Valerie Lechene
Location New York, USA
Activity
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
I believe that the EU used to have a soft power that has increasingly declined since the Cold War. Building soft power in Europe is something that can be done internally, but integrating migrants and developing a curiosity and appreciation of other cultures, especially from the old colonies. This conviviality would definitely portray a strong Europe and...
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
The case of Tunisia presented here is interesting, but I'm surprised the description is so one-sided, and does not emphasize the promotion of Tunisia wculture in Europe, especially in France, given the colonial heritage. In my sense, cultural cooperation goes both ways, meaning if a culture is promoted in one constituency, the same should be done in . Tunisia...
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
The challenge of the British Council an the Institut Français is to deal with the colonial legacy of these ex-empires throughout the ascending world. How can the Institut Français help promote awareness of the contribution of African soldiers during WW2? How can we encourage French people to speak the languages of the peoples they colonized? Should Wolof be...
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Belonging in Europe means being welcomed by another European country into their culture. Put in those words, it seems Europe can create a sense of belonging by fostering exchange among European nations — those can happen in different spheres: work, family, and leisure.
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
The state should be open to learning from the outcomes of arts and culture. I believe that states should hire strategic curators who can communicate some of the important new ideas that emerge from their citizens. Arts and culture serves as a crucial forum for public life, and should be recognized as so by state entities.
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
Citizens can and definitely should fill the gaps left vacant by national governance. Scholars often outline those gaps as is the case with Tinashe Mush from Reading Zimbabwe. We can speak of an archival justice in the case of this project.
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
Social media has a kinaesthetic dimension, meaning relating to all of the senses, and also to the movements of the body (see Zeynep Celik Alexander, 2016). Social media enables a kinaesthetic connection across cultures, which enables new forms of awareness and empathy. It is a very positive thing, for the exception of social media still being a 'wild west' of...
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
The nature of journalism has changed a lot since the time of Picasso. Digital media has created new possibilities for artistic expressions. Ai Wei Wei is well known for his use of social media, and viewers of his online encounter his work juxtaposed with journalistic posts and updates of their friends. This new context for artistic expression has allowed for...
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
Are the interest of nations always defendable?
Nations have traditionally used cultural soft power to create cohesion and build borders. Today these borders are contentious topics.
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Today’s issues transcend national borders. Climate change and refugees are issues that belong to each of us around the globe. As such I believe in corporate cultural diplomacy to engage with the worlds most pressing issues.
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I believe the mayoral office of New York City has a partnership with the mayoral office of Paris.
New York has many collaborations with other parts of the world. The African Center in Harlem is a prime example of that. The city also features many consulates that foster international cultural cooperation.
NYC’s history as an immigration port for the USA...
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
Four centuries ago, the nationstate typology emerged in pair with emerging mapping technologies repaired with new military defense practices. An example of that is the case if Vauban who worked for Louis XIV and collaborated with military leaders to set up armament mechanism in strategic parts of the country. Those military forts that were usually star shaped...
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The United States of America also have their own Francophile states. Louisiana is a prime example with the city of New Orleans being proud of its French heritage. French culture is not promoted within the USA other than with an alliance to the French European nation. The US is known to be a melting pot in which reality of cultures go exist. A prime example is...
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When faced with the supremacy of China which is known to impose its culture on adjacent territories in violent ways (South China Sea, Uighur, Tibet, Hong Kong), cultural diplomacy within the ASEAN member states can foster solidarity and mutualism and a sense of regional belonging immune from to Chinese intrusive tactics.
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
Sharing a common language is crucial to cultural diplomacy. Languages enable communication, understanding, and improvisation. However, in my point of view, citizens of French speaking European countries should be provided opportunities to learn the languages of the cultures previously colonized. European French speaking member states often have well structured...
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
I’m curious about the relationship between UNESCO and entities such as Unesco Nations University. UNU also has an education component, with perhaps a stronger focus on content creation. Are the two entities speaking with one another? How do they exchange information? Is UNU an actor of cultural diplomacy?
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
Curious to explore the question of states with regards to cultural diplomacy pursued by independent actors. States have manufactured a cultural identity to create commonality across their territory. They often looked to erase independent cultural production. As the world globalizes through communication and transportation infrastructure‘s that have increased...
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
It was nice to be introduced to each of these concepts. I believe they would benefit from more concrete examples. Transnational public relations has not been illustrated in detail... Often theory outweighs more memorable / iconic examples.
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
Uncritical soft-power through corporate exportations and transnational cultural relations seem to be outcome of American disengagement with cultural diplomacy. The US government does not allocate much resources to public diplomacy, except for tax cuts to corporations that are deemed 'too big to fail'.
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Nation-states have always instrumentalized culture internally. Linguistic homogenization within a territory, and also public education, national broadcast, etc are key elements to capacity building within a nation-state community. What's odd about acknowledging cultural diplomacy for foreign affairs is the acknowledging of these techniques to keep people...
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
Arguably, all elements of American culture has been brought by migrant communities, and more so in a couple centuries ago then now. Democracy was inherited by European cultures -- the US House of Representative in Washington DC was largely inspired by the Parisian Palais Bourbon. Their spatial organization echoed each other, instilling an intrinsic alliance...
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It could be interesting for states to explore democratic input for their endeavors of cultural diplomacy to ensure culture is not instrumentalised, but instead, designed for the people, and somehow by the people. But the structure of that democratic process could become burdensome -- so it would need to be strategically designed, to allow for public feedback...
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
The issue with attractiveness is migration. Countries should design their public facing strategy in parallel with touristic / immigration frameworks. The US attracts many people from different parts of the world -- many come for higher education -- and are afterwards forced out because the country does not safeguard their visas. It's actually quite a violent...
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When I first moves to the United States at age 14, I was struck with the similarity between the cinematic depictions made in Hollywood movies and American TV shows with the environmental context I was faced with on the East Coast.
During my time here, I have witnessed TV shows designed to boost tourism in specific cities through TV shows such as Treme for...
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
I wish architecture and the lifestyle imagined by local designers for specific urban centers and nations were factored in this description.
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
Cultural cooperation is a term coined to describe the centralized organizing of cultural diplomatic practices within the EU. In that sense, it is possible to describe cultural cooperation as a part of public diplomacy. Public diplomacy, however, does not have a centralizing institution within a region or across the globe. Perhaps that is an institution that...
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
I'm interested in the possibility of promoting mutual understanding through national cultural institutes... However, I believe they are built to support the nation-state system, which I am critical of because our world is entangled and interconnected beyond national borders.
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
The Venice biennale has national pavilions that come in conversation every summer, with a yearly alternance between art and architecture. Cultural institutions such as the Venice biennale can further the possibility of using the sphere of cultural production to rethink and improve our political and economic frameworks, which remain the products of colonization...
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
In my opinion, cultural cooperation could lead to emancipation from the nation-state framework, which has many shortcomings, including the concentration of power in the hands of very few. What if economics was restructured to tune with the biological and geological cycles that characterize planet Earth? Cultural cooperation can be the starting point for much...
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I'm interested in the objective of diplomats that do not pursue national interests, but instead advocate for systems of belonging and new kinds of multilateralism that go beyond nation-state frameworks. System-leaders can use spheres of cultural production to elaborate, document, present, test, and refine systems that enable modes of belonging more in tune...
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Based on the current backlash toward social media (due to misinformation, filter bubbles, and shortened attention spans) outside the US, I would describe America's use of soft power as brash, unregulated, aggressive, and surreptitiously colonial.
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The US is the largest media exporter in the world. Tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter, are instruments of cultural supremacy deployed throughout the world without second thought. We are a young country with a rather brash attitude when it comes to foreign affairs, and it is so because few Americans are able to perceive American from an...
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
Hello from New York! Thrilled about learning from you two.
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Valerie Lechene made a comment
Hello everybody, my name is Valerie, I am a dual citizen of France and the US.
I grew up in China and Canada, and worked in Colombia, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
I have been trained in design, architecture, urbanism and history. In recent years, I have been doing interdisciplinary research with Columbia University at the New Museum in New...
