Insights: Prof. C. Fred Alford “Forgiveness is Not To Make Us Feel Better”

Today Professor C. Fred Alford gave a very insightful talk about his take on forgiveness in a room filled to the brim. Here are some preliminary insights taken from this lecture. Professor Alford is the author of “Trauma and Forgiveness: Consequences and Communities” (read our review here). Continue reading

Insights: Prof. Barbara Finkelstein on The Rise of Two New Age Cosmopolitans: 1979-2012

A first attempt in gleaning some of the insights shared during the afternoon talks of the conference on Children and Youth in an Interconnected World, presenting a broad range of distinguished speakers, all talking about the role of children and youth in this fast-changing world.

The Rise of Two New Age Cosmopolitans: 1979-2012

Emerita Professor Barbara Finkelstein gives an inspiration talk about the changes we are facing today. She asks herself why we are teaching children this cliche-lesson “Stranger Danger” – so that we learn to fear everyone that looks different? It is complicated. How can we conceive of a diverse world if we take this ‘stranger-danger’ as the basic premise? So, she says, she is not going to take this as a starting point to look at children in a changing interconnected world. Continue reading

Insights: Prof. Cindi Katz on “Good Childhood, Social Childhood”

A gleaning of some of the insights shared during the conference on Children and Youth in an Interconnected World, full of presentations from a broad range of distinguished speakers, all talking about the role of children and youth in this fast-changing world.

Follow the latest news on the conference through #LOTLUMD at Twitter!

Good Childhood, Social Childhood

Professor Cindi Katz, City University of New York, starts her lecture by asking the question what do we mean by ‘good’? Asking this and without wanting to getting a banal answer, it turns out to be a difficult question, a more difficult question than asking what is ‘bad’. The messy spaces of civil society form the geographies of social reproduction, shaped by political economic processes and by struggles to survive and resist those processes. Without social justice, there is not going to be healthy social reproduction and security. Continue reading

Insights: Dr Michael Robb on Technology Addiction

A gleaning of some of the insights shared during the conference on Children and Youth in an Interconnected World, full of presentations from a broad range of distinguished speakers, all talking about the role of children and youth in this fast-changing world.

Follow the latest news on the conference through #LOTLUMD at Twitter!

Technology Addiction: Cause For Concern of Media Hype?

Dr. Michael Robb discusses how the concept of ‘technology addiction’ comes with a lot of prejudices. Families, educators and policy makers rely on ratings that reflect research on appropriate use of technology and media based on age, but there are many controversial ideas floating around on our complicated relationship with technology. Is it the mere hours spent with technology? Or is this addiction-panic a moral phenomenon? If you look closer, technology is mostly used to access more traditional media like music and television. Continue reading

Insights: Prof. Peter N. Stearns Modern Patterns and its influence on Childhood

A gleaning of some of the insights shared during the talks during the conference on Children and Youth in an Interconnected World, presenting a broad range of distinguished speakers, all talking about the role of children and youth in this fast-changing world.

Follow the latest news on the conference through #LOTLUMD at Twitter!

Modern Childhoods: Adjustment, Variety, and Stress

Professor Peter N. Stearns from George Msaon University talks about the modern patterns that influence the experience and role of children in society. According to him, the four basic modern changes are the following: first the transition from children as a source of labor towards children as students, with the primary obligation to learn. Secondly, the reduced birth rates. Thirdly, the reduction in children’s death rates. And the fourth change, although all these shifts are interconnected, government interest in children, whereas before responsibility for children was left to parents and educators. Continue reading

Insights: Prof. Fruma Zachs on The Private World of Women and Children

A first attempt in gleaning some of the insights shared during the talks during the afternoon of the conference on Children and Youth in an Interconnected World, presenting a broad range of distinguished speakers, all talking about the role of children and youth in this fast-changing world.

Follow the latest news on the conference through #LOTLUMD at Twitter!

The Private World of Women and Children: Lullabies and Nursery Rhymes in 19th Century Greater Syria – Professor Fruma Zachs

Professor F. Zachs from the University of Haifa, Israel, talks about the research on the private world of women through preserved narratives of nursery rhymes. In the last twenty years  children have finally begun to be  researched as a topic of themselves, not just from the perspective of adult worlds and family. Nursery rhymes as oral folklore emphasizes certain themes, like suffering and the child’s world, but in the Arabic world this is not yet studied extensively. In her work, Professor Zachs analyses these nursery rhymes to show new insight into the emotional and interconnected world of children and their families. Continue reading

Insights: Conference on Children and Youth Day One

A first attempt at gleaning some of the insights shared this first morning of the conference on Children and Youth in an Interconnected World, full of presentations from a broad range of distinguished speakers, all talking about the role of children and youth in this fast-changing world.

Follow the latest news on the conference through #LOTLUMD on Twitter!

Globalization 2.0: Children and Youth in an Interconnected World.

Professor Marcelo Suarez-Orozco from the University of California, Los Angeles, brought up many interesting statistics as how migration is the human face of globalization as we know it now. Many cities are moving towards superdiversity hubs, where immigrants become the majority. In many places two-thirds of the children in the classroom are from immigrant backgrounds. It is the value of family that drives migration. But how might one use this challenge as an opportunity? Education is the key, making use of the multilinguistic capacities and the often missed ability of this diverse group of children to learn and reflect on their learning. Continue reading

Book Review: Ethics by Baruch Spinoza

Sometimes you finally get to read that book that makes things fall into place. No matter how much modern philosophy you read, without tracing those thoughts back to their place of origin, you will miss a lot. And who would have thought that this little book by Spinoza (1632-1677), who was ostracized for thinking outside of the limits the religious community he grew up in had put on him, would be such an eye-opener? Nowadays Spinoza’s work is an inspiration not only for philosophers, but also across different religious communities. In 1929 Einstein wrote “I believe in Spinoza’s God.” [Source] So why is Spinoza’s legacy still such an inspiration today? Continue reading