The Impacts of the Belt and Road Initiative on Europe

Over time, the Transcultural Caravan has developed the Transcultural Learning Cycle.

The recent technological revolutions in areas such as mobility and digitalization have created an unprecedented global arena for exchange and collaboration. Today's society is made up of complex and dynamic networks of relationships in which the ability to cooperate across borders is of central importance. Universities not only have the role of being part of this global arena, but also of preparing young people to shape it in a sustainable way. The current debate on higher education emphasizes the importance of experimental and holistic learning and thus of didactic concepts that build on students' concrete experiences, especially outside the seminar rooms.
Against this background, the Leadership Excellence Institute at Zeppelin University (ZU) is working on innovative approaches and methods that combine internationality and interdisciplinarity in such a way that student learning and research across borders opens up new and preferably holistic perspectives. For this purpose, the project
"Transcultural Caravan" project, the Transcultural Learning Cycle was developed.

Within the framework of various modules of the Transcultural Learning Cycle, which build on each other, students work on current topics with fellow students, young scientists and experts from all over the world.

Since 2016, this two-day conference with more than 200 participants has offered experts from business, politics, civil society and the arts a platform to share their experiences with students and researchers from various academic disciplines. It is prepared and held annually at Zeppelin University and has so far addressed different country or regional focuses (2016 China, 2017 Sub-Saharan Africa, 2018 Brazil, 2019 Europe, 2020 Belt & Road Initiative). The topics discussed at the conference will be the starting point for the Transcultural Student Research Groups.

Drawing on the themes of the Transcultural Leadership Summit, students and researchers will explore common questions in transcultural and interdisciplinary research groups, including a research journey. In the sense of an experimental learning approach, the participants are confronted with the task of experiencing and shaping their own concrete transcultural cooperation: International teams will work on common research questions over a period of one year. In addition to the research trip, numerous online formats as well as the hybrid Winter School will be implemented (see below).

The annual Winter School, including a symposium, provides hybrid learning and exchange platforms that conclude each project year. The Winter School program consists of master classes, workshops, and panel discussions on transcultural leadership and the topics of the Student Research Group, as well as company or NGO visits and group phases to work on the book projects. The Winter School will be attended by the participants and supervisors of the Student Research Group as well as other interested students from the partner universities, members of the Transcultural Alumni Network and other cooperation partners. At the symposium, which takes place within the framework of the Winter School, the participants of the Student Research Group present their results and discuss them with a larger, university-public audience. The hybrid format aims to enable participation by all interested parties, regardless of geographic residence, and to increase outreach and inclusion.

The event took place at Zeppelin University on November 5 and 6, 2020. The two-day conference, which was broadcast from ZU's ZF Campus as an online format to participants from around the world, offered economic and geopolitical perspectives on the new silk roads as well as historical-cultural and philosophical approaches that painted a diverse picture of the future significance of a European-Asian cooperation area and Ied to numerous discussions.

An overview of the TLS 2020 on the topic "Belt and Road Initiative" can be found
here: https://transcuIturaI-Ieadershipsummit.com/2020/07/why-new-silk-roads/

A summary of the TLS 2020 highlights can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiMDgTI6NIY

An overview of the Summit 2020 speakers can be found here: https://transcuIturaI-Ieadershipsummit.com/2020/10/tIs-2020-intorducing-our- speakers/

Fed by the theme of TLS 2020, the research group of 2021 will deal with the topic "The Impacts of the Belt and Road Initiative on Europe" and will be conducted in cooperation with the Boym lnstitut from Poland.
In November 2021, the Transcultural Winter School 2021 will take place. At the Winter School, the groups will receive new inputs, present their preliminary findings at the symposium, and continue their project.
After completing their research, the final steps are to write their book chapter to present their final findings in the Transcultural Management book series.

Participants of TSRG 2021 Current status: 14 participants:
- 7 from Zeppelin University
- 7 from Poland

Mixed group: BA, MA students and PhD students.

Interdisciplinarity

The impact of BRI on Europe will be explored from different perspectives. Participants will be divided into subgroups with different focus areas:

1st Group:

economic impact, international economy, business, trade

2nd Group:

economic impact, SMEs, infrastructure, trade cooperation

3rd Group:

BRI and civil-society organisations

4th Group:

Legal implications, intellectual property law and new technologies in the context of the BRI Agreement, trade agreements

5th Group:

Gender Equality along the Silken Road and the Impact on Germany and Poland

6th Group:

geopolitical Impact

Schedule:

- By July 2021: Establish research design and start collaboration with international peers.
- Late August/early September 2021: research trip (depending on the
Covid-19 situation).
- November 2021: Hybrid Transcultural Winter School and presentation of preliminary research results in the context of the Transcultural Research Symposium.
- February 2022: Submission of first draft for joint publication.

Research trip

The destinations of the research trip are Duisburg and Poland, two places that are related to the current topic and can provide relevant insights for the student research projects.

1. Poland

Period:
25.08.21 - 31.08.21

Destinations:
Gdansk Warsaw Lodz

2. Germany

Period:
31.08. 21 - 04.09.21

Destination:
Duisburg