Culture & Diversity

Is diversity a societal asset or a key challenge to integration and social cohesion? What are the mechanisms that foster societal cohesion of culturally diverse societies? What are the challenges to, and the prospects for, ensuring minority rights in education, media, and language policies?

Through a number of research angles, the Cluster addresses one of the key challenges that societies and governments face today – the management of cultural diversity. Acknowledging the visibility and variety of cultural conflicts globally, the research programme departs from the assumption that “cultural differences such as language, religion, traditions and ethnicity are non-negotiable, but being politically relevant they have significant potential to fuel tensions if manipulated or abused”.The Cluster therefore aims to contribute to the understanding of such conflicts and to policy-making processes conducive to intercultural dialogue and societal cohesion shaping contemporary democracies, human and cultural rights.