The rise of hate speech, xenophobia and racism is sweeping the globe and threatens the stability of our framework for coexistence. Globalization and the advance of cultural diversity in a more open world generates spaces for dialogue, promotes coexistence and offers new opportunities for all. But not only that. It also gives rise to undesirable and disintegrating responses with harmful consequences for social cohesion. This is precisely what the course seeks to neutralize. Living together in diversity is organized by Las Fuentes Foundation. The objective of the program is to train technicians, teachers, mediators and public officials in the understanding of a multiform and complex reality, made up of diverse communities with different cultures and spiritual conceptions.
The initiative is based on an unquestionable fact: Spain today has 10 million foreigners and their integration brings new opportunities that must be managed with rigor, knowledge and professionalism. “We live in diverse societies where different worldviews coexist and this requires specific tools to manage them properly,” explains the course director, Susana Mangana, an expert in multiculturalism with a long professional background as an analyst in Arab and Islamic culture.
The course will deal with everyday practical cases in a small municipality, a humanitarian organization, a school teacher, an educator of minors or a social mediator in this new multifaceted reality made up of Muslims, gypsies, evangelicals, expatriates, ndigital nomads, Latin Americans, sub-Saharans and citizens from all geographical and cultural latitudes. The first module will analyze basic questions about religious diversity and how it works legally and administratively in Spain. And it will gradually move down to specific situations related to gender, business culture, funeral traditions, customs, gastronomic habits and many other perspectives that will help to understand the difference and combat prejudices.
“How do we prevent mismanagement of diversity from eroding fundamental rights such as religious freedom,” she asks. The course director starts from a basic premise: “Diversity is not synonymous with conflict”. Quite the contrary. It is synonymous with richness, plurality and democracy. And proper management can transform a challenge into an opportunity for growth and community development.
The training course includes six modules and thirty hours of online work in asynchronous format, although it also includes some real-time sessions to solve doubts, reflect together and work in groups. Each module will close with a multiple-choice test and a written exercise based on the theoretical material offered and a certain number of required readings.
“The topic of immigration is very present in today’s public debate and we will deal with it extensively in the course,” explains Susana Mangana, a regular contributor to CNN en Español, France 24, Radio Euskadi and Televisión Nacional de Uruguay. The course will explain how the reality of diversity has been addressed in other geographical contexts, such as France, Canada, Italy or Great Britain. And worksheets will be prepared on the basic concepts essential to understand the phenomenon and learn how to handle it properly. “We will also see what kind of practices should be avoided so as not to fall into situations of discrimination in the workplace,” says the head of the course organized by the Las Fuentes Foundation.
Based in Cordoba, Las Fuentes Foundation was formally created in 2021 and its mission is to research, disseminate and develop “social, cultural and economic opportunities around the main expressions of universal spiritual traditions“.
The workshop will also provide access to online libraries and other resources that will be available to technicians and mediators when they need them in the development of their professional work. The objective of the course is to provide students with the skills to act with “criteria, proportionality and institutional security” in the management of diversity. Understanding the complexity of multicultural societies and clarifying concepts such as secularism helps to “prevent conflicts and situations of discrimination in local contexts”.
Some autonomous communities are leading the way in the implementation of advanced integration policies, as is the case in Catalonia and the Basque Country. The adaptation of cemeteries or hospitals to the needs of religious minorities is a positive step to facilitate coexistence among different people. “There are many municipalities where the Muslim community, for example, claims the right to funeral plots where they can bury their loved ones,” Mangana stresses. Or religious groups requesting a municipal hall to take the iftar or celebrate the Hanukkah and it is essential to have trained technicians who know how to proceed at all times.
“What the course does is to bring down to earth a lot of concepts that if they are not explained, they are not understood,” says Susana Mangana. “For example, what is reasonable accommodation“For example, what is reasonable accommodation,” that is, the practices of intercultural harmonization or specific adjustments that must be made in certain school, work or service environments to facilitate the integration of people who are different.
Young people and religious diversity will receive special attention in the course, such as, for example, the phenomenon of so-called pop Christianity or the situation of unaccompanied foreign minors, whose acronym MENA has been used in a pejorative way by radical groups that spread hate speech. In this sense, it will be proposed how to approach certain activities in order to dismantle common racist prejudices.
The most effective antidote to clichés is truthful information, argues the director of the Coexisting in Diversity course , which is scheduled to be launched this spring. “Data kills narrative,” proclaims Susana Mangana, who cites as an example the commendable work of the observatory on immigration in the Basque Country. Ikuspegiwhich provides valuable and reliable information regarding the economic and cultural benefits of a diverse society. “Without managing diversity properly, one cannot speak of a complete democracy,” the specialist concludes.
For more information: info@fundacionlasfuentes.org
