A Multicultural Networked Environment for Learning and Research in Southern Mediterranean Countries. Evidence from the Mediterranean School of e-Business Management

Competitiveness and wealth of countries are becoming an expression of the capability to leverage on learning and research processes, by exploiting the benefits coming from knowledge application and diffusion of innovation. In Southern Mediterranean countries, this reality must be interpreted with the lens of the Digital Divide, a multi-dimensional phenomenon reshaping the map of the world at global, social, democratic and economic levels. Actually, Digital Divide reveals not only an asymmetry in accessing to the ICT and Internet, but mainly the (in)capability to participate actively to global knowledge flows, to formulate new ideas, to promote innovation, to generate social and economic value. The dynamic relationships and influences between these two facts opens a challenge for Universities and Business Schools that are required to innovate learning and research processes addressing multiculturalism and learners’ diversity through a networking strategy. In this frame, this paper aims to present some preliminary results gained in a five-year experience of the “Mediterranean School of e-Business Management”, an Euro-Mediterranean partnership founded on a multicultural networked environment to experiment new approaches in learning and research in Southern Mediterranean countries.