the resilient historian: history subject centre workshop

The Resilient Historian

Richard Hall (rhall1@dmu.ac.uk, @hallymk1)Richard Hall (rhall1@dmu.ac.uk, @hallymk1)

What is the role of History and Historians in higher education, in a world that faces significant disruption?

QAA Benchmark Statement: HistoryGuiding principle, para 5.

“its subject matter, distinguishing it from other humanities and social sciences, consists of the attempts of human beings in the past to organise life materially and conceptually, individually and collectively, while the object of studying these things is to widen students' experience and develop qualities of perception and judgement.

“History provides a distinctive education by providing a sense of the past, an awareness of the development of differing values, systems and societies and the inculcation of critical yet tolerant personal attitudes. History's reciprocal relationship with other disciplines can have an important influence on the experience of the student of the subject.”

QAA Benchmark Statement: HistoryGuiding principle, para 5.

“its subject matter, distinguishing it from other humanities and social sciences, consists of the attempts of human beings in the past to organise life materially and conceptually, individually and collectively, while the object of studying these things is to widen students' experience and develop qualities of perception and judgement.

“History provides a distinctive education by providing a sense of the past, an awareness of the development of differing values, systems and societies and the inculcation of critical yet tolerant personal attitudes. History's reciprocal relationship with other disciplines can have an important influence on the experience of the student of the subject.”

What might the act of being a historian in C21st civil society mean?

Word 1: context

• Resilience: thriving in spite of disruption

• Decision-making and agency

• Co-governance: towards social justice

• Core economy: what do we value?

Word 2: disruption• Economy: public sector debt

• Environment: emissions and climate change

• Power and control: formal and informal education

• Energy: more efficiently unsustainable

• Techno-determinism: will the boffins really save us?

Word 3: complexity

disruption and cultural context

Ravensbourne, 2008Hall, 2009; after Ravensbourne, 2008

Word 4: resilience

Rob Hopkins: Transition Culture

“the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganise while undergoing change, so as to retain essentially the same function, structure, identity and feedbacks”

Systemic diversity, modularity, feedback

Word 5: action

we have a choice between reliance on government and its resources, and its approach to command and control, or developing an empowering day-to-day community resilience. Such resilience develops engagement, education, empowerment and encouragement

Political action or civil action? [DEMOS, nef]

Word 6: critical

• Gramsci on organic intellectuals: praxis in context

• Friere on critical pedagogy: social transformation and emancipation

• Habermas on legitimation, colonisation, value and participation in a “lifeworld”

• Barnett on the will to learn

Word 7: lessons

• Owenite co-operation

• Thompson’s legitimation of craft and class consciousness

• Cuban attempts at self-sufficiency

• Chavez and Venuzuela

• Holocaust denial

• The ideology of UKIP/BNP

Word 8: role

Tosh: context; risk-management; open agendas

Validity, reliability, plausibility, detachment

Managing complexity and difference of interpretation

“[History] lives through debate and controversy, and that very sense of controversy by analogy is what should be sustaining public debate more generally”

Some unused words

• Adaptation

• Awareness

• Dependence

• Revaluing

• Persistence

Towards a curriculum for resilience?

• Complexity and increasing uncertainty in the world demands resilience

• Integrated and social, rather than a subject-driven• Engaging with uncertainty through projects that involve

diverse voices in civil action• Discourses of power – co-governance?• Authentic partnerships, mentoring and enquiry, in

method, context, interpretation and action

• How does History enable C21st society to address disruption?

• How do historians support the development of ideas, decision-making and agency?

• Are we helping people to exist in authentic, socio-political spaces where switches may be turned off?

Resilience: what do we value?

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