Mobility as an intercultural
training agenda: an awareness-raising programme
for youth workers and educators
This self-study
intercultural learning resource has been created for facilitators of mobility
programmes for young people. It helps youth facilitators gain a deeper
understanding of the challenges and opportunities that face the mobile young
people they work with. Users explore the intercultural aspects of the
‘mobility' phenomenon from different and sometimes unusual angles.
Mobility as an intercultural agenda
Mobility
is associated with both physical movement (for example travel across borders)
and more abstract movement (for example, social mobility). Mobility for young
people also involves moves into otherness through online communications or
through the media, literature and film. Further, for some young people,
mobility represents an opportunity - the freedom to choose where to study and
work, and with whom to associate. For others, it may involve the struggle to
overcome the constraints that society, tradition, and politics, for example,
place upon them. Mobility is not only what happens when young people move
between countries, but also the step they make to understand and decide to stand
out for the rights of their peers. Mobility is what young people require of
their parents and elders when trespassing against dominant values such as those
governing sexuality and morality. Mobility can make young people realise how
privileged they are but also realise how discriminated against they may be.
Meeting a challenging training agenda
If
they are to play a full, valued and respected and respectful part in their
local, national and international contexts, young people need mobility of
ideas, attitudes, expectations and practices. They need this for their
encounters with cultural otherness. Such mobility also lies at the heart of the
respect for fundamental human rights and the engagement with the challenges of
inequality and conflict. When mobility is viewed like this, the training agenda
can seem daunting. We hope that this resource plays a small part in reducing
this challenge. If youth facilitators are to be effective in their support of
young people, they themselves need to fully understand these newer skills and
awareness and we be clearer about how they can help young people develop them.
Interested persons can use the learning resource free of charge. All they have to do is
register
Mobility for Young People was created within an international partnership project that was
co-financed by the Anna
Lindh Foundation. The project started in September 2009 and finished in
June 2010.
The overall goal of the project is to contribute to the
professional development of youth workers by enhancing their understandings of
youth mobility in the complexity of contemporary living.
The
project started in September 2009 and finished in June 2010.
The
project partnership involved six organisations. These are:
AHA moments, Centre of intercultural learning, based in
Sofia, Bulgaria
Al-Hayat centre for civil society development, in Irbid, Jordan
Centre for international business culture, Istanbul, Turkey
Development no borders, Cairo, Egypt
Association of civil society and development institute,
Eskisehir, Turkey
Jordan youth innovation forum, Amman, Jordan
The overall goal of the project is to contribute to the
professional development of youth workers by enhancing their understandings of
youth mobility in the complexity of contemporary living.
The project was co-financed
by the Anna Lindh
Foundation. The Foundation is shared by the 43 countries of the Union
for the Mediterranean. It aims to bring people
together to improve mutual respect between cultures and to support civil
society working for a common future in the region.
