What is that? And
How do we do it? But who
Is we? And do we want it?
With the theme of communication cultures, my session co-developers and I thought it was important to also work with the ‘how’ of communication during the session. Working with poetry can help generate prompts or moments of insight that speak to different parts of us, evoke or capture things in us that typical academic conversations may not. In my experience, and speaking as an academic, academics are not always the easiest crowd to try out creative methods with because completing a “creative” activity seemingly interferes with productively discussing the question at hand. In this case, the question was “What is transformation in a continually transforming world?”. The opening haiku demonstrates some of the fundamental questioning and discussion that emerged as a response.
Poems were not the only approach in the session. We also worked with an abbreviated version of “warm data”, a conversation method developed by Nora Bateson, with the hope to allow for the A ‘sticky’ concept is one that awakens diverse collective emotions – fear, hope, grief, joy, etc. – and may be a place of social tensions. It might also be a place where we easily get stuck even as we work to challenge preconceived notions about what transformation means. Participants sat in groups with their catalysing haikus and engaged with the question through a number of contexts that were given at each table, for example: culture, education, health, environment, family, art, religion, politics, economics, etc.
The contexts are meant to frame the conversation about the question, Perhaps the most important part of warm data is that before the groups begin discussions, they hear a story by one of the facilitators. And this story is personal, related to the theme or question in focus. Opening the conversation space in this way often allows for discussions to include first person narratives and experiences, rather than generalized narratives. It often allows for emotions to be expressed and accepted as normal parts of a conversation. It also supports people showing up as themselves, rather than as their professional roles which can help people depart from their “scripts” or well-practiced ways of discussing things. It might allow for divergence.
cannot say if that is what happened during this session. However, from the questions posed, I think the session served as a continuation or iteration of a long-standing conversation among many in the research program on the ‘whats’ and ‘hows’ of transformation. The opening haiku with its multiple questions was one response to this prompt, which invites further questioning, and even opportunities to get stuck for a while. Here follows one more:
How do you slow down
In a world that spins around?
When we fall to the ground
1. This way of thinking about stickiness comes from Sara Ahmed’s work in ‘The cultural politics of emotion’ (2014).
"Simple questions and the sticky concept of ‘transformation’"
What is that? And
How do we do it? But who
Is we? And do we want it?
With the theme of communication cultures, my session co-developers and I thought it was important to also work with the ‘how’ of communication during the session. Working with poetry can help generate prompts or moments of insight that speak to different parts of us, evoke or capture things in us that typical academic conversations may not. In my experience, and speaking as an academic, academics are not always the easiest crowd to try out creative methods with because completing a “creative” activity seemingly interferes with productively discussing the question at hand. In this case, the question was “What is transformation in a continually transforming world?”. The opening haiku demonstrates some of the fundamental questioning and discussion that emerged as a response.
Poems were not the only approach in the session. We also worked with an abbreviated version of “warm data”, a conversation method developed by Nora Bateson, with the hope to allow for the sticky concept¹ of transformation to be approached in all its complexity. A ‘sticky’ concept is one that awakens diverse collective emotions – fear, hope, grief, joy, etc. – and may be a place of social tensions. It might also be a place where we easily get stuck even as we work to challenge preconceived notions about what transformation means. Participants sat in groups with their catalysing haikus and engaged with the question through a number of contexts that were given at each table, for example: culture, education, health, environment, family, art, religion, politics, economics, etc.
The contexts are meant to frame the conversation about the question, in order to offer different entry points. Perhaps the most important part of warm data is that before the groups begin discussions, they hear a story by one of the facilitators. And this story is personal, related to the theme or question in focus. Opening the conversation space in this way often allows for discussions to include first person narratives and experiences, rather than generalized narratives. It often allows for emotions to be expressed and accepted as normal parts of a conversation. It also supports people showing up as themselves, rather than as their professional roles which can help people depart from their “scripts” or well-practiced ways of discussing things. It might allow for divergence.
I cannot say if that is what happened during this session. However, from the questions posed, I think the session served as a continuation or iteration of a long-standing conversation among many in the research program on the ‘whats’ and ‘hows’ of transformation. The opening haiku with its multiple questions was one response to this prompt, which invites further questioning, and even opportunities to get stuck for a while. Here follows one more:
How do you slow down
In a world that spins around?
When we fall to the ground
1. This way of thinking about stickiness comes from Sara Ahmed’s work in ‘The cultural politics of emotion’ (2014).