despite proclaimed goals to the contrary, as cultural exchange programs tend to reinforce distinctions between ‘art proper’ and ‘ethnic cultural production.’

“Transformation” describes deeply rooted, profound, long-lasting change in attitudes, perspectives, worldviews and or perspectives.  Enabling such transformations is a key component of addressing or forestalling conflicts, particularly identity based conflicts.  The first section of this paper analyzes the relevant scientific literature on transformation. (pp. 1-10) In the second section we elaborate the ways in which Sustained Dialogue creates opportunities for profound attitudinal and behavioral transformations. (pp. 11-16) Interviews with a wide variety of participants in Sustained Dialogue in a variety of settings suggestive of actual transformative experiences are presented in the third section. (pp. 17-29)  For those interested in greater detail, the full texts of these interviews are included in the Appendix. (29-54)

Islamophobic sentiments in the Western world have gained scientific attention, particularly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. However, the effects of religious stigma on Muslim minorities’ identity formation have rarely been studied. Using structural equation modeling, this cross-sectional study examined direct and indirect effects of different forms of religious stigma on the national affiliation of 210 Norwegian-Pakistani and 216 German-Turkish Muslims. Furthermore, the study examined the mediator role of religious identity. Our results suggest that being a Muslim in Norway is more reconcilable with affiliating with the nation than being a Muslim in Germany. However, across the samples, the results indicated that various forms of religious stigma affected Muslims’ national identity and engagement in the public and private sphere in distinct ways. These effects were both positive and negative, differed between the two samples, and in Germany, were mediated by the participants’ religious identity. The findings indicated that the ways in which religious stigma influences Muslims’ national affiliation is context and culture bound.

Il Mediterraneo, spazio entro cui si è dispiegata una parte importante della storia dell'umanità, è da sempre luogo di libera circolazione di uomini, beni, idee, tecniche, simboli, miti, religioni. Oggi è teatro d'un dramma umanitario senza precedenti: "Mare Monstrum" più che "Nostrum".
All'interno di questo bacino «polisemico e policentrico», «alternativo alla modernità atlantica» e «metafora del pensiero meridiano», le migrazioni si caratterizzano da sempre come «esperienze transcontinentali».
Le migrazioni mediterranee, avvenute secondo processi «pluridirezionali» oltre che «plurisecolari», hanno dato luogo alla «formazione di identità miste» : aspetto che avvicina il nostro Mediterraneo agli altri Mediterranei del pianeta, su tutti il Mar Caraibico, sebbene inevitabilmente differenti siano le dinamiche genetiche di tali processi e gli esiti.

This book analyses the problematique of governance and administration of cultural diversity within the modern state of Afghanistan and traces patterns of national integration. It explores how modern state construction in twentieth-century Afghanistan led to forced assimilation, expulsion and multiple forms of discriminations and how Afghan nationalism was manufactured as an ideology to reinforce the process of Afghanisation. It further explains the shifts in the state’s policies and societal responses to different forms of governance of cultural diversity. The author shows how the legacy of Amir Abd-ur-Rahman continued to influence the transitions in the 1990s and 2000s and how the current political structure of state established after the second transition in 2001 repeats the faulty model of centralised Westphalian State. The book problematizes liberalism, communitarianism, and multiculturalism as approaches to governance of diversity within the nation-state. It suggests that while the western models of multiculturalism have recognized the fact to accommodate different culture, they failed to engage with them through intercultural dialogue. It also elaborates the challenge of intra-group diversity and problem of accommodating individual choice and freedom while recognising group rights and adoption of multiculturalism. The book develops an alternative approach through synthesising critical multiculturalism and interculturalism as a framework on a democratic and inclusive approach to governance of diversity. 
A major intervention in understanding a war-torn country through an insider account, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics and international relations, especially those concerned with multiculturalism, state-building, nationalism, and liberalism, as well as those in cultural studies, history, Afghanistan studies, South Asian studies, Middle East studies, minority studies, and to policymakers.

This edited collection is the first to respond to a recent resurgence of critical activity around the term ‘interculturalism’ that has multiplied rather than limited its contemporary resonances. Long one of the most vigorously debated theoretical keywords in the field of theatre and performance studies, intercultural performance has typically referred to the hybrid mixture of performance forms from different cultures (typically divided along an East-West or North-South axis).  New critical approaches since the late 2000s and early 2010s in the work of scholars including Ric Knowles, Leo Cabranes-Grant, Daphne P. Lei, Diana Looser, Marcus Cheng Chye Tan, Yvette Hutchison and San-San Kwan among others have challenged this paradigmatic critical approach by examining more localized and historical perspectives on intercultural performance and interculturalism.

This collection presents a consideration of historical approaches to intercultural performance, indigeneity and interculturalism, Asian and other oppositional models of interculturalism that challenge (and/or reify) Western hegemonies, the use of interculturalism within migrant performance cultures, and interculturalism as aesthetic practice and social policy in the European Union and Canada among other themes.

Internationale Zusammenarbeit ist im Kulturbetrieb und in der Kulturpolitik selbstverständlich. Kultureller Austausch muss auf Augenhöhe geschehen, um wirklich fruchtbar zu sein. Doch geschieht das? Sind es „faire“ Kooperationen?
Dr. Annika Hampel hat mit ihrer preisgekrönten Dissertation ein Themenfeld eröffnet, dass auch im deutschen Kulturbetrieb noch viel zu selten diskutiert wird. Hier gibt sie einen kurzen Einblick in ein sehr komplexes Thema.

This project aims to give a simple and multi-layered presentation of the Muslim minority of Western Thrace and the relation between the Orthodox and the Muslim communities of Western Thrace. It was first observed that in Komotini, although it is a peaceful environment, the communities hardly interact socially and there seems to be concealed feelings of mistrust between them, expressed by the fact that this is a sensitive topic of discussion among the communities. Subsequently, the history and current issues of the region and the relation between the communities were studied in depth in order to identify the reasons behind the sensitive nature of the topic. Moreover, in order to get some more concrete information, the point of view of the locals was examined.

Studie se soustředí na problematiku mezikulturního a mezináboženského soužití a zkoumá, co v této oblasti může nabídnout teologie a její pohled na některé podstatné společenské otázky (obavy z proměn společnosti, kulturní a náboženské rozrůzněnosti, migrace). Autorka vymezuje v teologické perspektivě základní pojmy a paradigmata pro interpretaci vztahů mezi různými kulturami (kultura, náboženství, multikulturalita, interkulturalita, dialog) a zkoumá vliv klíčových kategorií křesťanské epistemologie (trojičně-christologická výpověď o transcendenci, práce s reciprocitou a dierencí ve vztahu, kategorie agapé a kenósis) na utváření etických pravidel mezikulturního a mezináboženského dialogu.

Diplomatic and peacekeeping initiatives by the international community in emerging cultures in conflict have failed to stem the violence and resolve the underlying conditions. Based primarily on political analysis, such initiatives do not address the underlying causes of the civil war at the individual, family, and tribal levels. This paper examines the psychological and sociological motivations for the violence within and between the Arab and African tribes of Darfur, to include motivation exploration of ethnic defections, failing cultural identity markers, and the effects of cognitive dissonance of the personal and social identities of the Darfur tribes. Research suggests that the identities of the African and Arab tribes are deeply contested over ethnicity, tribalism, religion, race and the generational memory that historical narratives provide. This fundamental identity conflict is overlaid by decades of violent physical, psychological and emotional assault upon the population. The result is a fundamental change of the psycho-sociology of tribal life and threatens disintegration and disestablishment of large group identity. The resulting societal and leadership breakdown of and within the tribes creates conditions of warlord-ism commonly found in ungoverned states such as Somalia. The paper concludes that the international community will ultimately fail unless measures are taken to create conditions for survival of the tribes physically, psychologically and sociologically.

The conflict in families disputing child custody cases across international borders continues to grow worldwide resulting in an epidemic of parental abduction. Governments and international bodies continue to work toward creating effective solutions through cross border family mediation programs. Ensuring a voluntary process that does not culturally alienate or marginalize participants is a challenge that often creates ethical dilemmas that may go unnoticed, minimized or ignored. When an individual is marginalized or disenfranchised during any alternative dispute resolution process as a result of cultural dilemmas, inequitability is created. Cultural bias and ignorance limits or prevents creative exploration of problem solving strategies, forcing parties into predesigned agreements. In 2012, the Hague Bureau on Private International Law released the first publication on mediation standards and guide for cross border family mediation as an extension of international family law. Building on these efforts, this paper provides a look at how culture shapes identity and influences problem solving in a multicultural context through a review of the literature and actual case examples.

Interfaith groups can be fruitfully interpreted through a Durkheimian framework as moral communities gathered on the basis of shared values and ritualistic discourses. The function of the interfaith society is to generate social solidarity through the invocation of their commonly held sacred values in a variety of modalities that can be considered the “denominations” of the interfaith “religion.” One consequence of understanding interfaith communities in this light is that it deprioritizes questions about the social impact or concrete results of interfaith engagement, as interfaith work becomes less about producing results and more about developing meaningful relationships that are not subject to proof or quantification. Rather than a change agent, interfaith dialogue is actually an emergent form of multi-religious moral community, an enactment of European cosmopolitanism which attracts mostly people who already agree with each other about the value of pluralism. This argument is grounded in ethnographic data on interfaith engagement in Rome, Italy.

Texts are available at https://www.ceeol.com/search/journal-detail?id=291

"Anthropos?" Academic Journal affiliated to the Faculty of Philology at the University of Silesia in Katowice.

The Academic Journal entitled "Anthropos?" (with a question mark), a periodical affiliated to the Institute of Cultural and Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice, is published as part of the non-commercial and purely academic and educational project "Anthropos?", initiated in 2002. "Anthropos?" is an interdisciplinary journal investigating Man and Culture from a perspective of cultural anthropology and philosophy of culture.

It is nowadays customary for many academic institutions to refer to the Greek notion of anthropos in their publishing series or names of projects. This is due to the fact that we are so much anchored in the Greek heritage. Ever since the launching of the project in 2002 there has been a question mark attached to the name of the journal. It is absolutely crucial to the idea behind the whole enterprise. What is meant by the name is revealed by the contents of the publication which favours contemporary reflection on things that are not fully determinate and easy to point out and identify, the sort of reflection that is marked by doubt and uncertainty. Hence the question mark, as we understand it, is decisive in terms of the journals standing in public sphere, documenting our uncertainty in sketching the image of a human being. We try to answer the classical question - "What is a Human being?". We also try to answer the postmodern question - "What contexts are create our identity?". Academic Journal is a fully peer reviewed (the journal uses double-blind review).

"Anthropos?" is indexed by The Ministry of Science and Higher Education (List "B"). An open-access journal is available online.

Address:

Academic Journal "Anthropos?"
Main Editior: dr hab. prof. UŚ Aleksandra Kunce
Institute of Cultural and Interdisciplinary Studies
Faculty of Philology
University of Silesia
Plac Sejmu Śląskiego 1
Katowice, 40-032
Poland

Website: https://www.ceeol.com/search/journal-detail?id=291

In 2008, the Council of Europe Ministers of Foreign Affairs set out a new framework for approaching ethno-religious diversity within member states. As a direct response to expressed concerns about the failure of multiculturalism, or at least of multicultural policies, Intercultural Dialogue was promoted as a better way of connecting communities. However, critics claim it is unclear how the approach differs from previous integration frameworks; furthermore, they argue that ICD contributes towards unequal platforms for exchange between minorities and the majority group and can reinforce exclusion. This paper examines such concerns by exploring practitioners’ understanding of the concept. Structured interviews were conducted with 52 delegates at the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue held in Baku in 2015 These distinctive findings demonstrate that participants frequently discussed ICD interchangeably with other concepts and frameworks, most commonly multiculturalism and inter-faith ...

This thesis explores, analyzes and exemplifies the situation of Portuguese residents in the context of postcolonial Macau, with particular reference to the contexts of history, identity and language maintenance, acquisition and use. I address how Portuguese identity has been inflected by postcolonial contexts and issues; how this has changed since the handover to the People's Republic of China in December 1999; and the main issues, sites and factors in the expression of contemporary Portuguese identity in Macau. Through in-depth interviews, participant and non-participant observations, review of documents, and supplementary textual analysis, this research project aims to provide an understanding of the relationship between Portuguese subjects living in Macau and the Chinese Macau culture. The objective of the research is to show the ways in which Portuguese individuals negotiate and respond to conventional linguistic hierarchies, and whether historical and power relations influence the way the Portuguese perceive themselves and their relation to Macau after almost 450 years. A set of socio-cultural theories are used in order to carry out this work, most specifically with regard to issues of intercultural relationships, postcolonialism, identity, migration and language status and use. In terms of theoretical perspectives, I draw primarily on the contributions of postcolonial theory, in an attempt to understand the extent to which Macau displays features of postcoloniality, and to what degree the contemporary context influences or even redefines Portuguese identity. My focus is not on the colonized subject, but on how the experience of colonization affects the colonizer, and what happens when the power differentials that characterized this relationship are transformed. Understanding the colonial and postcolonial situations of Macau also serves as a basis for analyzing the extent of the influence of colonial and historical structures and relations on contemporary Portuguese attitudes and practices. This research attempts to expand current understandings of intercultural communication in an international context such as Macau. Scholars have already noted the singularity of Macau, where history and culture has been shaped by complex relationships between the Chinese and the Portuguese over five centuries. This research also aims to broaden the scholarship on postcolonialism studies, offering a perspective on the postcolonial relations between colonizers and colonized.

The idea of social movements tends to be associated, in a reductionist manner, with protests in public spaces and negotiations in institutional spaces. Nevertheless, social movements are agents of change across a wide variety of social spaces. One of the most notable ones is that of education. While the most visible initiatives tend to be short-term courses, some sectors of several social movements have also promoted higher education programmes through alliances with conventional Higher Education institutions, or have created their own institutions. Indigenous peoples around the world have long fought for their educational rights. Some have struggled for access to higher education institutions, for suitable reforms to existing institutions, and for the right to establish their own institutions. Their interest in advancing higher education initiatives is directly related to a need to train individuals in political, professional and technical resource areas in order to successfully advance projects of social, economic, political, institutional, and/or legal reforms. Based on participatory field and documentary research, this article discusses some salient aspects of the experiences of higher education institutions that sectors of indigenous people movements in Latin America have established, highlighting their main achievements and challenges, as well as the intercultural conflicts they confront. View Correction The idea of social movements tends to be associated, in a reductionist manner, with protests in public spaces and with negotiations in institutional political spaces. While social movements do develop practices in those spaces, they do also in other social realms, such as in the field of education. The feminist, indigenous, and Afro-descendant movements, as well as the landless peasant, human rights, and homosexual movements, usually include professionals whose main focus is to defend the rights of individuals and communities affected by social injustices. Additionally, these movements also include professionals and technicians who lend supporting services to those same social subjects in different types of arenas and initiatives. Consistent with their objectives, these social movements promote and/or develop educational initiatives to disseminate their worldviews, to advance theoretical and political debates, and to provide training in certain essential skill areas, among others.

The universality of Aristotle’s categories raises two questions in relation to the Chinese language: (1) Can these categories be translated into Chinese? (2) Are the same categories to be found in Chinese thought? We examine both of these questions here by means of the famous aporia: “White horse is not horse” – case in which the two philosophical traditions are most “comparable”, since we are dealing with the same problem of the relationship between the colour white and a white body, but also most “incomparable”, as the linguistic and philosophical differences are very striking. By reconsidering the positions of certain modern researchers who defend either the universality of Aristotelian logic or the uniqueness of Chinese thought we highlight the difficulty of getting away from Western concepts when interpreting Chinese thought, a prime example of the difficulty of any transcultural dialogue.

Mit fortschreitender Globalisierung werden nicht nur in der Politik nationale Alleingänge zusehends obsolet, sondern auch im philosophischen Denken. Wer global wirkt, hat sich weltweit zu verantworten; angesichts weltweiter wirtschaftlicher Verflechtungen muss sich daher auch der Fokus der Wirtschaftsphilosophie interkulturell erweitern. Die Befreiung des wirtschaftsphilosophischen Denkens vom methodologischen Nationalismus hat angesichts der Divergenz der im globalen Rahmen miteinander wetteifernden weltanschaulichen Orientierungen und normativen Selbstbindungen über eine Analyse der Möglichkeiten individueller wie institutioneller ökonomischer Freiheit im Lichte ihrer planetarischen Verantwortung zu verlaufen. Dabei darf sich die Philosophie der Wirtschaft nicht auf ein rein quantitatives Verständnis von ökonomischer Freiheit beschränken, sondern muss gegenüber qualitativen Aspekten – wie der Frage nach der moralischen, sozialen und ökologischen Nachhaltigkeit wirtschaftlicher Ordnungen wie Transaktionen – offenbleiben. Diese Herausforderung kann nur dialogisch bewältigt werden, indem im interkulturellen Diskurs der Weltbürger über die erwünschten qualitativen Dimensionen ihrer ökonomischen Freiheit die Betroffenen zu Beteiligten werden.

Одной из характерных черт даосской философии является осознание текучести и изменчивости, которые внутренне присущи природе. Все природные изменения китайцы считали динамическим чередованием двух противоположностей, например, Инь и Ян, единичного и множественного и, таким образом, пришли к выводу, что любая пара противоположностей представляет собой динамическое единство. Представление о единстве и взаимосвязи противоположностей стало основой даосской философии. Данная статья фокусируется на анализе источника трансформаций Вселенной в контексте даосской философской традиции.