Fall/Winter/Spring          2004-2005

Faculty:

Anne Fischel          SEM II E-3108          X6416

Lin Nelson            SEM II E-3102          X6056

Our program starts from the perspective that the community base of knowledge needs to be acknowledged and supported. In these days of globalization, fast-paced media, mass marketing and celebrity, what people in diverse communities around the world know at a local level is often trivialized or ignored. Local Knowledge will explore the dynamics of community life through collaborative efforts with people in our region as they work to sustain and empower their communities.

Questions we are considering:

•  What is local knowledge? How is it cultivated, applied and critically evaluated?

•  How are community stories created, documented and communicated?

•  How does expertise/outside input affect approaches to locally identified issues?

•  How do broad regional, national and international conditions impact communities and how are these conditions interpreted in different ways at the local level?

•  What role does media play? How do community members interpret media images? What alternatives exist in the community and how are they utilized?

•  What sense of history and future guides communities? What is sustainable?

•  What can we learn about collaborative community research and documentation? What political, aesthetic and ethical considerations should guide this work?