Montaigne and the rise of modern cultural diplomacy

In the troubling sixteenth century political and religious turmoil in Europe - and particularly in France - the cosmopolitan personality of Michel de Montaigne is not only indicative for acknowledging the more and more meddling resources of culture within the realm of politics, but is also explanatory for reforming and expanding the instruments of traditional diplomacy. Specifically, the consequential insights of Montaigne's post-Renaissance humanist stance highly impacted upon certain salient developments in the field of cultural diplomacy that could be analytically framed as i) a personal imprint on reforming political culture(s) tantamount to a conspicuous signature in the field of cultural pedagogy, and ii) a commendable approach to cultural pluralism, and an influential modus operandi in the practice of cultural relations. The present study purports to reflect upon the rise of modern cultural diplomacy through highlighting the impact of the above-mentioned traits on further developments of the field in one of the most characteristic figures of early modernity, Michel de Montaigne.

Multilingual Ability Among Deaf Students in Multicultural Education Contexts

The chapter intends to provide a conceptual basis for bilingual educators who filter their understanding of deafness through the socio-cultural lens of deafness. To do this, various types of simultaneous and sequential bilingualism en route to bilingual education for young deaf children are explored in relation to the language choices of their parents and educators. In light of these varied routes, the chapter discusses a typology of bilingual education ranging from weak forms aimed at assimilating signing deaf children into majority language and culture to strong forms focussing on development and maintenance of sign language and cultural pluralism.

Pérez de la Fuente, Oscar; Falcão, Monique y Oliva Martínez, J. Daniel (eds.) Struggles for Recognition. Cultural Pluralism and Rights of Minorities, Madrid: Dykinson, 2020, 286 pp.

Recensión de la obra: Pérez de la Fuente, Oscar; Falcão, Monique y Oliva Martínez, J. Daniel (eds.) Struggles for Recognition. Cultural Pluralism and Rights of Minorities, Madrid: Dykinson, 2020, 286 pp.

KOTA KOSMOPOLITAN BANTEN PADA MASA KEJAYAAN JALUR REMPAH NUSANTARA ABAD XVI HINGGA ABAD XVII

Abstrak Kota kosmopolitan merupakan bagian atau simpul dari jaringan-jaringan transnasional yang terbentuk dari aktivitas ekonomi dan perdagangan, dimana kemudian terciptalah berbagai interaksi dan pertukaran budaya, ide, dan beragam aktivitas manusia. Kehidupan kosmopolis yang tercipta di Banten telah memberikan warna dalam sejarah Jalur Rempah Nusantara. Toleransi dalam keberagaman dan kemajemukan yang tercipta di kota-kota pelabuhan di sepanjang garis pantai Nusantara selama masa kejayaan Jalur Rempah merupakan nilai penting dalam melihat Indonesia pada masa kini. Kajian ini secara lebih dalam akan melihat seperti apakah rupa dari keberagaman yang tercipta di Banten? serta bagaimanakah mereka dapat saling menjaga keberagaman ini sehingga mampu menjadikan Banten sebagai pelabuhan kosmopolitan yang kaya pada masa tersebut?. Banten menurut Anthony Reid merupakan salah satu contoh dari kota yang berhasil memadukan kemajemukan-kemajemukan yang hidup dan tinggal di dalamnya. Kondisi ini menurut Reid disebabkan oleh keberhasilan kota-kota tersebut dalam menarik para pedagang asing dan orang-orang kaya untuk bergantung kepada mereka. Keduanya dalam beberapa hal terintegrasi menjadi elit yang dominan dan menciptakan kemajemukan budaya yang memungkinkan terselenggaranya perdagangan. Kota pelabuhan Banten telah menjadi kota perdagangan terbuka yang disinggahi oleh berbagai pedagang dari berbagai negeri di Nusantara dan Asia. Banten dalam pandangan Emily Erikson ketika itu merupakan kota yang memang dibangun dan dikelola untuk menjadi sebuah kota dagang yang terbuka bagi berbagai bangsa. Kata Kunci: Kesultanan Banten, Perdagangan Lada, Kosmopolitan, Jalur Rempah, Keberagaman Abstract A cosmopolitan city is a part or node of transnational networks that form by economic and trade activities, which then creates various interactions and exchanges of culture, ideas, and various human activities. The cosmopolitan life in Banten has given a unique color to the history of the Nusantara Spice Route. Tolerance in diversity and plurality that was creating in port cities along the coastline in the Indonesia archipelago during the heyday of the Spice Route era is a high-and-mighty value in seeing Indonesia today. This study will see what kind of diversity that was creating in Banten?, and how they could mutually maintain this diversity to make Banten became a fortune cosmopolitan port at that time? Anthony Reid said that Banten was an example of a city that has succeeded in combining the diversity that lives and lives in it. This condition, according to Reid, was caused by the success of these cities in attracting foreign traders and fortune people to depend on them. In some ways, both are integrated into a dominant elite and create cultural pluralism that makes trade possible. The port city of Banten has become an open trading city visited by various traders from various countries in the archipelago and Asia. Banten, in Emily Erikson's view, was a city that was built and managed to become an open trading city to various nations. Keywords: Banten Sultanate, Pepper Trade, Cosmopolitan, Spice Route, Diversity

5. Modernist revolts

‘Modernist revolts’ traces the turn-of-the-twentieth-century rise of what philosopher John Dewey called a “new intellectual temper”: modernism. It was at this time that the idea of the intellectual enters American English as a term to identify a new type of modern professional thinker. To be an intellectual meant accepting responsibility to help other Americans accept a modernizing world of social change and dissonance while finding new grounds to negotiate their differences. The modernist thought they advocated came in a variety of forms: from new religious thought and philosophical pragmatism to progressivism and cultural pluralism.

Many ideas of nation, many national maps

Contrary to the traditional approach to the analytical category of the national map, Tania Rossetto and Laura Lo Presti use it to highlight the cultural pluralism inherent to the national experience in Italy. Their study offers a conceptual framework with considerable potential, capable of developing an insightful observation into the practices of everyday nationhood through which nationalism takes on concrete meaning. Moreover, the category of the national map appears to be usable in different theoretical paradigms, provided that the conditions for its use are specified.

Cultural Pluralism and Communication

Cultural pluralism refers to conceptions of cultural heterogeneity, the term pluralism being understood in contrast to substance individualism. In general, pluralism denotes anti-monadism. Accounts of cultural pluralism stretch over a broad spectrum, from the atomistic view of plurality as a collection of autonomously coexisting and individually defined cultures to the view of culture as an intrinsically heterogenous phenomenon within which distinct clusters cannot be identified. In between these two poles, different schools account for various construals of cultural boundaries, from less to more easily permeable. Views on cultural pluralism are underpinned by the mutually implicit notions of boundary, difference, and identity. Scholarly notions often carry an ideological charge, as exhibited by the common “liberal pluralism” notion. Construing cultural pluralism depends on how the boundary between two (or more) cultures is defined and, consequently, what is deemed cultural identity. Because various concepts of boundary, difference, and identity circulate in different disciplines, there is no clear consensus on a scholarly use of “cultural pluralism.” In many cases, it relates to conceptions about language heterogeneity and the relation between (natural) language and cognition. As such, cultural pluralism is not the specific object of any particular discipline. Approaches are usually interdisciplinary and stretch throughout the broad spectrum of humanities and social sciences, with inputs from other sciences (systems theory, game theory, evolutionary biology). While the notion is plentifully debated and used in a variety of scholarly concerns, there are no dedicated academic journals or textbooks. Discussions on cultural pluralism often take communication as a main concern, as questions on intercultural dialog and cultural conflicts are implicit. In brief, the study of cultural pluralism implies studying the communication processes between the elements that constitute a plurality (be it distinct or overlapping cultures or different communities belonging to similar cultural spaces). On most accounts, the notion of cultural identity also supposes construals of otherness and, therefore, dialogism. Invoked in various paradigms, cultural pluralism cannot be pinpointed as a defined technical term. The usage of “cultural pluralism” as a specific terminology was debated academically, in a focused way, in the third quarter of the 20th century, in the North American context, arguably in the wake of the civil rights movement. Conversations here relied on earlier American anthropology and concerned matters of cultural and immigration policy. The notion has specific connotations in educational research, where social and cultural inclusivity are considered. Many scholarly works address cultural pluralism, directly or through their implications, by using different and cognate terms such as dialogism, speech community, heterogeneity, or multiculturalism. Given the state of the art in relevant areas and the nature of the concept, this attempt to systematically overview the main bibliographical sources for cultural pluralism cannot offer an exhaustive account. For this reason, while there is a vast amount of literature that studies cultural pluralism practically, in specific communities and regions, this overview focuses on theoretical studies.

Cultural Pluralism and Social Connectedness as Predictors of Immigrant Students’ Social Wellbeing and Achievements

Based on the utmost importance of respecting cultural differences to foster learning among immigrant students from diverse cultures and grounded in Social Psychology Theory, this study investigates the impact of cultural pluralism and social connectedness on immigrant students’ achievement through social wellbeing. Moreover, the contingent impact of perceived discrimination in decreasing the positive influence of students’ social wellbeing has been assessed. This study advances the body of literature regarding cultural diversity as well as the importance of cultural pluralism and social connectedness in promoting social wellbeing to enhance the achievements of immigrant students. Applying a time-lagged survey methodology, data were collected from the 323 immigrant students from the universities located at Kalimantan Island of Indonesia. Data were analyzed using SmartPLS software. The results revealed the positive impact of cultural pluralism and social connectedness on immigrant students’ social wellbeing leading to high achievements. Results also showed that the positive influence of immigrant students’ social wellbeing on their achievements decreases in the presence of perceived discrimination as a moderator.