11th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS)
in Norway, 23th June - 1st July 2008
as part of the Wergeland Year for Human Dignity
- dedicated to the memory of Don Klein -


Taken from cruisenorway.com/ (please click on the picture to see it larger)
(Important note to our conference particants: During our conference, we asked for your permission to be posted here, however, if you changed your mind, either in total or for specific pictures/videos, please let us know! Thank you! Since we wish to walk the talk of dignity, it is very important for us to do our utmost in respecting everybody's privacy. We refrain from gathering written permissions from you during our conferences, since we value the building of mutual trust in relationships, and we also would like to refrain from contributing to an ever more bureaucratic and legalistic society.)

We thank the the Holocaust Centre, Kystopplevelser, dear Kjell Skyllstad, Maria Rosvoll, and Salman Türken most warmly for hosting and organising our conference, including significant financial support, both in form of time and money!
And during our conference, all participants became active co-organisers, and all shouldered a significant financial load! Thank you ALL!

Schedule:

•  23rd June 2008: Midsummer Eve Party
•  24th June 2008: 'Wergeland's Heritage', Organised by the Centre for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities in Oslo
•  25th June: Public Event, HumanDHS in Cooperation with the Holocaust Centre
•  26th + 27th June: HumanDHS Conference in Oslo (with Open Space and a Special Session on Environmental Psychology)
•  28th-29th June: HumanDHS Conference in Bergen (Norway in the Nutshell)
•  29th June - 1st July: HumanDHS Conference on Northbound Hurtigruten (Coastal Steamer) from Bergen to Trondheim

 

Please read Newsletter 11, written subsequent to our conference

 



 

 

Local Hosts, Organizers, and Conveners

•  Professor Odd-Bjørn Fure, Director of the Centre for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities in Oslo, Norway


Please see here Professor Fure's Curriculum Vitae

•  Kjell Skyllstad, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Musicology (Institutt for musikkvitenskap) at the University in Oslo, Norway

 



 

•  The Vision of Our Conference
•  Frame
•  List of Conveners
•  Programme
•  List of Participants
•  Papers
•  Practical Details
•  Announcements
•  Newsletters
•  Pictures
•  Videos

 


 

 

The Vision of Our Conference

Henrik Arnold Wergeland (17th June 1808–12nd July 1845) was a renowned Norwegian poet and prose writer who worked against discrimination (Litt om Wergeland). The Minister of Culture in Norway has announced 2008 as the Year of Diversity in Norway. The celebrations of the Wergeland Year will take place between 17th May and Wergeland's 200th birthday on 17th June 2008.

Dignity goes a step further than tolerance for diversity. It is in its essence a qualitative term  calling for cooperation and  dialogue. In the European Union, 2008 is the Year of Intercultural Dialogue. So we hope to focus on all these three life supporting principles as we in 2008 envision and support new and dynamic modes of human interaction in our societies, in Europe and the world at large.

One of the ideas for the Wergeland Year is to follow in his footsteps and continue the work for reform of our constitution (and take this as an example for the wider world). We would like to invite you to study our vision and join in for the future. What kind of world would we like to live in with our future families? What is needed as a legal system to ensure inclusive democratic institutions in the spirit of Wergeland, for a tomorrow built on the principles of sustainable development?

A number of possible themes comes to mind to connect the Wergeland Year with the HumanDHS message of equality in dignity (which includes transcending humiliation), in line with the Holocaust Centre's work on religious minorities, for example, 'The Interfaith Dialogue', as envisioned in Wergeland's poem The Three.

Please see Kjell Skyllstad's contribution to HumanDHS's 2008 Oslo meeting, A Voice from Grotten, an article on the present tenant of Grotten, the composer Arne Nordheim. Every 17th of May, he gathers his friends in his historic home to honour his great inspirator Henrik Wergeland. Kjell writes on 16th June 2006: 'This month Arne is 75 and this is my hommage to a close friend'.

This vision is relevant for a number of cooperation partners in Norway, such as the Oslo University International Summer School, the Nobel Institute, the Peace Research Institute of Norway (PRIO), and the Oslo University-affiliated Rosendal Academy on the West coast, the Nansen Academy in Lillehammer.

 


 

Frame

by Linda Hartling, 2004, Ph.D., Associate Director, Jean Baker Miller Training Institute, Wellesley College, Boston, USA

In our conferences we aim at creating a humiliation-free, collaborative learning environment characterised by mutual respect, mutual empathy, and openness to difference. The perspective of 'appreciative enquiry' is a useful frame of our work. Our HumanDHS efforts are not just about the work we do together, but also about HOW WE WORK TOGETHER. At appropriate points during our conferences, for example at the end of each day, we take a moment to reflect on the practices observed that contributed to an appreciative/humiliation-free learning experience.

It is important to emphasise that an appreciative approach is not about expecting people to agree. In fact, differences of opinion enrich the conversation and deepen people's understanding of ideas. Perhaps, this could be conceptualised as 'waging good conflict' (Jean Baker Miller), which means practicing radical respect for differences and being open to a variety of perspectives and engaging others without contempt or rankism. As we have seen in many fields, contempt and rankism drain energy away from the important work that needs to be done. Most people only know 'conflict' as a form of war within a win/lose frame. 'Waging good conflict', on the other side, is about being empathic and respectful, making room for authenticity, creating clarity, and growth.

Please read:
•  Appreciative Leadership in Our HumanDHS Network: The Tree - Job Descriptions!
kindly written by Michael Britton, 2008
•  An Appreciative Frame: Beginning a Dialogue on Human Dignity and Humiliation, that Linda has written for us in 2005
•  Appreciative Facilitation: Hints for Round Table Moderators, kindly written in February 2006 by Judith Thompson to support the moderators of our workshop
•  Buddhist Teachings on Right Speech, kindly provided to us by Thomas Daffern in 2006, relating to our quest for appreciative inquiry, caring and being

 



List of Conveners

 

Evelin Gerda Lindner, Medical Doctor, Clinical and Social Psychologist, Ph.D. (Dr. med.), Ph.D. (Dr. psychol.), Organiser of the HumanDHS Conferences, Supporting the Local Conveners


Please click on these photos or here to see the pictures that Brian Lynch took of Evelin Lindner

Evelin G. Lindner is the Founding President of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS). She is a transdisciplinary social scientist, and recipient of the 2006 SBAP Award, affiliated with the Columbia University Conflict Resolution Network, New York, the University of Oslo, Norway, Department of Psychology (folk.uio.no/evelinl/), and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris. Lindner is teaching globally, including in South East Asia, the Middle East, Australia, Africa, and other places globally. [read more]

Linda Hartling, Ph.D., Social Psychologist, Organiser of the HumanDHS Conferences, Supporting the Local Conveners


Please click on these photos or here to see the pictures that Brian Lynch took of Linda Hartling and Rick Slaven

Linda M. Hartling is the Associate Director of the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute, Wellesley College, Boston, USA. Linda Hartling is a Member of the HumanDHS Board of Directors, a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board, Global Core Team, and Education Team. She is furthermore a Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (JHDHS). [read more]
Please see:
• Humiliation: Real Pain, A Pathway to Violence, the draft of Linda's paper for Round Table 2 of our 2005 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York.
Humiliation: Assessing the Impact of Derision, Degradation, and Debasement, first published in The Journal of Primary Prevention, 19(4): 259-278, co-authored with T. Luchetta, 1999.
• Shame and Humiliation: From Isolation to Relational Transformation, the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute (JBMIT), Wellesley Centers for Women, Wellesley College No. 88, Wellesley, MA 02481, co-authored with Wendy Rosen, Maureen Walker, Judith V. Jordan, 2000.
• Humiliation and Assistance: Telling the Truth About Power, Telling a New Story, paper prepared for the 5th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 'Beyond Humiliation: Encouraging Human Dignity in the Lives and Work of All People', in Berlin, 15th -17th September, 2005.

 

Odd-Bjørn Fure, Professor and Director

Professor Odd-Bjørn Fure is the Director of the Centre for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities in Norway.
Please see here Professor Fure's Curriculum Vitae.

The Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities has two main fields of interest: the Holocaust on the one hand and religious minorities on the other. Within these two fields of interest the Center will contribute with new research, education and information activities, exhibitions and conferences. Moreover, it is the explicit aim to be a meeting-place for people who want to participate in the enduring controversy concerning all kinds of religious, racist and ethnic motivated repression. At the end of January 2005 we moved to Villa Grande, Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling's residence during World War II.

Please read here a biographical overview written by Professor Fure (in Norwegian):
Dr.philos. 1984 på arbeidet Mellom reformisme og bolsjevisme. Norsk arbeiderbevegelse 1918-1920.
I årene 1979-2002 var jeg knyttet til Historisk institutt, UiB som NAVF-stipendiat, universitetsstipendiat, førsteamanuensis, førsteamanuensis II og fra 1998 som professor. I årene 1991-1995 var jeg knyttet til prosjektet Norsk utenrikspolitikks historie som forsker-NFR.
I 1982 hadde jeg ett års forskningsopphold ved Institut für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Zürich, i 1985-1987 tilbrakte jeg to år ved Ècole des Hautes Ètudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris og i 2001 ett år i Berlin.
Leder av internasjonalt utvalg ved Historisk institutt, UiB i fem år, prosjektleder for det tverrfaglige prosjekt Europa fram mot år 2000 i fem år, i 1998 ble jeg utnevnt av rektor, UiB, til leder av arrangementskomiteen for den 7. kongressen til International Society for the Study of European Ideas. I 2000 ble jeg oppnevnt av EU-kommisjonen som 'independent expert' for å vurdere søknader til EUs kulturhistoriske og kulturpolitiske program. Fra januar 2002 er jeg hovedredaktør for Historisk Tidsskrift. Gjesteforelesninger over mange år på de historiske institutter ved alle norske universiteter og høyskoler, i København, Berlin, Bonn, Strasbourg og Paris og på en rekke institutter i Norge som representerer tilstøtende disipliner.
Forskningsfelt er arbeiderbevegelsens historie, norsk utenrikspolitikk, internasjonale relasjoner og det internasjonale statssystem, andre verdenskrig, nasjonalsosialismen / Holocaust, sivilisasjonshistorie, mentalitetshistorie og vitenskapshistorie.
Artikler og bøker i utvalg: Problemer, metode og teori i Jens Arup Seips teoretiske produksjon (1983); Jens Arup Seips Utsikt over Norges historie (1984); Hverdagshistorie i tysk historieforskning. Problemer, perspektiver - potensiale (1984); Problemsystematikk eller kaos? Tysk hverdagshistorie (1986); Den kritiske empirisme. Historie- og vitenskapsbegrep i Ottar Dahls Grunntrekk i historieforskningens metodelære (1992); Mellomkrigstid. Norsk utenrikspolitikks historie bd. 3 (1996); Kampen mot glemselen. Kunnskapsvakuum i mediesamfunnet (1997); Norsk okkupasjonshistorie. Konsensus, berøringsangst og tabuisering (1999); Nationale Habitusentwicklungen in Deutschland und Norwegen im Vergleich (2001); Irving-prosessen: historie, juss og erindring (2002); Tilintetgjørelsen av de europeiske jødene (2002).

Maria Rosvoll


Please click on these photos or here to see the pictures larger

Maria Rosvoll is a Historian, and Consultant at the Centre for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities (HL-Senteret, Senter for studier av Holocaust og livssynsminoriteter).

Kjell Skyllstad, Professor Emeritus



Please click on these photos or here to see the pictures that Brian Lynch took of Kjell Skyllstad

Kjell Skyllstad is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Musicology (Institutt for musikkvitenskap) at of the University of Oslo in Norway. He is Member of the Executive Committee of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI).
Kjell Skyllstad has done research on the history of racism in a cultural perspective and on the effect of a multicultural school music program on the prevention of racial conflict.
Kjell Skylstad is a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board and has participated in the 8th Annual HumanDHS Meeting, 2006 Annual Round Table Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict in New York.
On 16th June 2006, Kjell Skyllstad kindly sent us A Voice from Grotten, his contribution to this meeting, an article on the present tenant of Grotten, the composer Arne Nordheim. Every 17th of May, he gathers his friends in his historic home to honor his great inspirator Henrik Wergeland. Kjell writes: 'This month Arne is 75 and this is my hommage to a close friend'.
Please see furthermore Creating a Culture of Peace - The Performing Arts in Interethnic Negotiations, in: Intercultural Communication, November, issue 4, 2000, see also From Humiliation to Empowerment: Creative Conflict Management in the Multi-ethnic School, Kjell's paper prepared for Round Table 1 of our 2005 New York Workshop, and From Humiliation to Empowerment: The Arts in Retributive and Restorative Justice, his paper prepared for Round Table 3 of the same workshop.

Einar Strumse, Dr. philos., Associate Professor



Einar Strumse (Cand. Psychol. and PhD in psychology) is associate professor of psychology and head of the psychology programme at the Lillehammer University College (LUC). He is also adjunct associate professor of environmental psychology at the University of Bergen. Since 1990 his research in the field of environmental psychology has focused upon landscape preference/landscape aesthetics, environmental attitudes and predictors of environmental behaviors.

Salman Türken


Please click on these photos or here to see the pictures that Brian Lynch took of Salman Türken

Salman Türken holds a MA degree in psychology from the University of Oslo, where he for the time being holds a position as a lecturer in social psychology. In his MA thesis (2006), Salman developed a brief cross-culturally stable scale that measures global identity, arguing that increasingly more people around the globe transcend national and territorial boundaries, identify first and foremost with their shared humanity (rather than seeking parochial ends), and show responsibility for and 'engage the distant other'.
Defining himself as a cosmopolitan, Salman is interested in studies of all levels of analysis that influence and change both individuals and societies in this globalisation era. Influenced by critical social psychology, ideology - understood as common sense, as legitimising and reproducing unequal power relations which might also lead to humiliation in intergroup relations - is now the main research topic for him.

Ashraf Salama, Professor (unfortunately, he was hindered to join us)



Dr. Ashraf Salama is the Director and Coordinator of the HumanDHS World Architecture for Equal Dignity. He is Professor of Architecture in the Architectural Engineering Program of Qatar University in Doha. Prior to that, he was Associate Professor of Architecture at the Department of Architecture, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals-KFUPM. Please see here his new website that he recently developed to include his work and his wife's work http://www.arti-arch.org.

 


 

Programme

 

 

Sunday, 22nd June 2008: Preparatory Meeting


Please click on these photos or here to see the pictures that Brian Lynch took of Finn Tschudi

Finn Tschudi and Åse Nilssen kindly hosted Kjell Skyllstad and Evelin Lindner for a preparatory meeting at their home in Oslo.

 

Monday, 23rd June 2008: Midsummer Eve Party

We began our conference with a welcoming Midsummer Eve Party. In this way participants had a chance of getting settled and meet each other for the first time in a relaxed atmosphere!

We gathered for a Norwegian Midsummer Night celebration at the Folk Museum on Bygdøy at 17.00 (5 p.m) (To get there: Bus no. 30 leaves from the city center of Oslo, and ferry boat no. 91 leaves from the Town Hall Pier).

We experienced a traditional symbolic children's wedding with horse carriages and fiddlers, music and dancing and people bringing food baskets for an evening of barbecue. At night we had to remember to gather seven herbs or five flowers to put under our pillow to dream about your love!


Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of the 23rd June from Svanibor Pettan's camera
Please see also the videos of this event by Svanibor:
1. Midsummer Eve Party 1
2. Midsummer Eve Party 2


• Left side: Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of the 23rd June from Evelin's camera
• Right side: Click on this photo or here to see the pictures that Brian Lynch took of Erga Netz and Izzy Abrahami


• Left: Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of Maline Westerberg and her dear friend from Brian Lynch's camera
• Right: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of Anne & Bertram Wyatt-Brown from Brian Lynch's camera


• Left: Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of Lizzie Riiber & Annika Helene Willoughby from Brian Lynch's camera
• Middle: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of Hildegunn Nordtug from Brian Lynch's camera

• Right: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of Hroar Klempe from Brian Lynch's camera

 

Tuesday, 24th June 2008: Day One, Welcoming Day, and Celebrating 'Wergeland's Heritage' Day, Organised by Odd-Bjørn Fure and Maria Rosvoll, Centre for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities in Oslo



Organisers: Odd-Bjørn Fure and Maria Rosvoll
Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of the 24th June from Evelin's camera

In the morning we met at the Holocaust Centre (HL Centre, see a map showing the location, postal address is HL-senteret/Holocaust Centre, Postboks 1168 Blindern, N- 0318 Oslo, Telefon: +47 22 84 21 00, Fax: + 47 22 84 21 01, visiting address is Villa Grande, Huk Aveny 56, Oslo-Bygdøy).
Bus no. 30 goes to the Holocaust Centre - information about public transportation in the Oslo area can be found at Trafikanten, just outside Oslo Central Station; bus no. 30 has temporarily a new route near Oslo Central Station, due to building works.
At check-in participants could pick up information about the HL Centre and useful material on Oslo sights.
There is a restaurant with in- and outside garden facilities right at the HL Centre for lunch and intermission snacks. Technical facilities were available for speakers as well as internet facilities for the use of participants.

09.00 -10.00: Meeting and welcoming each other


Kjell Skyllstad, Evelin, and Abou Bakar Bakundukize. Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of the 24th June from Evelin's camera

Moderator/host: Peder Nustad, Head of Educaton, HL-Senteret

 

11.00 - 12.00: Anton Weiss-Wendt presented Comparative Genocide Studies: Failures and Achievements

Anton Weiss-Wendt is the Head of Research at the Centre for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities (HL Centre)

12.00 – 13.00 Lunch

 

13.00 - 14.00: Claudia Lenz presented “German Maids”. The Silenced Memories of the Sexualized Other in Postwar-Norway

Claudia Lenz is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities (HL Centre)


Group picture after Claudia Lenz's talk. Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of the 24th June from Evelin's camera, and here for Brian Lynch's group pictures

14.00: Sightseeing tour of Oslo and Bygdøy (with the Vikingship and Kontiki museums for those interested)


• Left side: Vikingship (taken from http://www.visitoslo.com/) - please click on the picture to see it larger
• Left side: Click on this photo or here to see the pictures that Brian Lynch took of the Vikingship
• Left side: Click on this photo or here to see the pictures that Svanibor Pettan took
• Middle: Click on this photo or here to see the pictures that Brian Lynch took of Oslo and its new Opera
• Right side: Click on this photo or here to see the pictures that Brian Lynch took of the Innvik theatre and hotel ship
• Right side: Click on this photo or here to see the pictures that Brian Lynch took of the Vigeland's Park

For a romantic evening dinner at Bygdøy, no. 30 bus could bring our participants to a first class restaurant at Hukodden beach (the former bathhouse of Quisling) (reservation Tel. 22 43 74 62).

Or, there was the possibility of experiencing a children's opera performance at our new Opera at 18.00 or 19.30 hours (Peter Maxwell Davies: The Great Bank Robbery). The performers were all children from schools of music in the Oslo area.


Wednesday, 25th June 2008: Day Two, Public HumanDHS Day in Cooperation with the Centre for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities

We had a joint HumanDHS and HL Centre programme open to the public, including lectures on the main themes of the conference.


• Left side: Please click on this photo or here to see the pictures that Svanibor Pettan took at our conference
• Right side: Please click on this photo or here to see the pictures that Brian Lynch took at our conference

09.00 -10.00: Meeting and welcoming each other

Our musical artists throughout our entire conference:
•  Linn Andrea Fuglseth, Anna Maria Friman (Members of the Trio Mediaeval)
• 
Dagne Groven Myhren, professor of literature at the University in Oslo (UiO), and a Wergeland researcher and excellent interpreter of the songs of Wergeland, kindly presents a hommage to Wergeland
• 
Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer (unfortunately, she could not join us)
•  Lasanthi Manaranjanie from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka (on Hurtigruten)

 

10.00 - 10.15:  Inga Bostad, Viserektor (Vice Rector), welcomed all participants to the University of Oslo with a Greeting Address


Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of the 25th June from Evelin's camera

 

10.15 - 10.30: Einar Solbu, Prosjektleder for 'Wergeland 2008', welcomed all participants to the Wergeland Year


Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of the 25th June from Evelin's camera

 

10.30 - 11.00: Odd-Bjørn Fure, Director of the Centre for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities, welcomed all participants



Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of the 25th June from Evelin's camera


11.00 - 11.15: Trio Mediaeval members Linn Andrea Fuglseth, Anna Maria Friman sang for us (short video by Svanibor Pettan)


• Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of the 25th June from Evelin's camera, and here for Brian Lynch's group pictures
• Please see a short video by Svanibor Pettan

11.15 - 12.00: Guided Tour Through the Permanent Exhibition at the Holocaust Centre

 

12.00 - 13.00: Evelin Lindner, Founding Director of the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies Network, welcomed all participants with her Introductory Presentation What the World’s Cultures Can Contribute to Creating a Sustainable Future for Humankind.


• Left side: Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of the 25th June from Evelin's camera
• Right side: Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of Evelin from Brian Lynch's camera

Evelin received her Dr. psychol. at the Department of Psychology, University in Oslo, in 2001. The work on humiliation, the HumanDHS network, and this meeting (Kjell Skyllstad had the idea for this meeting and is a core convener) would not be possible without broad support from and within Norway. This support began in 1994, when Evelin prepared her doctoral dissertation on humiliation. Significant help came from of the Department of Psychology and its wonderful people, from Jan Smedslund, to Reidar Ommundsen, Astri Heen Wold, Hilde Nafstad, Fanny Duckert, Finn Tschudi, Egil Telle Jørgensen, Dag Erik Eilertsen, and Lasse Moer, and many others, and the support of the Faculty Members of other Departments, from Arne Næss, Dagfinn Føllesdal, Henrik Syse, Thomas Hylland Eriksson, to Bernt Hagtvet, Øyvind Østerud, Ragnvald Kalleberg, Sigmund Karterud, Heidi von Weltzien Høivik, Birgit Brock-Utne, Jakob Lothe, Malvern Lumsden, and Øystein Gullvåg Holter, and not only in Oslo, but all over Norway, from Ole Danbolt Mjøs, to Hroar Klempe, Asbjørn Eide, Sigurd Støren, and Vidar Vambheim, in addition to the support of important players in Norwegian public life, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Erik Solheim, Åge Bernhard Grutle, to the Nobel Institute, the Peace Research Institute of Norway (PRIO), Stein Tønnesson, to Thore Hem, and Elin Toft, and important Norwegian NGOs, for example, Mette Newth, Fredrik S. Heffermehl, significant players in Norwegan corporate life, Ragnhild S. Nilsen and Anne-Katrine Hagelund, Norwegian media, with Gerd Inger Polden, and Norwegian members in international organisations, such as, for example, Ingeborg Breines.
Please see a full list of persons who supported Evelin's doctoral research in the 'acknowledgements' in Evelin's doctoral dissertation.
Please join in and let us thank all supporters for their invaluable help!
This year, Evelin thanks particularly the Norsk faglitterær forfatter- og oversetterforening (NFF) [The Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers and Translators Association] for their 2008 scholarship that enables Evelin to write her third book Gender and Humiliation: Power and Dignity in Love, Sex, and Parenthood.

And please see the pictures when Evelin defended her dissertation!


Evelin's talk highlights how globalisation is interlinked with new and unprecedented psychological dynamics that call for novel solutions at all levels - macro, meso and micro levels, and in all fields of public policy.
Please see early versions of another introductory talk/paper here or at http://ssrn.com/abstract=668742 (this paper's SSRN ID is 668742); see a more recent version in the first issue of the Journal of HumanDignity and Humiliation Studies, March 2007

13.00 - 14.00: Lunch

14.00 - 14.15: Kjell Skyllstad, welcomed all participants to Norway with an Introduction to Henrik Wergeland - 1808-2008 (unfortunately, due to health reasons, Kjell was hindered to be with us that day)

Please see Kjell Skyllstad's contribution to HumanDHS's 2008 Oslo meeting, A Voice from Grotten, an article on the present tenant of Grotten, the composer Arne Nordheim. Every 17th of May, he gathers his friends in his historic home to honour his great inspirator Henrik Wergeland. Kjell writes on 16th June 2006: 'This month Arne is 75 and this is my hommage to a close friend'.

14.00 - 14.30: Jack Goldstone introduced himself and his work


• Left side: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of the 25th June from Evelin's camera
• Right side: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of Jack from Brian Lynch's camera

Jack Goldstone
Virginia E. and John T. Hazel Professor at George Mason University School of Public Policy, Eminent Scholar, and a Mercatus Center Fellow.

14.30 - 15.00: Participants presented each other briefly

 

15.00 - 15.30: Birgit Brock-Utne introduced the participants to a larger conceptual space with their talk 'Connecting the Dots': Ubuntu, Wergeland, and Equal Worth and Dignity


• Left side: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of the 25th June from Evelin's camera
• Right side: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of Birgit from Brian Lynch's camera

15.30 - 17.00: All participants were invited to discuss the role and significance of Dignity and Humiliation with:
Jack Goldstone, Hroar Klempe, Birgit Brock-Utne, Finn TschudiEvelin Lindner



Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of the 25th June from Evelin's camera


Odd-Bjørn Fure, David Held, Bernt Hagtvet, Geir Thomas Hylland Eriksen, and Kjell Skyllstand were unfortunately hindered to be with us on this panel, due to health and other reasons 

17.00 - 17.30: Wrapping up Day Two

 

18.00: Dinner at the Holocaust Centre

 

18.45 Special Meeting of our Dignity and Humiliation Mapping and Assessment Team with Jack Goldstone, Hroar Klempe, Finn Tschudi, Vegar Jordanger, Linda Hartling, Rick Slaven, Evelin Lindner


Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of Vegar from Brian Lynch's camera

Please see:
• Summary of the meetings by Vegar Jordanger
• Summary notes of the meetings by Linda Hartling
• The Humiliation, Dignity, and Political Ideologies Questionnaire

by Vegar Jordanger, 2007 – first pilot study conducted in Norway October 2007 (Goals of the Study and Working Research Hypotheses - some preliminary thoughts)
• The Reliability and Validity of a Measurement Instrument of Culture Defined As Symbol Exchange by Hroar Klempe & Torbjørn Rundmo (Department of Psychology, NTNU, Trondheim, Norwaym 2007 (contribution expanded from the paper first prepared for the 2007 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York, December 13-14, 2007, as Power Point presentation and as Pdf file).
• Dear Williman McConochie kindly wrote (18th June 2008):
Dear Evelin, Emanuela, Michael and Linda:
I am happy to report that the Brief Humiliation study (BHS) is now ready on my web site, Politicalpsychologyresearch.com. Go to the site, log in, go to the Help Do Research page and follow the instructions to the study. It takes about 40 minutes to complete. Let me know your thoughts. I hope you will find it interesting.
You can tell any professor or other leader that they can contact Marc Baber, the site manager, to get a group name for their group members to use. Then the professor/leader can ask for a download of the data specifically for his or her group...
Hope you all have a wonderful time in Norway.
If we get a good sample of data, e.g. 400 or so, in the next couple of months, I might be able to join you all in NYC for your December meeting.
Best regards, Bill

 

Thursday, 26th June 2008: Day Three, HumanDHS Conference with Participants Who Had Signed Up

10.00 - 11.00: Linda Hartling welcomed all participants and sets the frame of our conference of 'waging good conflict' (Jean Baker Miller's coinage), which is the HumanDHS-defined version of 'Appreciative Enquiry'


• Left side: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of the 26th June from Evelin's camera
• Right side: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of Linda & Rick from Brian Lynch's camera

Donald Klein and Linda Hartling usually set the frame of our conferences within 'Appreciative Enquiry', and we create a list of agreed upon norms having to do with the nature and tone of our dialogue. Linda always keeps our workshop together with her continuous caring interventions, while Don's caring wisdom always saved our conferences in crucial moments.

It is important to note that our appreciative frame is a HumanDHS-defined version of AE. We believe in 'waging good conflict' (Jean Baker Miller). We believe that diverging opinions and perspectives need to be expressed and not avoided, because diversity enriches. However, diversity only enriches if embedded into mutual connection and appreciation. If not harnessed lovingly and caringly, diversity has the potential to humiliate, divide, create hostility, foster hatred, and even violence. In the spirit of our vision, we, the HumanDHS network, wish therefore to avoid the latter, and instead open up a space of common ground and mutually caring connections, a space for the safe expression of even the deepest differences and disagreements, and the toughest issues of humiliation, trauma, and injustice.

To our immense sadness, our beloved Don Klein passed away in June 2007. We are heartbroken. We commemorate his memory with great love. He spoke to us about Awe and Wonderment. About our human ability to live in awe and wonderment, not just when we see a beautiful sun set or the majesty of the ocean, but always. That we can live in a state of awe and wonderment. And we do that, says Don, by leaving behind the psychology of projection. The psychology of projection is like a scrim, a transparent stage curtain, where you believe that what you see is reality only as long as the light shines on it in a certain way. However, it is not reality. It is a projection. And in order to live in awe and wonderment, we have to look through this scrim and let go of all the details that appear on it, in which we are so caught up. When we do that, we can see the beautiful sun set, the majestic ocean, always, in everything. We will continue our work while keeping Don's words at the center of our work and in our hearts.

We keep a moment of 'awe and wonderment' in honour of our beloved Don!

Please read An Appreciative Frame: Beginning a Dialogue on Human Dignity and Humiliation, that Linda has written for us in 2005.

11.00 - 12.30: Jack Goldstone presented Conflict Among Civilizations 500 BC - 2030 AD


• Left side: Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of the 26th June from Evelin's camera
• Right side: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of Jack from Brian Lynch's camera

Jack Goldstone
Virginia E. and John T. Hazel Professor at George Mason University School of Public Policy, Eminent Scholar, and a Mercatus Center Fellow.

12.35 - 13.00: Finn Tschudi welcomed all participants to Norway with his talk Our Common Future: A Tribute to Henrik Wergeland - with a Bridge to Ubuntu


• Left side: Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of the 26th June from Evelin's camera
• Right side: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of Finn from Brian Lynch's camera

Finn Tschudi has spent most of his professional life - 37 years - at the Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway. He has broad interests in psychology and has been teaching and publishing in cognitive, social, personality and clinical psychology.

Kjell Skyllstad supported Finn's talk with the following comments (5th April 2007):
How can we link the EU Year of Intercultural Dialogue, the Norwegian Year of Diversity,  the implementation of the Kyoto agreement, and the HumanDHS conference at the Holocaust Center to our 200 year celebration for Henrik Wergeland? What are the challenges confronting us in 2008?
This is the main question that lies behind the choice of topic for my presentation 'Our Common Future: A Tribute to Henrik Wergeland'. At the age of eighty, this I hope will also in a way reflect the conclusion of my lifelong thinking.
I will also make a bridge to Ubuntu, but I feel that Finn will do this marvellously.

13.00 - 14.00: Lunch

 

14.00 - 14.30  Dagne Groven Myhren introduced all participants to the work of Henrik Wergeland with her talk The Power of Poetry: Henrik Wergeland, His Times and Works


Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of the 26th June from Evelin's camera

Dagne Groven Myhren is professor of literature at the University in Oslo (UiO), and a Wergeland researcher and excellent interpreter of the songs of Wergeland. See Myhren's Introduction to The Army of Truth: Selected Poems by Henrik Wergeland - In the Historic Fight to Obtain Equal Rights for Jews in 19th-Century Norway, edited by Ragnhild Galtung, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.

14.30 - 17.00: Open Space

The Open Space began on Day One of our HumanDHS Conference, and continued on Day Two. The programme for the Open Space on Day Two emerged during Day One. Please read a more in-depth explanation of the Open Space and what it entails.

• Abou Bakar Bakundukize and Jean-Damascène Gasanabo
Witnessing Survival


• Left side: Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of the 26th June from Evelin's camera
• Middle: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of Abou Bakar from Brian Lynch's camera
• Right side: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of Damas from Brian Lynch's camera

• Brian Lynch
Humiliation in the Media (2008)


• Left side: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of the 26th June from Evelin's camera
• Right side: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of our conference from Brian Lynch's camera

• Stephanie Heuer
Education & Dignity (2008) with Maline Cecilia Westerberg, her dear friend, and Verena Bentzen
Stephanie presentedDignityRocks!™ - From Ideas to Action, an organisation offering seminars and educational support services for the promotion, preservation, and protection of human dignity, whose idea was born in the 3rd Annual HumanDHS Conference in Paris, France, in 2004. Please read her letter to Evelin and the participants of the conference.


• Left: DignityRocks T-Shirts
Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of the 26th June from Evelin's camera
• Middle: Stephanie Heuer's pictures, 26th and 27th June 2008
Please click on the picture or here to see more photos from Safa's camera
• Middle: Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of Maline Westerberg and Erin Hilgart
• Right: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of Verena Bentzen from Brian Lynch's camera

• Jean-Damascène Gasanabo
Understanding Genocides (2008)
with Jack Goldstone, Anne & Bertram Wyatt-Brown, and Brian Lynch


Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos from Brian Lynch's camera

• Svanibor Pettan
Music, Humiliation & Dignity (2008)
with Lasanthi Manaranjanie, Gro Hermstad, Hildegunn Nordtug, Lizzie Riiber, Abou Bakar Bakundukize



Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of Svanibor Pettan and Lasanthi Manaranjanie from Brian Lynch's camera (top), and Svanibor's camera (bottom pictures)

• Continuation of our Special Meeting of our Dignity and Humiliation Mapping and Assessment Team with Jack Goldstone, Hroar Klempe, Finn Tschudi, Vegar Jordanger, Linda Hartling, Rick Slaven, Evelin Lindner
Please see a Summary of the meetings by Vegar Jordanger


Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of the 26th June from Evelin's camera, and here for Brian Lynch's group pictures

Earlier suggested topics:

• Joy Haslam Calico
The Role of Dignity and Humiliation in the European Reception and Performance History of Schoenberg's 'Survivor from Warsaw' in the 1950s (2008)

• Tanga Kabore
Charte de KOUROU KAN FOUGA comme première declaration universelle des droits de l'Homme (2008)

• Rosita Albert
Ameliorating and Preventing Ethnic Conflict (2008)

• Chipamong Chowdhury
Feminine Spirituality and Its Dignity: History of Buddhist Feminine Philosophy (2008)

• Elin Toft and Arnhild Midgaard
The Role of Dignity and Humiliation for Saving Children Around the World (2008)

• Vidar Vambheim
Deadlock and Dialogue (2008)

• Patty and Paul Richards
Dignifying Gender Relations in our World (2008)

• Abou Bakar Bakundukize
A Tradegy of Failures and False Expectations
(2008)
Three months sit-in and forced removal of Sudanese refugees in Cairo September-December 2005

Michael L. Perlin
International Human Rights Law, Persons with Mental Disabilities, and the Humiliation Factor (2008) (Michael will be with us particularly on Friday)

•  Nimrod Sheinman
The Role of Dignity and Humiliation from the Mind-Body Psychotherapy Perspective (2008)

•  Patricia Rodriguez Mosquera
The Role of Humiliation in Responses to Group Devaluation among Ethnic and Religious Minorities (2008)

•  Berit Schei
The Role of Dignity and Humiliation for Handling Rape Victims (2008)

The following themes were selected and discussed at the HumanDHS annual conference in Costa Rica in 2006:
•  Religious Fundamentalism, Dignity, and Discussion (convener: Pandora Hopkins, please see here Pandora's Summary)
•  Dignity and Humiliation While Managing NGOs (convener: Marta Carlson)
•  Humour and Humiliation - Or, When Humiliation Is Amusing (convener: Myra Mendible)
•  Shame and Humiliation (convener: Amy Hudnall)
•  Dignity and Friendship in Politics (convener: Sibyl Ann Schwarzenbach)
•  Ethical Commerce - What Can We Do to Contribute? (conveners: Ragnhild Nilsen Grødal & Anne Katrine Hagelund)
•  HumanDHS's Education Programme Development / Dignity Education (conveners: Don Klein, Stephanie Heuer, please read here Ideas for Integrating Dignity into Education by Nick Martin)
•  How to 'Organize' the Network to Serve its Purpose (convener: Philip Brown)

Examples of more themes (list to be continued) suggested by HumanDHS members:
•  'Literature (Fiction) as Stimulant for Thought and Reflection' (Zuzana Luckay)
•  'The Dignity of Literature As an Art Created by Hu-man, about Hu-man for Hu-man' (Zuzana Luckay)
•  'Theory, Method, and Practice of Humiliation Research' (Dharm P. S. Bhawuk)
•  'Assistance and Humiliation' (Ana Ljubinkovic)
•  'Humiliation/Dignity in the Workplace' (Varda Mühlbauer)
•  'Humiliation/Dignity in the Family' (Varda Mühlbauer)
•  'Humiliation and Child Sexual Abuse' (Zahid Shahab Ahmed)
•  'Terrorism and Humiliation' (Victoria C. Fontan)
•  'Armed Conflict, Escalation and Humiliation' (Victoria C. Fontan)
•  'Consequences of Humiliation' (Miriam Marton)
•  'How to Prepare 'Non-Psychologists' (Human Rights Defenders, Peace Keepers, etc.) for Dealing with the Trauma of Humiliation in Victims' (Jörg Calliess)
•  'Ignorance and Humiliation' (Emmanuel Ndahimana)
•  'Justice and Humiliation' (Arie Nadler)
•  'Interlinking Peace Education and Humiliation Studies: A Bridge for Crossing Borders' (Alicia Cabezudo)

Erga Netz & Izzy Abrahami unfortunately had to leave early and could not present their documentary How to: Be or not to Be?

Abrahami-Netz’ documentaries are broadcast all over the world, in countries such as the USA, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Israel and Japan. A number of their documentaries have also won awards in festivals in the USA, Spain, Monaco, Italy and Bulgaria.

17.00 - 17.30: Wrapping up Day Three

 

18.00: Free

 

 

Friday, 27th June 2008: Day Four, HumanDHS Conference with Participants Who Had Signed Up

9.00 - 9.30: Welcoming all participants

 

9.30-13.00: Special Session on the Role Played by Human Dignity and Humiliation for Environmental Psychology, organised by Einar Strumse (with the support of Ashraf Salama)


Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of the 26th June from Evelin's camera

The sessions was designed to result in a manifesto or memorandum or a set of recommendations that address architects, designs and those who make decisions about the future built environment.

Environmental Psychology Session Part 1:


9.30 - 11.00: Einar Strumse gave an introduction to Environmental Psychology - themes included are Environmental Psychology as international academic discipline, it’s status in Norway and selected applied areas


Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of the 26th June from Evelin's camera

Einar Strumse (Cand. Psychol. and PhD in psychology) is Associate Professor of psychology and head of the psychology programme at the Lillehammer University College (LUC). He is also adjunct associate professor of environmental psychology at the University of Bergen. Since 1990 his research in the field of environmental psychology has focused upon landscape preference/landscape aesthetics, environmental attitudes and predictors of environmental behaviors.

Dialogue focused upon the following themes:

• How can the field of environmental psychology contribute to the promotion of human dignity?
• What should be included in a list of recommendations to designers and decision makers ? (see also below)

Environmental Psychology Session Part 2:

 

11.00 - 11.30: Einar Strumse spoke about Houselessness, Homelessness, Humiliation and Dignity

 

11.30 - 12.00: Åshild Lappegard Hauge spoke about The Meaning of Architectural Quality in Housing for the Social Identity of Formerly Homelessut (pictures taken by Bård Helland)


Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of the 26th June from Evelin's camera

Åshild Lappegard Hauge os a Research fellow (Ph.D. position) at the Faculty of Architecture and Fine Art, Norwegian University of Science, Trondheim

Einar Strumse kindly sent us his Summary of the Special Session on the Role Played by Human Dignity and Humiliation for Environmental Psychology (1st August 2008)

The tentative programme that was proposed by Ashraf Salama earlier, on 9th November 2006:
Session 1:
Environmental Psychology in Norway as a discipline and as a profession. How other disciplines are benefiting from the work of environmental psychologists, and how it helped in bridging the gaps that exist between different disciplines. How it can advance future endeavors of those disciplines in shaping the environment. This session could be moderated and its lectures/presentations delivered by colleagues from Norway.

Session 2: Environment-Behavior Studies - A Direct Application of Environmental Psychology
How it is viewed and utilized by architects and designers. Historical Account of Environment-Behavior Research, Issues addressed by Architects and Designers: Environmental Aesthetics, Environmental Cognition, Personal Space, Territorial Behavior, Ecological Psychology, Applications in Workplaces, Learning Environments, Housing and Residential Environments....Cross Cultural Examples.

The Two Sessions may result in a manifesto or memorandum or  a set of recommendations that address architects, designs and those who make decisions about the future built environment.

Henrik Wergeland skrev i Fælles boliger for Arbeiderklassen (20. desember 1844):
'De store Arbeidsherrers Ligegyldighed for hvorledes deres Arbeidsfolk har det i det Hjemlige er i Almindelighed utilgivelig stor...Intet bidrager mere til Elendigheden og Fordærvelsen end den slette og overordentlige kostbade Maade hvorpaa nu den Fattige boe...Dersom du disse fæle hytter oppkøjbtes og nye brakkelignende anlagdes paa deres Tomter, hvori Familiene kunde faae hver sin bekvemmelighed for en rimelig Penge, og hvor Reenlighed og Orden blev tilseet af Visse, som dermed havde Opsyn paa Ejernes Vegne - hvilke ubeskrivelige følger for Sædeligheden og Velvre vilde derav ikke flyde?'
Rækken af smukt malede Huse med klare Vinduer og reenlige Beboere vilde da vise seg og ligemeget vinde jets som Følelsenes behag.

13.00 - 14.00: Lunch


Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of the 26th June from Evelin's camera

14.00 - 14.15: Lasse Moer presented Men, hva er et menneske? [But, What Is a Human Being?]


Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of the 26th June from Evelin's camera

Lasse Moer, Chief Engineer, audiovisual technology, University in Oslo, the Faculty of Social Sciences, gave us a brief presentation of his poetic-metaphysical film project about the great mystery; the human being. Lasse's intention of the project is to make it clearer that this old question is one of the most important guestions given individually and collectively to humankind. This question unites all the worlds human beings, indepentent of religion and ethnic background. Lasse described some of his thoughts on this, and showed the opening sequence of the film.
Lasse Moer made the first short welcoming video clip for our website in 2007, and in 1999, he was the technical director of the film Humiliation, Genocide, Dictatorship and the International Community: Somalia As a Case Study by Evelin Lindner.

14.00 - 17.00: Open Space (continued from Day One)


Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of the 26th June from Evelin's camera

• Jean-Damascène Gasanabo's session Understanding Genocides continued with Nora Sveaass

• Svanibor Pettan's session Music, Humiliation & Dignity continued with with Lasanthi Manaranjanie, Gro Hermstad, Lizzie Riiber, Abou Bakar Bakundukize

• Our Special Meeting of our Dignity and Humiliation Mapping and Assessment Team continued with Finn Tschudi, Vegar Jordanger, Gro Hermstad, Hildegunn Nordtug, Linda Hartling, Rick Slaven, Evelin Lindner

Einar Strumse's session on Environmental Psychology continued with Anne & Bertram Wyatt-Brown

17.00 - 17.30: Wrapping up Day Four

 

18.00: Free

 

 

Saturday, 28th June - Tuesday, 1st July: HumanDHS Conference in Bergen and on Board of the Coaststeamer MS Finnmarken, which is part of the Hurtigruten fleet

On Saturday, 28th June, we moved our conference from Oslo to Bergen. We started in Oslo in the morning, ending that evening in the beautiful city of Bergen where we stayed overnight, experiencing the old Hansa city in the morning, before proceeding to lunch and sightseeing in Bergen.

For the transition from Oslo to Bergen we booked the Norway in a Nutshell tour. This move gave us the chance to include the experience of the Norwegian landscape as an integral part of our conference. The unique Norwegian fjord and mountain landscape has been proclaimed by Geographic Monthly to be the top destination in the world, ranking before the Chinese Wall and the Pyramids of Egypt.

Departure for the Norway in a Nutshell tour was from Oslo Central Station at 8.11 (8.11 a.m.) in the morning of 28th June, arrival in the evening.


• Left side: Norway in a Nutshell - Oslo-Myrdal-Flåm-Gudvangen-Stalheim-Voss-Bergen - please click on the pictures or here to see more photos from Evelin's camera
• Middle: Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of our journey from Oslo to Bergen from Brian Lynch's camera
• Right side: Please click on this photo or here to see the pictures that Svanibor Pettan took at our conference

Sunday, 29th June: HumanDHS Conference in Bergen

The 29th June included visits to the Art Museum, medieval monuments like the King's ceremonial hall Håkonshallen, the famous Fish Market and the UNESCO protected Bryggen (unfortunately, strong rain prevented a visit to Edvard Grieg's home Trollhaugen).

At 13.00 (1 p.m.) we took the funicular to reach the Fløyen restaurant overlooking Bergen for lunch (we had planned to meet with colleagues from Chr. Michelsens Institute and the Department of Psychology at the University of Bergen, but vacations had just started).


•  Top row: Bergen Art Musuem (Bergen Kunstmuseum):
Left: Kinetic Art by Argentine Julio Le Parc - "Multiple" (1968, a motor propels polished metal bands, which reflect and rotate the painted background strips, thus creating novel perspectives - this could be a suitable metaphor for our HumanDHS work: taking core ideas and creating something new), see here the pictures taken by Svanibor Pettan
Middle: Arne Ekeland - "Sisters of Liberty" (1938)*
Right: two pictures of humiliation - Reidar Aulie "The Brothel" (1933), and Christian Krohg - "The Fight for Survival" (1890)
•  Middle row: Fløyen, see here the pictures taken by Svanibor Pettan
•  Bottom: Bryggen
Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos from Evelin's camera

*Text on the leaflet of the museum explaining Arne Ekeland's 'Sisters of Liberty': Arne Ekeland is one of the most unusual figures within Norwegian 20 th century art. He expressed clear political convictions through a highly personal style, rich in symbolism. One of Ekeland's chief works is the Sisters of Freedom . This was a proposal he submitted to a competition for decorating the main auditorium of Oslo 's city hall. The pictorial program would have covered three walls. On one side wall, human figures would be depicted as isolated individuals in society, with war as their only source of community. The other side wall would show a multitude protesting against the governing powers. In the picture intended for the central wall, The Sisters of Freedom , we see 'a new earth.' Here, a black woman and a white woman remove the 'false borders between nations', and thus unite the entire world's liberated peoples, farmers and industrial workers. Although the jury purchased Ekeland's proposal, they nevertheless rejected it, arguing that the motifs were morbid and the literary context unclear. In all likelihood, Ekeland's vision of society was too radical. It lacked the 'festive effect and Norwegian character' found in Henrik Sørensen's winning proposal.

In our last newsletter, we used the following picture to illustrate the structure of our network, namely as a tree:

In the Art Musum in Bergen, we saw another picture of a tree, by Nikolai Astrup (1880-1928), Morning in March (ca. 1920). The leaflet of the museum gives the following explanation: "In another key work, Morning in March, nature awakens; the willow takes on an anthropomorphic shape and stretches its long fingers towards the mountain's white feminine forms - 'the Ice Queen'."

In the evening after our lunch at Fløyen restaurant, we embarked on MS Finnmarken, the northbound coaststeamer Hurtigruten taking a magnificent two day fjord and mountain tour, landing on Tuesday 1st July in Trondheim. On board, we continued our conference in the vessel's conference hall. (Please see Hurtigruten, or Norwegian Coastal Voyage websites.)

Boarding began at 15.00 (3 p.m.), departure was scheduled at 20.00 (8.00 p.m.).

 

Sunday, 29th June - Tuesday, 1st July: HumanDHS Conference on Board of the Coaststeamer MS Finnmarken, which is part of the Hurtigruten fleet


• Left side: The Finnmarken (photo courtesy: Hurtigruten)
• Middle: Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of our journey from Brian Lynch's camera
• Right side: Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos of our journey from Svanibor Pettan's camera

Our on-Board Programme (in our sessions, we continued with Open Space)

•  29th June
20.15: Dinner
21.00 - 22.00: First Session, in the Midnight Sun

•  30th June
8.00: Breakfast
9.00: Second Session
11.00: Coffee Pause
11.15 - 13.00: Third Session (small group discussions in the conference center or on deck as we passed into the Geiranger Fjord)
13.00: Lunch
13.30: Enjoying the cruise on the Geiranger fiord, the most spectacular scenery of Norway
20.15: Dinner
21.00 - 23.00 Fourth Session, in the Midnight Sun


Monday, 30th June 2008, on Hurtigruten, MS Finnmarken - celebrating one birthday and two wedding anniversaries.
Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos from Evelin's camera


Kjell Skyllstad's special guests Svanibor Pettan from the University of Ljubljana, and Lasanthi Manaranjanie from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, were kindly offering to present a programme on the arts in mediation and rehabilitation (Kosovo and Sri Lanka).
• Left side: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of Svanibor Pettan and Lasanthi Manaranjanie from Svanibor's camera
• Right side: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos from Brian Lynch's camera


•  1st July
9.00: Breakfast
13.00: Restaurant 'Grenaderen' in Trondheim


• Left side: Trondheim - Nidaros Dome and then Restaurant 'Grenaderen': Oeyvind Eikrem joined us, Vegar Jordanger, Hildegunn Nordtug, Kjell Oversand (founder of the Trondheim World Music Ensemble), Kjell's second sister came, with her niece Sissel.
Please click on the picture or here to see more photos from Evelin's camera
• Right side: Please click on the picture or here to see more photos of Trondheim and the Nidaros Dome from Brian Lynch's camera

We returned to Oslo by train or plane


Wednesday, 2nd July: After Our HumanDHS Conference

Linda Hartling, Rick Slaven, Finn Tschudi, Evelin Lindner in Oslo


From left:
1. Frognerseter (in front of a picture of Arne Næss, who participated in our 2nd Annual Conference in Paris, France, in 2003)
2. The Norwegian Nobel Institute (Det Norske Nobelinstitutt), with Alfred Nobel guarding the entrance
3. The Castle (Slottet) and then we paid Norsk Design, and Juhls' Silvergallery in Kautokeino a visit
4. City Hall (Rådhuset)
5. Meeting with Finn Tschudi
Please click on the picture or here to see more photos from Evelin's camera

Thursday, 3rd July: After Our HumanDHS Conference

Linda Hartling, Rick Slaven, Evelin Lindner in Oslo


From left:
1. University in Oslo (Universitetet i Oslo), Blindern campus, which is situated about 5 kms from downtown Oslo; here you see the University Library (also known as Georg Sverdrup's house)
2. Department of Psychology (Psykologisk institutt)
3. The Munch Museum (Munch museet), Scream (Skrik)
4. Some traditional Norwegian food: ekte geitost with flatbrød, nøkkelost, multe berries, pølse with lompe...
Please click on the picture or here to see more photos from Evelin's camera

Friday, 4th July: After Our HumanDHS Conference

Linda Hartling, Rick Slaven, Evelin Lindner in Oslo


From left:
1. Henie Onstad Art Centre (Sonia Henie Kunstsenter)
2. Aker Brygge, celebrating our conference
3. Aker Brygge, with Akershus Castle (Akershus Festning) in the background, which houses the Norwegian Resistance Museum
Please click on the picture or here to see more photos from Evelin's camera

Monday, 14th July: After Our HumanDHS Conference

Ragnhild S. Nilsen, Evelin Lindner in Oslo Ekeberg


Please click on the pictures or here to see both photos larger

Tuesday, 15th July: After Our HumanDHS Conference

Maria Rosvoll, Evelin Lindner in at the Holocaust Centre


Saying good bye and thanking Maria Rosvoll on 16th July 2008 at the Holocaust Centre - please click on these photos or here to see the pictures larger


 

List of Participants

 

From outside of Norway

Linda Hartling

Richard Slaven

Donald C. Klein was with us in spirit:
To our immense sadness, our beloved Don Klein passed away in June 2007. We are heartbroken. We commemorate his memory with great love. He spoke to us about Awe and Wonderment. About our human ability to live in awe and wonderment, not just when we see a beautiful sun set or the majesty of the ocean, but always. That we can live in a state of awe and wonderment. And we do that, says Don, by leaving behind the psychology of projection. The psychology of projection is like a scrim, a transparent stage curtain, where you believe that what you see is reality only as long as the light shines on it in a certain way. However, it is not reality. It is a projection. And in order to live in awe and wonderment, we have to look through this scrim and let go of all the details that appear on it, in which we are so caught up. When we do that, we can see the beautiful sun set, the majestic ocean, always, in everything. We will continue our work while keeping Don’s words at the center of our work and in our hearts.

• Jack A. Goldstone

• Bertram and Anne Wyatt-Brown

• Svanibor Pettan, Professor of Musicology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

• Lasanthi Manaranjanie from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

• Lizzie E. Riiber, House of Norway, San Diego, CA, USA

• Annika Helene Willoughby, Masterstudent in social work, Washington, USA

• Maline Cecilia Westerberg, and a dear friend of hers

• Stephanie Heuer, 26th, 27th June
Stephanie presents DignityRocks!™ - an organization offering seminars and educational support services for the promotion, preservation, and protection of human dignity, whose idea was born in the 3rd Annual HumanDHS Conference in Paris, France, in 2004


Stephanie Heuer's pictures, 26th and 27th June 2008
Please click on the pictures to see more photos from Safa's camera

• Abou Bakar Bakundukize, Burundian refugee in Egypt, pursuing studies in law (human rights, in combination with sociology and psychology) in Egypt

• Brian Lynch


These are the pictures Brian Lynch selected from the collection of photos he created of our conference (see Brian on the picture to the right), see also http://www.kodakgallery.com/
Please click on the pictures or here to see more photos from Brian's camera

• Erga Netz & Izzy Abrahami

• Jean-Damascène Gasanabo, Geneva, presenting his contribution to the book Comprendre les Génocides:

• Joy Haslam Calico, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Musicology, Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

They were unfortunately not able to join us:

Alan Klein

Rebecca A. Klein

• David Held

• Hans-Christoph von Sponeck, on the staff of the University of Marburg Conflict Research Centre, graduate seminar on 'The UN & Conflict Resolution - Examples from the Middle East'.

• Victoria C. Fontan

• Philip M. Brown

• Colleagues of Rita Giacman, Professor of Community and Public Health in the University of Birzeit, Ramallah

• Ashraf Salama (Session on Environmental Psychology, unfortunately Ashraf is hindered to join us)

Joseph Linser, Nimrod and Anat Sheinman

• Rosita Albert

• Judy Kuriansky

• Arran Stibbe with his wife

• Dharm P. S. Bhawuk with his wife Poonam

• Michael Britton

• Varda Mühlbauer

• Patricia Rodriguez Mosquera

• Michael L. Perlin

• Lynn King

• Sharon Burde

• Nariman Abdel Kader, President and Board of Trustees Chairman of Egyptian Woman Foundation for Law and spreading Peace Culture EWFLPC, Counselor at Law Supreme Court International Arbitrator, Prof. at University, Cairo, Egypt

• Pandora Hopkins

• Lene Hulbakviken Lafosse

• Miriam Marton

• Nora Femenia

• Tonya R. Hammer

• Zinthiya Ganeshpanchan

• Roberta L. Kosberg

• Zahur Ahmed Choudhri and his son Zahid Shahab Ahmed, Pakistan

• Alexander Cheryomukhin, President, Azerbaijan Psychological Association

• Fazeela Zaib and Othman Al-Tawalbeh, Sweden

• Leo Semashko

• Jayne Sander, UNON Division of Conference Service, Nairobi, Kenya

• Hayal Köksal

• Alexander Patrut and his wife Iulia-Karin Patrut

• Cyrien Kanamugire

• Dana Zein Dein, Strasbourg, France

• Judy Bowker, Oregon State University, Oregon, USA

• Annette A. Engler

• Zuzana Luckay

• Bayezid Dawla, General Secretary, Bangladesh Dignity Forum & Executive Director Civic, Dhaka, Bangladesh

• Sowan Wong

• Børge Bakken

• Ashok Chakravarthy, Litt.D, Vice Chairman - Global Harmony Association,Life Member - World Academy of Arts & Culture

• Sylvester Laihai

• David Jones, CEO, Siloam International, Oregon, USA

• Patty and Paul Richards, Sente, Oregon, USA

• Kimberley Berglind, Centre for Peace Studies, School of Professional Development and Leadership, University of New England, Armidale, Australia

• Ven. Chipamong Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi Buddhist monk, holding a BA from Yangon/Rangon, Burma, and an MA from Sri Lanka, repeating another MA in the USA

• Charles Ndayizeye, Youth for Security Club, Great Lakes, Africa

•  Garry Davis, Former US Presidential Candidate, and peace activist who created the first 'World Passport.' Unfortunately, to our deep regret, he could not attend. The world is not yet ready for his World Passport - please see his www.worldservice.org/gdblog.html.

• The Association Inter-Cultures pour le Bien Etre Universel (Intercultural Association for Universal Welfare), Burkina Faso, Africa
1. Abel Ouedraogo, Secretary General
2. Tiemtoré Ablassé, Vice President
3. Yambré Harouna, Artistic and Cultural adviser

• The Burkina Faso African Union Club, Burkina Faso
1. Tanga Abdou Fulgence Kabore, President/Secrétaire Général Exécutif de la FEPAC/UA
2. William Euloge Zidouemba, Chargé de Formation et du Développement du Capital Humain
3. Issoufou Samandoulgou, Chargé De La Promotion Du Secteur Privé Et Des Pmi/Pme.Il
4. Pauline Nikiema, Chargée De La Prise En Charge Des Personnes Vivant Avec Le Vih/Sida (Pv/Vih)
Please see the Charte de KOUROU KAN FOUGA (première declaration universelle des droits de l'Homme)

• L'association Femmes 2000, Burkina Faso
1- Chantal Marie Rachelle Ouedraogo, Présidente
2- Souhoudou Sorgho, Chargé Des Activités Culturelles Et Sportives
3- Abdoul Karim Sana, Chargé De La Promotion Des Jeunes
4- Loretta Raissa Alex Sissao, Chargée De La Scolarisation De La Jeune Fille

• The International Human Rights Observer(IHRO), Pakistan (Khalid Pervaiz Sulehri, Director)
1. Muhammad Waseem Abbasi
2. Ghulam Rasool
3. Mohsan Shaukat

• Youth Movement for Peace and Non Violence (YMPNV), Freetown, Sierra Leone
Alpha Amadu Jalloh, National Director
1. Idrissa Barrie, Social Worker
2. Alphajor Bah, Gender Desk Officer
3. Mohamed B. Bah, Social Worker
4. Chernor Abdul Barrie, Youth Leader
5. Alhassan Conteh

• The Founders Education Society (Regd), Pakistan
1. Attaor Rehman Choudhry, President
2. Fida Hussain Shah, Manager
3. Khalid Mehmood, Director

• Ideal Education Social Welfare Society, Pakistan
1. Malik Tariq, President
2. Sadaqat Hussain Awan, Director
3. Abid Mahmood, Manager

• The Community Based Organization (CBO), Nairobi, Kenya (via Robert Mwaniki)
1. Bernard Wamenju, Social Worker
2. Hassan Rasid Bulle, Community Development Leader
3. Mohamed Yahye Hussein, Youth Leader

• Koinadugu Progressive youth Organisation (KPYO), Sierra Leone
1. Mackie Jeng
2. Mory Toure, Secretary General
3. Habib Dieng, Social Organiser

• Awa Vitalys Chi, Human Rights Defence Group, Bamenda, Cameroon

• Bhanu Parajuli, Regional Monitoring Coordinator, Rural Reconstruction Nepal-RRN, Nepalgunj, Banke

From Norway

• Inga Bostad

• Einar Solbu

• Kjell Skyllstad

• Einar Strumse

• Simon Souyris Strumse, Development Studies at the Oslo University College

• Finn Tschudi

• Birgit Brock-Utne

• Hroar Klempe

• Anton Weiss-Wendt, 24th June

• Claudia Lenz, 24th June

• Nora Sveaass, 27th June

• Verena Bentzen, Førstelektor og fagansvarlig for Tysk, Oslo University College (Høgskolen i Oslo, HiO)

• Gro Hermstad, Per Knudsen Arkitektkontor AS, Trondheim (25th, 26th June)

• Vegar Jordanger

• Øyvind Eikrem

• Irene Erhardt-Wästberg

• Pamela Hiley

• Naomi Daliot, Senior announcer (News bulletin and music transmission) at the Israeli Radio IBA Jerusalem, retired

• Yisrael Daliot, Senior Editor at the music department, Israeli radio IBA Jerusalem; musicologist and music critic; holder of Norwegian State Scholarship (1969- 1971); having lived with the family in Norway until 1983; awarded the Norwegian St. Olavs Medal for outstanding contribution to promote Norwegian Music (Art music and Traditional music) 1994

• Lasse Moer

• Olav Ofstad, Country Representative, Norwegian Red Cross, Serbia, Belgrade (27th June)

• Åshild Lappegard Hauge

• Hildegunn Nordtug

• Tonje Holand

They were unfortunately hindered to participate:

• Geir Thomas Hylland Eriksen

• Øystein Gullvåg Holter

• Berit Schei

• Ingeborg Breines

• Haldis Hjort, Privatpraktiserende og seniorforsker ved Sintef, avdeling for psykisk helsearbeid

• Vidar Vambheim

• Kjell-Magne Flekkøy, Avdeling Nevropsykologi & Rehab, Ullevål, Oslo

• Ragnvald Kalleberg (24th - 25th October)

• Lars-Erik Vaale, Historiker, cand.philol.

• Ståle Einarsen (in Bergen)

• Reidulf G. Watten, Høgskole i Lillehammer

• Oddvar Skjaeveland, arkitekturpsykologi

• Floyd Rudmin

• Fredrik S. Heffermehl

• Gunaketu Kjønstad

• Nisma Manaf, Psykologisk institutt

• Ragnhild S. Nilsen (25. + 26. June)

• Irmelin Drake

• John John Bruseth

• Mari Blikom

• Javier Fabra Mata, Research Associate, Governance and Conflict Prevention, Oslo Governance Centre, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

• Elin Toft og Arnhild Midgaard, Redd barna (Save the Children)

• Arne and Kit-fai Næss, in case Arne has the strength to sit with us!


 

Papers

All participants are warmly invited to send in abstracts and full papers to upload on this website, and please let us know, if you wish to submit any of your papers also as a book chapter or as full paper for submission to our new HumanDHS journal!

Please see earlier submitted papers here:
• List of All Publications
• Papers and Notes for the 2004 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict
• Papers and Notes for the 2005 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict
• Papers and Notes for the 2006 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict


 

How the Schedule and Formate of Our Conference Emerged

 

In October 2007, we had several meetings in Oslo in preparation for our 2008 conference. Please see some pictures here:


• Left: 1st and 2nd October 2007, Evelin travelled to Oslo by ship.
Middle: 4th October 2007, part of the organisational team met at Kjell Skyllstad's place in Oslo.
• Right: 5th October 2007, Kjell and Evelin met at the Holocaust Centre with Maria Rosvoll.
Please click on each picture to see more photos.

We envisaged our conference schedule to begin as follows: For those arriving early we thought of arranging a welcome tour of Oslo and surroundings including the University in Oslo, the University Museum of Cultural Heritage, the Munch Museum, the Viking Ships, the Kontiki Museum and the Nobel Peace Museum.



View on Oslo from Holmenkollen Ski Jump (pictures taken from http://www.oslocruise.com/)
& Vikingship (taken from http://www.visitoslo.com/).
Please click on the pictures to see them larger

We planned to begin with our conference on 24th June in Oslo with the Holocaust Centre being our host for the first part of our conference, also standing for the programme of the first day. The programme of the subsequent days was to be developed by HumaDHS.

Our outside-of-NY conferences have evolved somewhat differently as compared to our NY workshop. The NY workshops have always been more formal, while the outside-of-NY conferences are usually more open and more geared towards group building (except the one we had in China in 2007, that was even more traditional, because we were part of a larger conference). Our conference in Costa Rica in 2006 went furthest into novel directions; it was entirely based on Open Space Technology and it was great. In other words, we attempt to find new and innovative forms for conferences, more dignified forms. And we usually have no calls for papers and no traditional presentations for our outside-of-NY conferences.

Everybody is always welcome tosend in their proposed topics to be included on the Open Space Sections in our future conferences! You are also warmly invited to send in an abstract! Or, even better, a full paper ready to be submitted to our HumanDHS journal! In other words, at the end, the outcome of our outside-of-NY conferences can be similar to more traditional conferences, with publishable papers emerging from the Open Space discussions!


Welcome to the Holocaust Centre! (Please click on the pictures to see them larger! They were taken on 5th October 2007)

On 28th June, we envisaged to move our conference from Oslo to Bergen, and to have a working lunch at the Chr. Michelsens Institute on Sunday, 29th June. We thought of starting in Oslo in the morning of 28th June, ending that evening in the beautiful city of Bergen, where we would stay overnight, experiencing the old Hansa city in the morning, before proceeding to our working lunch.


Bergen, picture taken from http://www.visitbergen.com/ (please click on the picture to see it larger)

We thought that this move would give us the chance to include the experience of the Norwegian landscape as an integral part of our conference. The unique Norwegian fjord and mountain landscape has been proclaimed by Geographic Monthly to be the top destination in the world, ranking before the Chinese Wall and the Pyramids of Egypt. For the transition from Oslo to Bergen, we planned to book the Norway in a Nutshell tour.

On Sunday 29th June, in the evening after our working lunch at the Chr. Michelsens Institute in Bergen, we thought to embark on the northbound coaststeamer Hurtigruten taking a magnificent two day fjord and mountain tour landing on 1st July in Trondheim. On board, we would continue our conference in the vessel's conference hall. We reserved cabins on especially wonderful MS Finnmarken!


Norwegian mountains and fjords. Picture taken from http://www.cruisenorway.com/ (please click on the picture to see it larger)

One can return from Trondheim to Oslo by train or plane.


Trondheim in Nordlys/Aurora borealis. Picture taken from http://www.trondheim.com/ (please click on the picture to see it larger)

For the days in Oslo, inexpensive (and basic) accommodation needed to be found, like on the theater ship Innvik, the boat headquarters of the Nordic Black Theatre. The ship has a restaurant and conference room as well for group meetings.


 

Practical Details

Please see here a short version of the programme, and the practical details prepared for print-out prior to the conference. Due to changes in the programme, which occured throughout the conference, these versions are no longer entirely up-to-date. Only what you see further down on this webpage reflects what happened.

We started our conference in Oslo, and then went on the famous post-ship trip all along the Norwegian fjords and mountains. We reserved cabins on especially wonderful MS Finnmarken with all conference facilities on board. Our participants were invited to bring spouses, partners, and friends to this conference.
Dear Salman arranged for ship and train together with dear Kjell Skyllstad, and housing in Oslo was arranged by dear Maria Rosvoll. Thanks most enthusiastically, dear Salman, Kjell, and Maria, for your wonderful support!
We had Open Space parallel sessions, and you are most welcome to send us your suggestions for sessions in future conferences!

Logistic details:
• We do not operate with obligatory conference fees (the reasons for this strategy have to do with humiliation, or, more precisely, with refraining from humiliation).
However, any contribution from your side will be greatly appreciated! We have a number of participants from less privileged world regions, who need our support!

• Overall cost: There is no total overall price for our conferences, because everything depends on everybody's individual decisions - in the case of this conference, for example, on how long our participants wished to stay in Oslo, and whether they joined us on the ship. The ship was rather costly - it was possible to minimise cost by only participating in the Oslo-part of our conference, particularly, if one had friends in Oslo, where one could stay. All participants had to cover the cost of their travels themselves (flight tickets to Oslo, and back from Trondheim), housing in Oslo, and in Bergen, and the Hurtigruten ship.

• Currency conversion
• Trains in Norway: NSB
• Airplanes in Norway: SAS and Norwegian (inexpensive)

• For those who arrived at Oslo airport, the best way to come to Oslo was by train to the Central Train Station 'Oslo S' (every 10 minutes to Oslo).
Nobody missed the most spectacular sight near the Central Train Station, Scandinavia architecture rivaling Sidney - the new Norwegian Opera!

• For those who stayed in MS Innvik (map), this was close to the Central Train Station 'Oslo S' - just cross the bridge from the Central Station over the highway, and passing the new Opera one had to turn right. The boat is in plain sight facing the Opera.
• Those living at Rica Bygdøy (map) were advised to get a taxi at the Central Train Station right by the bridge.

• 23rd June: We gathered for a Norwegian Midsummer Night celebration at the Folk Museum on Bygdøy at 17.00 (5 p.m). There was a traditional symbolic children's wedding with horse carriages and fiddlers, music and dancing and people brought food baskets for an evening of barbecue. At night one had to remember to gather seven herbs or five flowers to put under one's pillow to dream about one's love!
How to get to Bygdøy: Bus no. 30 or ferry boat no. 91 leave from the Town Hall Pier - information about public transportation in the Oslo area can be found at Trafikanten, just outside Oslo Central Station; bus no. 30 had temporarily a new route near Oslo Central Station, due to building works.

•  24th June: The programme of this day, 'Wergelands Heritage' was arranged by the HL Centre.
In the morning we checked in at the Holocaust Centre (HL Centre, see a map showing the location, postal address is HL-senteret/Holocaust Centre, Postboks 1168 Blindern, N- 0318 Oslo, Telefon: +47 22 84 21 00, Fax: + 47 22 84 21 01, visiting address is Villa Grande, Huk Aveny 56, Oslo-Bygdøy).
Bus no. 30 goes to the Holocaust Centre - information about public transportation in the Oslo area can be found at Trafikanten, just outside Oslo Central Station; bus no. 30 has temporarily a new route near Oslo Central Station, due to building works.
At check-in participants could pick up information about the HL Centre and useful material on Oslo sights.
There is a restaurant with in- and outside garden facilities right at the HL Centre for lunch and intermission snacks. Technical facilities were available for speakers as well as internet facilities for the use of participants.
For a romantic evening dinner at Bygdøy, no. 30 bus could bring our participants to a first class restaurant at Hukodden beach (the former bathhouse of Quisling) (reservation Tel. 22 43 74 62).
Or, there was the possibility of experiencing a children's opera performance at our new Opera at 18.00 or 19.30 hours (Peter Maxwell Davies: The Great Bank Robbery). The performers were all children from schools of music in the Oslo area.

•  25th June: We had a joint HumanDHS and HL Centre programme at the Holocaust Centre open to the public, including lectures on the main themes of the conference. Technical facilities were available for speakers as well as internet facilities for the use of participants.

•  26th-27th June: HumanDHS Conference at the HL Centre (with Open Space and a Special Session on Environmental Psychology).

• 28th June: We moved our conference from Oslo to Bergen. For the transition from Oslo to Bergen we booked the Norway in a Nutshell tour. Departure for this tour was from Oslo Central Train Station at 8.11 (8.11 a.m.) in the morning of 28th June. Arrival in Bergen 20.34 in the evening.
We ended that evening in the beautiful city of Bergen where we stayed overnight, experiencing the old Hansa city in the morning, before proceeding to our working lunch.

• 29th June: Sightseeing in Bergen on 29th June included the medieval monuments like the King's ceremonial hall Håkonshallen, the famous Fish Market and the UNESCO protected Bryggen (unfortunately, strong rain prevented a visit to Edvard Grieg's home Trollhaugen).
At 13.00 (1 p.m.) we took the funicular to reach the Fløyen restaurant overlooking Bergen for a lunch (we had planned to meet with colleagues from Chr. Michelsens Institute and the Department of Psychology at the University of Bergen, but vacations had just started). Kjell ordered Bergen Fish soup with bread and butter for us, as much as we can eat, at 155 NOK.
In the evening, we embarked on the northbound coastal steamer Hurtigruten. Boarding time was at least one hour before departure, which was scheduled at 20.00 (8.00 p.m.).

• 29th June - 1st July: Post-ship Hurtigruten or Norwegian Coastal Voyage: Hurtigruten departure from Bergen Harbour at 20.00 in the evening of 29th June, arrival in Trondheim 8.15 in the morning on 1st July.
We reserved cabins on wonderful MS Finnmarken. Here are approximate prices: single room 7395 NOK (ca 1345 USD), double room 6170 NOK (ca 1122 USD). Dear Salman made arrangements with Hurtigruten that everyone will be able to pay individually (when in Oslo, everybody had to remember to give Salman 900 NOK that we paid in advance for each of us as a deposit; we could not convince Hurtigruten to include these 900 NOK in your bill at once). This amount included almost everthing happening between 29th June and 1st July (tour with train and boat trip from Oslo to Bergen, one night accomodation in Bergen breakfast included. Two nights on Hurtigruten with all meals included).
What our participants needed to do in addition on their own was to book their flight tickets to Oslo and back from Trondheim.

• Our on-Board Programme:
- 29th June: 20.15: Dinner; 21.00 - 22.00: First Session, in the Midnight Sun
- 30th June: 8.00: Breakfast; 9.00: Second Session; 11.00: Coffee Pause; 11.15 - 13.00: Third Session (small group discussions in the conference center or on deck as we passed into the Geiranger Fiord); 13.00: Lunch; 13.30: Enjoying the cruise on the Geiranger fiord, the most spectacular scenery of Norway; 20.15: Dinner; 21.00 - 23.00 Fourth Session, in the Midnight Sun
- 30th June: 8.00: Breakfast; 9.00: Our meeting started (we continued with Open Space); 11.00: Coffee Pause; 13.00: Lunch; 15.00: Coffee Pause; 17.00: End of our meeting; 20.15: Dinner
- 1st July: 9.00: Breakfast; 13.00: restaurant Grenaderen in Trondheim; we returned to Oslo by train or plane.

• For those who did not join us on Hurtigruten had the possibility to follow the midnight sun on your own with Norwegian airlines to Longyearbyen, Svalbard, on 29th June, and return on 4th July for NOK 1200 (225 USD). (Norwegian offers other inexpensive flights within Norway and to a number of European destinations).

• Arriving in Trondheim by Hurtigruten: Dear Hildegunn Nordtug very kindly offered her help. She kindly reserved a table for us on 1st July at 13.00 in the restaurant Grenaderen.
Hildegunn gave us this general information: 'From where the Coastal Steamer arrives Trondheim, there is approximately a 15 minutes walk to the city centre. One can also take a bus which cost 30 NOK and takes only a few minutes. Get of the bus at the street 'Munkegata'. This is the bus junction. Here you can see the great cathedral which could be the starting point of the sightseeing tour.
- Alternatively: Get off the bus at the train station, where it is possible to lock in your luggage. Here one can walk over the bridge, up the street 'Søndre gate' to where Søndre gate crosses 'Olav Tryggvasons gate'. Here lies the café 'Dromedar' that serves the best coffee in Trondheim. It opens at 07:00 in the morning, and thus suits the program well. The cathedral is only a few minutes away'.

• Leaving Trondheim by train or plane: From the Train Station (where one can leave one's luggage) there are three possible ways to get to Oslo: by train, aircraft, or bus.
- Train: Prices are from approximately 300 NOK to 800 NOK. There are about four departures to Oslo each day.
- Air: From the train station one can take the airport bus to the airport. This bus goes frequently (and also from lots of other places in the city, if you have your luggage with you). The bus cost s about 80 NOK. The cheapest airline company is Norwegian. A good flight departs at 17.45 to Oslo (low price now at 410 NOK; Evelin had seat 23F, Linda and Rick 23D and 23E).
- Bus: From the train station it is also possible to go by bus to Oslo. Check out the low-price company lavprisekspressen.no. If one orders in good time, the prices are as low as 50 NOK.


 

Open Space and What It Entails

Donald Klein explained the Open Space design as follows (2006): It involves creating a kind of 'marketplace' of possibilities based on topics nominated by participants. The only requirement is that whoever nominates the topic, acts as the convener of the discussion of the topic and takes responsibility for having notes taken. A report is subsequently made about the essence of what was discussed, including any conclusions or recommendations, at a plenary session following the topic groups.
The Open Space design has the advantage of focussing on whatever is of greatest interest to participants at the moment. It allows for parallel discussion of multiple topics, followed by a period of sharing and general discussion.

Alan Klein kindly wrote (31/10/2005): One of the key elements in making an OS event successful is the focusing of the question that the participants respond to. Another is being clear about what will be done with the information presented and/or decisions made in the OS event itself.

I would like you all (and any others who should be involved in this as well) to begin thinking and dialoguing about what would be the most question that you would most like to see grappled with by the participants. This may or may not include a sense of the decision(s), or type of decision(s) that you want the participants to come to or you may decide that the OS event is just for gathering and focusing energy and not to some to any decisions.
Thanks,
~Alan

On 14th December, 2005, we had a Board Meeting in NY:
We discussed our Open Space Section. Don explained that we could have different levels, a more open and general level and a more focused level. At the more open level we would discuss what is on our minds, at the more focused level, we would form 'buzzgroups' on particular topics, such as business, research, education, fundraising, non-profit.

Don Klein kindly wrote (30/12/2005):
[...] The main point I recall dwelling on at some length had to do with deciding first on the content of a session and its purpose; then deciding what meeting technology to use. Open Space is often used when the purpose is to make it possible for individuals to focus on aspects of a general topic that are of special interest to them. The participants themselves choose what they want to discuss.  No one knows in advance how many groups there will be and what they'll be  discussing.
Buzz groups are used as a way to break a large meeting down into smaller sections (usually from six to twelve or so people). All the buzz groups can be assigned the same topic; or different buzz groups can be assigned different aspects of the same topic; or buzz groups may be divided among two or more different - usually related - topics.
The main point is to decide what is to be the topical focus and what outcomes are desired from a session.  Then pick the technique that promises to help us achieve the purpose.
Love, Don

Sophie Schaarschmidt kindly wrote (02/01/2006):
What I would suggest for a following workshop (and this is my very personal view) is to create discussion forums as open choices. The open space technology as I know it, and as it is used mainly in the field of training involves participants in a unique way. The first step is like an open brainstorm session involving all participants. In this session, participants can come up with a topic that they want to (present and) discuss. All topics are written down and similar topics might be combined into one topic. This process can happen either beforehand via email or a web-forum or at the workshop on a blackboard. Once the discussion topics are defined the person that proposed a certain topic would announce a time and a space when and where the topic will be discussed. In a full day of open-space, up to 50 topics could be discussed. People are free to join and leave a discussion. As a metaphor, people are like bees flying from one topic to another, participating in a discussion as long as it feeds their interest and taking the honey from it as well as contributing to it, and leaving the discussion when it takes a turn into a direction that they are less interested in or when they wish to participate in other discussions on other topics as well. Normally people take part in 3 to 10 discussions a day. Therefore, people are free to select the topics they are interested in and move to other discussions, as listener or both, listener and contributor. Each discussion group is also free in putting their time frame, and scheduling breaks. Of course, there should be a time frame for the open-space session, let's say it would take place from 1pm to 5pm in the afternoon. Yet, discussion groups can schedule their space (location), time frame (a discussion could last half an hour or three hours: as much as it takes to explore the issue) and breaks themselves. The only condition is that the discussion topic, its location and starting time will be announced (or written down on a public board) so that all participants know when which subject will be discussed where.
I participated twice in such an open-space session and I was very much impressed by its power and evolving possibilities. Not only were people more active, excited and engaged, taking little breaks, but also people felt they could gain and contribute most in this process. They felt they were free to choose which discussions to engage in, and it was an easy way to make contacts with those people interested and engaged in topics similar to one's own. By being able to set an own time frame discussions were deeper than usual, and by participants moving from one topic to another, joining (and making new contributions) or leaving a discussion the discussions stayed vivid and interesting, and many perspectives could be shared. At the end of a discussion each group filled in an A4 page which contained the title of the discussion group, a list of the names of the people who contributed in the discussion, and a summary of what was discussed (the main stances). All the discussion summaries can be combined to a book at the end of the conference providing people with a tremendous treasure of topics and insights.
Another advantage of the open-space technology (as I experienced it) is that people stay 'fresh' in the workshop. The discussion excites and revives people and forms a good basis for getting to know each other and going on with the discussions at a later time in the workshop (e.g. during lunch).
It might be worthy to try the open-space technology in a HumanDHS workshop meeting substituting the round table sessions, or in addition to them. The only difficulty I'm aware of might be that we would need many spaces (rooms) where the discussion groups could spread for their discussions.
[...]
Good luck for your work in 2006!
Yours warmly,
Sophie Schaarschmidt

Linda Hartling kindly wrote in response to a message from Carlos Sluzki (21/01/2006):
How do we maximize the quality of work together when we are a group of individuals with dramatically varying levels of experience? This is such an important topic I think we should discuss it at our next meeting in Costa Rica. Perhaps, we could use some of our Board meeting time to discuss this? In addition, perhaps we could use some of our 'open space' time to explore people's view of this dilemma? I suspect that all of us involved with the operations of this network share a desire to optimize our efforts, to move the work forward efficiently and effectively. When we use an all-inclusive format at our meetings, we risk back tracking and dealing with questions that have obvious answers (e.g., convincing some newer attendees of the significance humiliating behavior). (...) In the words of Peter Drucker, I would like to see our group create conditions that 'strengthen our effectiveness and make our weaknesses irrelevant'. But, how do we do this in a way that promotes the dignity of all the people who attend our meetings?  I'm trying to think of some examples of organizations that do this... perhaps, Linda Stout's Piedmont Peace Project? Not too long ago I read a book entitled, 'The Wisdom of Crowds', which I think is relevant to our questions about inclusion/exclusion. It
describes the conditions for 'wise crowds'. (Surowiecki, J. (2004). The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies, and Nations. New York: Doubleday.)

Don Klein kindly responded (28/01/2006):
I very much support the focus on where we want to go. Suggest working in interest groups part of the time: i.e., education, research, civic action, global community building. And include a way for groups to emerge around other areas of interest.  for that matter, if only one person had an
interest and wanted to develop it further and then share his/her thoughts with us, that might also be possible.
Love, Don

Don Klein kindly wrote (28/01/2006):
I'd like to offer some experiences with the network originally known as National Training Laboratories.  This network, begun around 1950, is sstill in existence today; it has changed, however, in ways that seem relevant to the issues raised.
The network originally was a group of 'originators' of theory and practice in the area of group dynamics.  Most of them had participated in the discovery of 'sensitivity groups' or the t=group method.  After almost a decade, the more experienced people in the network became Fellows, as distinct from ordinary Members of the network.  To admit someone to their membership, all the Fellows had to agree that the applicant's credentials merited inclusion in the Fellows.  During t his initial period, which lasted about ten years, selected members of the network participated as staff members of two and three-week training programs for the general public, using the t-group method.  An enormous amount of theory building took place as faculty spent three or four days preparing each of the training labs.  It should be noted that most of the network were academics engaged in one or another of the social sciences, in areas related to democratic participation in social change.  They were all motivated by their common passion and some of them felt that the two or three weeks they spent with their  colleagues from around the country were the most meaningful and exciting of the entire year.
In the 1960s, questions arose about the suitability of having a 'class' system in the network.  The Fellows were seen as an anti-democratic perversion of the ideals and purposes of NTL.  And so the Fellows class was discontinued.
At about the same time, financial difficulties led to a reorganization of NTL, which included dissolution of the existing netework and inviting a more diverse group (sex, race, and ethnically) to form a new network.  The theory and practice of Organization Development, meanwhile, had emerged and more and more of NTLs network members became engaged in OD practice, while fewer and fewer network members were engaged in academic pursuits.
In my view the social impact and creativity of the current network have been reduced by NTL's growing emphasis on operating profitably as a 'business'.
There is currently an upsurge (how strong we don't know) of those wishing to advocate working on participative ways to democratize our institutions and our society.  Some of the network members are placing an increased emphasis on creating an international network and of promoting global community.
A major point in all of this history for me is that there is no 'ideal' and certainly no 'absolute' way of resolving questions having to do with competency, interest, and inclusion.  Based on the above history, my inclination is to favor the 'class' system; i.s., creating a group of qualified researchers, practitioners, and policy shapers to work together to shape, participate in, and contribute knowledge and skills to the work of HDHS network, including those activities that enable it to raise money by grants, contracts, income from training programs, and contributions.
These comments are lengthy. I hope they're helpful.
Love,
Don

Linda Hartling kindly wrote (27/04/2006):
In terms of Open Space...I think we should have some of the same groups we had in Berlin, with room for a couple of new groups. For example, we could have an education group, a research group, a business group, etc. It would be helpful to have these key groups continue their discussions, rather than creating all new groups. Didn't we talk about having 'buzz groups', meaning groups addressing topics that people want to continue to move forward? The education, research, and business groups could be buzz groups.


 

Announcements to the Participants

• Lynn King kindly shared with us advice as to how to organise a 'Green Conference'!

• We are looking for a translator (from German to English) for a book on Dignity by Paul Tiedemann.

• The Special Symposium Issue of ‘Experiments in Education’, 'Humiliation in the Academic Setting' is out! Our warmest congratulations to the editors Dakshinamoorthi Raja Ganesan, and Philip M, Brown!

• Dear Williman McConochie kindly wrote (18th June 2008):
Dear Evelin, Emanuela, Michael and Linda:
I am happy to report that the Brief Humiliation study (BHS) is now ready on my web site, Politicalpsychologyresearch.com. Go to the site, log in, go to the Help Do Research page and follow the instructions to the study. It takes about 40 minutes to complete. Let me know your thoughts. I hope you will find it interesting.
You can tell any professor or other leader that they can contact Marc Baber, the site manager, to get a group name for their group members to use. Then the professor/leader can ask for a download of the data specifically for his or her group...
Hope you all have a wonderful time in Norway.
If we get a good sample of data, e.g. 400 or so, in the next couple of months, I might be able to join you all in NYC for your December meeting.
Best regards, Bill

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