ICS- Going Beyond Inclusion
New forms of Cultural Spaces in the 21st century - ICS 2015.
18-21 November 2015
A cross-sector multidisciplinary international conference - Örebro universitet
A cross-sector multidisciplinary international conference - Örebro universitet
A cross-sector multidisciplinary international conference - Örebro universitet
A cross-sector multidisciplinary international conference - Örebro universitet
A cross-sector multidisciplinary international conference - Örebro universitet
Background
The participation (or marginalization) of citizens across age, identity, national etc. categories has been a major concern in democratic societies and issues related to inclusion have come center-stage in the recent past, not least on account of the increasing pace of globalization. Researchers, as well as artists have focused issues related to inclusion (and exclusion) in their work. A number of academic domains too display a surge in interest with regards to problems associated with inclusion (and exclusion). Theatre and other cultural institutions have for a very long time strived to create artistic and cultural meeting arenas that enable alternative ways to reflect upon and exchange experiences. In many of these, a concern with the lack of focus upon sustainable socialand cultural development can be noted. Such issues of participation, dialogue and marginalization are at the center of the research established since the end of the 1990s at the research environment CCD (Communication, Culture and Diversity) at School HumES at Örebro University, Sweden.
Conference focus and intentions
The cross-sector multidisciplinary international conference ICS 2015, “Going Beyond Inclusion. New forms of Cultural Spaces in the 21stcentury”, aims at bringing together representatives from academia, as well as institutions in civil society including the performing arts, with the aim of center-staging inclusion and going beyond traditional ways of conceptualizing how human beings can be or should be conceptualized and included in institutional settings (like schools, the caring sector, the workforce, cultural institutions, etc.). ICS 2015 will also mark the end of the third year of the Swedish Ministry of Culture supported project DoT which has brought together researchers from the CCD research environment and professionals from the Örebro Regional County Theater, the Swedish National Touring Theater
External link, opens in new window. and especially the department; Swedish National Silent Theater as well as Riksteatern Örebro county. External link, opens in new window.
ICS 2015 will furthermore mark the beginning of the establishment of a network of scholars and professionals who will collaborate to establish a sustainable platform with the aim of developing activities in and across artistic and societal sectors that will focus issues of inclusion from non-traditional perspectives and from a cross-sectorial (rather than a top-down or a non-sustainable bottom-up alone perspective). Thus, for instance, in the domain of academics, an intersectional multidisciplinary focus upon the inclusion of peoples of color, gender positions, functional abilities, socioeconomic strengths, etc. will be aimed at (rather than traditional disciplinary domains of ethnicity, gender, special education, handicap studies, class, etc.). In the domain of arts and culture an intersectional focus too will steer societal institutions that are entrusted with the task of including marginalized peoples (like immigrants, the deaf, other functionally disabled, etc.) into mainstream cultural activities and work domains. Thus institutions such as Cultural organizations, Regional Counties, Employment Offices, Municipalities, NGO’s, etc. will participate. In other words, ICS 2015 will form a bridge that will bring together the expertise built up in the cross-sectorial regional developmental project DoT and aim towards going beyond traditional ways of understanding the inclusion of “the Other” into already established domains within academia, the cultural sector and other institutional arenas within society. After years of discussions and exploratory work within research, separate societal institutions, it is time to move on…
By bringing together scholars and professionals who have expertise within their own domains of working with issues of either inclusion or marginalization or cross-sector work, ICS 2015 will bring center-stage and explore new forms of cultural spaces by addressing questions about by who, when, how and where new forms of cultural spaces and new forms of collaborations can strengthen already viable multidisciplinary research enterprises and culturally stable institutions with the intention of contributing towards a sustainable inclusive society.
What (co)creates difference and in which societal arenas do identity differences manifest (including in what ways) in the 21st century? Who is in-charge of deciding the cultural contours of the city landscape and why do present day contours look like the way they do?What role does art and culture (in a wide sense) play in raising awareness regarding differential experiences for policy makers and citizens from different sub-cultures, age-groups, functional abilities, etc. currently? What visually-oriented landscapes and visualscapes have project DoT succeeded in highlighting and in what manner do these include (and exclude) citizens in the region of Örebro? What have these experiences taught us about processes that marginalize human beings in other contexts?
Conference structure
ICS 2015 will provide participants with the following four dimensions:
- An international conference with invited keynotes and panel discussions during half day sessions of the cross-sector activity that will focus the central theme of the event, including project DoT.
- Exchange of knowledge and practical tools half day sessions of the cross-sector conference in artistic workshops where participants from different sectors will collaborate, reflect together and focus critically upon the rhetorical catch-term “culture for all,on equal terms”.
- Individually inquire into how we can describe and express experiences in a rapidly changing multilingual and multicultural world with the intention of contributing to a collective understanding of human differences in a sustainable inclusive society.
The fourth dimension will bring together the above three and incorporate them into “Wonderland”, a visual landscape that constitutes the last major production within project DoT and that has during 2014-2015 created meeting-spaces for a large number of groups in the region of Örebro during 2014-15. Using art as a central tool, Wonderland constitutes a hybrid interactional societal development experiment where the physical spaces citizens live and work in are explored visually and sensually with the aim of discovering participants’ extraordinary latent personal artistic dimensions.
Organization Committee:
Giulia Messina Dalhberg, Kicki Ekberg, Alexandra Royal, Eira Jäppinen
ICS 2015 Chairs:
Sangeeta Bagga-Gupta, Petra Weckström
