This open access book is a result of an extensive, ambitious and wide-ranging pan-European project focusing on the development of children and young people’s cultural literacy and what it means to be European in the 21st century prioritising intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding. The Horizon 2020 funded, 3-year DIalogue and Argumentation for cultural Literacy Learning (DIALLS) project included ten partners from countries in and around Europe with the aim to centralise co-constructive dialogue as a main cultural literacy value and to promote tolerance, empathy and inclusion. This is achieved through teaching children in schools from a young age to engage together in discussions where they may have differing viewpoints or perspectives, to enable a growing awareness of their own cultural identities, and those of others. Central to the project is children’s engagement with wordless picture books and films, which are used as stimuli for discussions around core cultural themes such as social responsibility, living together and sustainable development. In order to enable intercultural dialogue in action, the project developed an online platform as a tool for engagement across classes, and which this book elaborates on. The book explores themes underpinning this unique interdisciplinary project, drawing together scholars from cultural studies, civics education and linguistics, psychologists, socio-cultural literacy researchers, teacher educators and digital learning experts. Each chapter of the book explores a theme that is common to the project, and celebrates its interdisciplinarity by exploring these themes through different lenses.

How can art act as an intercultural mediator for dialogue? In order to scrutinize this question, relevant theoretical ideas are discussed and artistic intervention projects examined so as to highlight its cultural, political, economic, social, and transformational impacts. This thought-provoking work reveals why art is needed to help multicultural neighbourhoods and societies be sustainable, as well as united by diversity. This edited collection underlines the significance of arts and media as a tool of understanding, mediation, and communication across and beyond cultures. The chapters with a variety of conceptual and methodological approaches from particular contexts demonstrate the complexity in the dynamics of (inter)cultural communication, culture, identity, arts, and media. Overall, the collection encourages readers to consider themselves as agents of the communication process promoting dialogue.

Intercultural Dialogue: In Search of Harmony in Diversity offers a philosophical analysis of the issues surrounding cultural diversity and dialogical relationships among cultures as an alternative to “culture wars” and hegemonic globalization. It examines the ideas of dialogue and harmony as expressed in Daoism, Confucianism, Indian, and Ancient Greek philosophical traditions, as well as in contemporary European and Latin-American philosophies. Drawing on the works of Laozi, Confucius, Plato, Kant, and Gandhi, the book shows the importance of intercultural dialogue and the globalization of philosophy. It asserts that intercultural dialogue should have inter-philosophical global dialogue as its epistemological and ontological foundation. Intercultural philosophy elaborates on the conceptualization of philosophy as culturally embedded. Attention is paid to Bakhtin’s dialogism and its contemporary elaboration in the phenomenology of indirect speech, synergic anthropology, and the theory of transculture. The book offers a critical analysis of world problems. Their possible solutions require a more dialogically-oriented and humane transformation of society, aiming for a cosmopolitan order of law and peace.

SUZANNE MAJHANOVICH and CHRISTINE FOX Originally published in the journal International Review of Education, Volume 54, Nos 3–4, 287–297. DOI: 10. 1007/s11159-008-9097-9 Springer Science+Business Media B. V. 2008 The papers in this collection have been selected from over 800 presentations given at the XIIIth World Congress of Comparative Education Societies, held at the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 3 to 7 September 2007. The Congress was hosted on behalf of the WCCES by the Mediterranean Society of Comparative Education and in association with the International Association of Intercultural Education. For such an int- national gathering, it was appropriate that the theme chosen was ‘‘Living Together: Education and Intercultural Dialogue’’, providing scope for c- tributions by participating scholars, policy makers and practitioners in e- cation from some 70 countries. The presenters approached contemporary educational issues with knowledge and insights about a world characterized by the tensions and demands of global and local interests, by regional c- ?icts and post-con?ict deliberations, and by the global diaspora, with c- tural, religious and linguistic diversity within both small and large states. Only a very few papers could be included for this collection, but they rep- sent some of the key topics under discussion during the Congress. The papers were selected from the recommendations of the convenors of the 13 Thematic Groups, the keynote addresses and several symposia.

"In Search of Intercultural Understanding" is a practical guidebook for living and working across cultures. In a hands-on and visual approach, this guide offers new insights and practical advice on adjusting and coping with the experience abroad. With a variety of stories, quotations, exercises and illustrations, the reader is presented with an easy-to-understand survey of cross-cultural issues that will enhance the global experience and provide guidance on becoming interculturally competent.

The term intercultural dialogue has become a buzzword at policy level, but there is a pressing need to synchronise the terminology of policymakers with that of academics. An overarching aim of this book is to explore the wide-ranging terminology relevant to intercultural dialogue in order to promote clearer consideration of the underlying issues. More specifically, this book reports the findings of a research project conducted in Japan that brought teaching practice to bear upon some of the main conflicting theoretical perspectives on how value judgment should be managed in foreign language education. At the heart of this issue lies the management of prejudice, which is a key dynamic in intercultural dialogue that brings many other factors into play.

This book offers a snapshot of interculturality as a complex, unstable and highly political object of research and education when it locates at the centre of multifaceted dialogues between teachers and students; students and students; teachers, students, scholars and readers. The context of the book is a Chinese course on intercultural communication education where students engage with local and international teachers. By listening to the intriguing and stimulating voices of these students in dialogue with the teachers, the reader also has the opportunity to enter the intercultural world of Chinese youth, beyond stereotypes. The unique approach proposed in the book is of interest to students, teachers of intercultural communication education, teacher educators, researchers and anyone wishing to build up supercriticality in relation to the fascinating notion of interculturality. The book contains 15 chapters and revolves around five main dialogues between the students and their teachers. Following each dialogue, the floor is given to the students to react to the dialogues and to share their views on questions that emerged from the main dialogues. The book conveys the authors’ excitement about approaching interculturality in supercritical ways, engaging in the process with multiple voices.