The political ethics of consumerism

This article draws on research into the development and growth of ethical consumption in the UK to suggest why consumerism and citizenship are not necessarily opposed practices. Consumer-oriented activism offers important pathways to political participation for ordinary people. The organisations involved in this field embed consumer-oriented activism in wider programs of mobilisation, activism, lobbying and campaigning, enrolling ordinary people in active political engagement

Citizenship Education within the process of portuguese social democratization

Propomo-nos discutir, neste texto, algumas das raízes do ideal de cidadania ao nível do debate pedagógico, tal como se desenvolveu em Portugal nos anos 60 e 70 do século XX, um período marcado pelo final do Estado Novo autoritário e pela fase inicial de construção da democracia portuguesa, que sentiu a necessidade de educar os cidadãos para o exercício pleno do seu papel, numa perspectiva crítica e participativa. É, em particular, no período revolucionário que o projecto de democratização do ensino se torna central na agenda educativa, surgindo Rui Grácio (1921-1991) como uma figura marcante, não só da reflexão sobre essa matéria como da tentativa de a concretizar no terreno educativo, por via de experiências como a unificação do ensino, o serviço cívico estudantil ou a educação cívica e politécnica. É os contornos dessa reflexão e dessa acção que procuraremos aqui delimitar

The Global University: The Role of Senior Managers

Contributors address the role of senior managers in relation to internationalisation, globalisation, and sustainable development and share how these often overlapping challenges can be addressed. Consideration has been given to a range of potentially competing demands including the relationship between what Paul Luker describes as the 'core mission and values of HE' and what Caruana and Hanstock describe as 'marketisation discourse'. The Global University: The Role of Senior Manager is written by higher education institution senior managers, for HEI senior managers. Supported by HEFCE Leadership, Governance and Management Funding, 'The Global University: the role of senior managers' is a companion publication to 'The Global University: the role of the curriculum'. Many of the contributors are regarded as critical champions of internationalisation in the UK as well as thoughtful strategists in the process of affecting sustainable university-wide change. To provide further food for thought, in addition to the UK contributions, a case study on university-wide approaches to the development of global citizens at the University of British Columbia and a perspective on the barriers affecting the process of internationalisation in Latin American Universities have also been included. Contributors address key concepts from a variety of perspectives and what will quickly become apparent is that the terms are not always translated in quite the same way (a way of seeing is also a way of not seeing) but in spite of this, collectively, considerable insight for moving the agenda forward is provided. At the very least, the publication will serve to inspire debate on what should constitute the vision, mission and values of a global university, within the context of global society. Given the global footprint of universities and the ability of our graduates to influence change in global society, the publication maintains that universities cannot ignore their corporate and social responsibilities: senior managers have a critical role to play as leaders of this agenda and of change that results in positive benefits for a wider stakeholder group

ROTOЯ Review

The ROTOЯ partnership between Huddersfield Art Gallery and the University of Huddersfield was established in 2011. ROTOЯ I and II was a programme of eight exhibitions and accompanying events that commenced in 2012 and was completed in 2013. ROTOЯ continues into 2014 and the programme for 2015 and 2016 is already firmly underway. In brief, the aim of ROTOЯ is to improve the cultural vitality of Kirklees, expand audiences, and provide new ways for people to engage with and understand academic research in contemporary art and design. Why ROTOЯ , Why Now? As Vice Chancellors position their institutions’ identities and future trajectories in context to national and international league tables, Professor John Goddard1 proposes the notion of the ‘civic’ university as a ‘place embedded’ institution; one that is committed to ‘place making’ and which recognises its responsibility to engaging with the public. The civic university has deep institutional connections to different social, cultural and economic spheres within its locality and beyond. A fundamental question for both the university sector and cultural organisations alike, including local authority, is how the many different articulations of public engagement and cultural leadership which exist can be brought together to form one coherent, common language. It is critical that we reach out and engage the community so we can participate in local issues, impact upon society, help to forge well-being and maintain a robust cultural economy. Within the lexicon of public centered objectives sits the Arts Council England’s strategic goals, and those of the Arts and Humanities Research Council – in particular its current Cultural Value initiative. What these developments reveal is that art and design education and professional practice, its projected oeuvre as well as its relationship to cultural life and public funding, is now challenged with having to comprehensively audit its usefulness in financially austere times. It was in the wake of these concerns coming to light, and of the 2010 Government Spending Review that ROTOЯ was conceived. These issues and the discussions surrounding them are not completely new. Research into the social benefits of the arts, for both the individual and the community, was championed by the Community Arts Movement in the 1960s. During the 1980s and ‘90s, John Myerscough and Janet Wolff, amongst others, provided significant debate on the role and value of the arts in the public domain. What these discussions demonstrated was a growing concern that the cultural sector could not, and should not, be understood in terms of economic benefit alone. Thankfully, the value of the relationships between art, education, culture and society is now recognised as being far more complex than the reductive quantification of their market and GDP benefits. Writing in ‘Art School (Propositions for the 21st Century)’, Ernesto Pujol proposes:‘…it is absolutely crucial that art schools consider their institutional role in support of democracy. The history of creative expression is linked to the history of freedom. There is a link between the state of artistic expression and the state of democracy.’ When we were approached by Huddersfield Art Gallery to work collaboratively on an exhibition programme that could showcase academic staff research, one of our first concerns was to ask the question, how can we really contribute to cultural leadership within the town?’ The many soundbite examples of public engagement that we might underline within our annual reports or website news are one thing, but what really makes a difference to a town’s cultural identity, and what affects people in their daily lives? With these questions in mind we sought a distinctive programme within the muncipal gallery space, that would introduce academic research in art, design and architecture beyond the university in innovative ways

Curriculum Re-definitions and Transformations: Spinning on New Axes within the Technological University

Within a technological university there is an understanding of the kind of education students should possess on graduation. A primary consideration in such an institution is the requirement to transmit knowledge and universal values and, at the same time, to contribute to the cultural, economic and social development of the local societies that they serve and that support them . This paper explores how a curriculum can be (re)shaped in a technological university context to address this requirement. This paper develops and examines a possible pathway to progress the establishment of a portfolio of academic programmes within the context of establishing a technological university by: 1. developing a set of principles which can be used to review existing programme portfolios; 2. identifying a process which can be deployed to develop a cooperative model within each discipline to develop the portfolio of programmes while applying the general principle as listed at (1) above. By transforming its curriculum the technological university will fulfil its public service obligation to develop civic competence through the pursuit of research-that-creates- knowledge, education-as-the-sharing-of-knowledge, and innovation-as-commitment to engagement with clients whose focus is the local, regional, national, and international development of Irish higher education

Enhancing employability via ‘Thirdspace’ pedagogy and ethics

Although the diversity of Malaysian pluralistic sociocultural society may present itself as a challenge in the maintenance of ethnic relations, it can perhaps be transformed, nevertheless, into a critical resource for graduate employability. Formal qualifications aside, Malaysian local graduates should be asking themselves whether they have the civic capacity and universal prerequisites as ‘glocalised’ employees of the future. In this paper, we will attempt to situate the discourse of employability within an ethical-pedagogical dimension of globalisation through social semiotics. It is suggested that insight into the ways of the globalised world may be provided through a pedagogic dimension known as ‘the Thirdspace’ (Bhabha, 1994), comprising a hybridized and cutting-edge space of ‘in-betweenness’ where diverse cultures meet and engage each other. This study takes off from a research on the perceived cultural and language competencies of undergraduates undertaken by a Malaysian university. Based on the findings of this research on the benchmarks for graduate competencies for future employability painted, a profile that went beyond the communicative and linguistic capabilities into elements such as attitudes, mindset and cultural awareness. With this in mind, this paper proposed that university curriculum utilises a Thirdspace pedagogy to expose and enhance cross-cultural literacies of Malaysian university undergraduates through socioculturally resonant Malaysian cinema

Who you’re gonna call? The development of university digital leaders

In our hyper-connected digitised educational world, university tutors are interested in capitalising on affordances of digital trends in teaching and learning. Students, under the alias of preservice- teachers, walk among them equipped with digital skills in areas of their interest. How can we encourage collaboration between tutors and students that can promote the use of the digital force wisely, support the development of students’ professional identities further and extend tutors’ digital competences? The story of nine tutors and eleven undergraduate pre-service-teachers working together on digital partnerships is set against discussions around digital leadership and citizenship. This case study aims to highlight how universities can respond to technology-driven change by engaging students further and support their awareness of digital citizenship. The overall results showed that the informal learning that students have capitalised outside the classroom can be used to scaffold their development of digital citizenship through offline community engagement. It demonstrates the advantage of using such opportunities as a means to encourage citizenship practices among university student communities and the positive impact that such synergies can have on all the participants