Volume 2, Issue 3 December 2019, pp. 102–119
Regular Articles
The Council of Europe Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture:
Ideological refractions, othering and obedient politics
Ashley Simpson 1, Fred Dervin
2
1 Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, China
2 University of Helsinki, Finland
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29140/ice.v2n3.168
Abstract
The popularity of the idea of interculturality, in different parts of the world, means that there are many differing meanings and ways in which the notion is understood, represented, and expressed. In contrast to the polysemy of the intercultural, democracy often appears on the surface to be understood through universalist and/or absolutist conceptualisations. Combining the intercultural and democracy thus requires problematisation. In this article we use The Council of Europe Reference Framework On Competencies For Democratic Culture (2018) as an example showing how the notion of the intercultural is constructed. We use a form of intertextuality in order to show the performance of competing ideologies found in this document. Some of the ideologies found within the texts clearly mark Eurocentric discourses and a stigmatization of the other. Also, the way in which the political is sanitized can engender a language of depoliticization and obedience. As a result, we problematise Critical Interculturality as a way to move beyond culturalist self-centered notions of the intercultural arguing that the political and the social cannot be separated from the intercultural when discussing democracy.
Copyright
© Ashley Simpson, Fred Dervin
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Suggested citation
Simpson, A., & Dervin, F. (2019). The Council of Europe Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture: Ideological refractions, othering and obedient politics. Intercultural Communication Education, 2(3), 102–119. https://doi.org/10.29140/ice.v2n3.168
Related Articles:
"I don't want to be stereotypical, but..."
Norwegian EFL learners' awareness of and willingness to challenge visual stereotypes
Cecilie Waallann Brown
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 20 December, 2019, Volume 2(3), 120–141.
"Writing like a health scientist": A translingual approach to teaching text structure in a diverse Australian classroom
Sue Ollerhead, Isobel Crealy, Rebecca Kirk
Australian Journal of Applied Linguistics Published: 30 April, 2020, Volume 3(1), 77–90.
(Re)imagining a course in language and intercultural communication for the 21st century
Adriana Raquel Diaz, Paul J. Moore
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 29 December, 2018, Volume 1(3), 83–99.
A day in the life: Mapping international students' language learning environments in multilingual Sydney
Phil Benson, Philip Chappell, Lynda Yates
Australian Journal of Applied Linguistics Published: 1 April, 2018, Volume 1(1), 20–32.
A developmental framework for online language teaching skills
Ursula Stickler, Regine Hampel, Martina Emke
Australian Journal of Applied Linguistics Published: 30 April, 2020, Volume 3(1), 133–151.
A systematic review of written corrective feedback research in ESL/EFL contexts
Sin Wang Chong
Language Education & Assessment Published: 31 August, 2019, Volume 2(2), 57–69.
Adopting a dual focus to drive forward the fields of language education and language assessment
Heng-Tsung Danny Huang
Language Education & Assessment Published: 25 July, 2018, Volume 1(1), 1–2.
Advancing intercultural learning in world language education: Recent developments in pre-service teacher education in the U.S.
Paula Garrett-Rucks
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 29 December, 2018, Volume 1(3), 110–122.
An essay on internationalism in foreign language education
Michael Byram
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 22 August, 2018, Volume 1(2), 64–82.
An investigation of implicit vs. explicit oral corrective feedback on Chinese pupils' use of past tense
Qin Xie, Chingyee Yeung
Language Education & Assessment Published: 29 November, 2018, Volume 1(2), 59–75.