In this term, the Culture Working Group (CWG) started a new initiative that will make our streets and societies more cultural by very easy actions that can be carried out by individuals or by locals. In other words, the aim is to have Culture Everywhere, which is also the name of the action.

Each month CWG members decide upon a cultural topic, and gather online to brainstorm about possible activities. Later on all these ideas are shared with the AEGEE boards in order to encourage them to improve the cultural situation in the places they live in. Of course, all the suggestions are collected in the CWG website as well.

Last month the kick off topic was literature and AEGEE-Budapest was one of the locals that got very enthusiastic when they got to know about it. On a cold evening in December some of their members met at a really artistic place of Budapest, to be able to feel inspired by the culture and the arts and the good work started.

They wanted to prepare something simple but interesting at the same time. In the end among all the suggestions they decided to combine two of them to get a more effective result: a flash mob to promote public book sharing.

Some days later, six of them met at the Móricz Zsigmond körtér, one of Budapest’s most crowded places, with the intention to show how rich and important the Hungarian literature is. The plan was as follows: some of them would stand in different parts of the square and start reading passages of Füveskönyv, one of the books of Sándor Márai, where this famous Hungarian writer and poet quotes everyday life. After a while the courageous readers would stop reading and leave the books on the benches next to them.

At first nobody was interested in the performance, but later more and more people started to listen to it. Most of the people were retired, but there were a lot of children too.

In any case, the experience was worth it, and even if no one dared to ask them what all this was about, people were enjoying: ”We felt that we did something cultural, and we gave some beauty to the grey and boring weekdays. I think it was a great start of the project and we are excited about the next topics”, says Dóra Andorkó, coordinator of the event of AEGEE-Budapest.

Now the CWG is in the month of photography, so what are you waiting for? Let’s have Culture Everywhere!

Written by Dóra Andorkó, AEGEE-Budapest and Guillermo García Tabarés, AEGEE-Barcelona and member of the Culture Working Group

Photos by Zsanett Dobra, AEGEE-Budapest.

“Do the textbooks we learn from in school reveal and shape national attitudes?” This was the title for the first online thematic discussion of the renewed Culture Working Group (CWG) that was held in early December 2012. Even though it was a rather cold evening, there we were ten enthusiast members to discuss the power of textbooks and to influence one another from a cultural and national point of view.

So, why focusing on such a topic? After all, textbooks are the first books that children have in their hands and that somehow shape their first perceptions of the world. Their contents are mostly decided upon by governments, who might use their influence to introduce a rather nationalistic component. As the discussion went further, we realized that this was more complicated than it seemed.

West vs. East: Do we as Europeans learn the same?

One of the things that shocked most of us immediately was that, whereas most of the Central and Eastern European countries have a wider overview on Europe’s history, Western European students tend to focus more on their area and simply forget about the East. “We only learn about the USSR, the fall of the Soviet Union, and not much more”, most of them recalled.

All the members agreed that, as Europeisation is going further, it is essential to learn more about our neighbours and try avoiding such Western-centrism. Kristóf Papp, from AEGEE-Budapest, mentioned this point as a key to strengthening a European identity. Guillermo García Tabarés, from AEGEE-Barcelona and CWG speaker, suggested that maybe “we shouldn’t go so deep into local level history, because it can promote nationalism without any based root, and go a bit more international to be able to understand our neighbours and accept them not as the traditional enemies”.

However, it’s true that it would be hard for most European countries to have the same attitude towards wars or some other recent events in our history, as Ola Zalecka, from AEGEE-Toruń, mentioned. Sebastian Hitz, from AEGEE-Heidelberg, added that “history teaching is not only about facts, but about analysis and interpretation” and that “nationalisms are shaped when history is taught in such a judging way”.

So, should we learn regional, state or international level?

In this sense, there is a strong division among countries. On the one hand, the Spanish and Italian participants that were at the discussion agreed that regional history, language and literature have a strong presence in textbooks’ contents. This can lead sometimes to a political confrontation between the centrist and nationalist parties ruling their country.

On the other hand, we learnt that other countries, such as Poland or Hungary, don’t pay extra attention to regions as much as national and international history. But we could observe some differences even in the same country, like in Italy. Alessio Caddeo from AEGEE-Venezia and Claudia Maria Scampinato from AEGEE-Catania exposed their views: whereas in Sardinia the content is more focused on Italian history, students in Sicily tend to learn more on their regional history.

With this in mind, the discussion led to two other questions. The first one was: Should Europeans learn about history focused more in a regional, national or international level, or even creating an European textbook? Even though we aim to create a European identity, we agreed that we shouldn’t keep our nations or regions aside, as Europe is based on its diversity.

We also discussed about the periods of history we should learn about. Should we focus on recent history rather than ancient one, in order to understand better our current situation? This led to a strong debate. Whereas some thought that we should indeed give more importance to contemporary history, others argued that we can learn a lot from the past, and that we often “have to go one step back in history to understand people’s behaviour”.

What can AEGEE do? 

However, we agreed that there’s still a long way to go to increase our awareness. Fortunately, we could count on some proposals for projects that could be developed within the CWG by our active members, and this was indeed very encouraging. After two hours and a half discussing we reached to the conclusion that AEGEE, as an organization concerned about European cultural awareness, plays an important and successful role.

We are on the right track since we have noticed that many of the Westerners have known and understood better the Eastern European history through other AEGEE members and the other way round.

Do you want to know more about textbooks? The following links will provide you with more information on the topic:

The Economist

CDSEE.org 

A textbook for Europe? 

Written by Anna Gumbau, AEGEE-Barcelona and member of the Culture Working Group

+ Do you know what the Working Groups did in Summer?

+ Are you aware of what kind of tasks they develop and which topics they are tackling?

+ Do you know what the Working Groups did in June?

+ Are you aware of what kind of tasks they develop and which topics they are tackling?

+ Do you know what the Working Groups did in May?

+ Are you aware of what kind of tasks they develop and which topics they are tackling?

+ Do want to know more about them but actually you never had the chance to do so?

Here you are, the Issue 5 of the Working Groups’ Monthly Newsletter – May 2012. You can have a brief update about what’s going on within them, get to know them better, and, if you want, become a part of them in the future. It couldn’t be any easier, do not wait more and choose the Working Group that fits you the best.

[issuu width=420 height=297 backgroundColor=%23222222 documentId=120628161509-f7f08ff4e3aa4609bf4f42a8f375513a name=working-groups-monthly-newsletter-may-2012 username=aegee-europe tag=culture unit=px v=2]

+ Do you know what the Working Groups did in April?

+ Are you aware of what kind of tasks they develop and which topics they are tackling?

+ Do want to know more about them but actually you never had the chance to do so?

Here you are, the Issue 4 of the Working Groups’ Monthly Newsletter – April 2012. You can have a brief update about what’s going on within them, get to know them better, and, if you want, become a part of them in the future. It couldn’t be any easier, do not wait more and choose the Working Group that fits you the best.

[issuu width=420 height=272 backgroundColor=%23222222 documentId=120628161150-7898cfee4f2e4f3ca41d1107c1ad0ca8 name=working-groups-monthly-newsletter-april-2012 username=aegee-europe tag=culture unit=px v=2]

+ Do you know what the Working Groups did in March?

+ Are you aware of what kind of tasks they develop and which topics they are tackling?

[issuu width=420 height=272 backgroundColor=%23222222 documentId=120628161007-3f105e0335ec4bee978d41854ceed3b3 name=working-groups-monthly-newsletter-march-2012 username=aegee-europe tag=culture unit=px v=2]

+ Do you know what the Working Groups did in February?

+ Are you aware of what kind of tasks they develop and which topics they are tackling?

[issuu width=420 height=272 backgroundColor=%23222222 documentId=120628160752-a1b23e8e3c57428abd9e8f20f976bd53 name=working-groups-monthly-newsletter-february-2012 username=aegee-europe tag=culture unit=px v=2]

+ Do you know what Working Groups did in January?

+ Are you aware of what kind of tasks they develop and which topics they are tackling?

[issuu width=420 height=272 backgroundColor=%23222222 documentId=120628160221-45db90e95a1043ec976ec26e34b8e556 name=working-groups-monthly-newsletter-january-2012 username=aegee-europe tag=culture unit=px v=2]