Research Project The Politics of Culture: Nationhood, Interculturalism, and Citizenship in the New Europe [PCNIC] <http://www.ucm.es/info/comparativeculturalstudies.org/pcnic.html>

The Politics of Culture: Nationhood, Interculturalism, and Citizenship in the New Europe [PCNIC] is a project intended for application for funding in November 2007 or 2008. The objective of the project is to research and to analyze aspects and processes of the politics of culture in the European Union of 27 member states. The objectives of the project include broadly conceived thematic tasks as well as empirical research and analyses resulting in pragmatic outcomes and proposals. The project is a response to the increasingly discussed recognition that in addition to the given economics-driven construct of the European Union culture ought to be a major factor in the shaping European society in order to respond to the challenges the European Union as a whole and its countries face. In particular, the increasing impact of (im)migration and the ensuing alterations including tensions with regard to the "Other" in all countries of the European Union needs to be studied and reflected on in a comparative context in order to arrive at practical proposals and possible solutions. There would few topics prove as important for socio-economic factors when related to the humanities for today's Europe as would the question and problematics of the Other. The results of the research project should offer both theoretical and applied insights into the processes of culture and society in the European Union of today in particular with regard to the necessities of the building of an intercultural Europe in practice and including a range of aspects such as education, scholarship, culture policy, new media and public discourse, etc. These areas -- in the said context of culture, society, and the Other -- represent urgent points of intersection with socio-economic factors and the humanities. The intellectual, theoretical, methodological, as well as application-oriented foundations of the project are based on the field of comparative cultural studies, an interdisciplinary framework combining disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences. The research project's Aims & Scope <http://www.ucm.es/info/comparativeculturalstudies.org/pcnicaims.html> are organized in thematic areas of Work Package 1: Nationhood <http://www.ucm.es/info/comparativeculturalstudies.org/pcnicwp1.html>, Work Package 2: Interculturalism <http://www.ucm.es/info/comparativeculturalstudies.org/pcnicwp2.html>, and Work Package 3: Citizenship <http://www.ucm.es/info/comparativeculturalstudies.org/pcnicwp3.html>. Outcomes of the project include cross-national and global partnerships in scholarship, education, and knowledge management and transfer, networks both virtual and actual for the benefit of nation states in the European Union as well as in working together towards global interculturalism and towards inclusive citizenship. The dissemination of the project's results include the multi-volume publication of books and articles in hard copy and online, publications of interactive new media educational material available online, international conferences and meetings, and the dissemination of the project results in public discourse. Scholars participating in the research project are with expertise in a wide range of fields in the humanities and the social sciences including cultural studies, political science, history, ethnology, psychology, sociology, literature, education, new media, film, cognitive science, cultural anthropology, translation studies, etc. The administrative location of the project is at Complutense University Madrid under the co-ordination of Dámaso López García <http://www.ucm.es/info/ucmp/pags.php?tp=Directorio&a=directorio&d=directorio.php&zid=7444> (Dr., Professor, & Dean, Faculty of Humanities, Complutense); Executive Secretary of the project is Asunción López-Varela Azcárate <http://www.ucm.es/info/FInglesa/Profesores/lopez_varela.htm> (Dr., Professor, Complutense), and Scientific Director of the project is Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/totosycv(complete).html> (Prof.Dr., Halle-Wittenberg). Colleagues at institutions of higher learning in the European Union and associated with the European Union participating in the research project are from Canada, France, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Nigeria, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the USA.

key words: nationhood, culture, interculturalism, integration, multiculturalism, lifelong learning, citizenship