Chair: Miikka Pyykkönen, Cultural Policy, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä (miikka.pyykkonen[at]jyu.fi)
Coordinator: Maija Väätämöinen, Cultural Policy, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä (maija.vaatamoinen[at]jyu.fi), and Tiina Kontinen, University of Jyväskylä (tiina.t.kontinen@jyu.fi)
Room: 208 (Thursday & Friday)
Today, culture is seen as a vital part of sustainable development. The first milestone when culture and cultural policy was considered as a relevant part of development policies happened in 1995 when UNESCO’s World Commission for Culture and Development published the report Our Creative Diversity. The document put together the concepts of culture, sustainability and development. Since then the international organizations, such as UN and UNESCO, have enhanced cultural dimensions and human-centered development within the ecologically and economically stated, commodity-centered discourse of sustainability and development. Emphasizing development in harmony with the multiplicity of cultural heritages and values of a given society, culturally sustainable development ensures people’s free intellectual activity and ethical growth, the development of cultural plurality and its continuation from one generation to the next. Agency, citizen participation and flexibility of citizenship in national and local contexts play also an important role in the discourse.
Global understanding of development policies need local interpretations of culture and research on spheres of actions both in individual and collective levels. People’s dislocations from their “traditional” living environments, migration and increasing interconnectedness and interdependency are crucial challenges in both “developed and developing” countries. They raise serious questions for the formation and limits of nation states’ citizenship. Change forces to pay attention on questions such as cultural rights, cultural diversity and multiculturalism, being also a topical theme for cultural policy research – on side of arts policies – and part of conceptual discussion on culturally sustainable development. Multiple meanings of citizenship, group membership and individual strategies are being discussed and processed. This workshop challenges to debate on questions related to culture and culturally sustainable development in the context of citizen-subject transformations in both developing and developed countries taking into consideration also the following sub-themes:
- Cultural change and urbanization in people’s (e.g. Indigenous peoples) individual and collective strategies, and the responsiveness of cultural and development policies on those.
- Cultural rights, cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue in development work.
- Effects of changing patterns of citizenship and agency for culture and sustainable development.
- Definitions and indicators of culture, cultural sustainability and cultural citizenship in Nordic and international development and cultural policies.
- The role of international cultural policy and cultural/creative industries in development context.
- Sustainability of indigenous cultures in “developing” and “developed” countries, and cultural sustainability in the development work and research in circumpolar areas.
- Cultural rights as an attempt to guarantee cultural sustainability and recognized citizen-subject position for cultural minorities in developing countries.
THURDSDAY 14.00-17.00
Chair: Miikka Pyykkönen
(1) Culture and Identity as ‘Agents of Change’ in Social Transformation Processes – The case of Bolivian Social Movements
Vibeke Andersson, Aalborg University, Denmark (van[at]cgs.aau.dk)
Coming to office in 2005 the Bolivian President, Evo Morales said in his inauguration speech: “The indigenous people have been marginalised with the foundation of Bolivia in 1825, therefore the indigenous people will now claim the right to recreate Bolivia”. This pinpoints the processes on shaping identity in indigenous peoples’ social movements in Bolivia. Indigenous people are now aiming at ‘taking back’ Bolivia on many levels. This paper will focus on the formation of social movements and how this has included a redefinition of being indigenous and a redefinition of being Bolivian. This implies a strategic use of indigenous culture forming an alliance with international actors at a point in history when focus on indigenous rights has been emphasized. An increased focus on indigenous people and their identity, culture and ‘belonging’ to territories can be seen in government reforms in the 1990’s and in recent policies after Evo Morales took office in 2005. The issue of citizenship has been crucial in these processes.
(2) Indigenous People and Cultural Sustainability in Urban Context
Maija Väätämöinen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland (maija.vaatamoinen[at]jyu.fi)
The phenomenon of urbanization affects various peoples, groups and individuals around the globe. Within indigenous peoples, whose cultures and identities are often understood as bound to traditional living environments and whose rights are partly solely legitimate within those “traditional” territorial areas, this kind of transformation arises questions on cultural sustainability, cultural continuity and the changing patterns and negotiations of citizenship as well as the concept of indigenousness itself. The debate has also been connected to cultural rights.
In the Nordic countries the acculturation process of the Sámi people has lowered socioeconomic poverty while cultural poverty – the lack of capabilities for self-determination and autonomy – is often ignored. This “invisibility”, the transformation of indigenous living environment, the understanding of cultural sustainability in urban context together with the transformation of collective cultural patterns and strategies of the indigenous peoples themselves is in the focus of my PhD research that will be conducted in addition to Helsinki also in Santiago de Chile where an outstanding amount of Mapuche people are settled. Despite of the fact that the topic of indigenousness is in many ways global by its nature and indigenous peoples are internationally well organized little comparative research has been conducted between Northern and Southern Poles. This kind of information is nonetheless needed to be able to understand the similarities and differences these peoples experience, and the ways the public policy models affect them as well to be able to offer alternatives in organizing the multifaceted realities both in international and local levels in sustainable and ethically correct ways.
In this paper I will present the framework of my PhD research focusing on the current legislative and programmatic situation of the Sámi people in Finland and the conceptual discussion on cultural sustainability and cultural rights within the fields of indigenous and cultural policy studies.
(3) Citizenship in critical educational theory: systematical analysis
Katariina Tiainen, University of Helsinki (aktiaine[at]mappi.helsinki.fi)
Modern political systems are dependent on functional definition about citizenship and there is ongoing debate about conception of citizenship. Specially, today it can be said that the concept of citizenship is at breach, since the modern nation state is to lose its significance on the basis of citizenship. In these times of increasing globalization and multiculturalism national states and national schooling systems are facing new challenges while thinking what kind of citizenship should be provoked, and what kind of citizenship is even possible in global plural time where multiculturalism, multiple identities and multilayered citizenship is typical. These challenges of globalization and multiculturalism in education are central in critical educational orientation. In my master`s thesis I study what is citizenship in critical pedagogy. In my analysis I concentrate critical scholars who has contemplate on citizenship with complex relationship between state, democracy, politics, power and schooling and participated current conversation on citizenship education in global world.
I study, what is citizenship in critical educational theory in writings of a few critical educators who mostly represent critical sociology of education (will be revised). I apply systematical analysis. Critical educational orientation in Finland is quite fresh and has become until recently its own separate discipline or independent study orientation still looking its place in finish educational field. My thesis work is a little contribution to critical pedagogy, in which I try to build one possible theoretical model of citizenship.
(4) Negotiating Shared Values in Plural Civil Society
Katariina Holma, Institute of Behavioral Sciences, University of Helsinki (katariina.holma[at]helsinki.fi) and Tiina Kontinen, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä (tiina.t.kontinen[at]jyu.fi)
This paper presents an idea for a research proposal which aims at integrating philosophical conceptual work with empirical analysis of the conditions and possibilities of negotiating shared values in plural civil societies. It embarks from a philosophical argumentation on the possibilities of shared citizenship in the context of contemporary plural societies characterised by increasingly varying value systems occupying shared political space. While philosophy provides clarity on the conceptual nature of engagement with pluralism, the analysis of such encounters in practice will deepen the dynamics of value negotiations. We intend to take such examples from the contexts of civil society which we conceptualise in a wide somewhat Gramscian manner. First, we shall explore the negotiation of shared values in schools where the challenges on heterogeneity are met in daily life. Second, we analyse the relationship of value-based organizations in the global context of development co-operation which includes a complex nexus of values, and simultaneous will to intervene in and negotiate with “other” values. Deriving conceptual tools from philosophical pragmatism we outline a research proposal which would develop a theoretical framework for negotiating shared values in dialogue of analysis of such negotiation in practice.
(5) The Conundrum of Citizenship and Culture in a rapidly globalizing World
Ogbegie Caleb, University of Eastern Finland, Department of Sociology, University of Eastern Finland (calebo.student[at]uef.fi)
The practices of modern Societies are organized and governed by subsystems of: law, science, politics, religion and education, together forming the (core) culture (Mikkola, 2009:1). Sustainability is believed to be the continuity of population as it is developed and governed by the culture of the population.Culture enables the individual to define conceptions of: identity, gender, race, and class. These conceptions in turn influence conceptions of citizenship. Moreover, since culture has been found to influence conceptions of citizenship, ethnicity, and class, each concept also specifically influences individual and group citizenship conceptions. This study will examine the effects of changing patterns of citizenship and agency for culture and sustainable development, with growing rate of migration and the issue of multiculturalism as a front –burner phenomenon in contemporary times. The methodology for this study will be by Discourse Analysis of texts and the review of some relevant literature.
FRIDAY 12-14.30
Chairs: Maija Väätämöinen and Tiina Kontinen
(1) Dynamics between civilization, culture and religion; The Challenge of Multiculturalism
Margit Väisänen-Vänskä, MA (Ed), University of Jyväskylä (margit.vaisanen-vanska[at]jyu.fi)
The scientific tradition has been rooted in a natural science in the aftermath of the enlightenment and the scientific revolution. Religious thought as the explanatory philosophy has been abandoned and replaced by mechanical laws. The sociocultural influences were ignored and the behaviorism became the dominant paradigm. And thus cultures have been ranked and graded according to different stages of development or evolution. There is now a shift of paradigm going on from positivistic to dynamic transactional model of human functioning. Current scholars reject the universality of the existing theories as ethnocentric, bias and culture bound excluding the ecological, historical, philosophical and religious context. Vision is to find truly universal models. The research now is aiming to understand the influence of culture to human behavior in extremely complex issues in all aspects of our lives and the effort to translate those influences into meaningful ways of being and living to deepen understanding of the underlying reasons for the differences. What is it beneath and why? In the efforts to form social belonging and membership in a global community means the study of the dynamics between civilization, culture and religion. Understanding what is the impact of religion or belief system to the culture and institutions of civilization is most significant in today’s multicultural societies. The aim of this paper is to emphasize the importance of interreligious dialogue in the context of civil society and citizenship education. Methodologically the new paradigm means the evolution of method, the use of the triangulation approaches as well as the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods.
(2) The volunteering for the practice of Catalan language as informal learning context of Active Citizenship
Alexandro Escudero Nahón, Department of Theory and History of Education, University of Barcelona, Spain (alexandroescudero[at]ub.edu)
There is a widespread idea that societies receiving migratory flows behave hostile in advance to the immigrants. Thus, democratic and educational institutions in multicultural societies often design formal or non-formal educational programmes in order to train people to be competent in Active Citizenship. However, clear evidence shows that there could be autochthonous people willing to get in contact with people from different identities.
This ongoing research analyzes, from the perspective of the Grounded Theory methodology the volunteers for the practice of Catalan language in the programme Voluntariat per la Llengua2 in the city of Barcelona, Spain. These people (a catalan and a foreigner) usually get in contact in a face-to-face meeting that often ends up as intercultural exchange, as well as fostering some competencies of the Active Citizenship.
The aims of the research:
‣ To identify the factors that motivate the volunteers for the practice of Catalan language to get in touch with people with different identities.
‣ To describe the opportunities and limitations that the face-to-face meeting implies as an informal learning process.
‣ To design a model to foster the Active Citizenship competencies in informal learning processes in multicultural societies.
(3) Socio-Cultural Change in Tanzanian Higher Education: Experience of women with Disabilities
Magreth Matonya, Faculty of Education, University of Jyväskylä, Finland (matonya2007[at]yahoo.com)
The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights stated in 1948 that “…higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit”. In terms of gender, the Millennium Goals have set 2015 as the target date to eliminate gender disparity at the tertiary level. According to the new World Report on Disability (WHO, 2011), stated clearly that “Women with disabilities experience gender discrimination as well as disabling and poverty barriers. Studies in Tanzania indicated that women with disabilities have not had equal access to education compared to males, especially at higher education due to culture and social structure. Accessibility and participation of women with disabilities in Tanzanian higher education is challenging. This study investigated factors that contributed to the access, participation and success of few women with disabilities in higher education. A total of twenty-two disabled women at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania were interviewed individually. Results showed three key factors for success. Psychological factors included personal goals and motives, recognition of their disability. Sociological factors included encouraging environment at home, information and communication and financial factors included internal and external support, all contributed to the women’s ability to succeed. However, women with disabilities must first have access and participation before they can strive for success.
(4) Actor-centred methods in education and development research
Janhonen-Abruquah, H., Lehtomäki, E., Okkolin, M.-A., Palojoki, P., Posti-Ahokas, H. & Trotta Tuomi, M. (hille.janhonen-abruquah[at]helsinki.fi)
This paper reviews actor-centred research methods with the potential to engage educational stakeholders: students, teachers and student teachers as research participants. Often research on education and development either focuses at the policy level or at the grassroots level employing ethnographies. Little research bridges these two levels by investigating the processes between by involving all agents, including students, at incremental levels of educational systems.
The actor-centred methods reviewed include: consultation (synergic, non-confrontational decision making), communicative methods (research engagement in dialogue), visual methods, empathy-based stories and voice-centred method of data analysis (VCR). Consultation and the communicative method employ the collaboration of stakeholders in research to analyse and search for new solutions. Visual methods, such as photo elicitations, empowering photographs or photo voice, reveal less obvious features and transcend cultural barriers. Empathy-based stories are effective in capturing research participants’ reality. The VCR method has shown potential for actor-centred analysis.
Actor-centered research methods enable the marginalised voices to be heard, integrating students’ everyday life experiences to develop educational systems from the students’ perspectives. A participatory approach, including the voices of different stakeholders, shows potential for shared values and long-term commitment in educational system development.