Research seminar "Diversity - Human Rights - Participation"
Research Seminar: Diversity-Human Rights-Participation
European Youth Centre Strasbourg. 13-16 May 2006
This research seminar took up the themes of the "All Different-All Equal" European Youth Campaign launched by the Council of Europe in co-operation with the European Commission in June 2006. It also followed on from the work begun with the seminar on Re-situating Culture which examined the limitations of the concept of culture, addressing, in particular, the issue of interculturalism and the way it is applied in European youth policy and practice. This seminar aimed to enlarge on the three pillars of the campaign and to examine the interrelationship of the three concepts: diversity, human rights and participation.
Diversity is linked to interculturalism and is key to the European Union's anti-discrimination agenda. Human Rights education has become a central focus of the Council of Europe's work in the area of citizenship education. Participation is at the heart of the European Commission White Paper on Youth.
In this light, the seminar had three main aims:
- To analyse the conceptual ‘baggage' behind concepts such as diversity and human rights;
- To be constructively critical of how these concepts are applied in practice (in formal and non-formal education, youth work, diversity training, human rights education, anti-racism, social work etc.);
- To facilitate a discussion on how a more egalitarian participation can be achieved through evidenced-based youth research.
Seminar report by Alana Lentin.
This report discusses the role of the Council of Europe and European Commission in both the promotion of youth research and with regards to the theme of the seminar.
Publication by Gavan Titley and Alana Lentin. Council of Europe, 2008. ISBN 978-92-871-6171-0.
Thursday 11 May 2006
Opening of the Seminar by Peter Lauritzen, Hanjo Schild and Karin Lopatta-Loibl
- Introduction of participants
- Introduction to the rationale of the seminar by Alana Lentin
- Re-situating Culture/Situating Diversity by Gavan Titley
Interpreting Diversity
- Introduction by Gavan Titley
- Diversity & Equality: An ambiguous relationship by Julie Ringelheim
- Diversity, a short term for "How to deal with…" by Maria Steindl
- Recognising and writing down cultural difference by Kyriaki Iacovidou
- Discussion
Friday 12 May 2006
The Fact of Diversity – Perceptions & Challenges
- Learning from History: Young Jewish Men's reactions to antisemitism and immigrant youth in France by Ofer Nur
- 9/11 and the Reconstruction of Muslim Identity in Europe: A comparative study of state responses to diversity and citizenship by Supriya Singh
- Black Children in the UK: Charting the tensions of relativism and dogmatism by Momodou Sallah
- Discussion
- Key Note Address by Professor Costas Douzinas, Birkbeck College, London
- Discussion
Human Rights: Foundations & Directions
- Introduction by Yael Ohana
- The Critique of Human Rights Discourse: Problem of solution? by Nurlan Mustafayev
- Reconstructing the International Intervention Discourse as Politics of Difference: Achieving Full Participation in the Case of Kosovo Refugee Camps by Madalina Gligor
- The Discursive Dimension of Human Rights: Identity and diversity discourses within contemporary Polish debates by Vanessa Trapani
- Discussion
Saturday 13 May 2006
Participation: Bypassing the barricades
- Introduction by Andreas Karsten
- Understanding "Apathy" and New Forms of Participation by Demet Lukuslu
- Notions of participation and culture in political struggles against exclusion- the Spanish case by Joan Cortinas-Muñoz
- Pathways of participation of "second generation migrants" in Greece by Dimitris Parsanoglou
- Discussion
Diversity & Human Rights in Practice
- A critical approach to Human Rights Education: an effective means of managing intercultural communication and promoting dialogue? by Alice Muller
- Learning to be aware of culture or learning to do diversity by Lene Overgaard Mogensen
- Human Rights Education in Finnish Youth Work – How does it appear? by Sari Höylä
- Empirical study on the implementation of Human Rights Education in the formal education system of Croatia by Katarina Batarilo
- Discussion
- Drawing conclusions by Dina Kiwan
- Final discussion