keynotes

KEYNOTES & GENERAL SESSIONS

Jacques Demorgon

Taking a hard look at the "intercultural" from a sociological point of view

Jacques Demorgon has been a professor of philosophy and sociology (Universities of Bordeaux, Reims, Paris) as well as a trainer and consultant (ENA and businesses). He has served as an expert advisor to l'Unesco and l'Ofaj. He has conducted long term action research on multicultural, transcultural, and intercultural situations involving trinational groups living with each other. His work shows how imperative it is to establish multicultural coolaboration on the basis of two poles that are both complementary and neglected, the use of multiple perspectives enlightened by understanding the forces that give rise to different cultures.

He is the author of numerous articles and books of theory and practice in France, Germany, and Switzerland. In 2005 he published Les sports dans le devenir des sociétés et Critique de l'interculturel. Earlier works include: Complexité des cultures et de l'interculturel, 3e éd. 2004 ; Dynamiques interculturelles pour l'Europe, 2003 ; L'histoire interculturelle des sociétés, 2e éd. 2002 ; L'interculturation du monde, 2000 (Anthropos Economica), Guide de l'interculturel en formation, 1999. Germany, France, Great Britain, Japon and the USA have been the subjects of his strategic cultural studies.

Three of his books are found in German: Interkulturelle Erkundungen ; EuropaKompetenz lernen ; Kulturelle Barrieren im Kopf - Bilanz und Perspektiven des Interkulturellen Managements (Campus Verlag).

Dounia Bouzar

What Does it mean to be a Muslim in a Secular Country?

Dounia Bouzar truly embodies diversity. It begins with her roots, at once Algerian, Moroccan, Italian and Corsican. Along with her varied origins she unites a strong loyalty to both her French citizenship and to her religion - she was an atheist who converted to Islam.

A former educator in the Judicial Youth Protection Agency, she resigned from the French Council on the Muslim Religion (CFCM) mainly because she felt that the government was "Islamizing problems", and that the CFCM was more concerned with internal issues than in dealing with what it means to be a Muslim in a secular society.

Fearless (and "veil-less") Dounia Bouzar blends her fundamental commitment to political action with her university research. She shuns neither controversy nor the media, but hopes to use them to stimulate exchange rather than promote Islamic world expansion. There is neither a "good Islam" nor a "bad Islam," she claims; there is simply what men and women make of Islam in the living out of their individual stories.

Some opening thoughts.

Her recent books:
L'une voilée, l'autre pas, with Saïda Kada, 2003. Albin Michel
Monsieur islam n'existe pas, Dounia Bouzar, Pour une désislamisation des débats, 2005. Hachette
Respect! 2005. Denoël