Explorations of Linkages Between Intercultural Dialogue, Art, and Empathy

In the 2000s, European societies have transformed quickly due to the networked global economy, deepening a European integration process, forced and voluntary movement of people to and within Europe, and influence of social media on culture, communication, and society. Europe has become an increasingly diverse and pluricultural continent where many people simultaneously identify with multiple different cultural and social groups. In such “super-diversified” (Vertovec in New complexities of cohesion in Britain: Super-diversity, transnationalism and civil-integration, Communities and Local Government Publications, Wetherby, 2007) European societies diversity itself is broad, multidimensional, and fluid (Vertovec in New complexities of cohesion in Britain: Super-diversity, transnationalism and civil-integration, Communities and Local Government Publications, Wetherby, 2007; Blommaert and Rampton in Language and Superdiversity. Diversities 13(2):1–21, 2011). Different social locations and identities intersect within them—whether cultural, ethnic, national, social, religious, or linguistic. At the same time, however, European societies have faced the rise of diverse populist and radical right-wing movements promoting profoundly monoculturalist views and cultural purism. What are the means to confront this polarization of views and attitudes in Europe?