Work in Progress in the Social Studies (WIPSS): 2018/9
What role for intercultural managers in culturally diverse micro-states like Malta?
Welcome, and welcome back, to the seminar series Work in Progress in the Social Studies (WIPSS), convened by Paul Clough (Anthropology), Peter Mayo (Education) and Michael Briguglio (Sociology). WIPSS now enters its twenty-second year. WIPSS seminars have always had three main aims: (1) to provide researchers in any branch of the social studies with a forum in which they can obtain feedback for their ideas or findings in an informal setting marked by lively discussion – on papers they are writing or have recently written, and on their current research; (2) to act as an interface between the University community and civil society in Malta. (3) WIPSS convenors see our niche as being to encourage inter-disciplinary dialogue between academics and students in the social studies broadly conceived – along a spectrum from film studies, to museums as sites of culture and cultural contestation, literary theory, educational and psychological theory, history, international relations, sociology and anthropology. To this end, we welcome both individually written papers, and inter-disciplinary symposia. WIPSS particularly looks for exciting new departures in social theory or research.
Karsten writes about his forthcoming seminar:
‘This ongoing piece of research addresses the question, ‘How does the complex relationship between culture and management enable, and hinder, intercultural managers to address culturally diverse societies in Europe today?’, using Malta as a case study. To date, this research is based on a series of six qualitative interviews with anthropologists, academics, artists and project managers that have worked on cultural programmes addressing participation and integration through creative storytelling, as well as research, with participants that have moved to Malta, temporarily or permanently, from North Africa, the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia.
The research is underpinned by two theoretical aspects. The first is that addressing the tension between culture and administration, as explored by Zygmunt Bauman with reference to Theodor Adorno. While seemingly inherently inimical on the one hand, it may be argued that both these elements are necessary to deliver cultural projects. Other theoretical sources drawn up consist of Clive Barnett and Jeremy Valentine with regard to their critical views on the contemporary bureaucratisation of culture on a European level, and their interpretation of Antonio Gramsci and Michel Foucault with regard to governmentality.
The second theoretical aspect relates to the matter of the expression of diverse cultural identities. Adopting a cultural policy approach, rather than an anthropological or cultural studies one, from which it admittedly stems, allows one to highlight the challenges involved in addressing the unfolding approaches of Stuart Hall and Ziauddin Sardar with the management of cultural engagement as a goal.
I have been active in cultural relations in the Euro-Med for 20 years. I have worked freelance, with civil society organisations, led preparations for the European Capital of Culture in Malta as executive director (2011-2017) and acted as culture attache' in Brussels for Malta (2006-2011). I am a member of the scientific committee of , of the , of the UNESCO Chair of Intercultural Dialogue in the Mediterranean (Tarragona) and the U40-Capacity Building Programme "Cultural Diversity 2030" initiated by the German UNESCO Commission. I read for a Ph.D. in cultural relations in the Mediterranean at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona (2012) and an M.A. in European Cultural Policy and Management at the University of Warwick (2005) as a Chevening Scholar. My articles and papers are accessible at .’
Thursday 15 November, 18:00-19:00, followed by discussion. In the Faculty of Arts Library, on the third floor of Old Humanities Building, at the end of the corridor next to Room 301. The stairs are in the corner of the quadrangle behind the Assembly Hall. Students are encouraged to attend. The public is cordially welcome.
Convenors: Prof. Paul Clough (Anthropology), Prof. Peter Mayo (Education), Dr. Michael Briguglio (Sociology)
