First Call for Papers
ESREA – European Society for Research on the Education of Adults
Life History and Biography Network
Can stories make a difference in a troubled world? Where, when, how? Life-based and art-based research: exploring their collective, social and political potential
The Annual Conference in 2015 will be held in Milano, Italy at Università Milano Bicocca http://www.unimib.it/ from Thursday 5th to Sunday 8th March 2015
The Network
After its first meeting in Geneva, in 1993, the Life History and Biography Network of ESREA has been a forum for a wide range of researchers and doctoral students, drawing on different disciplinary backgrounds, and coming from every part of Europe, and beyond. Life history and biographical approaches in adult education and lifelong learning are very diverse, and our conferences are based on recognition and celebration of this diversity; we want to help create spaces for dialogue, demonstration, reflexivity and discovery. In 21 years, the Network has provided the basis for diverse and influential publications, as well as for major collaborative research projects and many other forms of collaboration.
Our last conferences (see ESREA’s website) explored areas of research and practice in life history and auto/biography such as wisdom, emotions, embodied learning and narratives, words, interdisciplinary research, agency and structure…
The conference theme
During the last conference, Magdeburg 2014, two different topics emerged as interesting themes for life history and auto/biographical research. We have decided to combine these and to address them in our 2015 network conference. Hence, we invite researchers and diverse scholars to join us by submitting proposals for papers and workshops to explore the theme of whether life-based narrative and artistic activity can invigorate collective political and social action, in a troubled world.
The first topic was to investigate how social and political engagement can be an aspect of adult life, and of our lives as scholars and adults, as well as a relevant issue for adult education and research. It seems particularly important in the present moment. During the Magdeburg conference, some of us began conversations about the biographical origins of our social feelings, of being active and/or attentive to the social and political life of the planet, one's country, institution, and/or group. This seems to be linked to experience, especially during adolescence and youth. Recounting experiences brought reflections on the actual and possible role of research – namely life-based research – in illuminating processes of conscientization, critical reflexivity, alongside active participation, community learning, and so on. This in a ‘liquid’, fragile world where the role and nature of politics seems uncertain, democracy marginalized, and the power of neo-liberal assumptions transcendent, if also deeply flawed.
The second topic had to do with the power of arts, and all kinds of media, including new social media, in creating strong emotions, authentic participation, and spaces for reflection. The relationship among different media, and with spoken or written language, seems to be a very promising field for the development of life-based methods of research, and more generally for qualitative inquiry. Stories are not only made of words, as some of our conferences have already thematized (Milano 2009, Vaxjo 2010, Odense 2012, Magdeburg 2014).
Life-histories and auto/biographies seem then not only able to connect science, arts, and politics, but to become occasions for innovation, for transformative learning, for community action in diverse settings. In these terms they go far beyond “pure research” - or a detached view of academic research as isolated in its ivory tower - to build new qualities of space for social and individual change. This is not always the case, of course: we want to investigate the conditions in which stories can “make a real difference” - for whom and for what and on whose terms?
The conference seeks to develop a sense of interconnectivity among life-based and arts-based narrative research, around the potential for individual but also collective transformations that might be triggered or chronicled by research. It will also be attentive to weaving into our work previous themes of our conferences: embodiment and narrative, critical reflection, social change, agency. One goal of this conference is to encourage all participants to reflect on their research and to ask themselves how can they integrate social change and community engagement, alongside an interest in the human subject and the nature of learning and education at a more individual level. Perhaps political engagement, if it is to make a real difference, requires personal reflexivity and biographical awareness, if the mistakes and even tragedies of the past are to be avoided.
Some questions
Can narration – in its many forms - help young or older adults to become more effective leaders in community development?
Can life-based research enhance the dialogue between generations and produce new forms of conversation as well as action?
How could narrative research foster human commitment to cooperative action and inquiry, and to social as well as political learning? What is the role of narration in developing a New Civics?
Guidelines for submission of paper abstracts, proposals for symposia and/or workshops
Abstracts should be submitted by 31st October 2014 to the conference organisers at laura.formenti@unimib.it
Your paper proposal (WORD format) should have no more than 500 words, Times New Roman, 12 points. The title of the abstract should be clear. Your name, institutional affiliation, phone and email should NOT be included in the abstract, but be on a separate page.
Proposals will be blind reviewed; acceptance will be announced by 30th November 2014
Final papers (3000 – 5000 words) should be submitted by email at by 31st January 2015
Detailed Guidelines for submission of papers will be made available at a later date.
Conference languages are English and French
ESREA's language policy is inclusive. Abstracts for the peer-review process must be in English or French. Papers and presentations in the conference will be welcome in French as well as English. Where possible, anyway, a short (1000-1500 word) summary in English should be provided.
For French, German, Italian speakers and naturally for all others: it is suggested that slides to the talk (at least in part) be in English or, if possible, bilingual. English speakers are asked, too, where possible, to provide bilingual versions of their slides. At the conference there will not be any form of professional translation, but from experience we know that there are a number of colleagues who are willing and able to help and facilitate dialogue. Tolerance, respect, mutual support and curiosity will do the rest.
Just as all participants are asked to show patience and tolerance – as well as interest and curiosity - where a language other than their own is used, it is equally important to recognize that speakers requiring some element of translation or explanation must accept that they can say less in the allotted time and that they should plan for this – perhaps by providing essential information in the form of a hand-out, for example.
Professors Laura Formenti and Linden West; co-convenors of the Network.