Civic Participation

Call for papers for Nordic Summer University summer session 2012 – kreds 2

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Learning from the future – towards cultures of sustainability

This year’s summer session of the Nordic Summer University will take place on July 28th – August 2nd, in Denmark, at Brandtbjerg Højskole near Vejle. The NSU is organized in “study/reflection circles”, working with a theme for 3 years. This is the last session of circle/kreds 2 around the theme of transculturality. The work of the circle has led to a published anthology in 2010, Learning from the Other, and upcoming, the anthology Learning from nowhere – the becoming of culture. This last session will prepare the field to a possible new circle, moving from taking the perspective of ”Learning from the future” (2013-2015). This shift will focus then on the theme of cultures of sustainability or transculturality from an uncertain future.

Culture will play a decisive role in defining the way humanity approaches the meta- or mega-issue of sustainability. It is often said that we actually possess the technological knowledge to come out of the critical situation that the world is heading into.

Innumerable alliances are forming that acknowledge the urgency of the problem, from all thinkable angles of societies.

The invitation is for all interested in the themes (and crossing of themes) of culture, interculturality, transculturality, sustainability, climate change, civic participation, education, and philosophy, to contribute to our last session in circle 2 (and maybe the pre-launch of a new circle). Abstracts can be proposed along the themes of

 

  1. Theoretical/epistemological/ontological investigations and reflections;
  2. Empirical studies – past and future;
  3. Methodological considerations;
  4. Discussions of issues of policy and political implications of the field.
  5. ..or whatever creative cross-fertilization you may be working with.

Practicalities

The summer session is coordinated by Johannes Servan, University of Bergen (Johannes [dot] Servan [at] fof [dot] uib [dot] no), and Oleg Koefoed, Cultura21 Nordic and Roskilde University (oleg [at] cultura21 [dot] dk). Please send your abstract (no more than 200 words) by June 1st at the latest, to one of the coordinators.

They accept abstracts in all Nordic languages, (or in English, French, Italian, Spanish, and German); presentations can be held in English, as well as in Nordic languages (although some languages might call more for translation than others). One or more authors can hand in an abstract and/or present together.

Preliminary program is expected around June 8th. If you want to participate without presenting, registration is possible until June 15th. Whether presenting or not, you must register your participation via the NSU-website. Registration for the Summer Session is done via the form at the web page. Registration is open from April 1st to June 15th. Your will receive an email with a receipt after registration. You are not fully registered before payment has been accepted. Visit www.nsuweb.net for more information and for the story around the Nordic Summer University and Brandtbjerg Højskole. The preliminary program will be published on www.nsuweb.net. Sign up for the newsletter to get the necessary information and deadlines.

Arrival: 27th of July during the day.

Departure: the 3rd August in the morning

Registration for the Summer Session is done via the form at the webpage. Registration is from April 1st to June 15th. Your will receive an email with a receipt after registration.

Participant from the Nordic and Baltic Countries will receive travel refund.

Prices for participation, including meals and lodging, are:

  • Adult in single room: 5000 SEK
  • Adult in single room: 5500 SEK
  • Adult in two bed room: 3500 SEK
  • Child, 3-11 years: 1100 SEK
  • Child, 12-15 years: 2200 SEK
  • Student in two bed room: 1750 SEK

Students, who receive student discount, are expected to help the organizers with two-three hours work during the week. Application for student discount is done by registration. Initially, two spaces pr. Nordic country are offered. The offer does not apply to ph.d. students.

Ph.d. students can receive a certificate of participation. Participants can receive up to 5 ETCS points. As a participant you can get a discount on all publications from Aarhus University Press and a special discount on NSU’s own publications. Your order should be placed by registration to the summer session.

To read the full version of the call (PDF file), click here.

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

Call for Papers “Creative Communities 3: Risks & Possibilities”

This post comes to you from Cultura21

September 26th- 28th 2012 – Gold Coast, Australia

Hosted by Griffith University Centre for Cultural Research

‘Creative communities’ is a well-worn phrase conventionally equated with notions of well-being, civic participation and social inclusion. Creativity in this sense is regarded as social glue that bonds individuals together through collaboration in various forms of creative projects – be it visual art, drama, dance, theatre,music, writing or a combination of these. that bring communities together in positive and fulfilling ways.

Similarly, community connotes a wholehearted feeling, the strength of relationships in networks or inclusiveness through a sense of shared characteristics and values.

There is now a significant body of practice, policy and academically focused work that highlights the importance of the ‘creative community’ in fostering community well-being. At the same time, however, the term creative community throws up a number of questions that remain largely unaddressed in existing research, for example;

  • How does creativity actually impact community?
  • What is lost when the term ‘creative communities’ is imposed on place?
  • How are decisions on processes of inclusion / exclusion in creative practices made and who controls such decisions?
  • What happens to a creative community when access to resources that facilitate its creativity are lost or compromised and what sort of factors can contribute to this – e.g socio-economic change, civil unrest, urban redevelopment, shifts in state and government policy?

Call for Proposals

Griffith Centre for Cultural Research invites proposal submissions from scholars, artists & cultural workers, designers, urban designers, architects and policy makers interested in presenting oral papers, presentations, interactive workshops, panels or roundtable discussions on the following Conference themes;

1. Creative Communities At Risk

  • Perceptions of societal danger- Aversion and subversive behaviour
  • Individual versus collective risk and possibility between invisibility and presence
  • Laws and regulations and their impact or influence on creative communities

2. Itineraries of engagement

  • Creative Practice and cultural indicators in policy making
  • Idealization and leadership
  • Professional versus hobbyist perspectives of creative practice
  • Public events as catalysts for community
  • Observing and evaluating participation in creative engagement
  • Possibilities of participation- gatekeepers

3.Transcultural dialogues

  • Emergent global creativities
  • Community, creativity and post transnational trauma -, for example, 9/11- Bali bombing, London ‘youth’ riots, Black Friday Victorian bush fires
  • Cultural tourism /mis-tourism
  • Asia Pacific heritage ·dialogues

4. Politics of networks

  • Digital social networking (lived environments versus online/virtual)
  • Politics, kinship, and the role of communities /Creative geographies, ecologies and networks
  • Migration of skills and experience (migrants/refugees, professional arts workers, skills exchange learning, mentors and novice)
  • Flexible and local forums and networks, complexity in varied contexts
  • Hard-to-reach’ membership cohorts.

5. Diversity and inclusion: Creativity as a catalyst for reconciling difference Social Sustainability and the creative artist: socially responsible creative commitment

  • Personal Development as a liberating force: confidence building in community sub groups
  • Collaboration: reliable interdependence: links through non-political non-biased creativity
  • Transparency and ownership: who owns the project
  • Old and skilled/young and skilled: forging links and breaking down generational barriers

Proposals due 23rd June 2012 to gccr [at] griffith [dot] edu [dot] au

Please use this form to submit your application.

Applicants will be notified of the acceptance of abstracts by 20th July 2012 at the latest.

For more information, click here

For program updates, please visit http://ps3beta.com/project/8334

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

Hey World (Don’t Give Up)

Need a dose of inspiration when the sustainability going gets tough? Try listening to this musical video by Michael Franti, Hey World.

It is a call to roll up your sleeves, to shake off apathy: “I didn’t come here to chill, I came here to rock … You got to let go of the remote control.” Watch an inspiring music video about civic participation, set to the backdrop of Jamaican reggae rhythms of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare.

Go to Eco-Catalysts