Presentation from the AHRC Translating Cultures development workshop July 2012

1. Policy and Partnerships Perspective
DR ABBY DAY
AHRC PUBLIC SECTOR PLACEMENT FELLOW
(BRITISH COUNCIL)
UNIVERSITY OF KENT
UK

2. Translating Cultures: ‘Belief’ in Cultural Relations
‘Translation’: transmission and sharing of
Languages
Values
Beliefs
Histories
Narratives

3. AHRC PUBLIC SECTOR PLACEMENT FELLOW (BRITISH COUNCIL)
‘Belief in Dialogue’ Programme
12 month Placement Fellowship: I help them
understand ‘belief’
They help me understand how research informs policy
My ten years researching ‘belief’

4. British Council
76 years as cultural organisation in more than 100
countries - NGO, public (FCO) and private funds
Focus on cultural engagement, education, events
My work: BC offices in London, New York, Cairo,
Tunis.

5. Belief in cultural relations:
What is belief?
How does it work over time and place?

6. ‘belief’ in language and culture
Asad - what is religious belief varies by time and place
– according to what is ‘authorised’
Austin, Butler - utterance brings something into being
(performative)
Bourdieu – performative is relative to power, situated

7. Belief framework
Model developed through my research. See Day, Abby:
“Believing in Belonging: Belief and Social Identity in the Modern World”
Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2011.
Content
Sources
Practices
Salience
Function
Time
Place

8. AHRC/BC Fellowship
October 2011: ‘Belief in Dialogue’
Why not test in rapidly changing environments?
Like ‘transitions in the Arab world’

9. Cross Cultural Language
‘Arab Spring’ – less acceptable/ homogenous
Arab speaking countries are different
Experience in recent ‘revolutions’ are different
Tunisia – rural; Egypt - urban

10. ‘Revolution’?
Regime loses legitimacy
Not over, incomplete, may not succeed: “too early to
tell” - liminality?
Unfair criticism: ‘No programme!’ (Occupy)
Countered with ‘romantic horizontalism’
This is different: don’t know what will happen.

11. Ethnographic method
Ground up (history from below), based on belief
narratives:
Focus groups, interviews, participant observation,
social media – narratives.
Current and previous literature/media
Symposia/workshops

12. January/February 2012
Egypt visit January 2012
64 ‘young people’; focus groups, informal discussions,
Cairo, Qena
Follow through via Facebook/emails

13. March 2012
International 3-day residential workshop : March
2012 University of Kent ‘What does it mean to
believe?’
Students: Egyptians, Tunisians; UK.
UK & US academics
Sessions structured on Belief Framework: Content,
Practice, Source, Salience, Function, Time, Place.

14. Follow up
March 23rd - 25th Cairo: 15 from Kent symposium +
Egypt, BC facilitated Cultural Exchange event
March 26 1 ‘stakeholder’ event - 24 young Arabs
Egypt, Libya, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco [Syria] - BC
Staff, Faculty University of York, American University
in Cairo
International conferences: New York, UK, Sweden,
Publications

15. Belief- as a value - religious & non religious
As a key contributor to understanding in
societies:
 Pluralistic
 Changing
 Potentially divisive
 Culturally diverse

16. Work in Progress
Translating values and beliefs: Relationship with the
‘others’
Contested position of ‘religion’
Generational relationships
Legitimacy and authority

17. Partnership impact
Networks:
Participants invited by me (Kent, Sussex, BSA)
British Council
Combined network of active participants - universities
NGOs

18. Academic impact
Theory: social movement, identity, gender , power:
anthropology & sociology of religion.

19. Practice Impact: Potential of ‘belief’
‘Belief’ has more explanatory and analytical purchase
than ‘religion’
Through broadest translati0n, can be used to diffuse
some of the barriers in plural, diverse societies

20. Partner impact
In progress:
Incorporate ‘belief’ over religion in communications
Templates for local and international events
Skills sharing in publishing and funding