Discourses we live by (How) Do they benefit the world we live in? First Call for Papers

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Myrtle Wilkerson
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1 ESREA European Society for Research on the Education of Adults LHBN - Life History and Biography Network Discourses we live by (How) Do they benefit the world we live in? The 25 th Annual Conference will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark at the University of Aarhus, Copenhagen Campus, from Thursday 2 nd to Sunday 5 th March 2017 First Call for Papers Since first meeting in Geneva in 1993, the Life History and Biography Network of ESREA has become a lively forum for debate. It attracts significant numbers of researchers, including doctoral students, from a wide range of different disciplinary backgrounds, and members come from every corner of Europe, and beyond. Within adult education and lifelong learning, life history and biographical approaches vary considerably, and our conferences are based on recognition and celebration of this diversity; we have sought to create spaces for dialogue, demonstration, reflexivity and discovery. The Network holds an annual conference - hosted by one of our European members - choosing each year a new theme that builds on the discussions during the previous year. For this, our 25 th conference, it seemed timely to consider the very ideas that shape and maintain the societies in which we live, to see how they work for us and how they hold society back. The intention is to analyse and discuss the narratives related to discourses we live by to better understand the consequences for ourselves, and for others, of people's implicit beliefs and subsequent actions. The 2017 conference theme The 2017 conference invites abstracts for papers that examine the conceptual frameworks that bound people s thoughts and actions and considers how these matter to a global society. To participate, you are asked to interrogate the discourses we live by and consider how they are present in cultural narratives and how they are relevant to the real life contexts of adult education and of people s life histories. Question to what extent are people's accounts shaped by the understandings already held. Ask if the real life narratives that researchers collect transform understandings and shape acceptance of commonly held discourses. Within this theme, participants will have divergent interests and will occupy different spaces on the theoretical/empirical spectrum and this diversity is welcomed. Work could be exploratory, evaluative or emancipatory, for example. For many it is the link between the local micro- and meso- and the large mega- level ramifications that fascinates. Writing in an educational context, Bernstein (1999) captures these strands as horizontal (everyday or common-sense knowledge) and vertical (coherent, explicit, and systematically principled) discourses. 1

2 Approaches to the conference theme Some participants will want to use their own narratives to newly explore existing discourses to understand their merits and disadvantages as an explanatory tool. Others may choose to examine specific discourses more closely to evaluate their effectiveness in a particular context. Yet others, will seek out discourses that appear to support inclusion, diversity or change, perhaps co- or restructuring them to make them more fit for purpose. Some papers will be introspective, taking a reflective stance; others steer towards objectivity; many will combine these two approaches. Papers meeting these, and broader aims will be welcomed, and it is envisaged that for the conference, accepted papers will be grouped sensitively to take account of themes, approaches and intentions. Communication is key to creating understanding and both of these are fundamental requirements for cooperation and collaboration but can take a range of forms. In keeping with the conference tradition, papers will take a narrative approach but, as in previous years, communication need not be confined to dialogue. Words are a powerful medium but so, too, are the visual arts, dance, drama and music and all forms of activity that draw on the emotions. Responses to the theme that draw on non-verbal media will also be welcome. Strands The conference theme can be addressed in many ways through the analysis of personal (autobiographic), single or multiple narrative accounts. Papers could: take a grounded approach, moving from the horizontal to the vertical, eg: o analysing unstrutured interview narratives to find and examine the discourses evident within the texts; start with the discourses, tracking links from the vertical to the horizontal, eg: o to investigate particular discourse(s) by choosing research subjects whose profiles align with particular interest(s); o to compare contrasting discourses appearing in narratives disciplinary specific vs interdisciplinary, generalist vs particularist, collective vs individual perspectives; o to consider specific, dominant discourses: their origins, their efficacy, and their application to real lives and real-life research; apply a specific perspective, eg: o a temporal perspective, comparing the historical with the contemporary view; o a spatial perspective, comparing the local with the national, the rural with the urban, or looking across the developed and less-developed world; o a political perspective, contrasting different systems of governance and control; start from a theme, eg: o to examine ways of expressing the emotions that dominant discourses provoke (eg: oppression, fear, control, alienation, certainty, supremacy) through nonverbal media (artistic, dramatic or other); 2

3 o to examine directly the issues around translation and multilingual communication; o to consider transgression and how people work the liminal spaces (eg: between the individual and collective, the mental and the physical, the intra- and interdisciplinary, the reflective and the agentive) and demonstrate this through narrative analysis; analyse iteratively, combining any of the approaches above. Wherefore discourses? In March 2016, the overall conference theme focused on coming together to discuss Resources of Hope at a time when tensions within Europe and the wider world were extreme. It drew inspiration from the work of British cultural theorist and adult educator, Raymond Williams, who advocated a society where respect and humanity underpin all aspects of intellectual challenge. Presentations considered the nature and role of hope in building better dialogue and connectivity between diverse people at a time when opportunities for dialogue are challenged, the other experienced as a threat rather than a source of learning and enrichment. In the broader debates, participants acknowledged the serious political situations in many of their home nations and the suffering of the millions of homeless people fleeing repression and conflict, poverty and destitution, in countries nearby. Conference participants were aware of the rising levels of xenophobia, racism and fundamentalism in the world outside but conscious, too, of the need to embrace, to value, and to work with difference within our own walls. At the plenaries, participants reflected on the growing need to ensure that the conference reflects society as a whole. There is an evident need to build a safe space for the sharing of views and opinions whatever an individual s background, also to find ways to address the language barriers that beset a European network, mindful that important ideas can be lost in translation. For 2017, the conference is planned around similar notions of integrity, but asks participants to question their own assumptions by examining the suppositions and frameworks that underpin their thinking and their practices: the discourses they live by. For Foucault (1972/1995, The Archaeology of Knowledge) discourse is steeped in status and power: it is the frame for what it is possible even to think in a given period. To identify a discourse, analysis focuses on practices and ideas that demarcate and marginalise. As such a discourse is a culturally constituted means of representing reality that is used to determine what it is possible to talk about and do within a society. Thus, discourses establish social norms that then go unquestioned, perpetrating existing patterns of control and behaviour. Even, in contemporary society, people often conform to norms accepting them as truths rather than questioning their provenance, validity or applicability to different contexts. As we are deemed to live in a globalised world by politicians and economists (Bhagwati, 2007; Shangquan, 2000; Stiglitz, 2002) and by sociologists (Bauman, 1998; Giddens, 1999; Mann, 2013) alike, there is a danger that one world thinking overwrites diversity, concealing how the universal process of globalization affects us differently depending of our place in the world (Standing, 2011). Often the discussion of difference centres on capital and inequality (see Piketty, 2014, 2015; Wilkinson & Pickett, 2009) but McCloskey (2006) challenges this view as simplistic, encouraging people to look more broadly at other aspects of society. To use the words of the Danish anthropologist, Kirsten Hastrup (2012), it is important to remember that individuals live 'differently in the world'. 3

4 Alvesson and Karreman (2000) point out that capturing discourses is a complex process. Discourse is a popular term used in a variety of ways, easily leading to confusion. The concept manifests within social studies in various ways and conference members are invited to use this flexibility to their advantage, to enable a diversity of treatments. In general terms, discourse can refer to: social texts; other phenomena (experiences, events, material objects and social practices), their orientations and meanings and the power they wield; or larger-scale and reasoned ways of ordering the social world (the more formal discourses seen within academic disciplines and organizational spheres). All or any of these forms could be explored and conference participants are invited to consider the broader aspects, to reflect upon the influence of specific discourses on different members of society, to focus on diversity rather than normativity. When people aim to smooth out differences, by claiming to be inclusive, holistic, and democratic, experience shows that trying to do this is an illusion. Even acting together the ESREA Network cannot avoid this constraint nor can it reform the world, but it can provide a space in which to start the process of analysis and debate and offer a forum where each contributor s voice is heard and respected. At the 2017 conference, the intention is to address differences in our world analytically in order to celebrate them, to acknowledge that they exist and challenge the pretence that it is possible to remove them just by wanting to. Difference can occupy many positions but wherever it is placed, to understand difference will help us to better understand ourselves as well as others. Publications from the network For a quarter of a century, the Network has enabled participants to write and publish together, to devise major new research projects and collaborate in many other ways. There are plans to publish an edited collection of papers from the 2017 conference, with the support of the University of Aarhus. Papers will be chosen to illuminate a specifc themes, yet to be decided. Earlier Network conferences have explored many areas of research and practice in life history and auto/biography spanning political, spiritual, social and arts-based themes as can be seen from the recent post-conference publications listed below. Formenti, L. & West, L. (Eds) (2016) Stories that make a difference. Exploring the collective, social and political potential of narratives in adult education research. Lecce: Pensa MultiMedia, ISBN (from Milan, 2015). Evans, R. (Ed) (2016) Before, Beside and After (Beyond) the Biographical Narrative. Duisburg: Nisaba Verlag, ISBN: (from Magdeburg, 2014). Formenti, L., West, L. and Horsdal, M. (Eds) (2014) Embodied Narratives. Connecting stories, bodies, cultures and ecologies. University of Southern Denmark, ISBN: (from Odense, 2013). 4

5 Practicalities Scientific Committee for 2017 Laura Formenti, Linden West, Alan Bainbridge, (conveners of the Network) Marianne Høyen, Hazel Wright (convenors of the 2017 Conference) Jean-Michel Baudouin, Agnieszka Bron, Freema Elbaz-Luwisch, Rob Evans, Fergal Finnegan, Barbara Merrill, José Gonzalez Monteagudo, Hazel Reid, Vera Sheridan, Laura Mazzoli Smith Members of the Scientific Committee come from Denmark, Eire, Israel, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. We have all been active in the Network and in ESREA for some time. Individually and collectively, we are committed to creating a learning community that offers all researchers (young and old, established and starting out) a safe space for critical thought and debate and ultimately for the dissemination of their views and findings. The location of the Conference The conference will be held at the Copenhagen campus of the University of Aarhus, Denmark at the invitation of Marianne Høyen, PhD and the Danish School of Education. This campus is situated close to Emdrup light rail S-station, easily accessible from the centre of Copenhagen. Copenhagen is a compact and attractive capital city that offers many possibilities for accommodation and for eating out, and for cultural visits. It is well-served by public transport, with regular and speedy train and bus routes to and from the international airport at Kastrup, Copenhagen. Outline Conference schedule The formal conference starts late afternoon Thursday 2 March, ends at noon Sunday 5 March. Optional educational visits will take place on Thursday morning. Optional conference dinner will take place on the Friday evening. Conference languages ESREA's language policy reflects the network s European scope (and its much broader global interest). Conference languages are English and French but if you submit an abstract in French please provide an English version too, to assist the peer-review process. Papers and presentations, too, can be delivered in French as well as English but please make available a short ( word) summary in English or consider providing bilingual slides (English and French) if this is possible. At the parallel sessions, bi- or multi-lingual participants will be present to facilitate understanding and debate but there is no formal translation service. ESREA conferences rely on tolerance, respect, mutual support, curiosity and thoughtful preparation to overcome language barriers. When planning your presentations please allow time for an element of translation, and provide essential information as handouts or diagrams if this seems appropriate. The close connections between research, language and narrative lie at the heart of the Network and the dual language approach seeks to facilitate communication across national and cultural divides. However, at the 2017 conference, where Danish is the host language, organizers recognize the importance of ELF (English as a Lingua Franca) English used as a means of communication 5

6 between non-native speakers for whom it serves as a common language. According to key proponent, Barbara Seidlhofer (2004) within English language teaching ELF serves two purposes. Linguistically, ELF is a contact language for those who share neither a common native tongue nor a common (national) culture, and sociolinguistically, it plays an important role in enabling continuing interaction between such individuals. The ESREA conference experience is that English serves this sociocultural role. To do this successfully it requires native English speakers to be aware that ELF is an English that differs from their everyday usage (Ur, 2010). When writing and speaking in English please help others to understand by avoiding or explaining idioms, metaphors and colloquialisms, and by speaking clearly, perhaps more slowly. Abstract submission Type: Abstracts can be for individual papers or group symposia/workshops. Language: Abstract can be delivered in French as well as English but please make available a short ( word) summary in English. Extent: 500 words maximum. Include ONLY essential references as these form part of the word limit. Style: Anonymised, in Times New Roman, 12 point type, single spaced. See website for detailed style sheet. Include SEPARATE contact (ID) page, listing: your name, institutional affiliation, phone, and style of presentation (specify, eg: verbal, visual, dramatic). File names: To help the peer review process, please name your files as indicated here. 1_LHBN_17_Abstract_Short_title 2_LHBN_17_ID_Short_title_Surname_First_name_Presentation_style Upload: Both abstract and separate contact page should be uploaded via the conference webpage. Schedule Deadline for submission of abstracts: 10 October 2016 Notification of acceptance of proposals after blind review: End November 2016 prior to compilation of the conference programme. Deadline for final papers ( words): 31 January 2017 Detailed guidelines for submission, conference arrangements and the conference programme will be made available on the website Language guidelines Abstracts: in English or French with an English translation as this is the lingua franca for peer review. Papers and presentations: in English, or French with a short ( word) summary in English. Slides: bilingual (English and French) if possible. 6

7 For further information, please contact: Professor Laura Formenti: or Professor Linden West: or Dr Alan Bainbridge: or Phd Marianne Høyen: or Dr Hazel Wright: The preferred for conference queries is: 7

ESREA Access, Learning Careers and Identities Network. 2-4 November 2017 University Rennes 2, Rennes, France. First Call for Papers

ESREA Access, Learning Careers and Identities Network 2-4 November 2017 University Rennes 2, Rennes, France First Call for Papers Title: Exploring Learning Contexts: Implications for access, learning careers