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- Aman, Robert, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Associations of Ethnical, Cultural and Religious minorities from a Perspective of Social Pedagogic
- 2010
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Historically the majority society in Sweden has categorized minority groups out of different inconsistent characteristics. It can be out ethnical or cultural belonging but sometimes it is out of religious believes and the point of departure for those categories can only be understood out of a historical perspective. Examples of those historically well established patterns of categorizations are Romans and Muslims. In the group of Romans there might be several different religions represented, and in the Muslim group there might be several ethnical belongings represented. The categories, Romans and Muslim, are historically often used to distinct people from a belonging to the majority in Sweden which has an excluding effect as it separates us from them. As an answer to this excluding or marginalizing process, the groups themselves have organised their activities within groups of associations. Those associations have served several purposes depending on the specific group of interest, such as education, culture issues, or building up communities of fellowship. From one perspective those associations can be seen as segregated groups which run the risk to strengthen the marginalization for their participants. But the associations themselves argue that they instead have a crucial role for the integration of marginalized categories of citizens, on both a group and an individual level. In this paper we discuss associations which origin from two minority groups (Muslims and Romanise) with a theoretical frame of social pedagogic. They are built upon different categories, ethnicity and religion, but participants themselves says that the need for their associations origin from experiences of exclusion and marginalization from the majority society as well as needs for social cohesion within the groups. The aim is to develop knowledge and discuss the associations own purposes where the dichotomy between adaptation and mobilisation are of certain interest, and moreover, adaptation or mobilisation, to what? Such a question entails a discussion about the relations between minority groups and the majority society. One core question is – how can this kind of associations be understood from a social pedagogical perspective? Is it a place where the groups can experience community or a place where knowledge, traditions and values can be transferred from one generation to another? Or is it more platforms for mobilization and consciousness awareness about the relation to the majority society, where the relations itself are seen as having a great impact on everyday life? The empirical data derives from interviews with stakeholders from the associations and observations of group activities. Theories about participation and communities form the base for our analyses and understandings about the associations own work with issues like education, fosterage, commitment and mobilisation. We also lean on theories about multi-culturally politics of identity to analyse the associations’ relation and position to the surrounding society. The expectations are that the results will show which meaning the associations have for the minority group’s inclusion and relation to the majority society where the question of us and them is significant.
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| 2. |
- Aman, Robert, 1982-
(författare)
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Educating for decolonization: Interculturality in the Andes
- 2013
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thrust of this essay is to study how interculturality, as a path to decolonization, is being articulated and understood among indigenous alliances in the Andean region of Latin America. Empirically, the analysis is based upon interviews with students and teachers from local academic courses on interculturality in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. Although interculturality and intercultural education are common features also in Western educational rhetoric, the imposition to learn from indigenous movements have failed to attract any substantial interest in the West (cf. Deere & Leon 2003; Patrinos 2000). To illustrate this further, Robert Young (2012) argues that indigenous struggles seldom are regarded as a central issue even within postcolonial studies, a disjunction related to the use among indigenous movements of paradigms not easily translated to the Western theories and presuppositions commonly used in this scholarship (Young 2012). Given this picture, there are strong reasons for engaging seriously in a discussion about the proposition for interculturality to break out of the prison-house of colonial vocabulary – modernity, progress, salvation – as it lingers on in official memory; and there are also good reasons to problematize the universalizing claims that have characterized Western philosophy in the implicitly assumed epistemological hierarchies.In this paper, I will focus specifically on visions of decolonization in terms of retrieved languages, reinscribed histories, production of knowledge; beginning the essay with an elaboration of the logic of domination as rooted in the modern/colonial world – here referred to as coloniality. Shortly thereafter, with reference points drawn from the work of Walter Mignolo and his notion of delinking, I introduce the theoretical backdrop that guides my analysis. In the major part of the paper, I develop an argument for interculturality to be understood as inter-epistemic based on knowledge produced beyond the discursive order of Western educational systems.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Aman, Robert, 1982-
(författare)
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Interculturality for decolonization: Indigenous alliances in South America, Geopolitics of Knowledge and Subaltern Paradigms
- 2013
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thrust of this essay is to study how interculturality, as a path to decolonization, is being articulated and understood among indigenous alliances in the Andean region of Latin America. Empirically, the analysis is based upon interviews with students and teachers from local academic courses on interculturality in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. Although interculturality and intercultural education are common features also in Western educational rhetoric, the imposition to learn from indigenous movements have failed to attract any substantial interest in the West (cf. Deere & Leon 2003; Patrinos 2000). To illustrate this further, Robert Young (2012) argues that indigenous struggles seldom are regarded as a central issue even within postcolonial studies, a disjunction related to the use among indigenous movements of paradigms not easily translated to the Western theories and presuppositions commonly used in this scholarship (Young 2012). Given this picture, there are strong reasons for engaging seriously in a discussion about the proposition for interculturality to break out of the prison-house of colonial vocabulary – modernity, progress, salvation – as it lingers on in official memory; and there are also good reasons to problematize the universalizing claims that have characterized Western philosophy in the implicitly assumed epistemological hierarchies.In this paper, I will focus specifically on visions of decolonization in terms of retrieved languages, reinscribed histories, production of knowledge; beginning the essay with an elaboration of the logic of domination as rooted in the modern/colonial world – here referred to as coloniality. Shortly thereafter, with reference points drawn from the work of Walter Mignolo and his notion of delinking, I introduce the theoretical backdrop that guides my analysis. In the major part of the paper, I develop an argument for interculturality to be understood as inter-epistemic based on knowledge produced beyond the discursive order of Western educational systems.
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| 7. |
- Aman, Robert, 1982-
(författare)
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The [Colonial] Power of the Intercultural Dialogue
- 2010
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- During the last few years, the European Union has put an increased focus on culture as a phenomenon both within and outside of the Community. In 2007 the European Commission published its first policy on culture and this document informs that globalization has increased the contact and exposure of other cultures around the world and, consequently, questions about “Europe’s identity and its ability to ensure intercultural, cohesive societies” (CEC 2007: 2) has emerged. Thus, the purpose of the agenda is to use the growing awareness about the EU’s “unique role to play in promoting its cultural richness and diversity, both within Europe and world-wide” (CEC 2007: 3). The acknowledged main instrument is the intercultural dialogue, a term that has become almost a prestige word and its presence in policy document of the European Union has been growing at an exponential rate, according to some scholars (cf. Dewey 2008). An arena where the intercultural dialogue is encouraged is education because these “institutions play an important role in fostering intercultural dialogue, through their education programmes, as actors in broader society and as sites where the intercultural dialogue is put in practice” (CEC 2008: 31). My overarching objective of this paper is to map and analyse the discourse of the “intercultural dialogue” as it evolves in EU policies. The reason for doing this is that the importance of the intercultural dialogue when dealing with other countries and regions outside of the Union is emphasised. Within such rhetoric there is an idea that other countries and regions may benefit the European legacy. This could from a postcolonial perspective be seen as interlinked with a colonial legacy, where something is promoted to someone who has experience of being subjected by the very same product. The reason why this is even a possibility in the first place is due to Colonialism, since without it the “language links” between Europe and the rest of the World would not have existed. Thus, in this paper I will develop a postcolonial perspective, drawing on scholars such as Edward W. Said (1978, 1993), Anibal Quijano (2000, 2007) and Stuart Hall (1997), on those ingredients, definitions and meaning that are attached to the intercultural dialogue in EU policy documents. The purpose of the chosen theory is to investigate how ideas of Europe’s colonial past are part of the discourse of the intercultural dialogue. Through this it can be possible to conclude that the world system is asymmetrical structured as centre-periphery, where the others opposed to Europe are marginalised to its outer edges.
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| 8. |
- Aman, Robert, 1982-
(författare)
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The Cultural Other : The Reproduction of Coloniality
- 2012
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper scrutinizes how the discourse on interculturalism unfolds in the rapidly growing discipline on the subject by analyzing how it is produced in a local context – a university course. Interculturalism refers to interaction between cultures and the importance of fostering and guiding such relations, whereby educational courses on interculturalism becomes the primary instance to fulfill the ambition of governing bodies (e.g. EU, UNSECO) by shaping subjects with desired competences to enact in a culturally diverse world. Based on an empirical material comprised of semi-structured interviews with an ensemble of students who successfully have completed one of these courses on interculturalism, the paper develops a critical interrogation of those core ingredients, meanings and definitions which the students attaches to interculturalism. With interculturalism presupposing cultural diversity, I will illustrate the ambivalent nature of executing cultural boundaries and the risk of appropriating coloniality in the quest to rhetorically legitimize interventions in the name of modernization and social development.
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| 10. |
- Wallner, Lars, Doktor, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Constructing Empathy with Comics in Swedish Upper Secondary School
- 2024
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Empathy is generally fostered within education, through a variety of materials. Here, we explore how students can use a comic text in upper secondary school to construct empathy towards ‘the other’. The study builds on observations of 91 Swedish students discussing the comic story “Report from Ukraine”. Results show that students construct empathy through ‘otherness’ as being both similar and different to themselves, and how imagery is used to construct this, related to students’ previous knowledge. This is indicative of how comics can engage students in discussions on empathy, relating current global events and issues of ethnicity and otherness.
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