En Russie contemporaine, l’Allemagne et la France ont poursuivi des objectifs similaires : il ne s’agit pas seulement de promouvoir sa culture nationale, mais de créer des espaces d’échanges et de créations culturels avec les partenaires russes...

Mots clés : Diplomatie Culturelle, Accommodation, Soft Power, Russie, relations franco-allemandes.

Référence complète : Houguet, A. (2024). Évolution et résonance de la coopération franco-allemande en matière d’action culturelle dans la Russie contemporaine. Dans: F. Chaubet, C. Faucher, L. Martin et N. Peyre (Eds.) Histoire(s) de la diplomatie culturelle française – Du rayonnement à l’influence. Éditions de l'Attribut, pp. 504-516.

Chapitre téléchargeable ici

Ce pôle fut et est toujours convoité par d'immenses empires : la Russie au Nord, la Chine et la Mongolie à l’Est, les Indes au Sud-Est et la Perse et les Arabes au Sud. Alexandre le Grand s’y est même aventuré...

Mots clés : Géopolitique, Asie centrale, Kirghizistan, influences internationales, relations internationales.

Référence complète : Houguet, A. (2024). L'Asie centrale au cœur des luttes d'influences: le cas du Kirghizistan. In Y. Briant, M. Chemel & A. Nergus (Eds.), Géopolitique du XXIe siècle. Ellipses, pp. 156-161.

Chapitre téléchargeable ici

Malgré les rapprochements entre les deux entités au cours des trois derniers siècles, l'idéologue du panslavisme avait-il finalement vu juste en prédisant ce schisme civilisationnel inévitable ?

Mots clés : Diplomatie culturelle, Fédération de Russie, Europe, tensions géopolitiques, soft power.

Référence complète : Houguet, A. (2023). La place de la diplomatie culturelle française en Fédération de Russie : quelles perspectives après le 24 février 2022 ? Institut d’Études Géopolitiques Appliquées, Paris.

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Ce projet ICFA viendra renforcer une présence européenne encore un peu timide face aux puissances « douces » américaine, chinoise, russe et turque. À ceci s’ajoute le monde musulman et les nouveaux pôles d’attractivité coréen et japonais...

Mots clés : Diplomatie culturelle, Kirghizistan, Asie centrale, Soft Power, Chine, Russie.

Référence complète : Houguet, A., Akhmatova, M. (2023). In the middle of influence struggles: Are Central Asia and Kyrgyzstan an ideal context for an in-depth study on soft power? Institut d’Études Géopolitiques Appliquées, Paris.

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The study is based on a doctoral thesis defended at the University of Rouen in co-supervision with the Technical University of Chemnitz & the University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz. It examines the interplay between cultural policies, language studies, and European political strategies.

Keywords: cultural diplomacy, soft power, Franco-German relations, Russia, accommodation strategy.

Special thanks to: A. Houguet, Philippe Lane, Stefan Garsztecki, Matthias Theodor Vogt.

Read the full article: here

This raises a communicational challenge for the parties involved that is twofold. The first challenge is intercultural and calls into question the importance of multilingualism as well as the ability to juggle between different administrative systems. The second is transcultural and concerns the projection of hypothetical Franco-German synergy at the local level. Based on interviews with the actors involved in Franco-German digital diplomacy and an analysis of their social networks, it appears that the ICFAs are providing considerable added value in terms of resources, visibility, and impact on the local scene.

Keywords: public diplomacy, digital diplomacy, transnational diplomacy, Franco-German, Kyrgyzstan, Palestine, ICFA, DFKI.

Special thanks to: A. Houguet, B. Josset, and the teams of the Franco-German cultural institutes in Bishkek and Ramallah.

Read the full article in French: here

English translation: Towards a transnational digital diplomacy. The case of the Franco-German cultural institutes in Bishkek and Ramallah.

First, we can observe that the pictures correspond, to a certain extent, to the political, economic and cultural conjecture nowadays. Second, there are major differences between the drawings of ‘own’ and ‘foreign’ societies. The former are mostly characterized by the presence of geographic-spatial elements and the latter by national and cultural symbols. Third, the conative factors (visits to the country or the events of its cultural institutes) significantly influence the drawings. When they are intense and long-lasting, the drawings of the ‘foreign’, or rather ‘other’ country, end up looking like one’s ‘own’. In this case, the image of the ‘other’ is not formed in opposition to the image of one’s ‘own’, but in parallel.

Keywords:mental representations, quantitative analyze of drawings, images of France, images of Germany, images of Russia.

Special thanks to: Tatiana L. Labutina, Philippe Lane, Matthias T. Vogt, Alina S. Egorova, Elouan Houguet, Artem I. Nebesenko Francoise et Loïc Houguet, Axel Millet et Daria M. Labutina.

Préprint en francais téléchargable ici

Summary in Russian and English downloadable ici

This article will present the partial results of my PhD's work on cultural institutions of Germany and France in the Russian Federation. My research is divided into three parts.

1) Theoretical. This part focuses on the search for a theoretical approach to improving relations between the Russian Federation and the EU using the deductive method. This approach is called "accommodation to different representations of the world through intercultural dialogue" or, more simply, accommodation. It explains the kind of humanitarian policy based on a symmetric cultural exchange between the creative classes of different societies. This approach is based on the critique of the concept of soft power, which acts unilaterally, without taking into account the specificity of different countries, i.e. without accommodation of different specificities. The accommodation approach can be implemented by means of cultural and artistic events held and/or supported by cultural institutions of Germany and France in the Russian Federation.

2) Empirical. The objectives of the various institutions will be analysed through interviews I have conducted/will conduct with representatives of German and French humanitarian policy. The impact of these institutions on the formation of the image of Germany and France among the citizens of the Russian Federation, as well as on changes in the worldview of the German/French creative class and the Russian intelligentsia, will be analysed using an innovative method of quantitative analysis of drawings, developed by me in 2016.

3) Synthetical. Closer cooperation between Germany and France in the field of humanitarian policy in the Russian Federation could lead to the development of cooperation between the creative classes of Germany, France and Russia, which would have a positive impact on each of these countries.

Keywords: humanitarian policy, public diplomacy, soft power, accommodation, cultural policy of Germany in the Russian Federation, cultural policy of France in the Russian Federation.

PDF téléchargable en français et en russe

The approach presented here of intercultural shaping of the intelligentsia’s representations of the world is an appropriate one for French and German cultural foreign policy in Russia. It represents also the theoretical part of my PhD studies at Chemnitz University of Technology with Professor Stefan Garsztecki; at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences with Professor Matthias Theodor Vogt; and at the University of Rouen–Normandie with Professor Philippe Lane.

Key Words

• Cultural Diplomacy
• Russia
• Intelligentsia
• Intercultural
• Soft Power

Special thanks

To Matthias Theodor Vogt, David Paitchadze, Philippe Lane, Stefan Garsztecki, Sandra Naumann, Conrad Smith, Alina Egorova and the team of the 12th International Conference of Young Scien-tists of Lower Silesian Voivodship and of the Academic Coordination Centre in the European re-gion of Neisse-Nisa-Nysa.

Downloadable PDF at this link

Theme

The theme of my research is "the role of visibility in the ideal city." The goal of the research is to determine whether humans are agoraphilic or agoraphobic, that is, whether they like the agora or not. The agora is the public space where individuals can be visible. In addition to its urban meaning, the agora has a political significance: in ancient Greece, it was the marketplace. This is where debates about the organization of public life took place.

These two aspects of the agora lead us to the fundamental question of the research: what urban and political aesthetics of the city do the inhabitants of Germany, Poland, and Georgia have? The research hypothesis is that (a) the current state of the city leads to agoraphobia, while (b) in ideal representations of the city, agoraphilia is depicted.

Method

The method I used for this research is new. It is a quantitative analysis of drawings. While it may be difficult for individuals to describe their political and urban aesthetics, it is easier for them to draw it. For the iconographic research, I therefore asked them to draw a city where they could feel comfortable and fully realize themselves.

I collected a total of more than 300 drawings, about 100 in Germany, 100 in Poland, and 100 in Georgia. The targeted groups were students and apprentices, university students and young parents, driving actors, and active seniors.

The quantitative analysis of the drawings was possible by "coding" the images in five stages (presence, quantity, surface area, positioning, and importance of different objects in the drawing) and by developing a computer program myself with the help of the computer scientist Elouan Houguet.

Results

The results of this work show that public space occupies an average of 72% of the space used in the drawings. The agora is therefore not forgotten in the representations of the ideal city and is even very present. But it is one of the things that individuals miss, because the context shows us, according to a study by Adam Chmielewski and Mathias Theodor Vogt, that the current public space tends to make us agoraphobic. On the contrary, the public space depicted is one where people feel comfortable, where they are visible, and one that makes them agoraphilic.

The city-country dichotomy is also reflected in the analysis. People from large cities want more natural elements, while those from small towns want more urban elements. The drawings are therefore an accurate illustration of their desires.

To see all the analyzed drawings click on this link

Downloadable PDF at this link

Approximately 250 drawings of small towns created by people living or working in the Loire-Atlantique department or in the Upper Lusatia/Lower Silesia region in Germany were collected for this study. In addition, 13 expert interviews were conducted on issues related to life in small towns. Two themes were addressed during these interviews: (1) "To what extent are our small towns rural, and to what extent are they urban?" (2) "The importance of the town for its surroundings." As part of my internship at the Federal Agency for the Environment, Agriculture, and Geology in the Department of Rural Development, I created a program based on keyword research to analyze the different development strategies of various LEADER regions (European Union rural funding program) on the theme of "the importance of the town for its surroundings." The results of this analysis were presented in this work.

Using a new method based on quantitative analysis of drawings, it was possible to conclude that there is a correlation between the origin of the individuals who made the drawings and the example of a "typical" small town they indicated. Specifically, the larger the places of origin (used as comparison cities), the larger the examples of the "typical" small town, and vice versa. It was also established that people from large cities tend to have a rather rural representation, while people from small communities tend to have a more urban representation of small towns. This is linked to the functions of small towns for both groups: people from large cities view small towns from a distance, that is, within their rural environment. Small towns are places where people from small communities can buy the products and services they need for their daily lives.

From the expert interviews, it was found that the identity of small towns has been significantly affected by the current phenomenon of rurbanization in Loire-Atlantique and the current phenomenon of "Agglomeritis"* in Upper Lusatia/Lower Silesia. The solutions consist, on one hand, of strengthening the urbanity or urban core of small towns through redevelopment policies and by changing outdated rural perceptions of small towns, and on the other hand, encouraging the "culture of independence"** that characterizes rural life, through cultural projects such as "Reviving the Héric Fair" (presented as a model in the study), where the oral traditions of older generations can be passed on to newcomers.

* VOGT, Matthias T., FEUERBACH, Frank, KRANICH, Kai, VALVODOVA, Veronika im Zusammenwirken mit FRITZSCHE, Erik, ZETTWITZ, Wolfgang und anderen: Bericht über das Dialogprojekt Stärkung der Resilienz in Mittelstädten – Informationsaustausch regionaler Akteure (SRMS). Görlitz, 11. Januar 2015 S.24

** EICHLER, Andreas Bürgertum und Industrie im Limbacher Land in Sächsische Heimblatt. 3. 2016 S.251

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Happy reading!