Alternative spaces for discussion

As academics, we sometimes get trapped among the walls of the university and communicate a lot with what is on the display of our computer. Therefore we would like to offer  just few tips on how and where the topics, case studies and examples we prepared and you will develop might be used: 

Walking seminars

Some of the learning may happen in a different environments outside the classroom. Especially when there are not only students and teachers involved, it might be easier to find more neutral or welcoming spaces to discuss and do things together. Taking what concerns us to a walking seminar (Bälter et al., 2018) where people can move their bodies while thinking, can do wonders. 

Community sharing 

Create small group of people (students, service users, neighbours, friends, café owner, …), establish a space, for example in a local café or university club, where you will be regularly meeting to collect, present and discuss actual social issues. Use local media and social networks and invite other people to listen and share their views and tell their stories that might be related to the “topic of the day”. You may do both, directly address people affected by the problem and open the space for general pubic. One example on how to do this artistically is a multi-disciplinary collaborative project ¡Presente! Stories of Belonging and Displacement in Santa Fe  focused on collecting and artistically sharing personal histories and current reflections on displacement and belonging, culminating in multi-media performances throughout the city https://www.littleglobe.org/portfolio/presente/.

Public forums

Some problems do not become public issues easily.  Identifying, presenting and discussing specific problem (or the general one such as ways we work together in tackling the social issues in our communities) is a relevant task for the group of people who experience the problem and those who want to support them or/and speak ‘with them’. For capturing public attention, raising and answering the question such as whose problem is it (if not ours) and raising public concern, the forum might be a right approach.