LLinE Lifelong Learning in Europe

Editorial by Kristiina Kumpulainen: Social cohesion as intercultural dialogue

Social cohesion is often defined as a social fabric that bonds people together in society. Social cohesion is also associated with the notions of societal harmony, tolerance, social equity and inclusion mediated by the individual’s active agency and sense of belonging,

In the old days, it was often the fire that brought people together to keep away from wild animals, to cook, to share stories and to learn from one another. The people who gathered around the fire were not necessarily best friends nor did they share the same values and goals in life. Yet, joint purposes connected people around the fire.

What are today’s forms of fire that bring and bond people together to interact and collaborate in harmony towards joint goals? When exploring this question from the viewpoint of lifelong learning policies and practices, it is unquestionably clear that education of all ages has a lot to offer for the promotion of social cohesion in society.
Education systems are important settings that should support the growth of every individual towards cosmopolitan citizenship, nourishing everyone’s will and skill to live together.

Our society is no longer composed of small groups of people living scarcely and wide apart from each other. Rather we are living in a world that is at the same time both local and global. Globalization processes destabilise and hybridise cultural practices and the values on which they are based. The achievement of social cohesion is thus far from a simple or easy achievement.

Education has a pivotal role in promoting intercultural dialogue, critical thinking and responsible participation, helping every learner to assert their rights and to learn from different perspectives. Education should also create opportunities for competence building in cross-cultural adaptation, including noticing and acting upon inequalities and discrimination that are often reflected in power asymmetries among individuals and different cultural groups.

The hybrid worlds in which we live today are connected to each other via different media. In fact, it is these diverse forms of media that today bring people together to interact and learn from one another. Education should also harness these media in powerful ways for the promotion of intercultural dialogue and social cohesion. Best practice cases are very much needed to advance our understanding and developmental efforts are required to open up education platforms for intercultural dialogue.

Our journal LLinE is also a form of media that creates a space for intercultural dialogue. I hope that the papers in this issue open up new perspectives and possibilities for the promotion of social cohesion in Europe and beyond.


Kristiina Kumpulainen
Editor-in-Chief of LLinE
Director, Information and evaluation services
Finnish National Board of Education