Call for Papers

Theme:

Diversity, Transformation, and the Future

Winter Session, 2023, March 3^rd to 5^th

At VIA University College, Aarhus, Denmark

Nordisk Sommeruniversitet

Nordic Summer University

Study Circle 8: Futures of Education, Cultural Diversity, Imaginations and Collective Transformations in Time of the Anthropocene

Call for Papers

Theme:

Diversity, Transformation, and the Future

Winter Session, 2023, March 3^rd to 5^th

At VIA University College, Aarhus, Denmark

Description of theme:

This Winter Session will discuss Theme 5: Diversity, Transformation, and the Future

We begin here by the difficult term “Reality” – “Reality” should not only be seen as including “present actuality” of different worldviews. The challenge is also to focus on emerging issues, problems and possibilities. Reality includes not only actuality and the given “orders” which situates that actuality. It also includes both conceivable and non-conceivable (from the perspective of the given order) potentialities (a point which is analysed in depth in both modern philosophy and in peace and conflict studies). These potentialities and imaginings, however, are real since they can function as motivating possibilities and are therefore crucial in relation to transformation and/or creation of alternative educational orders. This point is central in debates on educational policy and institutions as this means that policy is not only possibilities in given educational orders (and the larger orders the educational orders are embedded in). The notion of Utopia as a terra nullius, always transcending and transforming our cultures shows how imaginings and potentials can be realized, as explored in theme 4.

With the growing number of people identifying themselves as “digital indigenous citizens” rather that national, the second potentiality involves governance and world citizenship. The role of future educations would be to promote ideas of global solidarity, diversity, transitioning away from money, and humans rooted in Global values instead of national – the most advanced effort by far being that of the United Nations. The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has a holistic approach regarding three mayor goals: social, environmental and economic. We will explore the educational values of studies across the disciplines including the global environmental governance.

Suggested topics:

• Tensions between the actual, potential and imagined
• Various future imaginings
• Ontologies of now and the future
• Transformations of ontologies
• Transformations of identities, nationalities and human self-understanding

Expected number of participants:

20

Coordinators of the Study Circle 8:

1.Oddbjørn Ørbech Jensen, Hammerfest High School, oddbjorn.jensen@gmail.com

2. Jasna Koteska, Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, Macedonia, jasnakoteska@yahoo.com  

General information about the Study Circle 8

This study circle analyses, discusses and (re)thinks the futures of education, cultural diversity and the individual, collective and social transformations in the current epoch of the Anthropocene

For more information about this Study Circle and how to join the activity, see:

About this study circle

The aim of the Study Circle is to analyze, discuss and (re)think the futures of education, cultural diversity and the individual, collective and social transformations in the current epoch of the Anthropocene. Anthropocene is the unofficial term for the present epoch which denotes the dominance and global effects of human activities on the Earth’s ecosystems, biodiversity and geology. This poses new challenges and threats to our collective life (both human, animal, and to the ecosystems), and forces transformations. This includes issues such as human rights, world citizenship, alterity, heterological thinking and new concepts of peace and sustainability, both from western and non-western perspectives, human and non/trans-human perspectives. Dealing with these different issues, the “response” to the Anthropocene is ever-present, whether as optimistic or as pessimistic approaches. Currently, education systems are undergoing reforms to meet the needs of the economy for growth. One example is the reform effective in Norway from next school year, where the aim is to produce workers for the future for the sake of the economy. Such a focus leaves out much to be wanted in an educational setting with regards to answering the current crisis. Traditionally, the idea of Bildung has served as a conceptual framework from which to form a critique of these trends. Due to its holistic focus on education, Bildung can serve as a mutual opening of the self and the world as reflected in the idea of the Anthropocene, and create a relation between the human and the non-human other.

The study circle is organized around the following six major themes:

Theme 1. Education and Nature as the Other in the Anthropocene

Theme 2. Education and the Human Other in the Anthropocene

Theme 3. Education and the Technological Other in the Anthropocene

Theme 4: Imagining the Future – Traditions and Transformations

Theme 5: Diversity, Transformation, and the Future

Theme 6: Action-oriented Change – Potentialities for Sustainability

Deadline

The deadline for submission of the title and a brief abstract (3-5 lines) is December 1st. Please note that you have to send the title and the abstract to the two coordinators mentioned in this call.

Those who have applied will be informed about the decisions by early January 2023.

We will send out the program for the Winter Session 2023 including technical details, regarding the online conference platforms (Zoom, or others) which we will have an access to in a secure version.

Fee and registration

The small fee is expected. Information about the fee and registration will follow at the end of October 2022.

Program

You can apply for the Winter Session 2023 in some of the following formats:

1. Presentation of an academic paper or lecture – 30 mins.
2. Shorter presentation of ideas on the topic of the CfP – 10 mins.

*The length of the talks/ presentations is adjustable, depending on the number of participants and density of the program.

Organizers

• Oddbjørn Jensen, Hammerfest High School, Hammerfest, Norway oddbjorn.jensen@gmail.com
• Jasna Koteska, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, Macedonia jasnakoteska@yahoo.com

The Nordic Summer University (NSU) is a Nordic network for research and interdisciplinary studies. NSU is a nomadic, academic institution, which organizes workshop-seminars across disciplinary and national borders. Since it was established in 1950, Nordic Summer University has organized forums for cultural and intellectual debate in the Nordic and Baltic region, involving students, academics, politicians, and intellectuals from this region and beyond.
Decisions about the content and the organizational form of the NSU lay with its participants. The backbone of the activities in the NSU consists of its thematic study circles. In the study circles researchers, students and professionals from different backgrounds collaborate in scholarly investigations distributed regularly in summer and winter symposia during a three-year period.

For more information: http://nordic.university