Conference Agenda

The Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller reminds us that humans are not just in the world but are crucially born somewhere in the world. We learn a language and acquire cultural habits, and the places we grow up are therefore extremely significant for our becoming as human beings (Heller, 2019, p. 11). The German philosopher J.G. Herder (2004[1774], p. 26) was concerned with the significance of place for human perfection, arguing that place should play a significant role in educational theory. However, theories of Bildung, addressing the process of becoming a subject in the encounter with a material, social and cultural world, have rarely dealt with the significance of place explicitly. Although places situate our experiences with the world, they are seldom at the center of our intellectual scrutiny.

With this background, the double symposium will explore the possibilities of a relationship between Bildung and place. The participants of the symposium are from Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and the educational tradition of Nordic Bildung will therefore be a point of departure for us. Accordingly, the symposium addresses educational features that are unique to the Nordic countries considering our similar languages, educational structures and culture, and shared pedagogical heritage (Solberg, 2021; Bostad & Solberg, 2022). We want to explore Nordic Bildung as an example of the inherent relationship between Bildung and place, not just in the formation of individuals, but also in the formation of theories.

While there are forces in the educational field that pushes towards globalization and standards decontextualized from time and place, we need educational thinking that enables us to reconsider the significance of place for Bildung-processes, without falling back into nationalistic nostalgia (Heller, 2019). Martha Nussbaum (2012) has pointed out how different constructs of place, such as common culture (history and values), blood ties, ethnicity, earth-boundedness, linguistic belonging, and religion, have all been central elements in building national sentiments in Europe. This way of manifesting national belonging has led to the fact that newcomers, regardless of their time of residence, are seldom considered as belonging to the nation. Place thus appears to be a concept presenting possibilities as well as dangers for educational thinking, and the symposium therefore intends to investigate the relationship between place and Bildung as essentially conflicted and paradoxical. We have organized the symposium in two parts, each addressing a particular tension in the relationship between Bildung and place:

1) Part 1 is described in another application (Id 1868)

2) Nostalgia: possibilities and dangers: Barbara Cassin (2016) has investigated the ambiguous and sometimes dangerous feeling of nostalgia. What does it mean to feel at home and where does the feeling of nostalgia come from? As Cassin points out, the nostalgia for places of belonging can be both formative as well as degenerative and dangerous. It is for instance highly relevant what we long for when feeling nostalgic, if we find our belonging in territories or in languages. Cassin argues in favor of languages as “homes”, seeing as languages are not owned by people, but expressions of plurality that are accessible for translation. The symposium intends to discuss the dilemmas we are facing when connecting to the place of Nordic Bildung, a particular place with particular languages, which may be disappearing or is already no more. What does “place” even mean, and what does it entail to have “a home” in the Nordic countries? What do we conceive of when we speak of a Nordic nostalgia and is it possible to think of Nordic identity and belonging that is not detrimental to foreigners?

The ideals of Nordic Bildung can be described as emerging in and from the cultures and societal structures of the Nordic countries. In line with this, it can be argued that the ideals partly stem from specific places. Of particular significance for our becoming as human beings are the places where we grow up (Heller, 2019). In contemporary reformulations of Nordic Bildung ideals, both theories and place-based experiences of the past play a part. In this contribution I combine theories of Nordic Bildung with theories of place (Massey, 2005; McInerney, 2011). I explore the possibilities and dangers of using place and the nostalgia for places of belonging as a resource for pedagogical theorizing in a Nordic setting (Keskinen et al., 2019). In the Norwegian educational system, the school has been a common place of construing togetherness (Bostad & Solberg, 2022). Furthermore, the educational system is centralized, and state controlled. This means that, at the outset, the possibilities ought to be good for governing school practices in the direction of inclusion, which has become a core value in the curricula of all Nordic countries. Even if the classroom has been a place for formation of cultural and social solidarity, it has also been a place for formation of cultural and social outsiderness and marginalisation. I draw on examples from experiences of schooling in the geographical area of “Nordkalotten”, The Cap of the North, the regions in Norway, Sweden, and Finland located north of the arctic circle, when I discuss internal tensions and possible exclusionary potentials of Nordic Bildung theories and pedagogies of place (Zilliacus et al., 2017; Stenseth, 2023). Bildung theory in a Norwegian setting has historically rested on the processes of nation building, encouraging togetherness through monoculturalism and essentialisation, the state being classified as “colonial-blind”. What are the prospects for experiences of the culturally diverse classrooms of the arctic regions to play a constructive part in pedagogical theorising on Bildung? (How) can such theorising encourage cultural and social togetherness, and avoid fostering outsiderness and marginalisation?

Bostad, I. & Solberg, M. (2022) Rooms of Togetherness. Nordic Ideals of Knowledge in Education. In Tröhler, D. et al.., (Eds) The Nordic Education Model, In Studies in Curriculum Theory, Routledge Heller, A. (2019). Das Paradox des Europäischen Nationalstaates. In Heller, A. Paradox Europa. Kanten. Edition Konturen. Keskinen, S., Skaptadottir, U. & Toivanen, M. (2019) Undoing Homogeneity in the Nordic Region. Routledge. Massey, D. B. (2005). For Space. Sage McInerney, P., Smyth, J. & Down, B. (2011) ‘Coming to a place near you?’ The politics and possibilities of a critical pedagogy of place-based education, Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education 39(1), p. Stenseth, A-M. (2023) “I am Sámi, but I am not a Sámi” Coastal Sámi students’ articulations of identity in a colonial-blind Norwegian state, Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education 7(1), p. 1-20. https://doi.org/10.7577/njcie.5036 Zilliacus, H., Paulsrud, B., & Holm, G. (2017). Essentializing vs. non-essentializing students' cultural identities: curricular discourses in Finland and Sweden. Journal of multicultural discourses, 12(2), 166-180. https://doi.org/10.1080/17447143.2017.1311335

In the tradition of the Nordic Bildungsroman, the protagonist is in search of himself and a place in society. This entails the young person journeying out in search of himself, hence alienating and/or exiling himself from his home, before returning to a feeling of resonance. In the contemporary anti-Bildungstrilogy about Andreas Doppler, Erlend Loe tells a different story. On a faithful morning, Doppler falls on his bike ride in the woods, and suddenly feels completely alienated from his competent suburban existence. In an attempt at recovering his sense of resonance with himself and nature, Doppler flees into the Norwegian woods and settles there. Doppler finds an at least temporary respite from the life of competence and productivity from which he fled. In the third volume of the trilogy however, Doppler begins to long for his children and the intimacy of family life. However, upon returning he discovers that his family is no longer his but has in fact been “invaded”, or so Doppler sees it, by another man. Doppler settles now in the no longer used tree house in the garden, from where he observes the family and its new member. Here, Doppler feels nostalgic, not just for the woods from which he has returned, but also for the productive and competent family life he left behind. He is in exile even when at home. In this presentation, starting from the tale of Doppler, we will explore the phenomenon of nostalgia and exile so characteristic of modern life (Cassin, 2014). Central to the establishment of the ideal of public enlightenment (folkelig dannelse) and the establishment of the folk high schools in the Nordic countries, was the idea of belonging to a particular place and a particular people (Grundtvig, 1983, Straume, 2013). This ideal existed alongside a literary and poetic tradition of tales of alienation and exile as preconditions for finding one’s way back home. Hence Bildung has always rested upon this tension between home and away, resonance and alienation. If, as some current philosophers hold, we can no longer view past, present, or future considering the ideal of progress (Cassin, 2014; Savransky, 2021; Stengers, 2015), then the very dichotomy between home and away, between resonance and alienation, no longer makes sense for theories of Bildung, Nordic or otherwise. Like Doppler, we are stuck in exile in the tree house.

Cassin, B. (2016). Nostalgia. When Are We Ever at Home? Fordham University Press. Grundtvig, N.F.S.(1983). Statsmæssig oplysning. Nyt Nordisk Forlag Arnold Busck. Loe, E. (2006) Doppler. København: Gyldendal. Loe, E. (2015) Enden på verden som vi kender den. København: Gyldendal. Savransky M. (2021). After progress: Notes for an ecology of perhaps. Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organisation, 21(1), pp. 267–281. Stengers, I. (2015) In catastrophic times: Resisting the coming barbarism, trans. Andrew Goffey. Open Humanities Press. Straume, Ingerid S. (ed.) (2013). Danningens Filosofihistorie. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. Jaeggi, R. (2014) Alienation. Columbia University Press.

The paper discusses value conflicts inherent in Danish interpretations of the concept of Bildung, particularly regarding the clash between nostalgic national and universal enlightenment ideals. The Danish Folk high school songbook will serve as an illustration. The idea of Bildung is ambiguous, pointing in several political and ideological directions, such as conservatism, liberalism, and left-wing ideologies. Consequently, researchers and school people are fighting over definitions of Bildung. One discussion concerns in what degree schools should promote national values. Historically, there has been a clash between national values and universal enlightenment ideals of being human (Herder, 2004). Heller (2019) describes this as the European Paradox: a central European ideal is “the enlightened universal man”, but on the other hand, the nation-state is the norm setter for values linked to the nation (Heller 2019). I will argue that the folk high school songbook is a pertinent example of this paradox. The Danish theologian, poet, and educational thinker N.F.S. Grundtvig (1783-1872) was the main inspiration for the Danish phenomenon 'the folk high school' ('Folkehøjskole'. Grundtvig advocated a poetic historical pedagogy, appealing to the sensuality and enlightened spirit of the people (Grundtvig, 1983; Korsgaard, 2004; Wieser, 2022). As Hannah Arendt reminds us: "the mother tongue is the only thing you can take with you from the old country" (cited in Cassin, 2016, p. 45). Especially poems and songs written in the national language have a significant impact on a person's identity. Poems express the mother tongue in a very nuanced way which might be difficult for a foreigner to understand. In this sense, poems and songs written in the mother tongue develop the feeling of belonging to a people. The songbook still plays a significant role, not only in the folk high school, but in most educational institutions and communities in Denmark. The songbook is one of the cornerstones in upholding Grundtvig's ideal of public ('folkelig') Bildung. Singing together is a sensual, emotional practice of Bildung. Following Grundtvig, I will argue that the Bildung ideal of the Danish folk high school refers to ideals of enlightenment and nostalgia. Nostalgia is represented by the national song treasure, which forms part of the songbook. Enlightenment is represented by Danish and international songs addressing freedom of spirit and global citizenship. The clash might illustrate that the Danish high school is a genuinely democratic institution because it can accommodate nationality, universality, and political diversity at the same time.

Cassin, B. (2016) Nostalgia: When are we ever at home? Fordham University Press Grundtvig, N.F.S.(1983). Statsmæssig oplysning. Nyt Nordisk Forlag Arnold Busck Heller, A. (2019: Das Paradox des Europäischen Nationalstaates. In. Heller, A. Paradox Europa. Edition Konturen. Herder, J.G.(2004 [1774]). Another Philosophy of History for the Education of Mankind. I. Herder. J.G. Another Philosophy of History and Selected Political Writings. Hackett Korsgaard, O.(2004). Kampen om folket. Gyldendal. Wieser, C.(2023). Die poetische Pädagogik von Grundtvig: Spuren einer dänischen Konzeption von Bildung.In. Pädagogische Rundschau Vol 77(2)

This paper will examine whether a Norwegian “pedagogy of place” – as the Norwegian pedagogue Erling Kristvik (1882-1969) sought to formulate it – is possible or even desirably in the 21st century, as more and more of our problems are global and demands a cosmopolitical awareness. Throughout the centuries, education has represented an encounter between generations connected to a particular place. Education has always consisted in the transmission of practices of work, rituals, ethics, and worldviews through actions and doctrines, but maybe first and foremost through narratives and poetry. However, in a post-enlightenment and modern society both community and belonging to a place need to be constructed in a particular central institution (school) by and through a corresponding knowledge form (pedagogy). Focusing on the notion of place, reveals interesting similarities between Adorno’s and Horkheimer’s concept of “the dialectics of Enlightenment” and Heidegger’s conception of the nature of technology, seeing as both are characterized by the erasing of place. Education plays an ambiguous role in this process – whether we call it the dialectics of Enlightenment (Adorno/Horkheimer) or the rise of technology (Heidegger), education necessarily connects us to a particular place through local curriculum, cultural history, and national heritage. At the same time, education seeks to sever the connection to a particular place through centralized factory-like schools, standardized curriculum, and formal competences. Erling Kristvik has addressed this problem in a Norwegian context. Early in the 20th century he wanted to formulate a “pedagogy of place” to counter the technical and alienating tendencies of modern society. He introduced «heimstadlære» (homestead-subject) as a holistic subject where the pupils’ education was closely anchored in their home environment. By entering a dialogue between Kristvik, Adorno/Horkheimer, and Heidegger, this paper asks whether a specific Norwegian “pedagogy of place” is possible in the 21st century. Is it meaningful to formulate a specific Norwegian version of Bildung when more and more of our local practices are entangled in international and global horizons of meaning? Furthermore, when discussing whether a specific Norwegian “pedagogy of place” is desirable in the 21st century, I will ask if this specific Norwegian version of Bildung is a contribution to common problems of humanity, or if it represents an exclusive nostalgia?

Adorno, T. & Horkheimer, M. (2011). Opplysningens dialektikk: filosofiske fragmenter, trans. L. P. S. Torjussen. Spartacus Heidegger, M. (2004). Vorträge und Aufsätze (Die Frage nach der Technik). Klett-Cotta. Kristvik, E. (1941). Læraryrket. Olaf Norlis Forlag Kristvik, E. (1944). Sjelelære. Olaf Norlis Forlag Kristvik, E. (1951) Elevkunne. Olaf Norlis Forlag