urban therapist

Intercultural Cities (ICC)

This is more than just a current project. It's THE project - more of a mission in fact. The idea originated at Comedia in the early 2000s and in the new decade the question remains as relevant as ever. How can we live together? The Intercultural City concept has passed through several stages. At the moment it's in Phil's collaboration with the Council of Europe where the ground-breaking work is being done.

Since 2007 Phil has been principal advisor to the Council of Europe on this ambitious project. Its aim is to create a working model of how cities can put intercultural mixing and co-operation at the heart of a strategic plan to achieve social and economic well-being. The project is inspired by Phil's work over several years, particularly the final section of his book 'Ten Steps to an Intercultural City'.

A network of cities across Europe have been trying out new policies and projects, opening themselves up to peer review, and measuring and evaluating their progress. Phil’s role has been:

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• designing the project methodology,
• acting as a critical friend to the cities,
• ensuring interchange of good practice between them,
• devising a performance evaluation system, and
• promoting the project to new partners in Europe and beyond.

From 2010 the project moved beyond its pilot phase and opportunities arose for many more cities to participate around the world. On 21 January 2015 The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted Recommendation CM (2015)/1 to Member States on Intercultural Integration - effectively adopting ICC as law.

Download an explanation of the project.

Go to the Intercultural Cities website.

VIDEO
Euronews has made a series of 8-minute films about the work we are doing with some of the cities Watch them here: Oslo in Norway, Reggio Emilia in Italy, Neuchatel in Switzerland and Lyon in France.