The present volume draws on the experience of the Summer School held in August 2018 in Split, where graduate students and experienced scholars met from Germany, Albania, Serbia, Macedonia, and Croatia. All contributions discuss small-scale empirical research on the threatened ideals mentioned in the title as desirable and achievable parts of their daily lives as members of modern universities and civil societies. The contributions can also serve as a general model for open and critical international and intercultural academic discourse in joint teaching, research and publishing.