Fish Bowl conversations
The Fish-Bowl Sessions provide a format for discussing controversial issues and questions that could be answered very differently depending on one’s particular perspective. The participants of the session will sit in two circles, an inner one of 3 or 4 chairs and an outer circle of approx. 20 chairs. At the beginning, two or three previously assigned persons will sit in the inner circle and discuss the given questions. The persons on the outer circle will listen to their conversation. They will benefit from the fact that an outsider can perceive things that are not heard or seen by those involved in the center. Once a person from the outer circle feels that he/she can contribute to the discussion in the inner circle, he/she will join them on the empty inner seat. After that he/she may leave the space to someone else from the outside, or one of the initial discussants may pass the seat to him/her and leave. A moderator will introduce the rules and accompany the process. The fish-bowl sessions can be selected by participants upon registration via his website.
A4 The Traps of Good Intentions and the Question of Instrumentalisation
Friday, 28.2.2020, 10.00 – 12.00, Room 5.K10
The session is based on a discussion of three questions:
1. Why should good intentions – such as “wanting to help in rebuilding a war-torn country” – be a trap?
2. Is it acceptable to approach a situation with intentions? Is it ok, as long as these intentions are transparent and layed open? Or is clear intentionality per-se problematic, when it comes to dealing with very complex and volatile situations? Would open attentiveness be more adequate? But adequate to well designed collaborative projects as well?
3. If international organisations or donors instrumentalise the arts/artists out of working with best intentions: Is instrumentalising the problem or is it intentionality?
These questions can be approached through stories and examples.
Input 1:
Akshay Pathak (Pro Helvetia Delhi)
Input 2:
Rana Yazaji (cultural manager)
Moderation:
Nicola Dahrendorf (peacebuilding consultant)
B5 Partnership and Collaboration under Conditions of Economic Inequality
Friday, 28.2.2020, 14.00 – 16.00, Room 5.K10
This session is based on a discussion of three questions:
1. If in an international cooperation project one side has more financial resources than the other, and if you deeply despise colonial structures and their heritage, how do you deal practically with the financial inequality in your collaboration?
2. Following from the above: if in an international cooperation project one side has a much better-established organisational structure than the other, do you deal with this inequality in the same way as the economic one?
3. Following from that: if in an international cooperation project one side has much more “freedom to create” than the other, do you deal with this inequality in the same way as the economic or structural ones?
These questions can be approached through stories and examples.
Input 1:
Sandro Lunin (Theater Kaserne Basel)
Input 2:
Tamara Janashia (Culture and Management Lab)
Moderation:
Joseph Gaylard (Pro Helvetia Johannesburg)