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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Doing (No) Good? Specialist and non-Specialist Perspectives on Applied Interculturalism

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International audience; While academics may question the ethical underpinnings of the contact hypothesis and the othering discourse it may promote, many non-specialists are unaware both of this debate and of associated questions of cultural relativism and ethnocentrism. In the context of an ongoing research project working with local migrant-support associations in Dijon, France, looking into formal and informal cultural awareness training for refugees and asylum seekers, this paper, based on interview data, will critically analyse the differing visions of the figure of “good interculturalist” and various implicit or explicit, purportedly ethically laudable motives of different parties involved: academics, students, social workers and volunteers. The discussion of interculturalism will highlight the pragmatic and conceptual gaps which divide critical or non-critical approaches to interculturality among academics and the everyday practice-based representations and motivations of social workers and members of associations in the field.