Cultural diversity and intercultural policies in the European Union

During the 00s a strong emphasis was placed on the notion of ‘culture’ at the European level. This has, among other things, led to the development of policies on ‘intercultural dialogue’ (ICD) which aim to transmit an interactive and participatory sense of culture. However, culture remains an ambiguous and contested concept within the EU, and the imprecision found in EU policy documents regarding its definition is mainly due to the coexistence of different conceptions of culture.
Through discourse analysis and policy problem representation, this chapter analyses the development of ICD policies in the EU in relation to cultural cooperation, on the one hand, and economy and growth, on the other. Furthermore it distinguishes between the articulation of policies at the national level and the international level. I find that ICD is not well-defined in the documents, and it is conceived as a means to reach other goals rather than as an end in itself. In particular, the discourse of market liberalism is prevalent in the representation of ICD as cultural cooperation and also as an instrument to increase economic competitiveness and growth. In terms of ICD as a part of policies on cultural industries and culture as art, it is articulated within the framework of mobility policies. In sum, ICD is still far from becoming a coherent, independent approach, and the democratic dimensions of ICD are partially missing in EU policies.