Since 2000, the European Union is characterized by its motto « united in diversity ». According to the European Commission : « The motto means that, via the EU, Europeans are united in working together for peace and prosperity, and that the many different cultures, traditions and languages in Europe are a positive asset for the continent ». Today, and especially regarding the migrants crisis faced by the UE, the issue of cultural diversity is really a current topic in European news, either in Public speeches, medias, fictions... Regarding to all the debates which can be considered rather emotional and as involved in a logic of answering an emergency situation, several key questions arise for our societies and their functioning : the respect to each other, social link, political choices and integration policies to welcome migrants, coexistence of communities. We can point out that there is still a gap between academic research about the concepts of diversity and multiculturality and what is really ongoing with the practices and skills developed by professionals in the field of the management of the cultural diversity. A better coordination seems to be necessary to answer the reality of our societies, which face the decrease of social link, tensions in social relations and oppositions between value systems. Referring to all these different findings, we saw an opportunity to set up this project of strategic partnership CODES, with the aim to promote a fairer society, more open to each other and to its diversity and also to contribute significantly to a better understanding and managing of this diversity. More specifically, the goal of our project is the development and the implementation of a training module entitled "Communication, Cultural Diversity and solidarity" (CODES) that could be incorporated into the study plan of our Master and / or License level courses. By attending to this module, students could get knowledges and specific skills in order to get a better theoretical understanding and to help them to manage cultural diversity in organizations. The purpose of this device is to reach two levels of expertise, which would allow students to work in multicultural contexts: professional skills (“know-how") and civic values ("soft skils"). Bringing together academics and professionals will allow us to develop a curriculum more adapted for our students, who are European citizens and future professionals willing to work in a context of cultural diversity. Our CODES project will propose an harmonization of the practices, starting from the specificities of each country member of transnational consortium: France, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Romania. This comparative approach will allow us to identify specific national features (history, customs, policies, economics), but also points of convergence. This work may also contribute to the development of an European approach to the management of the cultural diversity in our societies. CODES module will be developed from a state of the art of researches in Social Sciences and about theories of cultural diversity, taking into account their applications in discourses and to professional practices. A competency framework will be developed jointly by members of the Consortium and their associates, representatives of socioprofessional players. Our module will be based on a system of digital teaching tools and will use free software or open source CODES project also includes the spread of all the specific intellectual productions : Workshop, conferences, Investigations, Surveys.... which are contributions in order to clarify the current debate about the role and the position of the Other within European societies. CODES Project mains targets are : improve management of diversity within organizations; develop a competency framework by studying speeches (about the representation of diversity in the field of the Communication Organizations) and Practices (Professionals Expertise and Learn to be); implement a rationalization process on the topic of cultural diversity. Using an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, the notion of "cultural diversity" will be adapted according to a central question: How to best train our students to cultural diversity, to promote a better understanding of different cultures in the European Union and a greater integration of this diversity in professional contexts?
At the beginning of our project, the issue of migration was in the headlines of the European media.Today, at the end of the Codes program, France is debating the draft of the law on global security, in Romania, several cases of discrimination are provoking lively debates in the public sphere, Greece fears the consequences of a possible regional conflict, with a tragic effect on migrants coming from Turkey, while in the Mediterranean area exceptional measures have been taken (temporary regularisation of asylum seekers in Portugal, the acceptance of the Viking Ocean boat in Sicily). Italian legal authorities, on the basis of risk indicators from the European Commission, decided that the Covid 19 pandemic in the countries of origin could be among the "contributing causes" justifying the hosting of refugees. At the same time, the issue of taking charge of cultural diversity in organizations is evolving, partly confirming our initial hypotheses, i.e. the crystallization of a real need for specific skills. Diversity labels are being introduced in several countries (following the model of AFNOR France) and the function of Diversity Manager is now almost naturally integrated into company organization charts at the European level. In this context, our aim during the CODES program was to think and propose a knowledge and rational logics (in the Weberian sense of the term), in order to allow a less emotional view of cultural diversity. The skill-based approach enabled our team to further formalize a professionalizing dimension of our university training module. Finally, the rapprochement between researchers, students, representatives of organizations, and the media has enabled us throughout these three years to better articulate points of view, a condition for offering together relevant tools in this field, but also, more generally, for a consolidation of the social link and better inclusion of the Other. Our objective, the realization of a training module in the field of cultural diversity management in organizations has been achieved. Throughout the program, the process was focused on co-construction between the members of the CODES Consortium, who have actively participated in the design and implementation phase of the various stages and actions of the program. The students were also invited to be actors in the program, especially in the framework of the Module-Test activity, which enabled us to understand their expectations and to adapt the module according to their assessment. In this way, the module will be more easily integrated into the framework of our Master's and/or Bachelor's level courses. Similarly, in each member country of the Consortium, stakeholders (trainers, representatives of NGOs, local and regional authorities, and media) participated in the dissemination activities, which also provided us the opportunity to debate on the project's theme and to integrate their points of view into the content of our training module. Thus, the main stages of the CODES program, corresponding to the deliverables achieved, were : - An inventory of research in the human and social sciences and the theories of cultural diversity, with a view to their application in the discourse and professional practices of organizational actors. - Production of the CODES Competence Framework, drawn up jointly by the members of the Consortium and their associates. - Adaptation of the CODES Curricula to the expectations of stakeholders (particularly through workshops). - Adaptation of the architecture of the module and the teaching methods to the students' expectations (via the learning activity). - Setting up a system of digital teaching tools and dissemination tools using free (Open Source) software: moodle and MOOC CODES, Web-doc, Database. Our CODES program thus represents harmonization of practices based on the specificities of each of the five-member countries of the Consortium: France, Italy, Greece, Portugal, and Romania. As an illustration of the items of the program, the CODES Consortium remains an example of a multicultural system in the academic field. This comparative and inclusive approach has enabled us to identify national specificities (taking into account history, customs, policies, economy), but also common approaches, a real contribution to the development of a European vision of the management of cultural diversity.