Complex Connections
Softening Borders: Starting with Education
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Shirley Wade McLoughlin
Crossing borders, from geo-political, ethnic, racial, gender and ability related, to others, requires acknowledgement of the perception and presence of borders. It also requires the willingness to accept the individual discomfort that often occurs in initiating these journeys. Reexamining historical and personal narratives within this framework can uncover painful truths not yet confronted by many. Acknowledgement of these truths is critical in developing more inclusive classrooms, communities, and countries. This begins by how we teach our children, and how we present counter-narratives within the nationalistic environments which may exist where we live. This paper addresses the importance of supporting and encouraging higher education faculty, preservice teachers, public school teachers, and administrators as they begin and/or continue their personal and educational journeys towards a more just world. It examines techniques, tools, and teaching approaches that sustain this process. Furthermore, it discusses encountering resistance and how to move forward, hopefully turning that resistance into committed personal, institutional, and community based efforts to provide environments where all individuals can create meaningful, productive lives, and have opportunities to live to their highest potentials.
Human Resource Development and Those Left Out
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Zoe Karanikola, Georgios Panagiotopoulos
Over the past quarter century, there has been impressive progress on many fronts of human development though the gains have not been universal and not all lives have been lifted. Millions of people seem to be unable to reach their full potential in life and work mainly because they suffer deprivations in multiple dimensions of human development and there are significant imbalances across countries, ethnic, and, racial groups. In such a context, a great number of significant official texts have been drafted by European and national organizations - texts, which provide policy guidance to member states in order to achieve growth and prosperity. One of them is the 2016 Human Development Report. This study through qualitative analysis of the above mentioned areas tries to capture and investigate the way these policies can contribute to the development of all people and especially those left out. According to the findings, universalism is the principle of the human development approach, but it is not enough. It is necessary to translate it into practice by identifying and breaking down barriers that exclude certain groups. Some universal policies need to be reoriented since there are many disparities. Besides, even though human development is achieved, it does not mean that it is sustained. Progress may be slowed or even reversed. In such a context, people must get empowered even if policies and the relevant actors fail to deliver. They will get stronger when they demand their rights, raise their voices, and seek to redress the situation.
Listening but not Hearing: Challenging Organisational Norms of Inclusion for Marginalised Publics
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Vicki Bamford
This research investigates an organisation's ability to be inclusive in their public communication practices. The focus is an Australian organisation known for its inclusive practice to identify gaps between managers’ and clients’ experiences of being included. This study examines two of the organisation’s minority clients; people who identify with disability and people who come from a non-English-speaking background. These clients, while distinct, share a lack of recognition and representation in organisational communication processes, concurrently they have a right to be included (Thill and Dreher, 2018, Vardemann-Winter, 2011, 2014, Atkin and Rice, 2013). Communicating with diverse clients so they are heard and listened to is complex and challenges communicators to design processes that empower and enable a mutually rewarding exchange. Documenting these processes exposes power relations and privileging that impact whether the less powerful are recognised and communicated with or ignored (Goggin 2009; Weerakkody 2015, Thill, 2015,p.3). The review is achieved through a case study of a for-profit organisation. Data were gathered from the organisation’s documentation and interviews with managers on their perspectives for including these clients. Feedback from the organisation’s clients reported their experience. A thematic analysis of the data isolated: trusting relationships, norms of practice, and cultural capital as key themes for inclusion. Listening is explored as a process and practice for public communicators to obtain and apply feedback to challenge power relations embedded in processes that exclude people who sit outside the organisation’s norm of engagement and privilege the more powerful (Vardemann- Winter, 2014, Macnamara, 2016).
Multiculturalism in the European Union - a Failure Beyond Redemption?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Angeliki Mikelatou
Over the last decade, major European leaders have publicly stated that multiculturalism in their countries has failed. Since then, the influence of anti-immigration political discourse and policies in Europe has grown. Far-right parties and leaders who espouse anti-immigrant or openly racist attitudes have risen to power. Immigration coupled with unemployment have amplified feelings of disenfranchisement with democratic institutions and mainstream parties, thus fuelling the rise of the radical right. The question that inevitably emerges and is addressed in this study is whether these recent developments have their roots in the failure of multiculturalism in Europe. To examine this, a systematic literature review is undertaken in order to critically discuss the concept of multiculturalism including the fact that benefits of cultural enrichment are often overstated, while the accompanying social problems are often overlooked. Consequently, issues of cultural identity are explored with focus on the new multipolar world where the most significant differences amongst populations are cultural rather than ideological, political, or economic. This is due to broader socioeconomic and political changes which have led people to identify themselves in terms of culture and the community they belong to rather than their politics and the society they aspire to. Thereafter, the various policies of EU member states towards immigration and hence multiculturalism are analysed and the reasons why these models were unsuccessful are considered. Finally, the consequences of the failure of these models on the present and future of multiculturalism in Europe is examined.
