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How Universities Can Promote Social Cohesion Between Cultural Communities
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How Universities Can Promote Social Cohesion Between Cultural CommunitiesEdward T. Jackson “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others” Nelson Mandela This is good guidance for Canadian universities. In fact, most publicly funded universities in this country are working hard to respect and advance the interests of all groups within their diverse student populations, as well as the many cultural communities in the regions in which these institutions are based. It is sometimes a challenging road. The good news, however, is that there are concrete strategies and actions that post-secondary institutions are undertaking on a daily basis that can promote social cohesion among cultural groups with very different belief systems, attitudes and practices. There are no magic answers, no simple solutions. But much can be done—and is being done. Carleton University is a good example. Our senior management team is devoting considerable time and effort to understand the complex and changing array of needs inside and outside the University’s walls, and to build policies and structures that respond to these needs. Interestingly, one of the key themes in Carleton’s strategic plan, Defining Dreams, is that of global identities in the context of globalization. The University is in the process of planning institution-wide initiatives in teaching, research and community partnerships that will deepen and broaden our understanding of diverse, mobile populations in Canada and around the world. Diaspora communities in Canada are of special interest. One recent expression of this effort to understand diversity and foster social cohesion has been the Carleton University Aboriginal Initiative, which has, with the advice of Aboriginal elders and organizations, instituted measures to strengthen support for Aboriginal faculty and students and to raise the awareness of Aboriginal culture in the University at large. As a result, for example, every ceremony at Carleton’s June 2010 Convocation began with an Aboriginal elder offering a prayer in their indigenous language. Another innovative initiative is known as “Carleton Serves”, a program that enables students to work as volunteers with community organizations in the Ottawa region. Students often volunteer with groups serving diverse populations, in the areas, for instance, of social services, community health, affordable housing, job training, and food security. In May 2010, Carleton staff, students and faculty worked on a voluntary basis with the other universities and colleges in Ottawa to provide goods and services to homeless citizens, in a regional effort called Project Homeless Connect, which is likely to become an annual project. In expanding our partnerships with community organizations, we conceive of a dynamic triangle, with three nodes of activity: degree-program teaching using experiential learning methods, community-based or partnered research, and professional-development training. In experiential learning, students undertake unpaid field projects and service learning courses. They may also participate in cooperative placements with employers in the region in the public, private and non-profit sectors, for which they are paid. In community-based or partnered research, students and faculty work with local organizations on individual research projects, programs comprising several projects, and entire research centres, using joint advisory bodies and shared decision-making to guide, review and apply the research. Nationally, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, a federal granting agency, is a leading funder of such community-university collaborations. Furthermore, Carleton is a key player in a new network called Community-Based Research Canada, and, since 2008, has hosted the Canadian Alliance for Community-Service Learning. The final node on the community-engagement triangle is professional-development training. For the past ten years Carleton has collaborated with the World Bank to offer the International Program in development evaluation training, a certificate program for evaluation professionals in developing countries, graduating some 1,800 participants from more than 150 countries. Research centres and academic departments offer professional training in other fields, as well. In order to intensify our work with diverse communities outside the university, it is necessary, and possible, to expand our efforts at all three points on the triangle, and to seek synergies among them. Moreover, it is becoming clearer at Carleton that with regard both to students from diverse communities and to the many cultural groups outside the University, there is an economic imperative that deserves greater attention. The issue of jobs is important, even fundamental, to social cohesion—especially good quality jobs. Too often, well-trained newcomers to Canada have been marginalized in the labour force. The number of PhDs driving taxis is still far too large. Universities have an important role to play in understanding how the Canadian economy is shifting, and to work with partners to do something about it. Indeed, there is a economic base to any successful co-existence of diverse cultures. That is, if large sections of the population are not working, they will not have hope for their economic future and for the sustainability of their families and groups. This results in serious challenges. It can lead young men to join gangs and others into non-productive activities. In recent years, Ontario’s manufacturing sector has been virtually vaporized. For its part, the auto sector been forced to shrink and has been propped up on the life support of public funds. How will people in Windsor and Oshawa make their living? How can we replace these very good jobs that have been lost? This is a question for all sectors. It is certainly a question for the technology sector in Ottawa, which, at its peak, employed 70,000 residents across the region. How can we grow that sector again and generate, say, 20,000 high-quality, sustainable jobs? In order to do so, all the resources and channels of Ottawa universities and colleges must be mobilized: policy formulation, pilot projects, partnerships with companies, training projects that anticipate growth vectors in the economy, and much more. One agency that is inspirational in this regard is Hire Immigrants Ottawa (HIO), a United-Way group that works with employers and non-profits. Earlier this year, HIO won the Community Affairs Award of Carleton’s Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs. The social economy is important, as well. Non-profit and cooperative businesses that have social and environmental as well as commercial objectives should, and can, be expanded through training, advice and investment. (It is worth noting that Professor Gregory Baum has been a leader in promoting this form of economic democracy). More new Canadians should be offered an opportunity to build sustainable livelihoods in the social economy. And more social-economy enterprises should be scaled up to larger size. Successful cooperatives like Gay Lea Foods and Cooperators Insurance demonstrate that social businesses can be grown to significant scale. But it is not simple to enable a social enterprise to succeed. We need a new cadre of well-trained social-enterprise managers, together with governments that will provide financial backing to these businesses. Carleton University is supporting other initiatives that promote a better understanding across cultural communities and work to strengthen the fabric of social cohesion. The Centre for International Migration and Settlement Studies, formerly known as the Research Resource Division on Refugees, was re-launched earlier this year and featured federal Citizenship Minister Jason Kenny as a keynote speaker. Bringing together scholars and practitioners, and affiliated with Carleton’s School of Social Work, the centre produces highly regarded publications on refugee, immigration and settlement issues across Canada. It is also a partner in a new network in the Ottawa region on global and local refugee research involving Ottawa and Saint Paul universities. We also benefit from the work of the Centre for Conflict Education and Research (CCER) in the Department of Law, which carries out academic research and professional training on an approach known as the Insight method of conflict mediation. With strong links to federal departments, the centre also works with local agencies. Among other projects, CCER provides mediation counseling in disagreements between citizens and the Ottawa Police Service. Disputes can arise between the police and visible minority groups, in particular. Another research centre, the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development, works to strengthen the capacities of non-profit organizations. Many of these non-profits serve groups defined by their ethnicity and cultural interests. However, if such organizations are to serve their constituents well, they clearly need to be well-governed, well-managed, well-funded and well-aligned with the regulatory framework within which they must operate. One of our centres, the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation, works with the social economy and on new products that finance social enterprises. The centre is working with pension funds, credit unions and trade unions, as well as social-economy groups, to find ways of unlocking funds in the big capital pools, like pension funds and endowments, in order to finance affordable housing projects, which often serve immigrant groups and other diverse communities in the City of Ottawa. The centre is also collaborating with the United Way’s Leadership Table on Homelessness and the Ottawa Community Loan Fund to build a new social real estate investment fund for Ottawa that will spur a significant expansion of new affordable housing units. SSHRC funds have been used to develop an evaluation framework for this planned investment fund. Finally, at Carleton University we are building a new tool: a website dedicated to community engagement. Inspired by the work of the non-profit Community-Based Research Network of Ottawa, this website is intended to be a collaborative and jointly managed instrument that will provide, among other things, a matching service for community groups that have work to be done, on the one hand, and faculty, students, courses and research projects that can meet those community needs, on the other hand. Again, many of the partner organizations we expect to work with through this website will be from diverse cultural communities. By facilitating joint action on problems that matter, and telling stories about this joint action, this website will serve as a tool for increased understanding across groups as well as better community and policy solutions. These are all strategies, then, which open up the university, and strengthen the links between the university and the community. Universities are evolving, and it is a stimulating time to work in universities on these issues. Universities can make a major contribution to society by enhancing understanding across cultural communities and by building social cohesion. There are many effective ways of carrying out these very important tasks. Bibliography Jackson, E. “The CUE Factor: Community-University Engagement for Social Innovation,” Open Source Business Resource, September 2008, 38-44 Directory: wp-content -> uploads -> 2011 2011 -> Voices of the Old Sea Norman Lewis 2011 -> Malevil Robert Merle 2011 -> The Elephant Keeper’s Children Peter Hoeg 2011 -> Jv packet •Mars Colonization Affirmative •Mars Colonization Negative 2011 -> Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) omb no. 1024-0018 2011 -> All America Looks Up to Virginia;” Virginia and the Declaration of Independence 2011 -> Rao bulletin 2011 -> Christopher Columbus was born between 25 August and 31 October 1451 in 2011 -> The Battle of Frenchtown (1855), Washington Territory: the Political and Demographic Context rev 9/4/11 2011 -> Seti aff •seti neg •Asteroids Aff Download 411.59 Kb. Share with your friends:
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