John W. Berry - IAIR Podcast: How Shall We All Live Together

John W. Berry presented the podcast "How Shall We All Live Together" for the International Academy for Intercultural Research (IAIR) - https://intercultural-academy.net/

About the podcast

One of the most serious challenges to social stability and cohesion in the contemporary world is the management of intercultural relations within culturally diverse societies. Successful management depends on many factors including a research-based understanding of the historical, political, economic, religious and psychological features of the groups that are in contact. The core question addressed in this podcast is “How shall we all live together?”

We begin to answer this question with an outline of some core research ideas that have been derived from Canadian Multiculturalism policy.  I then present some results of a project that seeks to provide such research by examining three core psychological principles in 17 culturally plural societies.

This project is rooted in the two psychological research approaches: cross-cultural and intercultural psychology. The main goal of the project is to evaluate these three hypotheses of intercultural relations (multiculturalism, contact and integration) across societies in order to identify some basic psychological principles that may underlie intercultural relations. The eventual goal is to employ the findings to propose some policies and programmes that may improve the quality of intercultural relationship globally. The empirical findings generally support the validity of the three hypotheses. Implications for the development of policies and programmes to enhance the quality of intercultural relations globally are discussed.