Some forty people who have taken part in one of the sessions of the «National Cohesion and Citizenship» seminar, organised since 2006 in Paris by the IHEDN and extended to the provinces since 2010 by the IHEDN Partners' Circle, met on Thursday 19 June at the École Militaire (Paris 7) for the first inter-session day.
The trainees, who came from various departments in the Paris region, as well as from Lyon, Le Havre and Nantes, included local councillors, managers from the voluntary sector, the French education system, government departments and the armed forces.
This initiative was the first of its kind and helped to initiate rich and friendly exchanges between these local players faced with similar issues in very distant areas.
Guy RUPIED, President of the Cercle, and Prefect Joël BOUCHITÉ, Deputy Director of the IHEDN, gave the welcoming remarks before giving the floor to Jean-Pierre BOIS, historian (Emeritus University Professor) and Guillaume BERNARD, Doctor of Law (Senior Lecturer), both specialists in citizenship issues.
Two key topics were discussed:
- The ’historical approach to French patriotism«, by Jean-Pierre BOIS ;
- The concepts of ’Identity and (sociability)« by Guillaume BERNARD.
The afternoon was devoted to a visit to the «I, Augustus, Emperor of Rome» exhibition at the Grand Palais, which took participants back to the origins of our modern societies and in particular the notion of citizenship.
