Beyond Tolerance: Citizenship, Diversity & Constructive Conflict
On the morning of Friday, 25th November 2016, we will convene at the LSE under the title of “Beyond Tolerance: Citizenship, Constructive Conflict and Diversity”.
Backdrop & Approach:
We face a multitude of potential forces that threaten to stretch our social fabric, picking at our biases and unwinding our seams of diversity. In addition, we seem to have become rusty at constructive conflict — succumbing to polar binaries as lazy alternatives to mutual understanding.
On that backdrop, we take the view that:
- a proactive pursuit of diversity and enhanced engagement in constructive conflict can help avert the more destructive kind,
- showcasing role-models from perceived minorities can counter beliefs of exclusion, and
- novel approaches are required to counter the roots of polarised conflict and “immunize” communities against exploitative extremism — secular or religious.
The Event:
We’re expecting a range of domestic and international speakers — members of parliament, civil society, corporate leaders, creative artists and academics. We expect there to be a series of brief ‘insight blasts’, a breakout exercise and a set of panel discussions.
Topics will include: (a) Role of education as ‘vaccine’ against radicalization, (b) Role of politics in fanning or dousing the flames, (c) Role of academia & think-tanks in informing migration policy & post-migratory integration, (d) Furthering gender diversity (e) role of private enterprise/companies and (f) the role of entertainment/the arts.
Amongst confirmed attendees, we have the winner of this years Global Teacher Prize Hanan Al Hroub and several members of the World Economic Forum’s YGL community.
If you’d like to attend and/or contribute to the program, please drop me an email on Lutfeys@alumni.lse.ac.uk or L.Y.Siddiqi@lse.ac.uk
We’re also aiming for a ‘hackathon’ with our students on the evening of Thursday, 24th Nov 2016. The question that they will hack is this: What concrete steps can be taken by various actors to help vaccinate communities against the epidemic of polarisation?
In the spirit of the theme of the event, all feedback and ideas welcome.
