UCYVROK FUTURE WORLDS CENTER (LEG. REG. CYPRUS NEUROSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE) Presenter: Oana Nestian UCYVROK SDDP Report Timisoara, Romania 21 and 22 September 2008

UCYVROK Participants Andrzej SzozdaSWM Mlodzi SwiatuPoland Piotv OlsolzkiSWM Mlodzi SwiatuPoland Oana NestianIntercultural Institute of TimisoaraRomania Daniela CracihnIntercultural Institute of TimisoaraRomania Romina MateiIntercultural Institute of TimisoaraRomania Paulina VitovicovaLeisure Time Activities Centre SKSlovakia Marta HanecakovaLeisure Time Activities Centre SKSlovakia Zsofia SzalaiMultikultúra EgyesületHungary Kinga SzebegynszkiMultikultúra EgyesületHungary Santa GrinbergaAssociation Youth for SocietyLatvia Svetozar DaskalovANEEI-BulgariaBulgaria Tsena ZhelyazkovaANEEI-BulgariaBulgaria FUTURE WORLDS CENTER (LEG. REG. CYPRUS NEUROSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE) Facilitators: Dr. Yiannis Laouris, Kerstin Wittig, Larry Fergeson

UCYVROK FUTURE WORLDS CENTER (LEG. REG. CYPRUS NEUROSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE) During the first session of the workshop (Sunday, 21st September), the participants engaged in a structured dialogue focusing on the triggering question: What are descriptors of an ideal society that is culturally diverse and inclusive? The participants of the interactive workshop collected a total of 65 descriptors characterizing the ideal society. In a next step, the participants clustered all ideas. The following 11 clusters were formed: Cluster 1: Diversity and Rights Cluster 2:Environmental Awareness Cluster 3:Communication Cluster 4: Education Cluster 5:Celebrating Diversity Cluster 6: Mobility Cluster 7:Social Security Cluster 8: Personal Attitudes Cluster 9: Active Participation Cluster 10: Common Vision Cluster 11: Common Future

UCYVROK FUTURE WORLDS CENTER (LEG. REG. CYPRUS NEUROSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE) Having classified all ideas according to the clusters, all participants voted for their five most favourable descriptors. The votes are widely spread across the descriptors. The descriptors that received most votes were: Possibility for education for everyone in the world; Citizenship education is a key course in schools; All the people are living in a healthy environment; People will feel secure everywhere; The citizens are participating in the decision making process; The voting results were used to select ideas for the subsequent structuring process. The participants managed to structure 27 descriptors that received one or more votes and were selected important according to their interrelations. The result is the created ‘influence pattern’, showing the root causes facilitating an ideal society which is culturally diverse and inclusive due to the provision of equal education for everybody in the world. The influence pattern consists of five different levels of influence.

UCYVROK FUTURE WORLDS CENTER (LEG. REG. CYPRUS NEUROSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE) The pattern of influence developed in this first part of the workshop is divided into five different levels of influence. Descriptors at the bottom are considered to be most influential. Making progress or achieving results in those bottom descriptors makes it a lot easier to address those that lie higher in the map. In summary, almost all participants approved that the following ideas are the most influential and agreed that further actions must take these ideas into account: Citizenship education is a key course in schools; Possibility for education for everyone in the world; The citizens are participating in the decision making process; Nobody thinks their culture is superior to any other; Intercultural education is taught in school; People from minorities are participating in political life; In particular,: Citizenship education is a key course in schools constituting the descriptor on the fifth level of the tree, has proven to be the most influential. Great emphasis is put on citizenship education and the important role of schools in society. Two other influential descriptors are Possibility for education for everyone in the world and Nobody thinks their culture is superior to any other. These two descriptors refer to the equality of the people and their mutual respect for each other.

UCYVROK FUTURE WORLDS CENTER (LEG. REG. CYPRUS NEUROSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE) During the second session of the workshop (Monday, 22nd September), the participants engaged in a structured dialogue focusing on the triggering question: What are obstacles that prevent us from reaching our ideal society that is culturally diverse and inclusive? The participants of the co-laboratory collected a total of 72 factors hindering the ideal culturally diverse and inclusive society from being materialized. The following nine clusters were formed: Cluster 1: Civil Society Cluster 2: Education Cluster 3: Planning and Implementation Cluster 4: Financial Cluster 5: People’s Way of Thinking Cluster 6: Information Access Cluster 7: Character of the Social System Cluster 8: Communication Cluster 9: Barriers and Borders

UCYVROK FUTURE WORLDS CENTER (LEG. REG. CYPRUS NEUROSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE) Having classified all factors according to the clusters, all participants voted for their five most favourable factors. As in the first phase of the workshop, the votes were widely spread among most of the factors. The factors that received most votes were: Weak civil society: Lack of appropriate training for teachers; Traditional education system does not have a strong connection to real life; Corruption and personal interests of political leaders; No citizenship education in schools; The voting results were used to select the most influential factors for the subsequent structuring process. The participants managed to structure 20 factors that received one or more votes and were selected important according to their interrelations. The pattern of influence created shows the root causes hindering the materialization of the ideal multicultural society. The influence map consists of five different levels of influence.

UCYVROK FUTURE WORLDS CENTER (LEG. REG. CYPRUS NEUROSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE) How to read the Influence Pattern The second tree of influence that was created shows five different levels of influence. As noted above, the factors at the bottom are considered to be most influential. Making progress or achieving results in those bottom ideas makes it a lot easier to address those that lie higher in the map. In summary, almost all participants approved that the following factors are the most influential and agreed that further actions must take these ideas into account: 1. Language barriers and misunderstanding 2. We do not know our opportunities 3. Lack of structured dialogue The second tree of influence shows the root causes of the obstacles to an ideal culturally diverse and inclusive society beyond the immediate community’s control. Factors #25, 15 and 57 which constitute level four and level five of the tree, can be addressed by individuals and groups in society. In sum, a large number of obstacles is allocated on civil society level and must be tackled by the people themselves. Progress can be made by empowering the people and improve information structures. By enhancing intercultural communication root causes can be addressed and contribute to ease the way for a culturally diverse and inclusive society.

FUTURE WORLDS CENTER (LEG. REG. CYPRUS NEUROSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE) 3: Prejudices and stereotypes61: Most of the time there is no proper needs analysis before implementing something 19: An aggressive mass media 25: Language barriers and misunderstandings 40: Low society engagement in changing processes 10: No coherent strategy1: Lack of financial resources 15: We do not know our opportunities 57: Lack of structured dialogue 47: No citizenship education in schools 48: Many NGOs are dependent on funding that oblige them to follow a particular ideology 62: Access to information is sometimes missing 65: Target groups are not involved in the planning and implementing of the action 5: Lack of appropriate training for teachers 20: People do not trust that change is really possible 32: People do not know their rights 33: Traditional education system does not have a strong connection to real life 46: Corruption and personal interests of political leaders Connect with all

UCYVROK FUTURE WORLDS CENTER (LEG. REG. CYPRUS NEUROSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE) Conclusion The aims of the co-laboratory were satisfied in the following ways: 1.Two extensive lists of descriptors and factors were generated in response to the Triggering Questions; 2.The descriptors and factors were clarifies in plenary this enabling participants achieve a better understanding of the view of other members of the consortium as well as to greatly expand their own horizon regarding the breadth and depth of issues which need to be taken into account; 3.The descriptors and factors were clustered in an interactive manner, thus providing opportunities for further and deeper clarifications of salient distinctions between separate descriptors, Thus process is crucial for what we call “evolutionary learning” (i.e., during the process participants “lose” connection to their own personal ideas and stereotypes in favour of a collective and shared thinking; 4.Participants voted for the descriptors and factors that they considered most important. They subsequently managed to “structure” all these ideas and produce one influence map for each Triggering Question. It must be noted that co-laboratories rarely manage to “structure” all ideas that receive votes; 5.An influence map has been produced per Triggering Question, the first contains 27 descriptors, and the second contains 20 factors in the form of a tree of influence; 6.The participants had time to discuss the influence maps and in general agreed that the arrows in the map made sense to them.