Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the response of the European Parliament’s Culture and Education Committee to the January 2015 Paris attacks. The perceived transnational threat of terrorism opened a new angle for discussing how member states of the EU might educate more effectively for diversity and inclusion.

Paper long abstract:

The January 2015 massacre at the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and subsequent days of terror represented for many the challenges of building a more diverse and inclusive European Union. The “event of Charlie Hebdo” (as it has been called) raised questions about radicalisation of migrant populations that EU countries had failed to make welcome in their societies.

A response from the European Parliament’s Culture and Education (CULT) Committee delved into questions of how intercultural dialogue could be promoted more robustly and integrated more effectively into different levels of schooling and sites of public education. What lessons does the work of CULT during that period offer for coaxing or cajoling member states on educating to combat xenophobia and racism? What benefits do such projects above the state level offer, and what are their limitations or costs? This paper outlines the intertextual policy field in which CULT conducted its work, the report that this committee generated, and the response from the European Commission. I argue that the impact of CULT’s report lies significantly in how it had to work with the deep and broad intertextual scalar project of European integration.