Posts com a Tag ‘Between the Lines (E)’
New World coming: the sixties and the shaping of global consciousness – DUBINSKY (RBH)
DUBINSKY, Karen et al. New World coming: the sixties and the shaping of global consciousness. Toronto: Between the Lines, 2009. 515p. Resenha de: CORREA, Sílvio Marcus de Souza. Revista Brasileira de História. São Paulo, v.29, n.58, dez. 2009.
New World coming reúne mais de quarenta artigos apresentados durante um encontro internacional em junho de 2007, em Kingston (Canadá). Naquela ocasião, centenas de especialistas, estudantes e (ex-)militantes de vários países debateram sobre a década de 1960 e seus desdobramentos. Os artigos coligidos pelos editores para este livro representam amostra significativa de vários temas tratados durante quatro dias de verão na Queen’s University.
Apesar dos diferentes temas e enfoques, a formação de uma consciência global perpassa todos os artigos. Questões como raça, gênero, sexualidade, nacionalidade, classe, religião, imperialismo, colonialismo, sexismo e capitalismo foram tratadas a partir de diversos lugares; porém, como afirmam os editores de New World coming, “every locality has a global history”.
O quadro temporal das análises poderia dispensar maiores comentários sobre a sua relação com uma nova consciência global. No entanto, os próprios editores chamam atenção para a arbitrariedade ou fluidez de marcos, pois certas análises das tendências da década de 1960 podem ter a Guerra da Argélia (1954) ou a Conferência de Bandung (1955) por ponto de partida.
Ao levar em conta certos movimentos de resistência e protesto em várias localidades do globo, os editores de New World coming apresentam um con-junto de contribuições sobre as mudanças culturais, sociais e políticas da década de 1960 com base em suas particularidades históricas. Também logram enfoques inovadores com grupos de atores até então pouco conhecidos como, por exemplo, mulheres em Havana, jovens em Dacar, exilados caribenhos em Montreal ou trabalhadores porto-riquenhos em Nova York. O Ocidente deixa, portanto, de ser o epicentro de um mundo em transformação.
A primeira parte do livro (Nation-Descolonization-Liberation) explora as implicações do nacional para vários movimentos de libertação. Movimentos de descolonização na África e de redemocratização na América Latina não foram, todavia, o eixo temático dos 12 artigos que compõem a primeira sessão do livro. Movimentos de protesto e de resistência no Canadá, nos Estados Unidos, na Alemanha, na Itália e na Holanda são apresentados como elos de uma mesma cadeia, ou seja, de uma solidariedade internacional emergente na década de 1960. Estranheza causa a ausência de um artigo sobre a “revolução tranquila” no Québec. Ainda mais quando o assunto é nação, descolonização e libertação nos anos 60.
A segunda parte do livro (Cultural Citizenship) é composta por 12 artigos que enfatizam a circulação de ideias e valores em um mundo globalizado, ou melhor, em esfera cultural transnacional. São contribuições sobre novas subjetividades que se expressam por meio de produtos culturais, como filmes, músicas, peças teatrais e pôsteres, que circulam por vários espaços diferentes e que conectam pessoas através do mundo porque elas compartilham um novo imaginário social. Mas não se trata da cidadania dos habitantes da aldeia global de Marshall McLuhan. A maioria desses cidadãos se encontra em lugares desfavorecidos como um gueto em Chicago ou uma favela em São Paulo. Festivais de arte, manifestações da cultura popular e movimentos de contracultura foram tratados por vários especialistas, tendo por objetos de estudo a representação revolucionária no cinema cubano, o teatro de trabalhadores rurais na Suécia, os refritos da música pop internacional e sua importância para jovens mexicanos, o sentido de resistência da música soul na Tanzânia, o Primeiro Festival Mundial de Arte Negra, em Dacar (1966), a arte dos pôsteres de protestos etc.
Na terceira parte do livro (Mobilizing Bodies), dez artigos tratam da complexa politização do corpo durante aquela década. Destaque para a segunda onda do movimento feminista e seus desdobramentos. É nessa sessão do livro que aparece o único artigo sobre algo que se passou no Brasil à época. A organização dos primeiros grupos de conscientização de mulheres é o tema do artigo da historiadora Joana Maria Pedro (UFSC), que demonstra como outras professoras universitárias, com base em suas experiências nos Estados Unidos nos anos 60, introduziram em São Paulo e no Rio de Janeiro o modelo de consciousness-raising group. Esses primeiros grupos de conscientização foram organizados no início da década de 1970 e teriam uma função de rizoma, no sentido que Felix Guattari empresta ao termo. A conexão entre a segunda onda do feminismo em nível internacional e o que se organiza em termos de grupos de conscientização no Brasil nas décadas de 1970 e 1980 acusa um movimento de libertação que não deixa de ter suas implicações com a redemocratização da sociedade brasileira. Nesta terceira sessão do livro, o movimento feminista em Cuba, o radicalismo do feminismo nos Estados Unidos, o pacifismo e a consciência ecológica no Canadá e alhures são tratados de forma crítica. Injustificável é a falta de um artigo sobre a mobilização do corpo homossexual nessa década.
A quarta parte do livro (Lasting Legacies) enfoca alguns movimentos políticos e paisagens culturais forjadas durante a década de 1960. Ao tratar de algumas questões como a democracia participativa, os autores dos oito artigos que compõem esta última sessão fazem um tipo de balanço dos anos 60 com base na identificação de alguns de seus desdobramentos nas décadas seguintes. Por epílogo, tem-se uma avaliação das possibilidades e problemáticas do ‘Terceiro Mundo’. Algumas alternativas de cenário(s) futuro(s) são esboçadas, num louvável esforço intelectual para superar qualquer teoria de modernização, mas que mais parece um trabalho de Sísifo. Interessante é a atualização da alcunha de Albert Sauvy, inspirada no famoso panfleto do abade Sieyès, Qu’est–ce que le Tiers État? (1789). Ao almejar seu reconhecimento, o Terceiro Mundo transformaria seu potencial revolucionário em ato. Seriam essas experiências relatadas e analisadas em New World coming os indicadores de uma consciência global que, ancorada na solidariedade internacional e no reconhecimento da liberdade e da alteridade, emerge de um passado recente e serve de orientação para a construção de um novo mundo.
A proposta eclética de New World coming trata da década de 1960 e de seus desdobramentos com base em certos grupos em seus espaços da vida cotidiana. São trajetórias por geografias que implicam uma história sem centro, porém em conexão num mundo cada vez mais globalizado.
New World coming logra um mosaico da formação de uma consciência global a partir da década de 1960. Nesse sentido, a panóplia de movimentos de resistência sugere um grande movimento libertário, mesmo com seus descompassos e suas particularidades. Apesar do ecletismo e a descentralização da história proposta pelo livro, tem-se a impressão de que uma interpretação teleológica de história emerge do conjunto dos textos, como se um fim imaginado (de liberdade) fosse o ponto de partida em direção à década de 1960, período grávido de movimentos sociais, culturais e políticos que baliza(ra)m os caminhos atuais rumo ao reconhecimento da(s) liberdade(s). Enfim, um passado recente parece ter sido analisado com base num futuro próximo.
As evidências do legado dos anos 60 apontariam, então, para variações desse movimento global de libertação: os exemplos do movimento feminista em Cuba, no Brasil ou na Palestina, do pacifista de mulheres norte-americanas, do antirracista de jovens africanos ou afro-americanos, do ecológico de ambientalistas de países setentrionais, do democrático de exilados latinoamericanos seriam como vários afluentes desaguando no oceano da liberdade.
A leitura instigante das dezenas de artigos de New World coming não deixa de ser tentadora na medida em que nos dá a impressão de provarmos de um futuro que se antecipa, talvez com pressa, como se o que podemos ter amanhã já foi esboçado ontem. O risco de uma racionalidade a posteriori está presente em todas as partes do livro; mas as evidências de uma consciência global diante das injustiças do mundo contemporâneo foram tratadas com acuidade pelos articulistas. Resta saber até que ponto certa nostalgia da década de 1960 tolhe as análises e sínteses elaboradas pelos editores e coautores do livro.
Sílvio Marcus de Souza Correia – Doutor em sociologia pela Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (Alemanha); estágio de pós-doutorado, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), do Québec (Canadá). Depto. de História. Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas – UFSC. Cidade Universitária. 88040-900 Florianópolis – SC – Brasil. E-mail: [email protected].
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Talking About Identity: Encounters in Race, Ethnicity, and Language – JAMES; SHADD (CSS)
JAMES, Carl E.; SHADD, Adrienne. Editors. Talking About Identity: Encounters in Race, Ethnicity, and Language. 2nd Edition. Toronto: Between the Lines, 2001. 323p. Resenha de: HORTON, Todd. Canadian Social Studies, v.39, n.2, p., 2005.
As editors of a narrative anthology, James and Shadd have compiled a compelling series of stories exploring the complex perspectives of Canada’s racial, ethnic and linguistic minorities. Quotations are used to indicate that the term minorities can be considered by some to be marginalizing to the extent that it positions entire groups of people outside the mainstream majority, perpetuating their Otherness. However, as James states in the introduction, the term also indicate[s] the power relationships in our society: ‘majority’ represents not simply numbers, but the cultural group with political and economic power, as compared to the ‘minority,’ which does not have access to that power (p. 7). Using the work of Stuart Hall, James notes that in talking about ‘identity’ they view this core concept as a ‘production,’ which is never complete, always in process and always constituted within, not outside representation (p. 2). In this vein, James and Shadd have successfully created a book that makes explicit the complex ways personal exchanges and interactions influence and inform understandings of race, ethnic and language identities. It does this by focusing on the vicissitudes of people’s daily encounters and, with each powerfully written story, the reader comes to appreciate the contingent, contextual and relational nature of identities.
The stories are clustered into five themed parts: Who’s Canadian Anyway?; Growing Up Different; Roots to Identity, Routes to Knowing; Race, Privilege, and Challenges; and, Confronting Stereotypes and Racism. Each part provides a space for the contributing authors to voice their individual experiences and interpretations of living in a world that defines people by their race, ethnicity and language.
In a selection from Part I entitled Where Are You Really From?: Notes of an ‘Immigrant’ from North Buxton, Ontario co-editor turned author Adrienne Shadd deftly weaves a story of invisibility and marginalization based on the title question. Shadd illustrates how the four hundred year history of Blacks in Canada has been made invisible in both this country and throughout the world leading to the widespread belief that there is no such thing as a Black Canadian save for recently arrived immigrants. She also draws on her experiences growing up in North Buxton, Ontario a rural Black community near Chatham once famous as a settlement of ex-slaves who escaped from the United States on the Underground Railroad to explore her views on the overlap of caste and class in the public consciousness and the affirmation that can come from education in segregated schools. However, the crux of the story is found in the complexity of daily encounters when varying forms of the question where are you really from are asked. Shadd explains how displays of frustration and annoyance to her answer of Canada and the pursuit of an answer that more satisfies the inquisitor’s conception of a Canadian marginalizes her in her own country. As Shadd explains, you are unintentionally denying me what is rightfully mine my birthright, my heritage and my long-standing place in the Canadian mosaic (p. 15). Still, Shadd is not content to tie up the point in a neat little package. Instead, she ends with an encounter that blows open the discussion again as a Guatemalan Canadian tells her that except for the Native people, the rest of us are just immigrants anyway (p. 16).
While the stories in Part I focus on issues of Canadian-ness, the stories in Part II explore the experiences of growing up, that precarious time when being seen as different or viewing oneself as different can be most traumatic. Stan Isoki, a teacher living in Ontario, relates his encounters with race in a story entitled Present Company Excluded, Of CourseRevisited. Here, Isoki takes the unusual step of updating his first edition manuscript by interjecting more recent commentary and reflection. The effect for the reader is the feeling of a dialogue between who and what the author was and who and what they have become. Isoki, a Canadian of Japanese heritage, shares his feelings of being made to feel both visible and invisible, saving his most potent criticism for several teachers who taught him as a boy and those with whom he worked as a colleague. The criticism is not vitriolic or vituperative, though he has every right to heap mountains of scorn on these individuals given their charge of educating young minds. Instead, Isoki’s critique is a cry for awareness and sensitivity on the part of teachers (and governments) as well as a call to action to re-create a vision of Canada that is truly multicultural.
One of the most insightful stories appears in Part III. Written by Howard Ramos and entitled It Was Always There: Looking for Identity in All the (Not) So Obvious Places, a road side encounter in northeastern New Brunswick is the catalyst for an exploration of the author’s feelings about his father’s identification with Canada and lack of connection to his native Ecuador. This also leads to a period of self-reflection about the ways the author has positioned his father as not quite Canadian and himself as having little or no relationship to his Ecuadorian heritage. Drawing on the work of Ernest Renan and Benedict Anderson, Ramos comes to understand that identity, like nation-building, is a process of forgetting, misinterpreting and re-creating symbols and markers (p. 108). His father, in an effort to become Canadian, forgot his past while subtly sharing that past, that part of who he is, with his son. Ramos, in turn had to acknowledge his misinterpretation of what it means to be Canadian and the boundaries he has created that prevent his father from being who he wishes to be. He also had to recognize his connection to his Ecuadorian heritage as something that was always there, waiting to be embraced in the fullest sense of Canada’s yet to be achieved society based on multiculturalism and acceptance of diversity.
One of the most compelling contributions to the book occurs in Part V. Entitled I Didn’t Know You Were Jewishand Other Things Not To Say When You Find Out, Ivan Kalmar’s piece initially caused me a great deal of discomfort which, I believe, was his intent. Written in a quasi-advice column style, Kalmar refers to the reader as you fostering the feeling of being spoken and occasionally lectured to directly. My feelings of consternation stemmed from indignation at his assumption that I, an educated person, would ever be culturally insensitive. This is mixed with feelings of guilt as I secretly admit to myself that I may indeed have said things or acted in just the ways he describes. Once passed what at times felt like an assault on my enlightened self, I read and re-read his reasoning for offering such advice. In each case, Kalmar thoughtfully demonstrates the challenge of being culturally sensitive, noting that what is often intended as a compliment or search for common conversational ground can also be interpreted as intolerant and insulting. This duality can be frustrating, but just as you feel like you will never be able to get it right or that no matter what you do someone will take offense, Kalmar acknowledges that most people have purity of intent and exhorts that he simply wishes to encourage consideration of his points and reconsideration of our words and actions. The coda to the piece emphasizes a generosity of spirit toward people as they struggle to live in a world characterized by multiple perspectives on identity, saying that even if we occasionally slip up, not to worry as we mean well. As he says, I’m not only a Jew. I am a human being, like you (p. 240).
James and Shadd’s book was written as an effort to make explicit how identities related to race, ethnicity and language influence and inform individuals’ life experiences and relationships (p. 2) and in this regard it succeeds brilliantly. Highly readable, the book is applicable to any university course wishing to delve into the complex world of identities. While not written for secondary school, portions of this book could be used by teachers to introduce a concept, encourage discussion or address a relevant issue. Indeed, there are few more effective entry points into discussions of race, ethnicity and language than the daily encounter.
Todd Horton – Faculty of Education. Nipissing University. North Bay, Ontario.
[IF]Skills Mania: Snake Oil in Our Schools? – DAVIS (CSS)
DAVIS Bob. Skills Mania: Snake Oil in Our Schools? Toronto: Between The Lines, 2000. 224p. Resenha de: SENGER, Elizabeth. Canadian Social Studies, v.36, n.2, 2002.
Bob Davis takes a critical look at the state of education. He contends that there is currently a dangerous trend in which teachers are encouraged to emphasize the attainment and development of skills at the cost of all other aspects of education. The main theme of this book is perhaps best summed up in Davis’ own words: these skills should be anchored incontent, conviction, allegiances, real human beings and, in general, a commitment to helping students understand history, learn about the world and consider ways to make it a better place to live (.p 9). He does not contend that skills are unnecessary, only that when we emphasize one aspect of education at the expense of all others we are not doing justice to our students, ourselves or our world.
Skills Mania is clearly a book for the professional development library. It is intended for teachers of all grade levels and subjects. Davis addresses what he sees as the problems of skills mania, and makes some concrete suggestions for dealing with these issues. He provides specific examples from his own extensive teaching experiences to demonstrate his convictions. These are difficult issues and Davis tackles them with passion and insight, with idealism but also realism. While some of the things he suggests make perfect sense, some of them require a total commitment of body and soul which I personally do not believe is realistic. On the other hand, the idealism he provides is necessary in order to clarify some very important goals that educators need to work toward.
Throughout the book Davis emphasizes the need for a balance of methods and styles. He makes it clear that there is no one best way, and that we need to use the best aspects of established educational practices, new theories and ideas, and constantly refine them. He also takes a somewhat controversial (but in my mind courageous and important) position when he states that it is necessary to help instil an understanding of good and bad, positive and negative in our students. One of his main criticisms of skills mania is that it encourages students to see through all eyes, but establish a commitment to nothing. This implies that there is no right and wrong, and that anything goes as long as it suits your fancy. In these times of political correctness taken to the Nth degree, Davis is certainly justified in criticizing such attitudes.
Davis also encourages the valuing of personal experiences, and integrating these experiences into our teaching and learning. Further, he understands and advocates the interconnectedness of all subjects. We do not teach students in isolation from the rest of the world or their prior knowledge; nor can we realistically believe that we teach subjects in isolation from each other. Ultimately, Davis says we need to help our kids function in the educational system which currently exists, and at the same time work for meaningful changes to the way we educate the citizens of the future. As with any good piece of literature, this book needs to be read with a critical eye and with an open mind.
Elizabeth Senger – Henry Wise Wood High School. Calgary Alberta.
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