Introduction Cultural dimensions QUESTIONNAIRE Expert centres CULTPLAN experts Articles Links
TOOL 'CULTURE IN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION'
Introduction
Increasingly, more and more people are working in international
environments, and partners in such environments are required to deal
with the frictions, misunderstandings and challenges raised by their
cultural differences. The Tool 'culture in international cooperation' is
intended to provide support and guidance in projects where intercultural
cooperation is involved.
For whom?
The aim of
this Tool is to serve as support for both the partners and supervisory
partners of INTERREG, or other European projects. It could also be of
use to those who are in the preparation phase of a project and who are
attempting to get the right people in the right place to create a
fruitful consortium. But it could also provide suggestions on how to
deal with problematic cultural misunderstandings within an existing
European project. Another way of using the Tool material could be the
inspiration for a workshop on cultural variety.
How is this
Tool structured?
The Tool starts by indicating the field
of culture within INTERREG practices. The
cultural dimensions
in European cooperation. Culture can play a role in every possible
field of cooperation. The indication in this section opens up only a
small window on the range of cultural elements that may be encountered
in daily practice.
A questionnaire provides a list of supporting questions that will enable recognition of cultural issues that may become apparent during the life cycle of the project. The questions are followed by recommendations on how to deal with cultural differences and how to benefit from their diversity. (The elaborated version of the recommendations, illustrated by examples, is available in the final report of CULTPLAN Chapter 7). Information can also be found on expert centres that deal with culture, such as institutes, training centres, consulting agencies and universities together with a list of relevant links and articles and the CULTPLAN experts and their institutes.
Cultural variety dealt with in an open way will lead to dynamic and interesting interactions and could be the connection between different worlds in search of innovation.
More
information
This Tool is one of the results of a
comprehensive study of CULTPLAN. More background information and
elaboration of the recommendations are available in the
CULTPLAN final report.
Suggestions
Users of the Tool are
invited to send their reactions and suggestions for improvement to
Pat.vanderjagt@wur.nl
