Aliya has already proven her skills in conceiving and actively participating in innovative conferences such as the 2011 Global Studies Humanitarian Intervention conference. Aliya is helping with a variety of OICD work, including document preparation, research, training curriculum development and conference organization. She is also contributing to OICD facebook content  and coming up with innovative ideas for a range of OICD initiatives and partnerships.

The OICD warmly welcomes Aliya on-board!

Could a Intra-Cultural Development Program be of use in the UK?

As part of the OICD’s commitment to developing a range of scaled programs to mediate violent and non-violent conflict, OICD Applied Projects Director Mr. Tim Crosland, and OICD Director Dr. Bruce White engaged in a variety of meetings and interviews with relevant groups and individuals in the UK, in order to gauge the feasibility of applying OICD methodology to mediate tension and conflict between Roma, Gypsy and Traveller (RGT) communities and the surrounding population in the United Kingdom.

Part of this initial phase of work was to evaluate the potential interest in OICD Intra-Cultural Development Programs (ICDPs) in the UK more generally, as well as to get a sense of how such a program would operate in the highly localized context of UK communities such as Dale Farm (an area which has received media attention for its pending eviction of Irish Travellers).

Initial impressions were that interest in the OICD mediation methodology was high both amongst potential program clients and partners, and that an Intra-Cultural Development Program (see ICDP F.A.Q here) could have a positive impact on the localized settings of places such as Dale Farm and other UK regions where tensions between RGT and surrounding communities are marked.

Indeed, preliminary analysis revealed the ability of an ICDP to contribute to existing mediation efforts and initiatives primarily by focusing on the respective groups’ sense (or lack) of their own cultural legitimacy rather than the negative stereotypes that they may have of each other.

While many existing initiatives focus, often successfully, on educating respective groups as to the merits of “the other”, the OICD preliminarily identified core discriminatory thinking and practices as potentially rooted in underdeveloped anti-historical narratives that seemed prevalent within all involved communities.

While OICD findings are only preliminary at this stage, any future ICDP working in this region would likely begin with significant research on whether, and how, to broaden historically restricted senses of cultural heritage as a primary means to circumvent discriminatory thinking/practices and to begin to open new social spaces for dialogue.

While it is clear that the timing of any future OICD intervention will not allow a direct mediation of the Dale Farm conflict, the case of Dale Farm has revealed some important intra-cultural dynamics inherent in this configuration of communities and regions. More detailed comments and analysis on this are available–request in writing to the OICD director.

The OICD is keen to offer consultancy, advice and support to its partners and clients in the UK and worldwide in gaining access to this kind of intra-cultural understanding and leveraging the power of these perspectives in counteracting discriminatory practices and the small and large scale conflict that results.

The OICD would like to thank: Professor Judith Okley (University of Oxford), Damian Le Bas, Leticia Osorio (Human Rights Clinic University of Essex), Emily Georghiou (Equality and Human Rights Commission), Lucie Fremlova (Equality), Ian Naysmith (Department for Communities and Local Government), Juliane Solf (Open University), Eva Sajovic (Studio at the Elephant)

Return to the OICD homepage

Learn more about what a Intra-Cultural Development Program is

Contact the OICD director for more information

OICD compliant links on this topic/region (many thanks to Emily Georghiou for providing these!)

Gypsies and Travellers: Simple Solutions for Living Together (2009) +original research

Assessing local authorities’ progress in meeting accommodation needs of Gypsy and Traveller communities (England/Wales): 2010 Update

Communicating Cohesion Research Summary Evaluating Local Authority Communication Strategies

As a student of cultural anthropology in Germany, Marius enrolled in courses on anthropology and identity at Doshisha taught by OICD director, Dr. Bruce White.

Enjoying his time in Kyoto and at Doshisha, Marius was keen to spend the Summer in the city and enquired about the possibility of an internship that would allow him to stay while building up his knowledge and experience in a field similar to his university major.

Bruce White, OICD Director, and Gregory Poole, Dean of the Institute of the Liberal Arts, Doshisha University, celebrate Marius Palz with Internship completion certificate

Marius has spent six weeks as an OICD intern working out of offices at Doshisha University and thus, he is the first person to hold an official internship at the OICD.

Marius has spent his weekdays engaged in liaison and research work, on conference calls to OICD personnel and partners, and planning product and service promotional campaigns. He has significantly contributed for organizational development and OICD projects.

Marius has received a Certificate from Dr. Bruce White and Dr. Gregory Poole upon the completion of his internship program.  Congratulations to Marius for being the OICD’s first official intern and keep up the good work!

Learn more about how to contribute to the OICD

After the Quake: Insights on Japan’s Current Catastrophe and Considerations for Canada from Researchers of Japan

OICD Director, Dr. Bruce White will be talking in the Department of Anthropology, University of British Colombia

22nd March 2011

11.30am-1pm ANSO 134

Seminar homepage

Peace Among the Nations | Cigdem Demir

In developing a new website for the Organization several ideas were considered and discussed.

One key insight was that the old website was not able fully to explain the OICD perspective in an easily understandable way.

At the heart of the new design, then, there would need to be a multimedia component that would allow the casual visitor to pick-up on the main work of the organization without having to read through too much material.

In searching for an appropriate format for the new site, it was decided that a front page slide-show that would tell a very brief “story” would be most effective.

But what would be appropriate for the images? Several ideas were discussed and tried, such as photographs and graphics. Somehow, however, the resulting compilations did not have the desired effect and didn’t gel with the “story” that needed to be told.

It was with some excitement , therefore, that an image search revealed some artwork that really did help to tell that story.

Alex Falco's Racism

“Alex Falco’s racism and Cigdem Demir’s peace among the countries really helped to give life to the mini-story we needed,” says OICD Director, Bruce White, “They captured the nature of the symbolic, and helped us communicate the link between the symbolic and the real, which is at the heart of Intra-Cultural Development.”

Following a formal invitation to exhibit their work on our new site, both of these prolific and thought-provoking artists gave the OICD permission, and the homepage slide show now displays their art every time a visitor stops by www.oicd.net

Recently both Alex Falco and Cigdem Demir have joined the OICD as general members—welcome Cigdem and Alex!

For those of you who would like to see more work from these artists, follow the links to “courtesy of [the
artist]” underneath the images displayed in the slideshow.

Want to talk about or comment on the presentation of the website? Got an idea to contribute to the design?
Something you would like to see included?

Head to our discussion board on our facebook page and leave your thoughts!

Our thanks again to the artists!

In a variety of liaison, grant-making, consultancy and research work, the profile of OICD patrons can help to
pave the way to more effective collaboration and assistance.

The OICD executive committee established the patron system in 2007 and the anthropologist Prof. Thomas Eriksen joined us as our first official patron in November of that year.

Patrons spend a term of approximately two years with the OICD and are then offered “lifetime research affiliate” status. In early 2010, after two years and five months of patronage, Prof. Eriksen became a lifetime research affiliate and the nominations opened for the next OICD patron.

Nominations are received from the OICD general membership and following a three month period the executive committee had a list of eight candidates. The nominations included a wide variety of high profile individuals: politicians, economists, novelists, playwrights, lawyers, anthropologists and philosophers.

All members of the OICD vote on their first choice of candidate during patron elections, and the Comaroffs were clear favorites amongst the voting members.

In the 3rd quarter of 2010, the Comaroffs accepted our invitation to join the organization as patrons for a two-year term.

It is not hard to see why OICD members nominated and voted for the Comaroffs: their respective and joint contributions to anthropology and its application across intellectual and real-world contexts are well known
beyond the field.

One recent joint publication of direct interest to the OICD’s work on understanding cultural identity is “Ethnicity, Inc.” an account of the ways in which ethnic populations are remaking themselves in order to open up new markets and regimes of consumption.

Jean and John can be heard discussing the book on the BBC radio program Thinking Aloud alongside diplomatic
advisor Simon Anholt.

It is an honor for the Organization for Intra-Cultural Development to welcome such champions of anthropology to their roles as patrons.

A warm welcome to the Comaroffs!

Some nations are doing this in order to measure the effectiveness of their multicultural policies, others in response to extremist threats/movements, yet others as part of an approach to cultural assimilation.

In Rome, Italy, a sophisticated “integration index” has been proposed by civil servants and economists that
utilizes up to 30 local and national statistics to try and quantify the degree of cohesion across and within regions.

In Alberta, Canada, local government officials are working to propose a set of “outcomes” (e.g. does an individual “understand Canada?”) that can be then checked off a list in order to provide an integration score.

Part of the problem in any system is that when attempting to measure “integration”, who or what do we use
as our barometer? Who in our society is “integrated”?

The question hits at the core of how a society attempts to represent itself to itself—who we see
as representative or “central” to our notion of who “we” are.

To take a current Europe-wide example: Anthropologically, Roma/Gypsies communities have been integral to European life and culture for at least as long as the Reformation has shaped the continent’s social and economic life.

Therefore, should a measure of the integration of Roma/Gypsies centre on their inclusion into national
cultures of Europe, or should the focus be on whether national cultures contain the Roma/Gypsy
community as integral to “their” cultural identity?

Most attempts to measure integration reveal a state of anxiety on behalf of a cultural group that sees its dominance and/or success threatened in some way. On the whole, such measures do not give us information as to the quality and degree to which actual human relationships are affected by the intra-cultural arrangement of images and identities—i.e. whether a society flourishes or suffers due to its diversity.

The introduction of Integration Measures, as with other tools and practices in national and global governance,
seem to advance at a pace outstripping an understanding or definition of the fundamental problems they attempt to solve.

For one, models of culture that are based on accurate historical and cultural information are needed before we embark on measuring to what extent people feel able to express themselves through these models. Such models will need to provide the resources for all populations to find a sense of place while redressing symbolic imbalances.

Setting up an account (@oicd), the OICD’s first tweet was on the 7th October 2010. In the short months that have followed the OICD twitter channel has shared valuable information from over 170 different news sources and organizations.

Highlights include: the US Institute of Peace webcasts, interviews and pdf packs, Ethnic Conflict’s minute-by-minute monitoring of conflict around the world, and a variety of other announcements from innovative new books on identity to media projects focused on social cohesion around the world (all of which can be found amongst the OICD’s re-tweets).

If you haven’t got a twitter account yet, the OICD channel is another reason to get with this latest online resource!

The trip has been successful in observing Canadian multiculturalism operating at three distinct but interconnected levels:

• the frontline where much needed services are delivered directly to newcomers by NGOs
• the provincial government where policy is formulated and ongoing regional issues are addressed
• the academic level where the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of Canadian mutccultralism are critiqued and debated

Dr. White sends out many thanks to the following people who gave up their time to speak about their work. A full report of the visit will be made available to OICD members (free to join) in 2011.

Alberta Employment Immigration and Industry, left to right: Don Gardener (Manager, Strategic Policy and Supports), Margaret Overland (Director, Policy and Integration), Bruce White, Alice Wong (Director, Integration Programs)

Edmonton Immigrant Services Association, left to right: Alexandru Caldararu (Volunteer Coordinator), Bruce White, Angelica Quesada (New Neighbours Coordinator)

University of Alberta, left to right, Prof. Anna Kirova (Education), John Mccoy (PhD Candidate), Prof. Andy Knight (Political Science), Bruce White, Prof. Ingrid Johnston (Education)

Linda Ogilvie (Co-Director, Prairie Metropolis Centre), Bruce White

University of Alberta, Prof. Yasmeen Abu-Laban (Political Science), Bruce White

Bruce White, Yvonne Chiu (Multicultural Health Brokers Co-op), John Mccoy

Many thanks also to Marie Riddle, Executive Director of the Human Rights and Citizenship Branch, Cassie Palamar, Director of the Education and Community Services Unit of the Human Rights and Citizenship Branch and Susan Coombes, Manager of the Human Rights Education and Multiculturalism Fund.