Conclusions and Suggestions for Improving European Education Policies

In the concluding chapter, we draw together the main arguments and results of the research, highlighting the differences and similarities between the education policy documents produced by the European Union and the Council of Europe. We also provide suggestions for improving future education policies to better encompass the concerns about the lack of dialogue in a diversified but also polarized Europe. Education policy documents dealing with intercultural dialogue act as important guidelines for tackling racism, chauvinism, xenophobia, homophobia, and other forms of prejudice in Europe. As policies function as ‘actants’ that create webs of meanings and action, it is crucial that policy doc…

Analysing Intercultural Dialogue Through Conceptual Densities

In this chapter, we exemplify our methodological approach to analysing ‘densities’ of interrelated concepts in European education policy documents. We scrutinize instances where many of the core concepts of intercultural dialogue appear in the documents at the same time. Four core educational themes and four longer excerpts from the selected policy documents are examined in more detail. The chosen documents deal especially with multilingualism, migration, history teaching, and lifelong learning. The analysis of the conceptual densities in the chosen excerpts indicates how the meanings of intercultural dialogue are constructed through the conceptual frameworks and co-occurrences of their cor…

Erojen politiikkaa antroposeenin aikana

A Sociocultural Approach to Children’s Visual Creations

AbstractThis chapter locates the book within the research on children’s art. It explores interpretations of children’s visual creations throughout the twentieth century and situates the approach of the book within the research landscape. The authors take developmental psychological, educational, and aesthetic approaches to form a sociocultural view of children’s art, challenging many of the previous research assumptions. Through adopting the paradigm of the sociocultural approach, the authors embrace its view of children as competent cultural actors and active participants in cultural production. Thus, the discussion focuses on meaning-making: the authors analyze visual artifacts made by st…

Posthuman(ist) Feminism, Feminist Posthumanities

Real Humans?: <i>Affective imaginaries of the human and its Others in the Swedish TV series Äkta människor</i>

According to the Swedish science fiction TV series Akta manniskor (Real Humans, SVT and Matador film 2012-2014), humanoid robots called “hubots” are replacing the human workforce in care work and assembly line industries. Against the backdrop of current debates about immigration and citizenship in the Nordic countries, this article does a close, contextual reading of the series, exploring how the hubots influence work and family life. We are particularly interested in how hubots tie in with the cultural circulation of affect in relation to Otherness and how responses towards the “not-quite” human or dehumanized Other are negotiated in present-day Nordic cultural imaginaries. What kinds of a…

Intercultural Dialogue in the European Education Policies : A Conceptual Approach

This open access book analyses intercultural dialogue as a concept, policy and ideal in European education policy documentation. The core European transnational organizatons – the Council of Europe and the European Union – have actively promoted policies to engender inclusive societies and respond to challenges that diversification may entail. This book, in turn, offers suggestions for improving education policies in super-diversified Europe and beyond, where there is an increasing need for cultural understanding and constructive dialogue. The authors utilize concept analysis to reveal how these organizations seek to deal with dialogue between cultures, as well as weight given to cultural d…

Monipuolisesti televisioformaateista

Kirja-arvostelu teoksesta Keinonen, Heidi (2018): Televisioformaatti ja kulttuurinen neuvottelu. Jyväskylän yliopisto: Nykykulttuurin tutkimuskeskuksen julkaisuja 123, 232s nonPeerReviewed

Fantasia elokuvassa ja televisiossa

Kirjallisuuden opinnot avasivat tien populaarikulttuurin tutkijaksi

Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman : Striving for More Ethical Cohabitation

As Donna Haraway (2015, 160) argues, “[i]t matters which stories tell stories, which concepts think concepts. Mathematically, visually, and narratively, it matters which figures figure figures, which systems systemize systems”. The time has come for human cultures to seriously think, to diligently conceptualize, and to earnestly fabulate about all the nonhuman critters we share our world with, and to consider how to strive for more ethical cohabitation. peerReviewed

Multimodality: Art as a Meaning-Making Process

AbstractThe authors of the book see multimodality as intrinsic to human communication and texts, and as consisting of a multiplicity of signs. This chapter discusses how this applies in educational settings, to examine how different modes of communication are intertwined and utilized in learning, including children’s creative learning practices. In this, the authors use the semiotic concepts that operate in all communicative contexts: Field, tenor, and mode. Through them, the authors view the CLLP as a space that enables social activities, exploration of cultural, social, and societal contents and topics, and the development of social relationships. All this occurs through various communica…

Introduction: What Is Intercultural Dialogue and Why It Is Needed in Europe Today?

The authors introduce the concept of intercultural dialogue and how it has been utilized as a policy by the Council of Europe and the European Union since the early 2000s. First, we explore intercultural dialogue’s relation to and differences from other concepts commonly used to describe different stances in the governance of diversity, ranging from assimilation to integration and from multiculturalism to interculturalism. These different conceptual stances are contextualized by exploring the recent transformations in Europe and their impact on the political aims, goals, and discourses of the Council of Europe and the European Union. Second, we review the previous research on the concept of…

Definitions and Contexts of Intercultural Dialogue in European Policy Documents

In this chapter, we analyse how the concept of intercultural dialogue is both explicitly and implicitly used in European education policy documents. First, we explore how the concept is explicitly dealt with in the documents and how its meanings are produced in relation to other concepts and terms, such as culture, cultural heritage, identity, inclusion, empathy, tolerance, multiculturalism, citizenship, participation, and social responsibility. We pay special attention to the values and ideals conveyed by the education policy documents in general and these concepts in particular. Second, we discuss the thematic overlap of these concepts and how different concepts, terms, and conceptual exp…

Maskuliinisuuksia ja vaarallista seksuaalisuutta : naiset ja väkivalta Taisteluplaneetta Galactica -televisiosarjassa

Tämä luku käsittelee väkivaltaisten naisten representaatioita, eli esityksiä, 2000-luvulla tuotetussa televisiosarjassa Taisteluplaneetta Galactica, joka sisältää huomattavan paljon toiminnallisia ja moniulotteisia naishahmoja. Sarja käsittelee sotaa ihmisten ja ihmisten kaltaisten koneiden, cylonien, välillä, minkä takia väkivalta on sarjassa vahvasti läsnä; sekä miehet että naiset käyttävät väkivaltaa ja joutuvat sen kohteiksi. Väkivalta voi olla myös seksuaalista. Tässä luvussa tarkastelen, millaisia väkivaltaisia naishahmoja Taisteluplaneetta Galacticassa tuotetaan, miten seksuaalisuus ja sukupuoli kytkeytyvät väkivaltaisten naishahmojen esityksiin, sekä millainen rooli väkivallalla on …

Cultural Literacy During COVID-19

AbstractAs implementation of the CLLP was challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic, the DIALLS project included in the program an additional lesson in which children reflected on its impact on their social environment. In this chapter, the authors analyze how the children’s artifacts express their understanding of the COVID-19 situation, including themes such as care and protection. The chapter focuses on how the students address empathy, tolerance, and inclusiveness under pandemic conditions. It starts by contextualizing the artifacts with international COVID-19 imagery and nationally similar or differing COVID-19 circumstances. Then, it analyzes the artifacts and their textual narratives.

Konetta ei voi raiskata? : seksuaalinen ja sukupuolittunut (väki)valta sekä ihmisen kaltaiset koneet tieteistelevisiosarjassa Taisteluplaneetta Galactica ja Hubotit - Melkein ihmisiä

Jatkuvuutta, kumppanuutta ja pervoa biopolitiikkaa hankalassa maailmassa

Conclusions: Cultural Literacy in Action

AbstractIn this chapter, the authors emphasize how even very young children can deal with complex and abstract ideas and emotions through creative practices and how the differences between people are not an issue for children. The analysis indicates that children have a multifaceted capacity for empathy. The authors stress that image-making is an important mode of communication through which children and young people shape their understanding of the world. This is a constructive and dialogic process of thinking in action. It allows children and young people to develop their imagination, emotional responses, personality, and position in the community, in relationship with others, and with th…

Framing War and the Nonhuman in Science-Fiction Television: The Affective Politics of V

This article investigates how war between humans and aliens is framed in the original and reimagined versions of the SF television series V and the affective responses and ethical considerations that these frames evoke. Inspired by the work of Judith Butler and Sarah Ahmed and by posthumanist thinking, I analyse how SF television takes part in the cultural formation of “livable lives” for both human and nonhuman beings. It is argued that the kinds of violence that art or the media, including fiction, represent matter for the formation of ethical and political responses to violence. peerReviewed

Shokkihoitoa sukupuolirooleille : vallan ja väkivallan kysymyksiä Naomi Aldermanin Voimassa

Introduction: Cultural Literacy and Creativity

AbstractThe introductory chapter explains the core concepts of the book: Cultural literacy and creativity. Cultural literacy is defined as a social practice that is inherently dialogic and based on learning and gaining knowledge through emphatic, tolerant, and inclusive interaction. Creativity is seen as stimulating cultural literacy learning through openness and curiosity to test and develop something new or imaginative. The chapter introduces the Cultural Literacy Learning Programme (CLLP) and the research data: 1906 works created by 5–15-year-old children and young people who participated in the program in 2019 and 2020 in Cyprus, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, Spain, Portugal, and the UK. …

Tolerance, Empathy, and Inclusion

AbstractIn this chapter, the authors analyze the artifacts in which the students explore the key attitudes of cultural literacy within the CLLP: Tolerance, empathy, and inclusion. The chapter introduces each attitude with critical discussion of its meanings, connections, and relations to other key concepts of cultural literacy, such as diversity, equality, and democracy. The authors explore how the program addresses these attitudes and the cultural texts it includes. The analysis of the artifacts reveals the variety of ways in which children give meanings to tolerance, empathy, and inclusion, such as helping others. In this meaning-making process, the students draw from their own experience…

Affective Rhetoric and ‘Sticky Concepts’ in European Education Policy Documents

Concepts carry not only meanings but also affective associations and cultural connotations. In this chapter, we elaborate on the affective dimensions of European education policy documents. Many of the conceptual densities discussed in this book form affective peaks or rhetorical pinnacles that transmit the idea of intercultural dialogue—and the values attached to it—more effectively than the definitions of the concept alone are able to do. Drawing on theories of affect, we trace the affective transmission of ideals and values in the education policy documents and examine what kind of affects and affective connotations ‘stick’ to the concept of intercultural dialogue. We suggest affective r…

Towards cultural transformation : Culture as planetary well-being

Culture covers myriad aspects of human life. Most often it is understood as intellectual or artistic practices, but in a broader view, culture covers the habits, lifestyles, traditions, beliefs, values, and worldviews that shape human lives and societies. Culture also undergoes continuous change and is affected by human actions. Current ecological and well-being crises caused by destructive cultural practices and actions pose an existential risk to both humans and nonhumans. This chapter argues that when challenging, preventing, and changing such destructive human practices and actions, the role of culture is indispensable. Building on and rethinking cultural sustainability, the chapter out…

Data and Methods: A Conceptual Approach to Intercultural Dialogue

In this chapter, we discuss the constructivist perspective on concepts and explain how we utilize this in our analysis of concepts used by the Council of Europe and the European Union in their education policy documents. In this perspective, political language and administrative documents not only describe the reality of administrated issues but also participate in their construction and meaning-making. The authors emphasize the performativity of language and discuss its significance for political rhetoric. Besides the theoretical and methodological frameworks, we describe the data and elaborate on the genre of education policy documents. We also provide an overview of the development, cont…

Bionic Womanista Jessica Jonesiin : spekulatiivisen fiktion toimintasankarittaret ja representaation politiikka

Arkirealismin ylittävä spekulatiivinen fiktio on viime vuosina vallannut alaa mediassa ja etenkin pohjoisamerikkalaisissa televisiosarjoissa, joissa seikkailee muiden muassa vampyyrejä, ihmissusia, zombeja, avaruusolentoja ja koneihmisiä. Spekulatiiviset sarjat kuuluvat usein seikkailu- ja toimintagenreen ja tarjoavat villejä taisteluita sekä tietenkin fantastisia sankareita. Lajityyppi on jo vuosikymmeniä avannut ovia useille toiminnallisille naissankareille, jotka ovat auttaneet kuvittelemaan naiseutta uudella tavalla ja ottaneet osaa naisten yhteiskunnallisen roolin muutokseen. peerReviewed

The multiple futures of feminism

Feminism as a concept and as a movement tends to provoke ambivalent responses. Although gender equality is a commonly shared value, feminism remains hotly debated in Finland, and explicit anti-feminism often intertwines with homophobic, xenophobic, and racist currents. To resist reactionary mobilization, new generations of feminists are defining their feminism as intersectional. For them, analysing gender and gender-based subordination is not enough, but racism, homophobia and transphobia need to be tackled just as urgently. The possible futures of feminism, its utopias and dystopias, were the topic of a panel discussion at the annual Finnish gender studies conference organized by the Unive…

Arvot ja affektit kulttuurienvälisen vuoropuhelun kehystäjinä eurooppalaisissa koulutuspoliittisissa asiakirjoissa

2000-luvulla kulttuurienvälinen vuoropuhelu on syrjäyttänyt monikulttuurisuuden käsitteen eurooppalaisissa moninaisuuspolitiikkaa käsittelevissä asiakirjoissa. Artikkelimme tarkastelee kulttuurien välisen vuoropuhelun ilmenemistä eurooppalaisissa koulutuspoliittisissa asiakirjoissa keskittyen erityisesti arvoihin ja niiden välittämiin tunteisiin ja tuntemuksiin. nonPeerReviewed

Tuottavan hämmennyksen äärellä : näkökulmia feministiseen pedagogiikkaan ympäristökriisien aikakaudella

Artikkelissa hahmottelemme ympäristökriisit huomioivaa ja ympäristön suhteen vastuullista toimijuutta tuottavaa feminististä pedagogiikkaa tiedontuotannon kysymyksenä. Tarkastelemme ensinnäkin feministisen pedagogiikan eri keskusteluperinteitä ja niiden mahdollisuuksia ympäristökriisien ymmärtämisessä ja käsittelyssä. Toiseksi hahmottelemme queer-pedagogiikan pohjalta ympäristökysymykset huomioivaa erojen pedagogiikkaa, jossa sovellamme tuottavan hämmennyksen käsitettä ympäristökysymyksiin. Esitämme, että tuottava hämmennys auttaa ymmärtämään erilaisten erojen ja epämukavuuksien vaikutuksia tiedontuotantoon sekä kyseenalaistamaan niitä käsitteitä, ilmiöitä ja ymmärryksiä, joista ”ympäristö”…

Nörttejä, hikkyjä ja poneista tykkääviä miehiä : fandom-tutkimuksen seminaari pureutui nörttikulttuuriin

Book Review : Fake Geek Girls: Fandom, Gender, and the Convergence Culture Industry

Kirja-arvostelu teoksesta Scott, Suzanne. Fake Geek Girls: Fandom, Gender, and the Convergence Culture Industry. New York UP, 2019. ISBN 978-1479879571. nonPeerReviewed

”Kaikki paha tulee Skandinaviasta” : Sukupuolittuneen ja seksualisoituneen väkivallan affektiivinen poetiikka ja politiikka Nordic noir -televisiosarjassa Modus

Tarkastelemme artikkelissamme, miten ruotsalainen rikossarja Modus (2015–) rakentaa sukupuolitetun ja seksuaalisen väkivallan kuvauksia sekä poeettisella että poliittisella tasolla. Tulkitsemme väkivaltafiktion kutsumia affekteja suhteessa Sara Ahmedin affektiteoriaan, lajityypin konventioihin, audiovisuaalisen kerronnan keinoihin ja kulttuurisiin normeihin. Väitämme, että Modus mobilisoi affekteja toistamalla ja toisin toistamalla konventionaalisia rikos- ja kauhugenrejen sukupuolittuneita ja seksualisoituneita kuvastoja sekä kulttuurisia sukupuoli- ja seksuaalinormeja. Esittämällä erityisesti homoseksuaaleihin kohdistuvia viharikoksia, sarja kommentoi ajankohtaisia keskusteluja seksuaaliv…

Belonging and Home

AbstractIn this chapter, the authors discuss artifacts in which children explore belonging and home. The chapter defines the sense of belonging as a core feature of humanity and living together. The feeling of having a home and being at home is both an intimate and a socially shared aspect of belonging. The children expressed belonging to a wide range of spaces in their artifacts. This spatial span extends from macro to micro scale and indicates belonging based on spaces, social relations, and materiality. Even very young children can see and depict their belonging as multiple and including spatial and social dimensions. The analyzed artifacts reveal both concrete and symbolic approaches to…

Lectio praecursoria: (Re)Imagining Humanity in Popular Science Fiction Television

Aino-Kaisa Koistinen (PhD in spe) defended her doctoral dissertation The Human Question in Science Fiction Television: (Re)Imagining Humanity in Battlestar Galactica, Bionic Woman and V at the University of Jyvakyla, Finland on the 11th of April 2015. This essay is a slightly edited version of the lectio praecursoria given by Koistinen before the defense. nonPeerReviewed

Welcome to The Monster Network

REAL HUMANS? : Affective imaginaries of the human and its Others in the Swedish TV series Äkta människor

According to the Swedish science fiction TV series Äkta människor (Real Humans, SVT and Matador film 2012-2014), humanoid robots called “hubots” are replacing the human workforce in care work and assembly line industries. Against the backdrop of current debates about immigration and citizenship in the Nordic countries, this article does a close, contextual reading of the series, exploring how the hubots influence work and family life. We are particularly interested in how hubots tie in with the cultural circulation of affect in relation to Otherness and how responses towards the “not-quite” human or dehumanized Other are negotiated in the present-day Nordic cultural imaginaries. What kinds …

Miten konesydän sykkii? Ruotsalainen Hubotit – melkein ihmisiä ei pelkää kysyä isoja kysymyksiä.

Hubotit - melkein ihmisiä (Äkta Människor, Ruotsi 2011-) tuo pohjoismaiseen televisiofiktioon tieteisfiktion tutut teemat kuten ihmisen ja koneen risteymät sekä kuolemattomuuden. Teknologisen kehityksen takana tieteisfiktiossa piilee usein, ellei jopa aina, kysymyksiä kehityksen vaikutuksesta ihmisyyteen. Myös Hubotit - melkein ihmisiä esittää näitä suuria kysymyksiä: Mitä meille tapahtuu teknologian kehittyessä? Voimmeko muuttua joksikin paremmaksi teknologian avulla, vai onko ihmisyys jotain, jota ei voi teknologian avulla luoda tai laajentaa? Millainen voisi olla ihmismielen, -sydämen ja -sielun ohjelmakoodi? nonPeerReviewed

Policy Brief: Developing Education Policies in Europe to Enhance Cultural Literacy

Europe needs education policies that seek to advance intercultural dialogue in a way which reflects the super-diversity of today’s Europe, support respect for diversity and difference, and enable the growth of young people’s identities. The DIALLS project seeks to respond to these needs by developing the concept and idea of cultural literacy and creating a Cultural Literacy Learning Programme for young people. For DIALLS, cultural literacy means a social practice that is inherently dialogic and based on learning and gaining knowledge through empathetic, tolerant and inclusive interaction with others. DIALLS’ qualitative content and concept analysis of European and national education policy …

Cultural and multimodal analysis of students cultural artefacts