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INTERCULTURAL
CITIZENSHIP: THE SOUTH-EAST EUROPEAN CONTEXT
July 24-August
4, 2000
Course Director: Cesar
BIRZEA, University of Bucharest, Romania
Resource Persons: Bernd
BAUMGARTL, European Peace University, Vienna, Austria
Miroslav KUSY, Comenius University, Bratislava,
Slovak Republic
Vedrana SPAJIC-VRKAS, University of Zagreb, Zagreb,
Croatia
Cesar BIRZEA, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Cesar BIRZEA: Director
of the Institute of Education Sciences (a national institute of R and D
in education, supported by the Ministry of Education) since 1990; Full
professor at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Philosophy, Master's
level (since October 1998); teaches courses on educational policies
and European policies. He is also member of the Education Committee
of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg (since 1993), the acting chair of
the International Bureau of Education Council (since January 1998) and
President of the Council of Europe project "Education for Democratic Citizenship.
He has published more than a 100 articles, studies and technical reports
and 15 books issued in France, Romania, Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal,
Poland, etc.
Bernd BAUMGARTL:
He is a freelance consultant and a guest professor at European Peace University.
He has a broad international experience working as an EU administrator
with the European Training Foundation (Turin), a manager of the
"New Xenophobia in Europe" project (EUI), researcher in the Department
of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute,
Florence. He is involved in training and research activities in Bulgaria,
USA, Brazil, UK and Spain. His background is an example of intercultural
education including training in Salamanca, Sofia, Mexico and Salzburg.
Miroslav KUSY: Professor
Kusy is one of the original signatories of Charta '77.
Professor Kusy's research interests are centred around the
problems of Human Rights and Minority Rights and the study of nations and
national movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Throughout his career,
Professor Kusy has published 14 books (the last title: What
to do with our Hungarians?), and more than 600 articles and
essays. Professor Kusy founded the Department of Political
Science of Comenius University (as the first in Slovakia) in 1990
and headed it up to 1998. He is the founder (1992) and the Chairholder
of the UNESCO Chair for Human Rights Education at Comenius University
in Bratislava, founder and Chairman of the Milan Simecka Foundation, member
of the Academic Council of the Comenius University and m.o. committees
and councils at home and abroad (in the Czech Republic, in Poland,
in Italy/. He participated at founding of the Czechoslovak Helsinki Committee
(1989) and of the Slovak Helsinki Committee (in 1990), presided now by
him. After the splitting of CSFR he became a honorary member of the Czech
Helsinki Committee. After the 1998 parliamentary elections, he became the
advisor of the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic for human rights and
minority issue.
Vedrana SPAJIC-VRKAS:
She is Full Professor at the University of Zagreb at the Faculty of Philosophy
teaching the following under and postgraduate courses: Anthropology of
Education; Interculturalism in Education; Culture and Identity; Anthropology
of Education II, Qualitative Research in Education. Her publications include
books such as Growing-Up in the Traditional Croatian Culture (1996); Croatia
Discovers Janus (1992); Evaluation of Art Works: An Approach to the Pedagogy
of Art (1989). She is also a co-author of the textbook and a TV serial
"Eco-school: The World in Danger" (1995).In addition to teaching and research
activities, she is the Head of the Commission for Evaluation of Projects
in Education of the Croatian Ministry of Science; the coordinator and/or
the co-author of the national preschool and 1-4 program in human rights
education of the National Human Rights Education Committee; Vice-president
of the Committee for Human Rights of the Croatian Commission for UNESCO;
member of the Council of Europe's project Education for Democratic Citizenship,
etc.
Course objectives
- to develop interdisciplinary
knowledge and competencies of students, researchers and teachers in social
sciences, civics and humanities;
- to understand the historical
roots of ethnic conflicts in South-East Europe;
- to complement initial
professional knowledge of participants by means of a pragmatic approach,
focused on solving some concrete problems of living together in a multiethnic
and multicultural society;
- to help apply "intercultural
citizenship" in various cultural and political environments;
- to help participants
learn how to use human rights in a variety of everyday situations;
- to build a network of
faculty and professionals in South-East Europe which would facilitate sustainable
co-operation, exchange of experience and common projects;
- to facilitate the establishment
of partnership between Eastern and Western scholars.
Course level,
target audience
Faculty, Ph.D. students,
human rights activists, NGO representatives, researchers and teachers in
social sciences, civics and humanities who have had some prior knowledge
of the topics to be covered.
Syllabus
The course will comprise
four major components:
* Defining the concept
of intercultural citizenship
what citizenship
is (a political and legal status, a social contract, a set of competencies);
what intercultural
citizenship is (multiculturalism and interculturalism, developing multiple
identities, otherness and identity, supranational citizenship);
nationalism and citizenship;
globalism and intercultural
citizenship;
* Citizenship in South-East
Europe
historical context
of nationalism in the Balkans;
failure of federations
based on juxtaposition of nationalism (the case of Yugoslavia);
the Stability Pact and
the prospects of intercultural citizenship;
* How to Rebuild Social
Fabric in Conflicting Regions
intercultural citizenship
in conflicting regions;
the case of Northern Ireland;
community-based intercultural
education;
intercultural learning
and civil society;
* Human Rights and Peaceful
Conflict Resolution
international and
European documents for the protection of human rights;
how to use human
rights in everyday life (case studies);
how individuals and communities
can be protected from state abuse;
how real or potential
conflicts can be solved with the aid of human rights;
initiation in the
use of intercultural learning methods (to be used in schools, NGOs, communities,
daily intercultural encounters).
The detailed breakdown
of the course content
Theme 1: "From Sarajevo
to Sarajevo: Old Problems and New Solutions"
(Bernd Baumgartl)
At the
crossroads of empires, religions and cultures, the Balkans has always been
a problematic region. After the dissolution of the last empires a medley
of sovereign nations emerged whose identity became associated to contested
territories. In this sense, Sarajevo at the beginning of the century and
the Sarajevo in the '90s represent two landmarks of a century marked by
intolerance, violence and ethnic conflicts. In order to break away from
this historical conditioning the most diverse region of Europe must learn
to peacefully manage its natural multicultural dimension. Democratic citizenship
and intercultural learning are the indisputable solutions to the issue.
Number
of hours: 12
The
teaching format: lecture, discussion and seminar.
Theme 2: "Intercultural
Citizenship: Definition and Practical Consequences"
(Cesar Birzea)
Citizenship
is a legal membership status ensured by political rights acknowledged by
the State. From the cultural and psychosocial points of view, membership
may refer to several human environments simultaneously: a town, a region,
a nation or a super-national entity (e.g. European citizenship). This multiple
citizenship encourages dialogue, interaction, shared responsibility, tolerance
and ownership of the same system of values, transcending official nationality
and membership of the same territory. Intercultural citizenship is a form
of global citizenship that unites individuals around a common project and
shared values.
Number
of hours: 12
The
teaching format: lecture, discussion, seminar and workshop.
Theme 3: "How to
Rebuild the Social Fabric in Conflicting Regions"
(Miroslav Kusy)
Reconciliation
is not easy, especially in regions devastated by war. In this sense, rebuilding
the social fabric play a major role, by regenerating community ethos, interdependency
and dialogue in people's daily life. Many of these conflicts originate
from lack of proper communication and mutual understanding, based on a
common social code.
Number
of hours: 12
The
teaching format: lecture, workshop and case studies.
Theme 4: "Human Rights
and Peaceful Conflict Resolution"
(Vedrana Spajic-Vrkas)
Human
rights offer an operational code for the peaceful settling of conflicts.
We refer to a system that mutually restricts human rights and liberties.
Each individual, group or community is allowed to act only to the extent
to which the respective actions do not impose any restrictions on the rights
and liberties of other individuals, groups or communities. The Universal
Declaration and the European Convention on Human Rights are super-national
instruments that guarantee this operational code of democratic citizenship.
Number
of hours: 12
The
teaching format: lecture, discussion, workshop and role-playing.
Non-discrimination
policy statement
Central
European University does not discriminate on the basis of--including, but
not limited to-race, color, national and ethnic origin, religion, gender
or sexual orientation in administering its educational policies, admissions
policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered
programs.
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