Download `Discourses we live by` (How) Do they benefit the world we live in

ESREA – European Society for Research on the Education of Adults
LHBN - Life History and Biography Network
‘Discourses we live by’
(How) Do they benefit the world we live in?
The 25th Annual Conference will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark at the University
of Aarhus, Copenhagen Campus, from Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th March 2017
First Call for Papers
Since first meeting in Geneva in 1993, the Life History and Biography Network of ESREA has
become a lively forum for debate. It attracts significant numbers of researchers, including doctoral
students, from a wide range of different disciplinary backgrounds, and members come from every
corner of Europe, and beyond. Within adult education and lifelong learning, life history and
biographical approaches vary considerably, and our conferences are based on recognition and
celebration of this diversity; we have sought to create spaces for dialogue, demonstration,
reflexivity and discovery.
The Network holds an annual conference - hosted by one of our European members - choosing
each year a new theme that builds on the discussions during the previous year. For this, our 25th
conference, it seemed timely to consider the very ideas that shape and maintain the societies in
which we live, to see how they work for us and how they hold society back. The intention is to
analyse and discuss the narratives related to ‘discourses we live by’ to better understand the
consequences for ourselves, and for others, of people's implicit beliefs and subsequent actions.
The 2017 conference theme
The 2017 conference invites abstracts for papers that examine the conceptual frameworks that
bound people’s thoughts and actions and considers how these matter to a global society.
To participate, you are asked to interrogate the discourses we live by and consider how they are
present in cultural narratives and how they are relevant to the real life contexts of adult education
and of people’s life histories. Question to what extent are people's accounts shaped by the
understandings already held. Ask if the real life narratives that researchers collect transform
understandings and shape acceptance of commonly held discourses.
Within this theme, participants will have divergent interests and will occupy different spaces on
the theoretical/empirical spectrum and this diversity is welcomed. Work could be exploratory,
evaluative or emancipatory, for example. For many it is the link between the local ‘micro- and
meso-’ and the large ‘mega-’ level ramifications that fascinates. Writing in an educational context,
Bernstein (1999) captures these strands as horizontal (everyday or common-sense knowledge)
and vertical (coherent, explicit, and systematically principled) discourses.
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Approaches to the conference theme
Some participants will want to use their own narratives to newly explore existing discourses to
understand their merits and disadvantages as an explanatory tool. Others may choose to examine
specific discourses more closely to evaluate their effectiveness in a particular context. Yet others,
will seek out discourses that appear to support inclusion, diversity or change, perhaps co- or restructuring them to make them more fit for purpose. Some papers will be introspective, taking a
reflective stance; others steer towards objectivity; many will combine these two approaches.
Papers meeting these, and broader aims will be welcomed, and it is envisaged that for the
conference, accepted papers will be grouped sensitively to take account of themes, approaches
and intentions.
Communication is key to creating understanding – and both of these are fundamental
requirements for cooperation and collaboration – but can take a range of forms. In keeping with
the conference tradition, papers will take a narrative approach but, as in previous years,
communication need not be confined to dialogue. Words are a powerful medium but so, too, are
the visual arts, dance, drama and music and all forms of activity that draw on the emotions.
Responses to the theme that draw on non-verbal media will also be welcome.
Strands
The conference theme can be addressed in many ways – through the analysis of personal
(autobiographic), single or multiple narrative accounts.
Papers could:

take a ‘grounded’ approach, moving from the horizontal to the vertical, eg:
o analysing unstrutured interview narratives to find and examine the discourses
evident within the texts;

start with the discourses, tracking links from the vertical to the horizontal, eg:
o to investigate particular discourse(s) by choosing research subjects whose
profiles align with particular interest(s);
o to compare contrasting discourses appearing in narratives – disciplinary specific
vs interdisciplinary, generalist vs particularist, collective vs individual
perspectives;
o to consider specific, dominant discourses: their origins, their efficacy, and their
application to real lives and real-life research;

apply a specific perspective, eg:
o a temporal perspective, comparing the historical with the contemporary view;
o a spatial perspective, comparing the local with the national, the rural with the
urban, or looking across the developed and less-developed world;
o a political perspective, contrasting different systems of governance and control;

start from a theme, eg:
o to examine ways of expressing the emotions that dominant discourses provoke
(eg: oppression, fear, control, alienation, certainty, supremacy) through nonverbal media (artistic, dramatic or other);
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o to examine directly the issues around translation and multilingual
communication;
o to consider transgression and how people work the liminal spaces (eg: between
the individual and collective, the mental and the physical, the intra- and interdisciplinary, the reflective and the agentive) and demonstrate this through
narrative analysis;

analyse iteratively, combining any of the approaches above.
Wherefore discourses?
In March 2016, the overall conference theme focused on coming together to discuss ‘Resources of
Hope’ at a time when tensions within Europe and the wider world were extreme. It drew
inspiration from the work of British cultural theorist and adult educator, Raymond Williams, who
advocated a society where respect and humanity underpin all aspects of intellectual challenge.
Presentations considered the nature and role of hope in building better dialogue and connectivity
between diverse people at a time when opportunities for dialogue are challenged, the ‘other’
experienced as a threat rather than a source of learning and enrichment. In the broader debates,
participants acknowledged the serious political situations in many of their home nations and the
suffering of the millions of homeless people fleeing repression and conflict, poverty and
destitution, in countries nearby.
Conference participants were aware of the rising levels of xenophobia, racism and
fundamentalism in the world outside but conscious, too, of the need to embrace, to value, and to
work with ‘difference’ within our own walls. At the plenaries, participants reflected on the growing
need to ensure that the conference reflects society as a whole. There is an evident need to build a
safe space for the sharing of views and opinions whatever an individual’s background, also to find
ways to address the language barriers that beset a European network, mindful that important
ideas can be ‘lost in translation’.
For 2017, the conference is planned around similar notions of integrity, but asks participants to
question their own assumptions by examining the suppositions and frameworks that underpin
their thinking and their practices: the discourses they live by.
For Foucault (1972/1995, The Archaeology of Knowledge) discourse is steeped in status and
power: it is the frame for what it is possible even to think in a given period. To identify a discourse,
analysis focuses on practices and ideas that demarcate and marginalise. As such a discourse is a
culturally constituted means of representing reality that is used to determine what it is possible to
talk about and do within a society. Thus, discourses establish social ‘norms’ that then go
unquestioned, perpetrating existing patterns of control and behaviour. Even, in contemporary
society, people often conform to ‘norms’ accepting them as ‘truths’ rather than questioning their
provenance, validity or applicability to different contexts.
As we are deemed to live in a globalised world by politicians and economists (Bhagwati, 2007;
Shangquan, 2000; Stiglitz, 2002) and by sociologists (Bauman, 1998; Giddens, 1999; Mann, 2013)
alike, there is a danger that ‘one world thinking’ overwrites diversity, concealing how the
‘universal’ process of globalization affects us differently depending of our place in the world
(Standing, 2011). Often the discussion of difference centres on capital and inequality (see Piketty,
2014, 2015; Wilkinson & Pickett, 2009) but McCloskey (2006) challenges this view as simplistic,
encouraging people to look more broadly at other aspects of society. To use the words of the
Danish anthropologist, Kirsten Hastrup (2012), it is important to remember that individuals live
'differently in the world'.
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Alvesson and Karreman (2000) point out that capturing discourses is a complex process. “Discourse
is a popular term used in a variety of ways, easily leading to confusion”. The concept manifests
within social studies in various ways and conference members are invited to use this flexibility to
their advantage, to enable a diversity of treatments.
In general terms, discourse can refer to:



social texts;
other phenomena (experiences, events, material objects and social practices), their
orientations and meanings and the power they wield; or
larger-scale and reasoned ways of ordering the social world (the more formal discourses
seen within academic disciplines and organizational spheres).
All or any of these forms could be explored and conference participants are invited to consider the
broader aspects, to reflect upon the influence of specific discourses on different members of
society, to focus on diversity rather than normativity.
When people aim to smooth out differences, by claiming to be inclusive, holistic, and democratic,
experience shows that trying to do this is an illusion. Even acting together the ESREA Network
cannot avoid this constraint nor can it reform the world, but it can provide a space in which to start
the process of analysis and debate and offer a forum where each contributor’s voice is heard and
respected.
At the 2017 conference, the intention is to address differences in our world analytically in order to
celebrate them, to acknowledge that they exist and challenge the pretence that it is possible to
remove them just by wanting to. Difference can occupy many positions but wherever it is placed,
to understand difference will help us to better understand ourselves as well as others.
Publications from the network
For a quarter of a century, the Network has enabled participants to write and publish together, to
devise major new research projects and collaborate in many other ways. There are plans to publish
an edited collection of papers from the 2017 conference, with the support of the University of
Aarhus. Papers will be chosen to illuminate a specifc themes, yet to be decided.
Earlier Network conferences have explored many areas of research and practice in life history and
auto/biography spanning political, spiritual, social and arts-based themes as can be seen from the
recent post-conference publications listed below.
Formenti, L. & West, L. (Eds) (2016) Stories that make a difference. Exploring the collective, social
and political potential of narratives in adult education research. Lecce: Pensa MultiMedia, ISBN
978-88-6760-360-2 (from Milan, 2015).
Evans, R. (Ed) (2016) Before, Beside and After (Beyond) the Biographical Narrative. Duisburg:
Nisaba Verlag, ISBN: 978-3-941379-04-6 (from Magdeburg, 2014).
Formenti, L., West, L. and Horsdal, M. (Eds) (2014) Embodied Narratives. Connecting stories,
bodies, cultures and ecologies. University of Southern Denmark, ISBN: 978-87-76747473 (from
Odense, 2013).
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Practicalities
Scientific Committee for 2017
Laura Formenti, Linden West, Alan Bainbridge, (conveners of the Network)
Marianne Høyen, Hazel Wright (convenors of the 2017 Conference)
Jean-Michel Baudouin, Agnieszka Bron, Freema Elbaz-Luwisch, Rob Evans, Fergal Finnegan, Barbara
Merrill, José Gonzalez Monteagudo, Hazel Reid, Vera Sheridan, Laura Mazzoli Smith
Members of the Scientific Committee come from Denmark, Eire, Israel, Italy, Germany, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. We have all been active in the Network and in
ESREA for some time. Individually and collectively, we are committed to creating a learning
community that offers all researchers (young and old, established and starting out) a safe space for
critical thought and debate and ultimately for the dissemination of their views and findings.
The location of the Conference
The conference will be held at the Copenhagen campus of the University of Aarhus, Denmark at
the invitation of Marianne Høyen, PhD and the Danish School of Education. This campus is situated
close to Emdrup light rail S-station, easily accessible from the centre of Copenhagen.
Copenhagen is a compact and attractive capital city that offers many possibilities for
accommodation and for eating out, and for cultural visits. It is well-served by public transport, with
regular and speedy train and bus routes to and from the international airport at Kastrup,
Copenhagen.
Outline Conference schedule
The formal conference starts late afternoon Thursday 2 March, ends at noon Sunday 5 March.
Optional educational visits will take place on Thursday morning.
Optional conference dinner will take place on the Friday evening.
Conference languages
ESREA's language policy reflects the network’s European scope (and its much broader global
interest). Conference languages are English and French but if you submit an abstract in French
please provide an English version too, to assist the peer-review process.
Papers and presentations, too, can be delivered in French as well as English but please make
available a short (1000-1500 word) summary in English or consider providing bilingual slides
(English and French) if this is possible.
At the parallel sessions, bi- or multi-lingual participants will be present to facilitate understanding
and debate but there is no formal translation service. ESREA conferences rely on tolerance,
respect, mutual support, curiosity and thoughtful preparation to overcome language barriers.
When planning your presentations please allow time for an element of translation, and provide
essential information as handouts or diagrams if this seems appropriate.
The close connections between research, language and narrative lie at the heart of the Network
and the dual language approach seeks to facilitate communication across national and cultural
divides. However, at the 2017 conference, where Danish is the host language, organizers recognize
the importance of ELF (English as a Lingua Franca) – English used as a means of communication
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between non-native speakers for whom it serves as a common language. According to key
proponent, Barbara Seidlhofer (2004) within English language teaching ELF serves two purposes.
Linguistically, ELF is a “contact language” for those who share neither a common native tongue nor
a common (national) culture, and sociolinguistically, it plays an important role in enabling
continuing interaction between such individuals.
The ESREA conference experience is that English serves this sociocultural role. To do this
successfully it requires native English speakers to be aware that ELF is an English that differs from
their everyday usage (Ur, 2010). When writing and speaking in English please help others to
understand by avoiding or explaining idioms, metaphors and colloquialisms, and by speaking
clearly, perhaps more slowly.
Abstract submission
Type: Abstracts can be for individual papers or group symposia/workshops.
Language: Abstract can be delivered in French as well as English but please make available a short
(1000-1500 word) summary in English.
Extent: 500 words maximum. Include ONLY essential references as these form part of the word
limit.
Style: Anonymised, in Times New Roman, 12 point type, single spaced. See website for detailed
style sheet.
Include SEPARATE contact (ID) page, listing: your name, institutional affiliation, phone, email and
style of presentation (specify, eg: verbal, visual, dramatic).
File names: To help the peer review process, please name your files as indicated here.
1_LHBN_17_Abstract_Short_title
2_LHBN_17_ID_Short_title_Surname_First_name_Presentation_style
Upload: Both abstract and separate contact page should be uploaded via the conference
webpage.
Schedule
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 10 October 2016
Notification of acceptance of proposals after blind review: End November 2016 prior to
compilation of the conference programme.
Deadline for final papers (3000 – 5000 words): 31 January 2017
Detailed guidelines for submission, conference arrangements and the conference programme will
be made available on the website http://conferences.au.dk/esrealhbn2017
Language guidelines
Abstracts: in English or French with an English translation as this is the lingua franca for peer
review.
Papers and presentations: in English, or French with a short (1000-1500 word) summary in English.
Slides: bilingual (English and French) if possible.
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For further information, please contact:
Professor Laura Formenti: [email protected]; or
Professor Linden West: [email protected]; or
Dr Alan Bainbridge: [email protected]; or
Phd Marianne Høyen: [email protected]; or
Dr Hazel Wright: [email protected].
The preferred email for conference queries is: [email protected]
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