Workshop 2: Friday, December 12, 2008 - Lille

Intercultural problems involved in the application contexts of norms

Led by Sylvain Lavelle (ICAM, Lille)

The articulation of universal norms and their contexts of application raises a purely intercultural problem of adjustment of the rational justifications and social appropriations. The concept of «interculturalness», symmetrical to that of acculturation, has been explored at length from a mainly methodological point of view by the field of cultural anthropology. It is appropriate to draw all the conclusions from this perspective with regard to the issue of ethical and democratic governance of the norms and standards of the Internet. In particular, we will analyse and question the effective processes of anticipation, translation and adaptation, if not imposition, of the norms and standards of universal reach to a variety of cultural contexts (Europe, America, Asia). More specifically, in the case of the Internet, we will focus our attention on: a) the methods of designers to anticipate users’ cultures; b) web users’ methods for participating in the transformation of the cultures of innovation and invention; and c) the criticism of the assumption of a universal regulation in the form of charters or codes.

(detailed programme and plan access are in the documents section)