This article considers how lecturers can use human rights education as a core element of preparing students for professional social work practice. This paper is based on a symposium held at the EASSW conference in Madrid 2019 which was hosted by members of an interest group of lecturers, from Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland. The symposium elaborated on the interest groups action plan: ‘Human Rights, turning words into action’. The group posit that the application of human rights in social work practice should follow the rights and interests of service-users. The challenge for educators is that that in the first instance, students must learn about human rights instruments and enforcement mechanisms and then they must be schooled about the discursive, dialogical and democratic particularity of rights. Ignoring this character of human rights risks reducing rights to a technical debate. This article reflects on some of the difficulties, pitfalls and drawbacks that we have encountered, and some of the critiques of current human rights structures. The aim is to try to develop a ‘practice of critique’ and propose a strategic human rights agenda for professional social work education and practice.
This paper argues that there is a need for a dialogical learning space because soft skills are becoming increasingly important in an ever more unstable labour market. Where once a monological form of education worked to prepare youth for the future, now a dialogue is required. This dialogue, by definition or in the first place seek consensus, but assumes pluralism and even conflict and is thereby intended to be a true departure from the monological nature of education.
The current Covid-19 pandemic has underlined the importance of urban public spaces in achieving health and social well-being (Dobson, 2021; Poortinga et al., 2021), prompting policymakers and urban planners to rethink their approach to the design of these spaces. They now propagate adapting urban public spaces more directly to human needs (Suurenbroek et al., 2019), often at a neighbourhood level, while also embracing a more-than-human perspective that includes the well-being of the natural ecosystem at large (Maller, 2020; Houston et al., 2018). The latter becomes imperative as other shocks and stressors, such as climate change and biodiversity loss, are impending, straining urban spaces and their residents to show resilience in times of complex challenges. “Learning from Covid-19”, a need emerged for new design approaches for public spaces, contributing both to social and ecological resilience.This paper presents results from the research project "From Prevention to Resilience". It moves beyond merely responding to the pandemic by designing social and physical barriers in public space to prevent the virus from spreading. Instead, it seizes the opportunity to explore how an integrated design approach to public space could contribute to social and ecological resilience (Boon et al., 2021). The project, funded by the Dutch organization for health research and care innovation, is a collaboration between the chairs of Spatial Urban Transformation and Civic Interaction Design (AUAS) and an international partner consortium.This paper builds on our compiled database of design strategies addressing the Covid-crisis, expert sessions with a Community of Practitioners, and interviews with Dutch spatial design firms and municipalities. It first introduces a "Design Framework for Neighbourhood Resilience" and its core concepts. Next, it validates this framework through a research-by-design approach. Spatial and social design agencies applied the framework in real-life design cases in Amsterdam and allowed for its empirical grounding and practice-based development. Ultimately, the paper defines a design framework that builds resilience for the well-being of all urban inhabitants and initiates a dialogue between disciplines to address resilience integrally when designing public spaces and forms of civic engagement.ReferencesBoon, B., Nirschl, M., Gualtieri, G., Suurenbroek, F., & de Waal, M. (2021). Generating and disseminating intermediate-level knowledge on multiple levels of abstraction: An exploratory case in media architecture. Media Architecture Biennale 20, 189–193. https://doi.org/10.1145/3469410.3469430Dobson, J. (2021). Wellbeing and blue‐green space in post‐pandemic cities: Drivers, debates and departures. Geography Compass, 15. https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12593Houston, D., Hillier, J., MacCallum, D., Steele, W., & Byrne, J. (2018). Make kin, not cities! Multispecies entanglements and ‘becoming-world’ in planning theory. Planning Theory, 17(2), 190–212. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473095216688042 Maller, C. (2020). Healthy Urban Environments: More-than-Human Theories (1st ed.). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. https://www.routledge.com/Healthy-Urban-Environments-More-than-Human-Theories/Maller/p/book/9780367459031Poortinga, W., Bird, N., Hallingberg, B., Phillips, R., & Williams, D. (2021). The role of perceived public and private green space in subjective health and wellbeing during and after the first peak of the COVID-19 outbreak. Landscape and Urban Planning, 211, 104092. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104092 Suurenbroek, F., Nio, I., & de Waal, M. (2019). Responsive public spaces: exploring the use of interactive technology in the design of public spaces. Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Urban Technology.https://research.hva.nl/en/publications/responsive-public-spaces-exploring-the-use-of-interactive-technol-2
GAMING HORIZONS is a multidisciplinary project that aims to expand the research and innovation agenda on serious gaming and gamification. The project is particularly interested in the use of games for learning and cultural development. Gamification - and gaming more broadly – are very important from a socio-economic point of view, but over the past few years they have been at the centre of critical and challenging debates, which highlighted issues such as gender and minority representation, and exploitative game mechanics. Our project’s key contention is that it is important for the European ICT community to engage with design trends and social themes that have affected profoundly the mainstream and ‘independent’ game development cultures over the past few years, especially because the boundaries between leisure and serious games are increasingly blurred. GAMING HORIZONS is a direct response to the official recognition by the H2020 programme of work that multidisciplinary research can help to advance the integration between Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and the Social Sciences and the Humanities (SSH). The project’s objective is to enable a higher uptake of socially responsible ICT-related research in relation to gaming. This objective will be achieved through a research-based exchange between communities of developers, policy makers, users and researchers. The methodology will involve innovative data collection activities and consultations with a range of stakeholders over a period of 14 months. We will interrogate the official ‘H2020 discourse’ on gamification – with a particular focus on ‘gamified learning’ - whilst engaging with experts, developers and critical commentators through interviews, events, workshops and systematic dialogue with an Advisory Board. Ultimately, GAMING HORIZONS will help identify future directions at the intersection of ethics, social research, and both the digital entertainment and serious games industries.EU FundingThe 14-month research project 'Gaming Horizons' was funded by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
The overarching aim of the project is to contribute to the development of a sustainable, inclusive and just EU leisure, tourism and hospitality ecosystems, and will be achieved through three interrelated objectives:Create a body of knowledge and theoretical foundations, related to the application of land, capital and financial resources, to develop resilient and future-proof tourism destinations and tourism and travel businesses;Develop conceptual models that contribute towards collective models of resilience in tourism destinations and tourism and travel businesses and are based on equitable use of labour, land and natural resources and financial capital;Propose, through approved EU funding, interventions and applications towards new models of tourism destination management and corporate governance, that use sustainable parameters of success (regeneration of biodiversity and nature, improved human welfare of residents at destinations, social and environmental returns).The Project will lead to a series of research proposals that allows the consortium partners to address urgent societal challenges in Europe. During the project timeline, partners will disseminate findings and search for engagement by public and private actors. Ongoing collaboration and knowledge exchange with key industry actors will improve the resilience capacity of destinations through education, skill development, and co-creation of knowledge. Building resilience through tourism is not just an opportunity but a necessity in the face of global environmental and social challenges. The project will establish theoretical foundations for transitioning towards more resilient and environmentally and socially just ecosystems in the leisure, tourism, and hospitality sectors, aiming to shift the industry’s priorities from short-term gains to long-term sustainability. The project supports international collaboration by facilitating university staff mobility and involving students with diverse cultural, industry, and academic backgrounds and experiences. The successful application and completion of the project will strengthen the consortium's capacities and facilitate the ongoing international dialogue through the Resilient Tourism Ecosystems Lab (RTEL), consequently leading to future collaborative EU grant applications.
