WORKSHOP 2: Diversifying Culture
Thursday 7 June at
14.30-16.30
Chair:
Minna Mikkola
THE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATIVENESS IN THE CARE FARM ACTIVITIES
Anna Kirveennummi & Katariina Heikkilä
(Finland Futures Research Centre, Turku School of Economics, Finland)
The paper is based on ideas from a practical project around the phenomena of the care farms. “Care farm “, “green care” and “social farming” are new and innovative concepts in whole Europe. They all refer to the utilisation of agricultural resources – the animals, the plants, the garden, the forest and the daily practices at the farmhouse – as a base for promoting human mental and physical health, as well as the quality of life, for a variety of client groups.
In this context we will focus on the creative contents of the care farm practices. Out theoretical starting point comes from the socio-cultural discussions about the meanings of place and environment and about their capacity to function as “raw material” for the creativity of individuals (customers, entrepreneurs etc.). The second theoretical basis comes from futures studies: as the care farm activities in Finland are merely signals of new ideas about to break through, it is important to emphasize the possibilities and obstacles of the care farm activities for future creativity and well-being. We will discuss the socio-cultural aspects of the innovations modifying Rolf Jensen’s ideas about the dreams and imagination as different market powers.
The aim of the project is to describe the core business ideas and to identify the special weaknesses as well as the potentials of the enterprises. Our research team constitutes of multidisciplinary scientists from two organizations (Finland Futures Research Centre & MTT Agrifood Research Finland). The future-oriented socio-cultural part of the study involves participatory methods (future workshops) where ideas and knowledge are reflected and created in different contexts. As the main concepts come from the developers, it is important to start new discussions and processes where the participants own ideas could lead to more concrete innovations, networks and action => new economy based on the individual creativity.
No More Innovativeness & Competitiveness Regimes
but Cultural
Diversity!
Tarja Ketola (University of Vaasa and Turku School of
Economics, Finland)
Seven of the FFRC's 2006 conference presentations were chosen for a positioning theory analysis (Kyyrönen 2006). The seven persons whose presentations were included in this research were Minister of Regional and Municipal Affairs of Finland, Board Member of the Bank of Finland, an American CEO, professors from the USA, Ireland and the Netherlands – and I.
The study showed that two of the main concepts emerging from these presentations were 'innovativeness' and 'competitiveness'. Six of the seven presentations talked about innovativeness and five of them about competitiveness. You guessed right: I was not among them. The other presenter, who didn't mention competitiveness, was Stuart Rose, CEO of Garden Atriums, with his sustainable life worldview.
Political, economic and scientific innovativeness & competitiveness regimes do not make individuals or organizations innovative or competitive (despite Ståhle and Wilenius 2006). Such regimes do not enhance creativity, which is an innate characteristic of individuals and flourishes in organizations that truly value diversity. Particularly in multicultural contexts (like these FFRC conferences) cultural diversity is a key issue. It relates to one of the cultural know-how forms Wilenius (2004) introduced: how to read both our own culture and other cultures, and use this know-how to further valued causes.
The cause I wish to further is such qualitative sustainable development that improves the wellbeing of people and nature all over the world. While competitiveness goals are harmful to this cooperative cause, practical innovations, like those introduced by Rose, could be achieved through cultural diversity. This paper shows how.
If "History is the Lie That They
Teach You in School", What Can We Do?
Marjut Haussila
The nexus of different economies of
thought and praxis are discussed adhering to one of the most
fluid and versatile examples of hybride culture, African
diaspora music. The presenter adheres to her own experience
as a music educator - a keykeeper at the threshold of
cultures and knowledges - studying possible spaces for new
understandings with regard to knowledge and learning. A
sample case of collaboration between Finnish music students
and a South African hiphop artist from Johannesburg is
discussed as an example of an encounter, in which worlds and
cultures meet, as same and different, for the purpose of
innovation and tradition.
Creativity as Repositioning: Sustainability
Agency
in Municipal Services
Minna Mikkola (Ruralia-institute, University of Helsinki, Finland)
This paper aims at identifying and analysing creativity for sustainability in very mundane and regulated contexts of the public catering organisations. In these contexts, every-day creativity comes close to discovering how to implement combinations of different interests, both concrete and abstract, local and distant as well as human and non-human. The creativity within catering organisations is understood here as approaches developed for socio-economic and environmental aspects of sustainability and the solutions found in combining and realising these in catering activities.
The paper presents case studies, whereby several European public catering organisations are compared by analysing their approaches for socio-economic and environmental aspects of sustainability and the societal tasks adopted. Theoretical background of the study is inspired by Luhmann, who presents society as isolated from but dependent on the environment, needing ecological communication between the subsystems of policy, economy, law, science and education, and creation of ways to adapt for sustainability. The communication, reflecting these subsystems, takes place on the microsociological level of catering organisations. This communication and organisational tasks are examined following principles of realist discourse analysis.
The results reveal, that catering organisations are looking for new kinds of approaches for socio-economic and environmental aspects of sustainability. These approaches can be categorised as local and cultural, environmental, technical, juridical, social and economic. The particular sustainability agency is implemented by combining different approaches for sustainability. The catering organisations are starting to redefine and reposition themselves within their network as sustainability agents, and some advanced organisations are actively in search for better conceptualisations and combinations of approaches for sustainability.
The conference organisers reserve all rights to
any programme or schedule
changes.