The Venice Seminars 2020 analyzed if communities are given or constructed and examine the role language, recognition and alterity have for the shape of communities. The Seminars addressed issues concerning global intellectual history and study how modern nation-states have engaged with issues of difference and integration, including the themes of subnational identities and linguistic, ethnic and religious minorities in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

A special emphasis has been put on the transcultural construction of communities and their translingual practices. Transculturalism, with respect to the simple multiculturalism, tends not to solidify difference, but acknowledges cultural fluidity, hybridity, cosmopolitanism, and métissage. At the center of the analysis will be the concept of identity arising from transculturalism. Ultimately, it may be necessary to go beyond the liberal-communitarian divide in order to reconcile the valuable insights that may be rescued from both positions.