» Is intercultural learning still useful today?

(Originally posted on November 29, 2007 – updated on July 3, 2009)

10 years ago, the «Ten Theses on the correlation between European youth encounters, intercultural learning and demands on full and part-time staff in these encounters» were published by Dr. Hendrik Otten of the «Institute for Applied Communication Research – IKAB».

Since 1997, these ten theses (pdf) have informed the discourse about intercultural learning in youth work.

At the occasion of the 2007 seminar of the Council of Europe’s Directorate of Youth and Sport entitled «Intercultural learning – which ways forward?», Dr. Hendrik Otten was invited to revisit, de-construct and re-construct the ten theses. And we recorded his intervention as a podcast for the world out there!

Download the podcast below to find out why intercultural learning has failed as a concept to balance cultures, why we will have to accept more unsatisfactory compromises while constructing a shared system of justice, why the ability for intercultural discourse has to be connected with a developed understanding of human rights, how intercultural learning can be used to help people live with dilemmas and ambiguity – and whether intercultural learning has a role and chance in addressing our inner-societal wars.

Enjoy listening, and stay tuned!

In case you need some help with what to do:

A podcast is nothing else than a digital recording of a radio broadcast or a similar programme which is then made available on the internet. While the name is coming from both broadcasting and iPod, a podcast is not restricted to an iPod or any other media player, in fact. You can listen to it easily, using one of many different ways.

If you wanna know more about podcasting, head over to Wikipedia.

The only thing that you need is a computer which can play mp3-files. Millions of programmes do that for you – Windows Media Player (or Jetaudio if you are on the outlook for a better and free alternative) on PC computers or Quicktime on MAC machines or iTunes on both.

Normally your computer knows very well what to do anyway, so just go ahead and download the mp3 file — your machine will take it from there, most likely. If not, ask a geeky character in your vicinity.

Just be aware that audio podcasts are usually not the smallest files (also true for ours: 13 Megabytes), so download might take a moment or two. The good news: It happens in the background, so you can continue to work away!

For you iTunes users out there, we have also included the iTunes link. For you nerdy friends of ours, we also have a more modern version of the soundfile available. And for all friends of RSS and feed readers, we also have a link especially for our podcasts.

At the DYS seminar entitled «Intercultural learning – which ways forward?», Ingrid Ramberg from the Multicultural Centre in Botkyrka, Sweden was invited to be the rapporteur. In that function, she presented some first reflections at the end of the seminar. Again, we recorded her intervention as a podcast for the world out there.

The other two podcasts are here and here.

Download the podcast below to find out some of the first conclusions and reflections by Ingrid (a full-fledged report will be available at some point in 2008).

standard version | mp3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link

Enjoy listening, and stay tuned!

In case you need some help with what to do:

A podcast is nothing else than a digital recording of a radio broadcast or a similar programme which is then made available on the internet. While the name is coming from both broadcasting and iPod, a podcast is not restricted to an iPod or any other media player, in fact. You can listen to it easily, using one of many different ways.

If you wanna know more about podcasting, head over to Wikipedia.

The only thing that you need is a computer which can play mp3-files. Millions of programmes do that for you – Windows Media Player (or Jetaudio if you are on the outlook for a better and free alternative) on PC computers or Quicktime on MAC machines or iTunes on both.

Normally your computer knows very well what to do anyway, so just go ahead and download the mp3 file — your machine will take it from there, most likely. If not, ask a geeky character in your vicinity.

Just be aware that audio podcasts are usually not the smallest files (also true for ours: 7 Megabytes), so download might take a moment or two. The good news: It happens in the background, so you can continue to work away!

For you iTunes users out there, we have also included the iTunes link. For you nerdy friends of ours, we also have a more modern version of the soundfile available. And for all friends of RSS and feed readers, we also have a link especially for our podcasts.

In 2005, a discussion document on intercultural learning was published in follow-up to the Council of Europe’s Directorate of Youth and Sports Long Term Training Course “Intercultural Learning” — LTTC ICL (the paper is available here).

In this document, Dr Gavan Titley argues that, while intercultural learning has become a key work area in European youth training during the last fifteen years, approaches that have been consolidated and widely reproduced during this period are no longer adequate to the realities in which young people live and practice youth work.

At the occasion of the DYS seminar entitled «Intercultural learning – which ways forward?», Gavan was invited to revisit the paper and its main conclusions and bring it in relation to the current educational practice of intercultural learning. Again, we recorded his intervention as a podcast for the world out there.

Download the podcast below to find out why using culture as a concept is dangerous and often inherently racist, why Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay has an intercultural policy and what this means for intercultural learning in non-formal education (and probably elsewhere, too!).

standard version | mp3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link

Enjoy listening, and stay tuned!

In case you need some help with what to do:

A podcast is nothing else than a digital recording of a radio broadcast or a similar programme which is then made available on the internet. While the name is coming from both broadcasting and iPod, a podcast is not restricted to an iPod or any other media player, in fact. You can listen to it easily, using one of many different ways.

If you wanna know more about podcasting, head over to Wikipedia.

The only thing that you need is a computer which can play mp3-files. Millions of programmes do that for you – Windows Media Player (or Jetaudio if you are on the outlook for a better and free alternative) on PC computers or Quicktime on MAC machines or iTunes on both.

Normally your computer knows very well what to do anyway, so just go ahead and download the mp3 file — your machine will take it from there, most likely. If not, ask a geeky character in your vicinity.

Just be aware that audio podcasts are usually not the smallest files (also true for ours: 21 Megabytes), so download might take a moment or two. The good news: It happens in the background, so you can continue to work away!

For you iTunes users out there, we have also included the iTunes link. For you nerdy friends of ours, we also have a more modern version of the soundfile available. And for all friends of RSS and feed readers, we also have a link especially for our podcasts.

» Gavan Titley situates and questions diversity

» Peter Lauritzen explores the role of youth research

» Costas Douzinas announces the end of human rights – a triumph drowned in disaster

As you know, we recorded the inputs of the keynote speakers at the most recent research seminar of the institutional partnership on youth work, youth research and youth policy development. One by one, we publish these recordings as podcasts.

Today is the time to make the recording of Professor Costas Douzinas, Professor of Law and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Birkbeck College in London, available to you. Costar’s keynote presentation was entitled “The end(s) of Human Rights”.

He has a couple of great surprises for you — an explanation of why being young is like having a cold (bless you, young readers out there!) or why human rights are a paradox of our modern times, a triumph drowned in disaster.

You might wonder who his friend Thomas is (go figure…) and why the end sounds a little abrupt: Costas has managed indeed to illustrate a rather weird limitation of Garageband — it stops a recording after 1 hour 6 minutes and 30 seconds. Please don’t ask me why, get in touch with Apple instead. Anyway: The podcast is well worth some attention!

For information on how to go from here and what to do with the files, go here.

Please note that the audio files are rather heavy, at 65 and 63 Megabytes…

m4a version | mp3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link

Enjoy listening, and stay tuned!

Sometimes we wonder though why we have the comments function enabled here, if — in the end — our email inbox explodes instead anyway. But anyhow! Commmunication is always appreciated!

Welcome back to the Podcast series co-produced by Nonformality and Youth Debate.

As you know, we recorded the inputs of the keynote speakers at the most recent research seminar of the institutional partnership on youth work, youth research and youth policy development. One by one, we publish these recordings as podcasts throughout the coming weeks.

Today is the time to make the recording of Peter Lauritzen available to you. Peter gave an input on the role of research and its triangular relation to youth work practice and youth policy at the research seminar. He does have a couple of surprises for you — including a powerful proof of his inclination to work visually.

Many of our readers are not very familiar with podcasts and the like, so we re-publish for your convenience the introductory text of the last article. If you are looking for the audio files, they are right at the end of the post, just scroll down! Or read on:

Now, a podcast is nothing else than a digital recording of a radio broadcast or a similar programme which is then made available on the Internet. While the name is coming from both broadcasting and iPod, a podcast is not restricted to an iPod or any other media player, in fact. You can listen to it easily, using one of many different ways.

If you wanna know more about podcasting, head over to Wikipedia.

The only thing that you need is a computer which can play mp3-files. Millions of programmes do that for you – Windows Media Player (or Jetaudio if you are on the outlook for a better and free alternative) on PC computers or Quicktime on MAC machines or iTunes on both.

Normally your computer knows very well what to do anyway, so just go ahead and download the mp3 file — your machine will take it from there, most likely. If not, ask a geeky character in your vicinity.

Just be aware that audio podcasts are usually not the smallest files (also true for ours: 32 Megabytes), so download might take a moment or two. The good news: It happens in the background, so you can continue to work away!

For you iTunes users out there, we have also included the iTunes link. For you nerdy friends of ours, we also have a more modern version of the soundfile available. And for all friends of RSS and feed readers, we also have a link especially for our podcasts.

Enjoy listening, and stay tuned!

take Nonformality, Youth Debate, Research Seminars, 130 applications, 30 participants, excellent speakers and interesting topics and spice this mixture up with a geek, a microphone and a macbook. Throw it all into a large-enough pot and stir well. What do you get?

Exactly.

Welcome to the Podcast series co-produced by Nonformality and Youth Debate.

At the most recent research seminar of the institutional partnership on youth work, youth research and youth policy development, we recorded the inputs of the keynote speakers. One by one, we publish these recordings as podcasts throughout the coming weeks.

Now, a podcast is nothing else than a digital recording of a radio broadcast or a similar programme which is then made available on the Internet. While the name is coming from both broadcasting and iPod, a podcast is not restricted to an iPod or any other media player, in fact. You can listen to it easily, using one of many different ways.

If you wanna know more about podcasting, head over to Wikipedia.

This first podcast is the input of Gavan Titley ‘Resituating Culture – Situating Diversity’. The lecture was given to the participants of the research seminar ‘Human Rights – Diversity – Participation’.

The only thing that you need is a computer which can play mp3-files. Millions of programmes do that for you – Windows Media Player (or Jetaudio if you are on the outlook for a better and free alternative) on PC computers or Quicktime on MAC machines or iTunes on both.

Normally your computer knows very well what to do anyway, so just go ahead and download the mp3 file — your machine will take it from there, most likely. If not, ask a geeky character in your vicinity.

Just be aware that audio podcasts are usually not the smallest files (also true for ours: 45 Megabytes), so download might take a moment or two. The good news: It happens in the background, so you can continue to work away!

For you iTunes users out there, we have also included the iTunes link. For you nerdy friends of ours, we also have a more modern version of the soundfile available. And for all friends of RSS and feed readers, we also have a link especially for our podcasts.

Enjoy listening!