Progetti di ricerca

CAPIRE (Cultural Adjustment Project for Improving Relations in Europe) aims at bridging cultural differences within the EU. By removing trade barriers and border controls among its members states and the introduction of uniform standards, the European Union has created one big… Leggi tutto common market. But Europe still has one disadvantage compared with other big economic blocks, like the U.S. and China: the linguistic and cultural differences between the constituent countries. More than ever European professionals find work in other European countries or are likely to collaborate in their work with other EU nationals. At the same time business relations and trade between companies from different EU countries are continually increasing. As a result both professionals and businesses are challenged by the cultural differences within the EU. European universities should see it as their mission to prepare their students for the future labour market, which includes working as a professional with other EU nationals or doing business for one's firm with other EU countries. Therefore, one of the skills they should acquire is to adequately deal with cultural differences. The CAPIRE project aims at exchanging knowledge between the partners and jointly developing an innovative method: building a digital training tool that is called a Culture Sensitiser (or Culture Assimilator). This tool challenges students, businessmen and private persons with realistic intercultural situations on the work floor which they have to solve. It provides them with explanations and further cultural background information. With this (digital) tool we can provide university teachers with an easy method of introducing students to real cultural differences. Our experience is that students like to solve real-life situations more than deal with abstract theories. We expect that this tool will not only raise the knowledge about but also the interest in this important subject, both among teachers and students. The Culture Sensitiser is not only useful to prepare students for a stay or work abroad, but also has a more general effect, on dealing with cultural diversity. European universities have become more and more internationalised in the last ten years, meaning that cultural diversity among students (and teachers) has greatly increased. For this reason, university boards are eager to promote an open and inclusive mindset among their students. The use of the Culture Sensitiser will definitely contribute to that goal. The Culture Sensitiser will be equally useful for professionals who are involved in international business and trade, and for private persons who are dealing with intercultural issues. Summarising, this project and the tool that will be created will help Europeans to better understand the cultural differences between them, which will lead to more effective collaboration. That is why the project has the acronym CAPIRE, which in Italian means 'to understand'.