LESSON 1
Lesson 1
Interculturality
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Introduction
Since the 1990s, the world has been paying new attention to ethno-cultural diversity; an attention based on legal recognition and a growing need to promote positive relations between different cultural groups; to confront discrimination, racism and exclusion; to form citizens aware of differences and capable of working together in the development of the country and in the construction of a just, equitable, egalitarian and plural society. Interculturality is part of this effort.
Interculturality is about understanding that well-managed diversity and positive interaction between different cultures can be an asset. It goes beyond simply accepting different cultures to celebrating differences and similarities as something that can strengthen communities. This, of course, is not just admiring new or different cultures, but also respecting local and traditional culture. It is about relationship and the many aspects that make up a community. These can be, among others, nationality, ethnicity, language, gender identity, sexual orientation and religious beliefs.
Interculturality emerges as a concern and questioning of the awareness of the diversity of what is done, spoken and thought.
Conceptualization
Interculturality is a debated concept, misunderstood and currently used for unethical purposes. Approaching the meaning, we can say that interculturality is the interaction between two or more cultures that can communicate and share their ways of being in all manifestations of social and natural life. In this interaction the challenge is that no being feels above the other, attributing supremacy, demonstrating economic, political, social or biological power; a tremendous challenge for humanity that by essence and by nature, wishes to oppress the other.
In a normal relationship between cultures, it is expected that the people who conform it express their values of respect, tolerance, dialogue and others, to the differences that may be found, which of course will be deep or superficial; the challenge is the knowledge, skills and valuations that are made to each other to achieve enrichment between both cultures, although the term enrichment should also be discussed.
When referring to the term interculturality, the idea immediately arises that the relationship is only between cultures, however, this exchange of knowledge, skills and ways of being is also between a man and a woman, between a child and an adult, between a leftist and a rightist, between a capitalist and a communist, between a university student and a peasant, between you and me.
As a concept and practice, process and project, interculturality means – in its most general form – the contact and exchange between cultures on equal terms; under conditions of equality. Such contact and exchange should not be thought of simply in ethnic terms, but rather as a permanent relationship, communication and learning between people, groups, knowledge, values, traditions, logics and rationalities-different, aimed at generating, building and fostering mutual respect, and a full development of the capacities of individuals and collectives, over and above their cultural and social differences. In itself, interculturality attempts to break with the hegemonic history of a dominant culture and other subordinate cultures and, in this way, to reinforce traditionally excluded identities in order to build, both in daily life and in social institutions, a coexistence of respect and legitimacy among all groups in society.
Interculturality vs. Diversity
Related to the term ‘interculturality’ is another term called ‘diversity’, whose meaning refers to variety, multiplicity or plurality, under the premise that it encompasses practically everything that constitutes the person, the environment, the social, religious and mystical spheres, including the reading of the stars.
These concepts are not unique because there are other more complex concepts that must be discussed without necessarily reaching agreements, such as language, a cultural characteristic that serves as a means of communication, including codes, dialectal varieties and other characteristics of the linguistic sphere.
In the process of interculturalization, various forms of relationship can be observed, among them intercultural asymmetry between dominated and dominating groups; and depending on the cultures, coexistence can occur as a true coexistence or as a true conflict, everything depends on whether the relationship is based on true values.
Interculturality and democratic systems
The field of norms is not exempt from the debate on the term interculturality and can be understood as a political-legal means that allows living between different truly democratic environments, in which human values are the essential foundation of governments and states, where leadership will tend to understanding, participation for dynamism will be one of the most important motives for coexistence, organisation as the conduit through which to relate between parties, conflict resolution skills as a means to agree and disagree.
Interculturality is really the best environment for building democratic systems of real significance, where there is inclusion of those who are different, who are allowed to debate and deliberate, where minorities are not just a number, or a conglomerate of people who are excluded because they are different, but on the contrary are taken into account. Ethics will play an important and decisive role in reducing the differences between the powerful and the weak.
Interculturality is neither a description of a given or achieved reality nor an almost ‘natural’ attribute of societies and cultures (Guerrero, 1999). Rather, it is an ongoing process and activity; interculturality should be thought of less as a noun and more as a verb of action, a task of the whole society, in itself interculturality has the role – critical, central and prospective in all social institutions – of reconstructing step by step societies, structures, systems and processes (educational, social, political, juridical and epistemic), and to create relationships, attitudes, values, practices, knowledge and know-how based on respect and equality, the recognition of differences and democratic coexistence which, due to the social reality itself, is often conflictive.
