A talk by Dr. Siobhan O'Flynn on interdisciplinary methods of research & practice for the Introduction to Diaspora and Transnational Studies, University of Toronto. Oct 22 2015
18. 18
• rights & responsibilities -
legislation, legal status, obey laws
etc
• common/shared values
• sphere of action:
• agency - what is perceived or
understood as possible in terms
of actions, interactions &
engagement
• participatory democracy vs.
representative democracy
24. Matthew Arnold
Culture and Anarchy, 1869
• Central Victorian era ethos
• Culture represents “the best which has been
thought and said in the world"
• High culture vs. anarchy
• Neoplatonic ideal
• "beauty," "intelligence," and "perfection"
• ‘whiteness’ as non-ethnic
25. 20th Century View of Culture
• Raymond Williams – cultural critic, marxist
• Essay: "Culture is Ordinary" 1958
• culture isn't just the "best that has been thought and
said," but rather that "culture is ordinary, in every
society and in every mind."
26. Raymond Williams "forced the first important
shift into a new way of thinking about the
symbolic dimensions of our lives. Thus, 'culture'
is wrested from that privileged space of artistic
production and specialist knowledge [e.g. "high
culture”], into the lived experience of the
everyday. ”
Moving from High Culture to Ordinary Culture, 1958
(Gray and McGuigan 1).
26
27. Raymond Williams
• “Culture is ordinary: that is the first fact. Every human society
has its own shape, its own purposes, its own meanings. Every
human society expresses these, in institutions, and in arts and
learning.
• A culture has two aspects:
– the known meanings and directions, which its members are
trained to;
– the new observations and meanings, which are offered and
tested.”
30. The Aga Khan Centre for Pluralism
Don Mills
• Pluralism is a set of practices and outcomes as well as a set of
intentions
– active pluralism
– positive pluralism
37. 3 spheres of engagement
Mapping Project
MACRO
objective
critical
sources
data
MICRO
subjective
initiatives/
programs
arts/culture
ACTIVE
urban
mapping
observation
of street
44. 44
Placements
City Councillors
Centre for Community Learning and Development
Cabbagetown Regent Park Community Museum
Tower Renewal Office, City of Toronto
Native Earth Performing Arts Centre…
53. capacity development
• The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) defines capacity
development as the process through which individuals, organisations, and
societies obtain, strengthen, and maintain the capabilities to set and achieve
their own development objectives over time.
• The United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction Office (UNISDR) defines capacity
development in the DRR domain as the process by which people, organizations
and society systematically stimulate and develop their capability over time to
achieve social and economic goals, including through improvement of
knowledge, skills, systems, and institutions - within a wider social and cultural
enabling environment.