Among the key issues which can be uniquely addressed only by adopting a multidisciplinary perspective are the following:

• What processes and factors are responsible for the formation of national, ethnic, cultural and religious groups and communities?
• How are these factors visible in the cultural practices of these groups?
• How do these groups and communities construct, negotiate, communicate and express their identities, and what is the relationship between dominant and minority identities within different artistic, linguistic, political, historical, cultural and geographical settings?
• What are the political, economic, cultural and psychological causes and consequences of migration, and how do individuals, communities, societies and nations respond to migration and cultural diversity?
• How are conceptions and practices of citizenship being reshaped under the pressures of globalisation, migration and multiculturalism?
• What are the competing visions of Europe and European identity, and how does European identity relate to cultural, linguistic, national and ethnic identities?

These events, phenomena and movements exhibit a level of complexity such that it is simply not possible to achieve an effective understanding of their causes, processes and consequences from the perspective of any single discipline. Instead, historical, cultural, linguistic, political, economic, educational, sociological and psychological factors and processes all play a critical role.