This 2nd edition of the Rencontres de la Mobilité Internationale confirms the success and knowledge of the first event (on 25 June 2008). The group has renewed Taitbout Novalis on 8 June 2009 the format of the previous year: conferences, roundtables and workshops on the theme of mobility have been carried out at a good pace. Participants did not see the time pass and have barely noticed the rain had poured all day on the Bois de Boulogne!
A big thank you to Arcanéo for logistics organization that has helped make this day so enjoyable. And the two hosts of the roundtables and conferences: Frédéric Ferrer, journalist and lecturer at ESCP-EAP, and Nicolas Lagrange, BFM journalist.
You will find in the following topics covered in each round table. Do not hesitate to extend the discussions! But first, make a detour to the two plenary sessions that framed the round tables.
Opening Plenary: Different views on the world, USA, China
Pascal Baudry, Professor and writer, specializing in American culture, author of “French and Americans, the other side.”
Lihua ZHENG, Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Foreign Studies, Director of the Center for Research on Intercultural.
Plenary closing with Erik Orsenna.
Very different, these two conferences are a sort of loop. The introduction has taught us to better manage relationships with the Chinese or the Americans (USA). The conclusion made us travel in the geopolitical sphere. We have moved from the sphere of the person to that of the planet …
Discover another culture is always destabilizing. What is natural in a culture is not in another. Often we are not aware of “invisible evidences” that have shaped since childhood our way of relating to the world and to others. Understand his own culture from outside, learning to communicate in accepting the differences is not easy and requires learning and openness. France is somewhere between the mode of communication very clear the United States, and the implicit mode of China. A structured relationship between the task, the applicable law and the contract (USA), and a structured relationship with the individual in the group, trust and the importance of “face” (China). Note: Lihua ZHENG co-authored a book very instructive and very pleasant “How the Chinese see the Europeans” (PUF) which we had already spoken in our “China.”
Understanding another culture and understand the world and its trends …
Érik Orsenna invited us in conclusion to a journey through time and space, while reminding us that “the trip you or you defeated.” On the occasion of the publication of his book ( “The future of water: small specific globalization” after “Voyage au pays du coton”), we set out its vision of a few major issues on the planet within a perspective of sustainable development: how to arbitrate between local issues and global issues? What horizon for governance: long term? short term? What public-private balance?
A strong idea in this speech conclusion: in a stable world, we can just be a specialist. But in a complex world, a general cross-cutting is essential to understand the challenges and complexity of the interactions.
International mobility is at the heart of this problem.