[2] Interculturalism is often used to describe the set of relations between indigenous and western ideals, grounded in values of mutual respect.
[3] Interculturalism has arisen in response to criticisms of existing policies of multiculturalism, such as criticisms that such policies had failed to create inclusion of different cultures within society, but instead have divided society by legitimizing segregated separate communities that have isolated themselves and accentuated their specificity.
[3][5] Philosopher Martha Nussbaum in her work Cultivating Humanity, describes interculturalism as involving "the recognition of common human needs across cultures and of dissonance and critical dialogue within cultures" and that interculturalists "reject the claim of identity politics that only members of a particular group have the ability to understand the perspective of that group".
[6] Anthropologist Joanne Rappaport describes interculturalism as consisting of three main threads: a method of connection, a political philosophy aimed at creating utopian indigenous citizenship, and a challenge to traditional ethnography.
[12] The United Nations' agency UNESCO adopted the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions in 2005, which declares support for interculturalism.
[4] Salman Cheema, the Head of Marketing and Communications of the British Council, in an article titled "From Multiculturalism to Interculturalism – A British perspective", spoke of an event co-hosted by the British Council and Canada's Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on April 11, 2013, interculturalist advocate Phil Wood declared that multiculturalism has faced serious problems that need to be resolved through interculturalism, and rejected those opponents of multiculturalism who seek to restore a pre-multiculturalist monoculturalist society.
[28] There are examples of intercultural health projects that do not fully incorporate indigenous methodologies and instead continue to perpetuate the western hegemonic order.
A series of case studies highlight intercultural health projects that integrate biomedicine with traditional medicine, in Chile,[29] Ecuador,[29] Bolivia,[16] Colombia,[29] Guatemala,[29] Suriname,[29] and Ghana.
[30] Intercultural health education is a priority at the medical school in the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar in Quito, Ecuador.
[34] Intercultural health concepts applied in United States biomedical settings are often called cultural competency.
[39] Ali Rattansi, in his book Multiculturalism: A Very Short Introduction (2011) argues that Interculturalism offers a more fruitful way than conventional multiculturalism for different ethnic groups to co-exist in an atmosphere that encourages both better inter-ethnic understanding and civility; he provides useful examples of how interculturalist projects in the UK have shown in practice a constructive way forward for promoting multi-ethnic civility.