Cosmopolitanism has become one of the burning issues in the social sciences today and needs an analysis through a distinct focus on identity and belonging. Considering recent cosmopolitan thinking and theorizing from the somewhat chastened perspective of the twenty-first century, Craig Calhoun questions the social bases for cosmopolitanism and the continuing importance of nationalism and other mediating solidarities.

Craig Calhoun is Professor of Social Science at New York University, Director of the “Institute for Public Knowledge” and President, since 1999, of the Social Science Research Council, a prestigious sociology research institute based in New York. His main areas of research are: nationalism, the public space and the transformations that the globalisation process has brought about in the links between the individual and his/her surroundings. He is the author of books such as Critical Social Theory: Culture, History and The Challenge of Difference (Basil Blackwell, 1995), Nationalism (University of Minnesota Press, 1997) and Nations Matter: Citizenship, Solidarity, and the Cosmopolitan Dream (Routledge, 2007). Other volumes currently in the process of publication include Roots of Radicalism: Tradition, the Public Sphere, and Early 19th Century Social Movements (University of Chicago Press) and Cosmopolitanism and Belonging (Routledge).

A meeting between representatives of Catalan public administrations and experts to debate, firstly, the contents of the GOLD-CGLU report, produced by the Diputación of Barcelona, on decentralisation in the Mediterranean, and secondly, to discuss how this priority can be consolidated in the future.

Barcelona, 18 & 19 September 2008

Technological innovations and globalisation have helped to transform cultural practices. The borders between the field of the cultural (an area that is extensive, controversial and ambiguous) and that of other sectors of human activity (work, politics, art) are being moved. And the multiple forms of communication, interaction and mediation that coexist in our societies now structure an expanding public space that is made up of diverse cultural practices which are sometimes unknown but which is still a space of people who have been socialised by their experiences. For some of them, this public space unifies and banalises personal behaviour; for others, in contrast, its expansion as a consequence of trans-cultural phenomena presents new challenges, new possibilities of fullness and exchanges.

Contrary to popular belief, France is one of the European countries in which the academic disadvantage experienced by students from immigrant origins and natives is among the lowest in all of Europe. This workshop examines what the differences in performance are between these two groups in the two countries, and analyses the successes and failures of the countries’ educational policies in this area. In addition to performance, the workshop also explores what impact the concentration of immigrants in specific schools has on average performance in Spanish and French schools – a phenomenon that is particularly marked in both nations. Does a disadvantage associated with the concentration of immigrants exist? What solutions are offered, and at what cost? To answer these questions, participants will be using the information available in the OECD’s latest PISA study and from the Panel of Secondary School Students of the Ministry of Education of France.

22-23 September 2008

The objective of the seminar is to organise a debate among lecturers and researchers from the University of Havana and their counterparts from universities and research centres from different European countries (the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Spain). Among the issues to be covered during the meeting are: channels for international insertion into the globalised world, development processes in the context of globalisation, the connections between development, welfare and social policies, relations between Cuba and EU countries in the areas of trade, investment and tourism and, finally, there will be a round table in which the participants will be analysing European-Cuban spaces for academic co-operation.

South-east Europe, which has recently had to face a series of crucial events, from Kosovo's declaration of independence to the political crisis in Turkey, is looking impatiently towards the European Union, which is once again engrossed in its institutional reform. This conference will tackle the implications for the region’s future from the perspective of the impending enlargement of the European Union and of NATO, as well as issues of security, democracy, immigration and the fight against organised crime.

Olli Rehn, EU Commissioner for the Enlargement, Carl Bildt, Foreign Minister of Sweden, Giuliano Amato, ex-Prime Minister of Italy and President of the International Commission on the Balkans, Ishak Alaton, President of the Alarko Group, Istanbul, and Ivan Krastev, Director of the Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia, will be debating the issues with political representatives and analysts who will be arriving from all the countries in southeast Europe.

Traditionally, the countries of southern Europe have shown a more hesitant approach than their northern neighbours in promoting human rights in North Africa and the Middle East. To what extent has this changed? What instruments does Spain have available? Which are their priority areas and countries? These are some of the questions tackled in the research study by Laura Feliu, Professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, which she will be presenting at this debate workshop, and which will involve different actors linked with policies on promoting human rights in the Mediterranean basin.