Advanced Training in Co-Creating Avenues for Culture and Sustainable Development
Workshop I: University of Cape Coast | Ghana 3rd–12th December 2022
Workshop II: Zeppelin University | Germany 26th–30th April 2023
Workshop III: Bayimba Centre for Visual and Performing Arts | Uganda 26th August–3rd September 2023
The concept of culture occupies an increasingly important place in international discourses on sustainable development. This underlines the relevance of developing culture- and context-specific approaches. The focus on the cultural dimension of development and transformation processes, which is based on the recognition of local identities and grassroots participation, thus promotes multidimensional development, which was already stated at the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policy in Mexico City in 1982 (Stupples 2014). The approach followed aims to enable a form of development and transformation that "goes beyond mere economic growth and integrates all dimensions of life and all energies of a community whose members must all share in the economic and social transformation efforts and in the benefits of the resulting outcomes" (Torggler et al. 2015: 6, own translation). Accordingly, the cultural dimension of development becomes a key approach.
Especially in social and political conflict situations, the role of culture is considered highly relevant. In northern Nigeria, the terrorist group Boko Haram (the term literally means "Western education is forbidden") has been destroying villages and towns since 2009, targeting institutions, such as universities, that they believe promote Western education. Universities can therefore resist and help build sustainable peace.
The project ‚Advanced Training in Co-Creating Avenues for Culture and Sustainable Development’ aims to provide postdoctoral researchers and graduates in cultural sciences from West Africa with professional competencies for solving development-relevant issues in the field of culture and development (including the Sustainable Development Goals). The transfer of academic knowledge into practice is also promoted with a focus on local cultural community projects. A further goal is the acquisition of competencies of the postdoctoral researchers from West Africa in academic soft skills, especially with regard to pedagogical methods and the development and application of international research proposals.
In three eight-day training events in Ghana (2022), Germany (2023) and Uganda (2023), 15 selected postdoctoral researchers, graduates and alumni of the SDG Graduate School „Performing Sustainability: Cultures and Development in West Africa“ will be taught comprehensive skills in the area of culture and development. The three training workshops will consist of theoretical and practical sessions as well as excursions to transfer academic knowledge into practice. Further training on soft skills (e.g. university didactics, online teaching, transcultural skills) is an additional part of the program. Through mutual knowledge transfer in South-South, South-North and North-South dialogues, both regional and international networking is implemented and development-relevant issues are examined from different perspectives. Experts in interdisciplinary fields (cultural studies, cultural policy, art, transformation and conflict studies, research methods, soft skills) from Germany, Europe, West and East Africa teach specific teaching units.
