Social responsibility: culture - research - language
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Juell Towns. Kyler Speich. Meagan Peckover.
We start with a land acknowledgement, in recognizing that this is part of our understanding of social responsibility.
Importance of (settlers') understanding responsibility
- Recognizing tribal people as their own sovereign nations
- Spreading awareness about the historical context that has led to the occupation of this land by non Native and non indigenous settlers.
- Providing space to reflect on the ways non-natives currently inhabit this land, dominate resource consumption and exist within this still active process of colonization..in doing this we are supporting truth telling.
How do you see your understanding of social responsibility as being influenced by culture?
Indigenous understandings of Social Responsibility:
Book example:
- “there is a particular lack of research in accounting that focuses upon accounting and it’s interrelationship with indigenous peoples and their culture’ (Gallhofer & Chew, 2000, p. 262).
- Showing concern for and meaningful engagement with local communities
- How do we as a society uphold the many values of the Indigenous and Native people of/to this land?
Book example:
Did you find other examples in the book of social responsibility that felt meaningful to you?
Literature on Social Responsibility:
Individual Studies: Looking to study climate change effects on banana and coffee plantations
- Anthropologist Barbra Johnston ““In the social contract that structures such work , the power to define the terms of research is in the anthropologist hands, and the nature of the research subject relationship is necessarily hierarchical rather than equitable.”(Johnston, 2010: Pg 235)
- Went to work with the UN on human rights issues and research because they saw an issue that needed solving.
- Social responsibility works on multiple scales
- How are the solutions of modern problems framed?
- “Studies of the Marshall Islands are often focused on loss of life, but what is the value of the loss of land when such loss not only harms the individual, household or community but also results in the loss of the means to support and sustain a cultural way of life?”
Individual Studies: Looking to study climate change effects on banana and coffee plantations
- Is there anything problematic with introducing a study on a population that didn’t ask for it?
- Could there be repercussions for exposing the vulnerability of the plantation system?
- Who are the my best partners to suggest doing this study to?
- What are my true intentions?
How does American social responsibility look different from that of other countries and cultures?
Linguistic Human Rights:
- The UN has dubbed 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages in order to raise awareness of the effects of language endangerment on our world.
- “The ongoing loss of indigenous languages is particularly devastating, as the complex knowledges and cultures they foster are increasingly being recognized as strategic resources for good governance, peacebuilding, reconciliation, and sustainable development. More importantly, such losses have huge negative impacts indigenous peoples’ most basic human rights.
source: https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/2019/01/2019-international-year-of-indigenous-languages/
- “Like species, languages too can be thought of as occupying ecological niches….
- “The vocabulary of a language is an inventory of the items a culture talks about and has categorized in order to make sense of the world and to survive in a local ecosystem...
- “A cover story for Time magazine entitled ‘Lost Tribes, Lost Knowledge’ in 1991 claimed that when native cultures disappear, so does a trove of scientific and medical wisdom…[however] the role of human languages as the main agents of cultural transmission was barely acknowledged.”
source: Vanishing Voices, Nettle and Romaine, 2000
What is your responsibility toward speakers of minority languages?
In our original lesson plan, we created an activity to rewrite the PSU University Studies definition of Social Responsibility after our in-class discussions. However, we ended up having such fruitful and engaged discussions that we did not have time to do our activity. As the activity remains in the lesson plan, the definition is given below.
Activity: rewrite the UNST definition of Social Responsibility, based on our discussion.
Original (note: the definition was recently revised to include the information starting at the asterisk)-
to expand and understand the impact and value of individuals and their choices on society both intellectually and socially, *through group projects and collaboration in learning communities.
Activity: rewrite the UNST definition of Social Responsibility, based on our discussion.
Original (note: the definition was recently revised to include the information starting at the asterisk)-
to expand and understand the impact and value of individuals and their choices on society both intellectually and socially, *through group projects and collaboration in learning communities.
How does what we’ve shared today feed into your personal journey and understanding of what it means to effect change?
Very brief notes on our in-class discussions:
DQ: How do you see your understanding of social responsibility as being influenced by culture?
DQ: Did you find other examples in the book of social responsibility that felt meaningful to you?
DQ: What is your responsibility toward speakers of minority languages?
DQ: How does what we’ve shared today feed into your personal journey and understanding of what it means to effect change?
(We were unable to get to this discussion question in class, but we asked it as a parting thought, so we invite you, too, in reading this, to think about the information presented in our lesson plan and to consider what it means to you in your journey towards effecting change.)
DQ: How do you see your understanding of social responsibility as being influenced by culture?
- Started by talking about the seven generations concept (making social plans and structures to last for seven generations in the future)... America is individualistic…. Comparison between indigenous views of social responsibility and American: 5 guys burgers and fries peanuts—threw the peanuts on the ground because it’s someone else’s job to clean it up; this horrified her friend Osage OK… environmental lens: our culture is very disposable; there is no away, except for Americans; where you live makes a difference…. Food systems and where food comes from… personal/familial/social responsibility; the buck stops with who? Who is the one that takes action? Reflect more on personal values and personal responsibility… our culture is built to avoid social responsibility… Mongolian culture eats lots of meat; other people might think this is bad; justify it with history and tradition and norms… growing up in church; younger people feel like they have 2nd hand faith which caused conflict; older people were stuck keeping their own status that caused people to feel left out; missing a service mindset; what is the congregations responsibility to the younger generation and to the world?… people treated differently based on how they’re dressed; accepting for only a certain people group, not inclusive to everyone… clergy father had a hard time accepting a marriage between atheist and religious upbringing; feels that it is his responsibility as a religious leader to shift and modify… visibility: we’re living in a time where vulnerability and transparency are sought after; it’s possible to be strong and vulnerable at the same time; disconnect is no longer available to us; it used to be ok to hide your vulnerability; ignorance reined because no one was willing to share; moving away from cognitive dissonance… TED the danger of a single story: when we look at people as one sole thing (Africa= starving children), then we generalize and stereotype; understand ourselves first…Narrative 4 and story sharing, getting outside of some one single story; recognizing vulnerability as a strength… places where people think you shouldn’t go; Virginia City (‘ghost town’); Hawaiian ‘bachi’ (?) that places that you know of but can’t go; colonizer mindset- that there are places that I can’t go or shouldn’t go; as colonizers we don’t share many of those ideals; manifest destiny is ours…
DQ: Did you find other examples in the book of social responsibility that felt meaningful to you?
- This is the commonality between all the stories, that all of them are involved in social responsibility, within their own community; no one is asking them, but it’s necessary… the problem with our culture right now is that people don’t take agency from their problems… we say it’s ‘no one’s responsibility’ but it is always someone’s responsibility, we just don’t acknowledge that… we have to feel the tangible need to do something; tragedy of the commons…
- Colonial mindset; what does helping actually look like?... the idea of questioning how we champion authority; in this country we love looking to the expert for the answers… Manila: savior state complex; don’t show anything on the media till after state representatives get there, which devalues the local community who is actually rebuilding to begin with; valuing the complexity of human beings; social responsibility works at different scales… don’t enter a community with assumptions but pursue them first; instead of going somewhere and help, but rather go places and try to learn first… UW orientation, ‘go somewhere and do something,’ assumption that the community needs what we have… recognizing that bulldozing through for research is not the best thing for the community (Kyler’s story)… story in the book of Cycleyatra; brilliant ideas to share but not realizing how that would interact in the cultural space; ‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot’ letting women have their space in that community… stories among male peers that there’s nothing they can do that’s right, but it’s conversation that matters; ask first, then go from there; can’t mansplain to the entire world… ultimately we’re steadily losing our meaning, the thing that ties us together, that makes us a group (family, community, etc.); we value only stuff, and the more you have the more important you are; but underneath everything we want connection; the fundamental question is how do we bring connection to peoples’ lives? We have to do that with the resources we have now; social problems are immensely complex and we don’t always have control over them; but inspiring people to be part of a community is much more meaningful; sometimes trying gets in the way of other things… inspiring others, each of us has a role, so it may be something really simple, but it’s that which makes a difference… purpose in integrity; kavena… saw a black truck going down the highway, and the person driving it is wearing a white-collar job; why use a fuel consuming vehicle for commuting; in Japan, they have a displacement tax where anything over 2 liters of fuel consumption gets taxed higher; American entitlement… unintended consequences of having a tax like that that might limit low income residents, disproportionately affect vulnerable people… hard to convince people to take social responsibility without regulation… it will become more inexpensive to travel with micro cars than to own your own car; this will cause the whole transportation system to change; which may make the petroleum industry collapse; a solution for climate change is on the horizon, but …
DQ: What is your responsibility toward speakers of minority languages?
- Allowing others to speak; taking the backseat on a conversation… immersion programs in Spanish; I am limited to just what I can speak; there is no transmission of self and culture is impossible… feeling displaced in Japan, where English is second; not able to make friends with any of the native community because there was a language barrier… English is a dominant language all over; everyone learns English; nobody speaks Mongolian, however; when you don’t understand because of the language barrier; you feel like you don’t matter; what it feels like when you’re in a crisis and you don’t speak the majority language, which means that you often have to communicate in a second language… coming in for tutoring learning science in their non-native language; watching tutors communicate in second languages to non-native speakers; reference book with science terminology for overcoming language barriers; the frustration of not communicating, workshopping …
DQ: How does what we’ve shared today feed into your personal journey and understanding of what it means to effect change?
(We were unable to get to this discussion question in class, but we asked it as a parting thought, so we invite you, too, in reading this, to think about the information presented in our lesson plan and to consider what it means to you in your journey towards effecting change.)