CHIEF’s findings demonstrate:
1. Culture and diversity are often understood in ethnonationalist terms, or by a perceived tension between ethnonationalism and multiculturalism. Definitions of culture are often narrow and one-dimensional and are limited to a dominant Eurocentric perspective. While governments express commitments to cultural and social tolerance through cultural education, they fail to recognise the complex relationship between national identity and inclusion and conflate inclusion with the integration of minorities into prevailing cultural norms. National narratives often do not engage critically with difficult pasts, which limits the recognition and participation of those whose histories are excluded and does not question exclusionary views. The preservation of local, regional and diasporic cultural traditions remains important for young Europeans. However, this diversity of traditions is not always reflected in cultural institutions.
2. There is disconnection between official discourses on heritage and the needs of young people, with significant discrepancies between cultural activities available to young people and what interests and matters to them. This disconnect underpins a low level of cultural engagement by many young people, particularly in relation to ‘high culture’, and means that young people from diverse backgrounds often lack opportunities to practice, celebrate and share their culture. Young people’s needs are often best met by grassroots cultural organisations, which are more responsive to their diverse cultures and interests and deliver less formal and structured activities. However, public funding is often targeted at large institutions that represent ‘high culture’, leaving these semi-formal and informal organisations underfunded.
3. Racial, religious, gender- and disability-based inequalities hinder participation in cultural activities and access to cultural resources. Family and socio-economic status also significantly limit young people’s access to cultural opportunities. Culture is seen as an expense rather than an investment, leaving cultural activities undervalued and under-resourced, and young people without opportunities and choices.
4. There is a lack of promotion of cultural diversity in school settings, with school curricula not reflecting the lived cultural experiences of pupils’ families and local communities. There is also a lack of provision of diverse cultural activities both in school and through extracurricular visits to cultural heritage sites. This is particularly acute in rural areas, and, in some contexts, opportunities may be unequally dispersed across multiple educational pathways. This lack of provision is further problematised in the least diverse localities where opportunities for inter-cultural contact in school are also limited.
CHIEF's academic dissemination resulted in presentation of research papers at several major international conferences and research workshops, publication of an edited volume, individual articles and a special issue.
The project's results had been also exploited by building up a future research collaboration with different research institutions (including the ones external to CHIEF) and non-academic partners.
