Dear Friends

We enter 2021 in a rather different frame of mind from the way we entered 2020. Whilst a light can possibly be seen at the end of the Coronavirus tunnel, we all know that things can never be quite the same again. We are changed as people and as societies, for better or for worse.

For me 2020 was always going to be a year of transition, as I had already taken a decision to slowly reduce my workload and to spend more time with the four generations of my family. Nevertheless, back in February when I completed an enjoyable assignment with ICC in Marrakech with some very dynamic and creative people from across the Arab world, I was looking forward to other work to come during the year. Of course it didn’t happen, and the kind of work I do, in the way I like to do it – by meeting with people face-to-face in their city streets – is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future. And so I have made the decision to take full and permanent retirement from work – to accept that this is the end of a chapter in my life and the beginning of something new and completely different.

It’s exciting but also tinged with sadness as I may never again have the chance to see many of you who have become my friends and respected colleagues. But I know we can all look back with a great sense of satisfaction in what we have achieved with Intercultural Cities.

It is fully 20 years since I first started thinking in ways which led me to the Intercultural Cities idea. I had just left a secure job in local government and set out into the unknown as a self-employed consultant. My first major job was a jump into the deep end, advising Birmingham - Europe’s largest local authority and one of its most diverse cities. Whilst there was a lot of good work being done in the city, it struck me there was something fundamentally missing in the way we were conceptualising the issue. In my naivety I didn’t even appreciate there were different ways of thinking about diversity such as multiculturalism or assimilation. I certainly didn’t have the vocabulary to articulate a new alternative model such as interculturalism. But what I did know in my gut was the status quo would no longer be good enough, and that I had to set out on a journey of discovery.

A research project was born in Birmingham that then spread beyond the UK and across the world, ultimately resulting in the book Intercultural City which I co-authored with Charles Landry. By then we had lots of ideas and plans and mountains of evidence to back them up – but we still lacked the vehicle to realise them. That came thanks to the vision and courage of the Council of Europe in the form of Robert Palmer and Irena Guidikova. We launched in 2008 and, of course, the rest you know. It’s now an idea that is co-owned by 142 cities who have become living laboratories for a new and better world.

There is much still to be done, and in a post-Covid world there are new perspectives to take account of. Despite early claims that the pandemic would be a great leveller we have seen, to the contrary, that it has exacerbated divisions and inequalities, and has hit minority communities the hardest. Covid threatens to make nations and communities turn inward, and it makes it harder to build the case for openness and mobility. But this is the case that ICC must build. And I am very confident that it can, and that ICC can become even more necessary and relevant to our world.

To those of you who remain to continue the good fight I wish you good luck, courage and boundless energy. Please support each other because unity is your greatest strength, and support Irena and Ivana so they can ensure Intercultural Cities remains a priority for the Council of Europe and its international partners. And finally please wish for me that same boundless energy – I’ll need it as I start my new career as a creative play and learning consultant for my 4 year old granddaughter J

Phil Wood

philwood44@live.com