This article describes how artists, scholars and curators have used folkloric collections and exh... more This article describes how artists, scholars and curators have used folkloric collections and exhibitions as tools to explore the relationship between tradition and innovation. Contemporary art practice has seen a growing interest toward the use of folkloric material. With this in mind, in our curatorial work on the Forging Folklore, Disrupting Archives exhibition, we experiment with new methods of ethnographic representation. The article highlights the importance of animating folkloric and traditional objects through experimentation with collaborative, participatory and visual approaches.
We recognize that we live in a complex, fast-changing world where social, economic and political ... more We recognize that we live in a complex, fast-changing world where social, economic and political norms are constantly redefined. Economic growth and employment, urbanization, demographic change, scientific and technological advances, cultural diversity and the need to maintain human security and public safety represent just a few of the challenges to the governance and sustainability of societies. We affirm that, in order to empower citizens-understood as all residents of cities and communities-we must strive to give them access to and encourage their use of a broad array of learning opportunities throughout their lives. (Unesco Learning Cities Network, Beijing Declaration, http://www.uil.unesco.org/fileadmin/keydocuments/LifelongLearning/learning-cities/enunesco-global-network-of-learning-cities-guiding-documents.pdf) This attention to learning as a means of adapting to social change is not simply the concern of agencies such as Unesco. Increasingly, urban studies scholars are arguing that without attention to learning, knowledge and education, all other moves toward, for example, resilient, smart or sustainable cities, will not be achievable (e.g. Hambleton, 2014a/b; May & Perry, 2018). Urban planners, city mayors and engineers around the world are therefore exploring new ways to integrate development, engineering, adaptation and learning processes that frequently frame cities as 'living labs' (Folstad, 2008). Such experiments, however, are often conducted with little reference to existing literatures and theories of learning and urban education or to the education research field in general. At the same time, the educational research field has not yet fully engaged with these city-scale developments and has not yet begun to provide substantive empirical analysis or theoretical foundations to address this question of how 'cities' can be understood to 'learn'. As Sandlin et al have argued: the shift from spaces that are governed by institutional metaphors and hierarchies to spaces in which education and learning take on more performative, improvisational, subtle, and hidden representations potentially calls for researchers and theorists to examine their methods, epistemological and ontological assumptions, and language to avoid the synecdochical association of education as schooling.
This article describes how artists, scholars and curators have used folkloric collections and exh... more This article describes how artists, scholars and curators have used folkloric collections and exhibitions as tools to explore the relationship between tradition and innovation. Contemporary art practice has seen a growing interest toward the use of folkloric material. With this in mind, in our curatorial work on the Forging Folklore, Disrupting Archives exhibition, we experiment with new methods of ethnographic representation. The article highlights the importance of animating folkloric and traditional objects through experimentation with collaborative, participatory and visual approaches.
We recognize that we live in a complex, fast-changing world where social, economic and political ... more We recognize that we live in a complex, fast-changing world where social, economic and political norms are constantly redefined. Economic growth and employment, urbanization, demographic change, scientific and technological advances, cultural diversity and the need to maintain human security and public safety represent just a few of the challenges to the governance and sustainability of societies. We affirm that, in order to empower citizens-understood as all residents of cities and communities-we must strive to give them access to and encourage their use of a broad array of learning opportunities throughout their lives. (Unesco Learning Cities Network, Beijing Declaration, http://www.uil.unesco.org/fileadmin/keydocuments/LifelongLearning/learning-cities/enunesco-global-network-of-learning-cities-guiding-documents.pdf) This attention to learning as a means of adapting to social change is not simply the concern of agencies such as Unesco. Increasingly, urban studies scholars are arguing that without attention to learning, knowledge and education, all other moves toward, for example, resilient, smart or sustainable cities, will not be achievable (e.g. Hambleton, 2014a/b; May & Perry, 2018). Urban planners, city mayors and engineers around the world are therefore exploring new ways to integrate development, engineering, adaptation and learning processes that frequently frame cities as 'living labs' (Folstad, 2008). Such experiments, however, are often conducted with little reference to existing literatures and theories of learning and urban education or to the education research field in general. At the same time, the educational research field has not yet fully engaged with these city-scale developments and has not yet begun to provide substantive empirical analysis or theoretical foundations to address this question of how 'cities' can be understood to 'learn'. As Sandlin et al have argued: the shift from spaces that are governed by institutional metaphors and hierarchies to spaces in which education and learning take on more performative, improvisational, subtle, and hidden representations potentially calls for researchers and theorists to examine their methods, epistemological and ontological assumptions, and language to avoid the synecdochical association of education as schooling.
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