Languages/Intangible Heritage

Theatr Fforwm Cymru is an educational charity based in Pembrokeshire who use Theatre of the Oppressed and other drama-based techniques to effect change, the Agora Report is a 26 page report accompanied by a DVD to be used to introduce proposals for legislative change that have come about through the legislative theatre event, the Agora. It can also be used to participate in making these proposals a reality. The DVD takes you clearly through the proposals using short documentaries that give each community group involved an opportunity to present the rationale for their proposals, and includes footage from the Legislative theatre pieces from which the proposals have emerged.

This is an international resource pack for practitioners, which pulls together practical ideas and experiences from people using the Reflect approach around the world. The resource is split into 5 sections: the written word, the spoken word, numbers, images and the last section provides some examples of Reflect in action.

The Development Gateway is an interactive portal for information and knowledge sharing on sustainable development and poverty reduction. The Development Gateway’s Culture and Development Topic Area aims to provide an authoritative entry point to, and focus for, information and discussion about all the key issues, including Arts, Crafts & Media, Cultural Management, Cultural Policy, Cultural Tourism, Heritage, Preservation, Heritage in Danger and The Economics of Culture.

This book explores the culture, history and environment of the Sahel through the memories and recollections of its people. The region is characterised by low rainfall and poor soils, yet some 60 million people mange to make a living from the land. At the Desert’s Edge draws on interviews conducted with hundreds of men and women from eight Sahelian countries, who have been living through a time of unprecedented social and environmental change. A fascinating blend of stories, anecdotes, information and opinion, it is also a moving testimony to the resilience and resourcefulness of the Sahelian people.

Listening for a Change is an introduction and guide to the philosophy and practice of oral testimony in the development process. It contains practical guidelines and case-studies, as well as raising questions about the limitations and ambiguities of oral evidence, and exploring the different ways development and community groups are using testimonies.

This book describes the processes and results of the PYRENNE projects, which were carried out by Interarts between 1999 and 2001 under the European CONNECT initative, aiming to promote linguistic diversity and the role of tradition in contemporary arts productions. The book was published in 2001, and contains articles in both English and French. The aim of the projects was to highlight and promote the relationship and synergy between popular and traditional cultures and contemporary arts. The book contains presentations of the five projects and articles by the project experts.

Panos aims to research, illustrate and evaluate the uses of testimony collection and dissemination in the development process. A training manual has been produced in response to the many requests Panos receives for practical guidelines from individuals and organisations interested in implementing oral testimony projects. The manual is a practical companion to the book, Listening for a Change, which explored the ideas behind the methodology and looked at different examples of oral testimony and development. The training manual is based on, several years experience of working at community level, often with groups with no previous experience. It will be particularly useful for the coordinator or project manager of a potential oral testimony project. Throughout the publication there are checklists, summaries of key points, and ideas for discussion which have been designed to be photocopied and used or adapted as handouts for interviewers and/or participants in a training workshop. The manual is divided into the following chapters: Introduction, Planning your project, Running a workshop, Preparing for the interview, The interview, Reviewing the collection process, Transcription and translation, Working with the testimonies, Monitoring and evaluation

This title is designed for people who want to make and use pictures for development. It provides guidelines to enable non-artists to make their own visual aids such as discussion starters, picture cards, flannel boards and community maps. It includes sections on: common pictorial conventions; how to draw and use colour; how to copy and adapt pictures; how to make and use a range of people-centred visual aids; and how to plan and conduct workshops on visual communication. The book looks at ways in which visual aids have been designed and used in the past, and shows how the authoritarian approach to communication has failed to promote a more equal distribution of power among people. The author proposes a different approach to work with educational visual aids - a "people-centred" approach - which goes beyond mere participation towards fuller involvement of local people in their own development. The traditional perspective of research studies of visual literacy among non-literate people is shown to be essentially neo-colonial. In this text, by contrast, visual literacy is viewed as a skill that is easy to acquire, rather than as a handicap to overcome by outsider professionals trying to develop a top-down "pictorial language".

A report on the Bertelsmann Foundation project, "Education for Democracy and Tolerance". This publication addresses what is meant by tolerance and tolerant ways of addressing conflict. Also available in German (http://www.tolerance-net.org/publications/toleranz.html)

In educational contexts language is the most important means of communication. This base is not very often questioned. But language does have dramatic effects on how you work with a group. This became obvious in the multilingual setting of the International Network Education for Democracy, Human Rights and Tolerance. The insight underlined the experiences of the 10 Network members in Brazil, Chile, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, the Philippines, Poland, South Africa and the USA. This is why the Network decided to develop, compile and test activities that can be used by facilitators to make people aware of the impact of language. The activities show how closely related language is to such fundamental questions as culture, identity and power structure. By tracing these links, facilitators can make the essential connection between language and human rights, tolerance and democracy. The manual also presents insights into the situation of language and power in the institutions of the member countries and suggests sample workshops for using the material. (also available in Dutch)