Why cAIR? The background to the conference 

Issues
Approach
Participants
Model

Issues

Human quality of life and survival depend increasingly on how inter- and transcultural issues are addressed. Inter- and transculturality have always been a part of the human condition, but are becoming increasingly relevant and critical in a globalized world in which

• social and cultural configurations are constantly changing as cultural boundaries shift, cultural identities become more complex, and cultural representations are renegotiated, 
• technological advances and economic constraints provoke and promote the international mobility of cultural groups and cultural goods, 
• political parties and decision makers of all persuasions increasingly regard inter- and transcultural issues as central to their strategies and programs, 
• global issues such as environment, defence, finance, and the distribution of wealth and resources are - or should be - increasingly negotiated across cultural boundaries, and 
• intercultural conflicts pose a constant threat to world peace and stability. 

cAIR is a response to the rising importance of inter- and transculturality in national and international politics, civil society, research and education - reflected by the increasing frequency of media reports addressing inter- and transcultural phenomena and questions of all kinds. cAIR 

• supports civil society, government and education by improving the accessibility and usefulness of research that is relevant to their concerns, 
• empowers researchers in all areas of inter- and transculturality and all relevant disciplines to contribute positively to social and political developments, 
• motivates NGOs, governments, academics, schools and universities to support each other - and offers the means to do so, 
• promotes high-quality projects by subjecting all submissions to careful, constructive quality control by international experts, and 
• encourages universities to invest their personal, academic and financial resources in Applied Interculturality Research - a promising area of interaction between research and society. 

cAIR simultaneously promotes constructive intercultural communication and understanding (an aspect of social wellness) and combats racism and xenophobia (seen as a kind of social disease). Because these two aspects interact and are often inseparable, we simultaneously pursue both, aiming for a balance between promotion of the positive and prevention of the negative. At the same time, cAIR brings together practice and research, promoting their interaction and regarding them as inseparable. Again, we simultaneously pursue both and aim for a balance. The diagram on the left illustrates how these aims combine. On the horizontal plane, practice and research come together to produce a new, central synergy. This manifests itself in the vertical plane as a rise in interculturality and a simultaneous fall in the prevalence and impact of racism.

• cultural groups in the everyday sense of languages, religions and traditions, 
• NGOs and government, from local to global, and 
• academic disciplines and their contrasting approaches to research (epistemologies). 

• conflict resolution at local, national and international levels, 
• community interpreting and the promotion of minority languages and multilingualism, 
• culture (art, music, literature, theater...), 
• education and public awareness, 
• employment, equal opportunity, affirmative action and diversity management, 
• health, medicine and therapy, 
• immigration and asylum, 
• integration of cultural majority/minorities, 
• legal advice, 
• military peace-keeping operations, 
• poverty reduction and economic development (both local and global), 
• relationships: marriage, families, sexuality and reproduction, and 
• religion, spirituality, interfaith dialogue/pluralism and ecumenism. 

• ethnicity, group membership and multiple/evolving cultural identities, 
• alterity (Otherness) and difference - and their (de-) construction, 
• racism, xenophobia, intolerance, discrimination and prejudice, 
• the history of academic racism, 
• cultural and evolutionary theories of altruistic and xenophobic behaviors, 
• cultural diversity and interaction - linguistic, religious, artistic, behavioral and traditional, 
• migration and interactions among majority/minority cultures, 
• parallel identities/differences and interaction/discrimination in areas such as gender, age/generation, and disability.