The Resilient Historian Richard

What is the role of History and Historians in higher education, in a world that faces significant disruption?

QAA Benchmark Statement: HistoryHistory Guiding principle, para 5. “its subject matter, distinguishing it from other humanities and social sciences, consists of the attempts of human beings in the past to organise life materially and conceptually, individually and collectively, while the object of studying these things is to widen students' experience and develop qualities of perception and judgement. “History provides a distinctive education by providing a sense of the past, an awareness of the development of differing values, systems and societies and the inculcation of critical yet tolerant personal attitudes. History's reciprocal relationship with other disciplines can have an important influence on the experience of the student of the subject.”

QAA Benchmark Statement: HistoryHistory Guiding principle, para 5. “its subject matter, distinguishing it from other humanities and social sciences, consists of the attempts of human beings in the past to organise life materially and conceptually, individually and collectively, while the object of studying these things is to widen students' experience and develop qualities of perception and judgement. “History provides a distinctive education by providing a sense of the past, an awareness of the development of differing values, systems and societies and the inculcation of critical yet tolerant personal attitudes. History's reciprocal relationship with other disciplines can have an important influence on the experience of the student of the subject.”

What might the act of being a historian in C21st civil society mean?

Word 1: context Resilience: thriving in spite of disruptionResilience Decision-making and agency Co-governance: towards social justice Core economy: what do we value?value

Word 2: disruption Economy: public sector debtEconomy Environment: emissions and climate changeEnvironment Power and control: formal and informal educationPower and control Energy: more efficiently unsustainableEnergy Techno-determinism: will the boffins really save us?Techno-determinism

Word 3: complexity disruption and cultural context

Ravensbourne, 2008 HallHall, 2009; after Ravensbourne, 2008

Word 4: resilience Rob Hopkins: Transition CultureTransition Culture “the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganise while undergoing change, so as to retain essentially the same function, structure, identity and feedbacks” Systemic diversity, modularity, feedback

Word 5: action we have a choice between reliance on government and its resources, and its approach to command and control, or developing an empowering day-to-day community resilience. Such resilience develops engagement, education, empowerment and encouragement Political action or civil action? [DEMOS, nef]

Word 6: critical Gramsci on organic intellectuals: praxis in context Friere on critical pedagogy: social transformation and emancipation Habermas on legitimation, colonisation, value and participation in a “lifeworld” Barnett on the will to learn

Word 7: lessons Owenite co-operation Thompson’s legitimation of craft and class consciousness Cuban attempts at self-sufficiency Chavez and Venuzuela Holocaust denial The ideology of UKIP/BNP

Word 8: role Tosh: context; risk-management; open agendas Validity, reliability, plausibility, detachment Managing complexity and difference of interpretation “[History] lives through debate and controversy, and that very sense of controversy by analogy is what should be sustaining public debate more generally”

Some unused words Adaptation Awareness Dependence Revaluing Persistence

Towards a curriculum for resilience? Complexity and increasing uncertainty in the world demands resilience Integrated and social, rather than a subject-driven Engaging with uncertainty through projects that involve diverse voices in civil action Discourses of power – co-governance? Authentic partnerships, mentoring and enquiry, in method, context, interpretation and action

How does History enable C21st society to address disruption? How do historians support the development of ideas, decision-making and agency? Are we helping people to exist in authentic, socio-political spaces where switches may be turned off? Resilience: what do we value?

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