Keynote presentation at Language, Educational and Intercultural Research Conference 2015, Vilnius University, Lithuania (27.9.15)

1. Linguistic, Educational and Intercultural Research 2015
Vilnius University
17 September 2015
Dr. Alan Bruce
ULS
Dublin

2.  Entering the time of Crisis
 Globalization: the impact of change
 Interculturalism and diversity
 Culture and Identity: threat or opportunity?
 Engaging with rights

3.  How wrong can you get? Fukuyama and the
End of History (1992)
 Sociologies of dislocation
 The end of certainty: change or chaos?
 Narratives of movement
 Motivation: departing and arriving
 European dimensions

4. • Accelerating and pervasive
• Meltdown and re-structuring since 2008
• Devaluation of the public sphere
• Stratification and inequity – issues of social justice
• Labor market transformation
• Mobile capital and global investment linkage
• Right to inclusion – token or real?
• Access, quality and innovation in education
• Generational demographics

5.  End of stable socio-political norms
 Uncertainty, fluid identity and unease
 A world turned upside down
 The poetry of quest – fromYeats to Kavafy
 A deep shiver of guilt – what have we done?
 What have we become?
 The ghosts that will not rest
 End of assumptions about European identity

6.  Jena 1806: Phenomenology of Spirit
 Philosophy meets History
 Theory of the gaze - master-slave dialectic
 Desire, struggle and recognition
 The visibility of the Other

7. The old world is dying.
The new world struggles to be born.
Now is the time of monsters. Antonio Gramsci

8.  Persistence and increase in inequality
 Permanent hopelessness of excluded
 Embedded violence
 Internal underclass
 Invisibility and ethnic difference
 Seeking scapegoats and creating victims

9.  Mutual interaction or structured exclusion?
 Community values or communal rituals?
 Linkage to realities or past models?
 Shared memories or shared hatreds?

10.  Explosion in communication
 Immediacy of social media
 Learning from difference
 Adapting to innovative linkage
 Enhanced quality of interaction
 Added value from interaction

11.  Learning in chaos: where are we?
 End of history or start of the unknown?
 Hidden lives, silent voices: secret
communities?
 Fractured identities: who are we?
 Values and vision: why do we need
intercultural policy?

12.  Seismic shift in human relationships
 Competitive pressures
 New forms of work organization
 New diversities
 Instant, multidimensional communications
 Quality standards

13.  Constant often unexpected change
 Permanent migration mobility
 Identity and threat: where are we?
 Threat and reaction to threat
 End of welfare: demographic time-bombs
 Knowledge, innovation and democratic
deficits
 Structural imbalances

14.  Urban futures
 Ecological crisis and resource wars
 Outsourcing production
 Plural identities - end ofWestphalian
statecraft
 Privatized everything
 Embedded difference and restricted access

15. • No return to ‘normal’
• Polymorphic media
• Planet of Slums (Mike Davis): hypercities of
the future
• Informal economies
• Casualized employment
• Constant connectedness and information
explosion

16.  Education as both structure and process
 Education systems mirror world and society and
of which they are part
 Education systems as constraining as liberating
 Forum for ideas or market for products? Or
both….?
 Commodification of knowledge
 Impact on education systems (Freire, Illich, Field)
 Impact on work (Braverman, Haraszti, Davis)
 Impact on community

17.  End of linear models of learning
 Cognitive dissonance: what is needed is not
being provided
 Alienation and anomie in a changing world
 Labor market flux and the loss of autonomy
 Adaptability and innovation as norm, not
exception
 Globalized paradigms; fractured community
 Elephants in the room: power and ownership

19.  Understanding dimensions of human
difference
 Framing the themes of ‘culture’
 Is difference negative?
 Approaching diversity: concept and reality
 Designing for difference
 Eliminating threat and fear

20.  Agreed definition of multicultural
 Adjustment and accommodation
 Melting pot or mosaic
 Separate development
 Beliefs, values and practices
 Symbols, language and behaviour

21.  Radical re-structuring
 Interconnected information/communication
 Differential access to resources
 Professional competence
 Dealing with transformational change
 Ensuring recognition and respect

22.  Diversity vs. equality
 Role of legislation
 Relationship to community
 Justice and enforcement
 Tokenism and surface approaches
 Ascertaining facts

23.  Interculturalism training
 Disability awareness competence
 Mentoring: diversity champions
 Researched best practice: reviewed
 Linguistic skills
 Comfort with difference: trust
 Contact and observational listening

24.  New frameworks of social difference
 Classical formulations
 Challenges and conflict
 Integration or assimilation
 Discovery and engagement

25.  Response to crisis
 Earlier patterns
 Family and tradition
 Traditions of out-migration
 Acceptance of in-migration
 Never solitary act – always communal
 Vulnerabilities of movement - exploitation

26.  PostWorldWar II dislocation and refugees
 Post colonial impacts
 “Guest worker” systems
 Development of EU free movement
 Planned systems: labor market needs and
demographics

27.  Labor migration (1950-70)
 Family reunification (1965 on)
 Postindustrial migration (1980 on)
 Skilled workers
 Undeclared networks
 Refugees

28. Unlike the self-proclaimed countries of
immigration of the New World – the US, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand – Europe has found it
difficult to come to terms with the fact of
immigration. Many sections of European societies
have been profoundly reluctant to welcome and
incorporate immigrants, especially those coming
from non-OECD countries who are perceived to
have significantly different cultural and ethnic
backgrounds.

29. Anti- immigrant sentiment has manifested itself
in:
 public support for restrictive immigration and
asylum policies
 negative reporting on immigrants and
asylum-seekers in the popular press
 discrimination against resident ethnic
minority groups
 racist or anti-immigrant harassment and
violence.

30.  Significant challenges in terms of work and
labor market
 Higher unemployment rates
 Discrimination in recruitment and career
development
 Lower pay and lower job grades
 Exposure to harassment and bullying
 Stress and communication difficulties

31.  Urbanized futures – the second
generation
 Permanent exclusion and inequality
 Invisible otherness – frustration and
resentment
 Trajectories of developmental progress
 Policy fractures: assimilation;
multiculturalism; discrimination; integration
 Embedded violence – from trafficking to
revolt

32.  Spectres at the gates
 Searching for meaning
 Searching for values
 Lampedusa to London: the trek of despair
 Learning systems and critical reflection
 Asserting identity: from gästarbeiter to
citizen

34.  New frameworks of social difference
 Classical formulations
 Challenges and conflict
 Integration or assimilation
 Discovery and engagement
 Intercultural imperatives

35.  Recognizing difference
 Accepting difference
 Responding to difference
 Difference is permanent
 Creating opportunity through learning
 Managing diversity

36.  Creating shared meaning in uncertain
times
 Providing support and inclusion
 Valuing difference as a critical
advantage
 Shaping futures not reacting to them

37.  Constitutional rights: life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness
 All men are created equal… but
 Final frontiers: integration and assimilation
 Uncertain directions: from Abu Ghraib to
Guantanamo

38.  Rights of man: liberty, equality,
fraternity
 Thematic mythologies: social inclusion
 Hidden pasts: colonialism, fascism,
exterminism
 The Union in crisis

39.  Prejudice
 Stereotype
 Stigma
 Attitudes
 Negative imagery
 Fear and loathing

40.  Interaction
 Empathy
 Communication
 Knowledge
 Removal of prejudice
 Linked themes: gender, power, violence,
values

41.  Permit exchange
 Greater knowledge
 Presumed growth in tolerance,
acceptance, non-discrimination
 Enhanced learning

42.  Promoting tolerance not enough
 Racism requires policies on diversity,
laws, anti-discrimination measures
 Ongoing issues around cost implications,
ambiguities, resistance, rights

45.  Integrating in civil society
 Paramount importance of labour market
 Citizenship
 Language competence
 Multi-agency partnerships

46.  Not always negative
 Critical added value
 Integration problematic- depends on host
attitudes
 Can create advantage
 Homogeneous is better?

47.  Class
 Disability and health
 Religion
 Customs and traditions
 Citizenship and loyalty
 Gender

48.  Developing comfort and expertise
 Reasserting law and justice perspectives
 Developing networks
 Developing knowledge
 Developing competence

49.  New communities
 Responding and trust
 Early childhood interventions
 Music and creative performance
 Positive profile of the Story
 Internal creativity
 Innovation

50.  The new racism: acceptable discrimination
 European policy in denial
 Breivik, Fortuijn, Le Pen…. Conspiracies of
fear
 Xenophobia in a time of general crisis – back
to the future?
 Sartre and The Roads to Freedom
 Creating rights and space for all – the
guarantees of inclusion
 We are all refugees at some point

51.  Valued diversity
 Democratic engagement
 Community empowerment
 Mutual benefit
 Legislative underpinning
 From tolerance to recognition
 Rights are rights for all
 Shared learning
 Acknowledged pasts - shared futures

52.  Challenging norms - what is indigenous culture?
 Challenging stereotypes
 Talent, competence and communicative empathy
 Engagement with difference
 Embedded vision
 Recognition - seeing the Other
seeing ourselves

53. Dr. Alan Bruce
ULS Dublin
abruce@ulsystems.com
Associate Offices: BARCELONA - HELSINKI - SÃO PAULO - CHICAGO