![Chapter One
24
understanding is formed by experience and relating experience to pre–
existing schema. However, a second implication corresponds to the
potentially miseducative nature of experience (Dewey, 1938). The second
finding from the pilot study was that some young people’s conceptualisations
of difference were categorical to a greater degree than others, and this
appeared to be directly related to their experiences. Through their
encounters with social policy and provision they became more sensitised
to the categories used to differentiate one group from another within social
institutions. In the case of the young man in the example above, this had
negative implications for how he viewed differences in terms of both his
own identification as someone who was different and how he viewed
others as different from himself.
These implications warrant further consideration within an environment
where difference is exceptional, such as the case of ethnic diversity in the
South West, not least because of the difficulties people working at the
local authority level have in defining difference for themselves or
responding to the differences they encounter in their particular contexts. If
policy–workers lack the awareness or autonomy to define and intervene in
the conditions of their own specific and local circumstances, their
professional practices can have profoundly miseducative effects.
Arnet: Our capacity [to define difference] is to work within those
established categories [such as ethnicity] and to signpost to schools and
other agencies the need to prioritise, or not, activity for those groups and
according to some fairly tight empirical data which will be about
achievement or about exclusion or health data and so on, and the moving
around of resources, financial resources and other resources to meet
perceived needs within those categories and then to support that by a layer
of training so that the resources get used in a way that we believe is going
to be most effective to tackle what ever the issue is. So yes, within the local
authority it’s quite limited in terms of, you know, our manoeuvrability on
this.
Mediating between National and Local Policy
The restricted manoeuvrability at the local authority level should be
viewed within a wider national policy context. National drivers such as the
government’s National Strategies for schooling (DCSF, N.D.) reduce the
autonomy of local authorities and affect their capacity to make regional
education decisions.
Arnet: The way we have to work is defined, via national strategies, they set
the agenda basically and we have to respond to that agenda. Whilst](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25642409-250520203953-a690c011/85/Interculturality-Practice-Meets-Research-1st-Edition-Martina-Koegelerabdi-Richard-Parncutt-38-320.jpg)
![Partnership Research about “Difference” 29
Works Cited
Ainscow, M., Conteh, J., Dyson, A., and Gallanaugh, F. “Children in
primary education: Demography, culture, diversity and inclusion.”
University Research Report No. 5/1. Cambridge: University of
Cambridge, 2007.
Ball, S. Class strategies and the education market: the middle class and
social advantage. London: Routledge Falmer, 2003.
Ball, S.J. The Education Debate. Bristol: Policy Press, 2008.
Ball, S., J. & Bowe, R. “Subject departments and the 'implementation' of
the National Curriculum policy: an overview of the issues.” Curriculum
Studies 24.2 (1992): 97–115.
Blanden J, and Machin S. Recent changes in intergenerational mobility in
Britain. London: Sutton Trust, 2007.
Boyask, R., Donkin, A., Waite, S., and Lawson, H. “Autonomy and
governance in local authority provision for children and young
people,” Policy Futures in Education, 11.5. forthcoming 2013.
Boyask, R., Carter, R., Waite, S, and Lawson, H. “Changing Concepts of
Diversity: Relationships between Policy and Identity in English
Schools.” Educational Enactments in a Globalised World: Intercultural
Conversations. Eds. K. Quinlivan, R, Boyask and B. Kaur, Rotterdam:
Sense Publishers, 2009a. 115–128.
Boyask, R., Lawson, H., Waite, S., and Donkin, A. “The Diversity Project:
Summary Report on Findings: Focus Group Evening.” Research
Report, University of Plymouth; University of Exeter; Plymouth City
Council, 2009b.
Boyask, R. and Quinlivan, K. “Professional identity and performance
within turbulent school cultures,” European Conference on
Educational Research, University of Gothenburg. Sept 10–12, 2008.
Dewey, J. Experience and Education. New York: Macmillan, 1938.
Donkin, Arnet and Boyask, Ruth. Audio–recorded conversation. 25
January 2010.
Great Britain. Department for Children Schools and Families. The
National Strategies. No date. Web. 25 May 2010.
<http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/>
—. Department for Education (DfE). Support and Aspiration: A New
Approach to Special Educational Needs and Disability. London: The
Stationery Office. 2011.
—. Department for Education and Schools. Every Child Matters [Green
Paper] 2003.Web. 14 March 2008.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25642409-250520203953-a690c011/85/Interculturality-Practice-Meets-Research-1st-Edition-Martina-Koegelerabdi-Richard-Parncutt-43-320.jpg)
![Chapter Two
38
From “Learning to Labour” to Social Exclusion
In order to understand how the transition from school to work can be
interrupted in this fashion, derailing young people from more functional
career paths, it is necessary to analyse the historical context whereby the
relatively “secure’” transitions of the post–war era have been transformed
through the last three decades of neoliberal economics (Goodwin et al
2002).At the end of the thirty years of welfare state expansion in Britain
and Europe which had been characterised by rising working class living
standards and expectations – Paul Willis chronicled how this process
worked in secondary schools in his influential text “Learning to Labour:
How working class kids get working class jobs”. He demonstrated the way
in which the least academically able cohort of the school system acted out
their rebellion within the school system – in preparation, he argued, for
their absorption into the low–skilled employment sector upon leaving
school (Willis, 1977: 18).
After the decade of mass unemployment in the 1980s and the
substantial reorganisation of the economy in the subsequent 30 plus years,
these secure opportunities were no longer available and the rigid
demarcations and classifications of the industrial era no longer seemed to
apply. Whilst the overall level of educational achievement was rising, the
bottom section of the cohort seemed more detached, or “excluded” from
the bulk of society. Often this process of exclusion began with its
namesake – i.e. exclusion from school, which increasingly appeared to
deal a severe blow to young people’s ability to re–attach themselves to the
education system. As Bourdieu stressed, in order to
[g]rasp the essential of each person’s idiosyncrasy and all the singular
complexity of their actions and reactions sociologists must uncover the
objective structures past and present expressed in the actual academic
institutions through which they traverse” (Bourdieu cited in Atkinson W.,
2010: 10).
The thirteen years of UK Labour government from 1997 to 2010
included a theoretically sophisticated programme of social policy designed
to address the problem of widening social exclusion in Britain’s most
deprived areas. One aspect of this was the formation of “multi–agency
partnerships”, which would allow public sector workers to collaborate in
resolving issues of deprivation which are so often interlinked. One
example is the Youth Offending Team, an institution formed in the early
2000s to address juvenile delinquency, which combines social workers,
police officers, teachers and other support workers. By linking up and](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25642409-250520203953-a690c011/85/Interculturality-Practice-Meets-Research-1st-Edition-Martina-Koegelerabdi-Richard-Parncutt-52-320.jpg)
Interculturality Practice Meets Research 1st Edition Martina Koegelerabdi Richard Parncutt
- 1. Interculturality Practice Meets Research 1st Edition Martina Koegelerabdi Richard Parncutt download https://ebookbell.com/product/interculturality-practice-meets- research-1st-edition-martina-koegelerabdi-richard- parncutt-51284818 Explore and download more ebooks at ebookbell.com
- 2. Here are some recommended products that we believe you will be interested in. You can click the link to download. Interculturality In Schools Practice And Research Robyn Moloney https://ebookbell.com/product/interculturality-in-schools-practice- and-research-robyn-moloney-46223990 Interculturality In Higher Education Putting Critical Approaches Into Practice Mlodine Sommier https://ebookbell.com/product/interculturality-in-higher-education- putting-critical-approaches-into-practice-mlodine-sommier-46844636 Interculturality In Institutions Symbols Practices And Identities Marilena Fatigante https://ebookbell.com/product/interculturality-in-institutions- symbols-practices-and-identities-marilena-fatigante-48676428 Interculturality Between East And West Unthink Dialogue And Rethink Fred Dervin https://ebookbell.com/product/interculturality-between-east-and-west- unthink-dialogue-and-rethink-fred-dervin-46703842
- 3. Interculturality In Fragments A Reflexive Approach Fred Dervin https://ebookbell.com/product/interculturality-in-fragments-a- reflexive-approach-fred-dervin-46870000 Interculturality As An Object Of Research And Education Observing Reflecting And Critiquing Fred Dervin https://ebookbell.com/product/interculturality-as-an-object-of- research-and-education-observing-reflecting-and-critiquing-fred- dervin-49471068 Interculturality And The Political Within Education Fred Dervin And Ashley Simpson https://ebookbell.com/product/interculturality-and-the-political- within-education-fred-dervin-and-ashley-simpson-26081674 Interculturality And The English Language Classroom Mabel Victoria https://ebookbell.com/product/interculturality-and-the-english- language-classroom-mabel-victoria-37662716 Interculturality In Education A Theoretical And Methodological Toolbox 1st Edition Fred Dervin Auth https://ebookbell.com/product/interculturality-in-education-a- theoretical-and-methodological-toolbox-1st-edition-fred-dervin- auth-5610488
- 7. Interculturality: Practice meets Research Edited by Martina Koegeler-Abdi and Richard Parncutt
- 8. Interculturality: Practice meets Research, Edited by Martina Koegeler-Abdi and Richard Parncutt This book first published 2013 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2013 by Martina Koegeler-Abdi and Richard Parncutt and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-4523-X, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4523-6
- 9. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations .................................................................................... vii List of Tables............................................................................................viii Acknowledgments...................................................................................... ix Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Martina Koegeler-Abdi and Richard Parncutt Part I: Intercultural Education and Political Practices Chapter One............................................................................................... 14 Partnership Research about “Difference”: Co-constructing Local Educational Policy Ruth Boyask, Arnet Donkin, Sue Waite and Hazel Lawson Chapter Two.............................................................................................. 31 Deadly Symbiosis: How School Exclusions and Youth Crime Interweave Matt Clement Chapter Three............................................................................................ 51 Transcultural School Social Work: A Case Study of Children’s Rights in Practice Sharon Schneider Chapter Four.............................................................................................. 71 Cultural Meaning Systems of Learning and their Influences in the International University Context Marieke C. van Egmond, Alexis L. Rossi and Ulrich Kuhnen
- 10. Table of Contents vi Part II: Difference and Inclusion Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 88 The Traveller Economic Inclusion Project: An Inclusive and Intercultural Approach to Research Margaret Greenfields and Andrew Ryder Chapter Six.............................................................................................. 109 Neuland: Refugees and Austrian Residents Get Connected Margerita Piatti and Thomas Schmidinger Chapter Seven.......................................................................................... 130 Race, Genes and Culture Ulrich Kattmann Chapter Eight........................................................................................... 149 Nextdoor/Quartier: Improving Social Cohesion in a Brussels Neighborhood through Research and Design in Interaction Johanna Kint, Oscar Tomico and Inge Ferwerda Part III: More than Words: Communication and Interaction Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 166 Multilingual Graz: From Research to Practice Barbara Schrammel-Leber and Daniel Lorenz Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 185 Managing Eastern and Western Christians in an Organization Barbara Mazur Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 202 Building Bridges: Literature across Borders Manju Jaidka Contributors............................................................................................. 217
- 11. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 4-1. Mean virtue orientation for the cultural clusters of students and faculty Fig. 4-2. Ratings of the experienced ease with which students exhibit mind oriented behaviors, and the degree to which faculty value these behaviors Fig. 4-3. Rated explicitness about pedagogical principles, rated by under-graduate students and faculty themselves Fig. 4-4. Perceived need for intercultural training, as indicated by both students and faculty for own and other group Fig. 6-1. Map of Austria, red: Lower Austria Fig. 6-2. The districts: Mödling, Baden, Wiener Neustadt, Neunkirchen, Korneuburg, Hollabrunn, Mistelbach Fig. 7-1. Genetic differences within and between groups of different geographical origin Fig. 7-2. Genetic distances (next neighbourhood) of mitochondrial DNA (Control Region 1) between individuals of populations of the Great Apes and Homo sapiens Fig. 7-3. Overlapping bell curves of two groups or populations Fig. 8-1. In the metropolis we are all strangers. Brabantwijk graffiti, Brussels Fig. 8-2. Images illustrating the concept of “Mapping your neighbourhood” Fig. 8-3. Images illustrating the concept of Nouvellesd’ici Fig. 9-1. / Fig. 9-2. / Fig. 9-3. Bilingual Signs Fig. 9-4. Multilingual information board for tourists Fig. 9-5. / Fig. 9-6. “Bottom up” bilingual signs Fig. 10-1. Religious denominations in Podlaskie Voivodeship
- 12. LIST OF TABLES Tab. 3-1. The overview of the basic human needs Tab. 6-1. Example for Funding for one year Tab. 6-2. Projekt Neuland Tab. 7-1. Isolation as a scientific idea Tab. 7-2. Parallels between the formation of racial prejudices and the biological classification of races Tab. 7- 3. Different kinds of racism and their consequences for human life Tab. 10-1. Management aspects in Catholic and Orthodox culture
- 13. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book would not have been possible without the support of innumerable people and we sincerely thank all the volunteer reviewers, both practitioners and scholars, that have helped to make this publication possible. The peer review procedure was carried by a diverse, international community of scholar-practitioners; we thank Thomas Acton, Roswitha Al-Hussein, Pablo Argarate, Ling Chen, Tanguy Corry, Domenica Dominguez, Lauren Esposito, Crystal M. Fleming, Paul Gorski, Daniela Grabovac, Christina-Alina Grundner, Rita Hayward, Martina Hengst, Bettina Kluge, Thomas Lang, Richard Leslie, Edith Marko-Stoeckl, Sunita Mukhi, Silke Strasser, EK Tan, Barbara O’Toole, and Tracy Walters for generously sharing their expertise. This book is based on contributions to the conference cAIR10, which is built on an even broader network of supporters. This conference would never have happened without the support of Simone Schumann, who worked as conference assistant in 2008 until 2009, the practice and research committees that evaluated project submissions, the administrative support of Michaela Schwarz and the students who assisted voluntarily with the running of the conference: Sonja Zechner (coordinator), Hakim Abdi, Lisa Taschler, Meltem Elmas, Martina Haindl, Maria Ortner, Maria Hecher, Martin Winter, and Sarah Zapusek. We thank Johannes Lehner for website design and congratulate Alexandra Streitfelder for winning the cAIR logo competition. For financial support for the conference we thank the Zukunftsfond der Republik Österreich for their generous grant, but also the City of Graz, the Austrian Federal Ministery of Research (BMWF), the Province of Styria (Land Steiermark), the University of Graz, and a private sponsor, K. D. Brühl. Finally, we thank treffpunkt sprachen and the following local NGOs in Graz for the valuable collaboration: Afro-Asiatisches Institut, Caritas Steiernark, Danaida, Helping Hands, Megaphon, ISOP, Omega, SOMM, Welthaus and Zebra.
- 15. INTRODUCTION MARTINA KOEGELER-ABDI AND RICHARD PARNCUTT Interculturality has always been a part of the human condition, but in an era of accelerating globalization, questions of interculturality have become crucial. Human quality of life and survival increasingly depend on how inter– and transcultural issues are addressed. Intercultural contact zones, conflicts and opportunities are becoming more widespread, frequent, and interconnected. The rising importance of interculturality is reflected by a growing frequency of media reports addressing inter– and transcultural phenomena, which in turn are influencing political strategies and election campaigns. Social and cultural configurations are constantly changing, and cultural representations are constantly being renegotiated. Technological advances and economic constraints are increasingly provoking and promoting the international mobility of cultural groups and cultural goods. Global issues such as environment, defense, finance, and the distribution of wealth and resources increasingly require cross–cultural cooperation. More and more political parties, decision makers, and NGOs of all persuasions are regarding inter– and transcultural issues as central to their work. To ensure its long–term survival, the human race is increasingly challenged to create global democratic institutions to regulate economic interactions (transactions on global markets, global taxation), and to prevent and mitigate damage to the environment (emissions, pollution, deforestation, fishing). Such institutions must inevitably deal not only with extreme inequalities in economic and social capital, but also with cultural differences. The literature on interculturality tends to focus on aspects of interculturality, rather than consider the problem as a whole. The practically– oriented literature focuses on areas such as intercultural competence, communication, teaching, or theater. The research–oriented literature confines itself to the disciplinary boundaries of education, anthropology, philosophy, religion, communication, or literature. In this book, we aim for a broader view. We do not focus on any single area of practice or
- 16. Introduction 2 research. Instead, we ask the general question of how to best bring together theory and practice in any and all areas of interculturality. We promote a holistic view of interculturality that is based on cultural groups and boundaries as they exist in today’s world. We bring together diverse context–specific strategies to get a more comprehensive meta–perspective on interculturality, such that the knowledge and experience gained at one intercultural border may be applied at another. By attempting to bridge the gap between practice and research in different areas of interculturality, we aim to create a platform for the intercultural exchange of both practices and knowledge, and to promote dialogue between practitioners and researchers of all kinds. To our knowledge, no previous publication has approached interculturality and intercultural issues from this angle. A comprehensive and holistic approach to interculturality requires that we simultaneously transcend three different kinds of intercultural boundary. First, there are boundaries between “ethnic” cultures at different hierarchical levels from continental (e.g. European versus African) to (sub) national (cultural groups within a single country). Second, most research, and most research about interculturality, can be divided into humanities (such as history and literature studies), sciences (such as empirical sociology and neurosciences), and practically oriented disciplines (such as education and medicine). These three overarching groups of disciplines have often functioned almost independently of each other. Scientists, for example, know remarkably little about the main questions, approaches and values of the humanities, while humanities scholars for their part are similarly surprisingly poorly informed about the sciences. This situation prompted Snow (1960) to speak of “two cultures”, and half a century later little has been done to address the problems that he identified. Third, and this is the main focus of our book, universities traditionally address intercultural issues through research, while governmental and non–governmental organizations primarily approach interculturality through practice. We may thus speak of three kinds of intercultural division, which could be labeled ethnic, epistemological, and research–practice. All three involve difficulties of communication and interaction that are linked to different ways of thinking, communicating and problem solving, and all three may be hindered by a general lack of knowledge and awareness about the detailed nature of these differences. The Conference on Applied Interculturality Research The book is based on contributions to the first Conference on Applied Interculturality Research (cAIR), which was held at the University of
- 17. Martina Koegeler-Abdi and Richard Parncutt 3 Graz, Austria, from 7 to 10 April 2010. Fifty project summaries were submitted to cAIR10; their authors lived in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, United Arab Emirates, the UK and the USA. Most of these countries were also represented at the conference. The conference was organized by the editors of this book and financially supported from a number of different sources without whom the project would not have been realized. They are the Future Fund of the Republic of Austria (Zukunftsfonds der Repubik Österreich), who provided most of the funding; the City of Graz (Stadt Graz); the Austrian Federal Ministry of Research (Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung); the Province of Styria (Land Steiermark); the University of Graz (Karl– Franzens–Universität Graz); and a private donor (K. D. Brühl and Sons, Graz). The acronym cAIR refers not only to the conference that took place in Graz in 2010, but also to the general concept and direction of that conference, as embraced in different ways by follow–up conferences and by this book. cAIR is a response to the rising importance of inter– and transculturality in national and international politics, civil society, research and education reflected by the increasing frequency of media reports addressing inter– and transcultural phenomena and questions of all kinds. Like interculturality, the goals of cAIR can be approached in different ways. One approach is to divide the promotion of positive aspects from avoidance of the negative aspects. On the positive side, cAIR promotes constructive intercultural communication and understanding, which can be seen as an aspect of social well–being. On the negative side, it combats racism and xenophobia. These two aspects interact and are often inseparable. The aims of cAIR, and of this book, also include the following: • to support civil society, government and education by improving the accessibility and usefulness of research that is relevant to their concerns; • to empower researchers in all areas of inter– and transculturality and all relevant disciplines to contribute positively to social and political developments; • to facilitate interactions between practice and research in all areas of interculturality; • to motivate NGOs, governments, academics, schools and universities to support each other and to offer them a framework; • to encourage universities to invest their personal, academic and financial resources in Applied Interculturality Research—a promising area of interaction between research and society; and
- 18. Introduction 4 • to promote high–quality projects by subjecting all submissions to careful, constructive quality control by international experts. cAIR regards all groups, actors, approaches and opinions as equally legitimate and valuable, provided they are consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. cAIR also respects existing boundaries between cultural groups, however blurred. On that basis, cAIR promotes constructive discourse among communities with related goals. At the same time, cAIR strives for high standards of quality, relevance and impact by carefully evaluating project submissions. As far as possible, evaluations are carried out within corresponding (sub–) communities (areas of practice; academic disciplines). cAIR does not support unlimited freedom of speech and does not offer a platform to any project that the organisers or evaluators feel might exacerbate xenophobia or discrimination of any kind. Aims of the Book This book makes the concept and content of cAIR accessible to a wider public. We wish to improve the accessibility and usefulness of both good intercultural practices (by governmental and non–governmental organizations in any country, as well as schools and media) and good interculturality research (in universities, research institutes and outside of research infrastructures, in any country). We aim to promote high–quality projects that help practitioners to benefit from research, and/or researchers from practice. We hope to provide NGOs, politicians and researchers in all areas of interculturality, as well as the general public, with an accessible overview of possible research/practice exchanges and models for mixed communities of practice in academia and politics. The primary aim of this book is to bring together practitioners and researchers in diverse areas of interculturality and encourage synergetic interactions between and among them. Intercultural work can be divided up and approached in different ways, but we are particularly concerned with the relationship between practice and research. On the practical side, most non–governmental organisations (NGOs), and many governmental organisations, are concerned—directly or indirectly—with issues of interculturality. On the research side, more and more research communities in humanities, sciences, education, law, economics and religious studies are turning their attention to intercultural issues. The persistent gulf between practice (governmental and non–governmental organisations, schools, media) and research (universities, institutes) suggests that there is
- 19. Martina Koegeler-Abdi and Richard Parncutt 5 considerable potential for synergetic interaction between these two groups. The contributors to this book bring together practice and research in different areas of interculturality in different ways and to varying degrees. Their individual chapters provide models of good practices with implications beyond the specific subject matter at hand. Given this background, we propose that solutions to intercultural problems can be approached best by a combination of equality and strategy. By equality we mean equality of opportunity: all relevant parties (national cultures, academic epistemologies, practice and research) should first be put on an equal footing to create a level playing field. On that basis, we strive for the rational development of strategies to solve intercultural problems, taking advantage of the knowledge and experience of all relevant actors; these may also involves new infrastructures to promote intercultural communication. The cases and projects presented in this book vary in background and discipline, but all have in common that they bridge the gap between practice and research, and all promote equality and strategy development in a specific area. We aim to explore these various interconnections, make their potential synergies visible, and provide concrete recommendations that may be of value to a multidisciplinary audience. Finally, we aim to create environment in which unpredictable new synergies can arise as the diverse professional, national and academic associations of contributors and readers interact with each other in new ways. In this spirit, submissions were not limited to specific topics, beyond the general requirement of addressing central issues of interculturality in terms of interaction between practice and theory. Instead, reviewers evaluated the quality of the relevant practice and research represented by the chapters, which ultimately reflected the authors’ expertise and experience. All contributions are written either by partnerships/teams of researchers and practitioners or by individuals with relevant expertise and experience in both intercultural practice and intercultural research. Defining Concepts Many of the central concepts presented in the book have different possible definitions, or their definitions are unclear because they are relatively new or their usage is changing. Our approach to defining or explaining selected central concepts follows; it is inspired by discussions of definition that took place at cAIR. Please note that the contributors to
- 20. Introduction 6 the book were not bound to our definitions and may have used the same terms differently. We use the term intercultural in the broad sense of any interaction between any cultural groups. Our understanding of the term cultural group is similarly general: it is a group of people with a common identity (an accepted label or linguistic marker for the group, and a feeling of belonging to it), common forms of behavior (including but not confined to customs, traditions, manners, expectations), common ways of seeing the world (including but not confined to religions, other beliefs and philosophies), common ways of communicating (including but not confined to languages) and/or perceptible signs of group membership (varying along a scale from voluntarily to involuntary, and including clothing, ways of talking, and skin color). Examples of cultural groups include national cultures (Turkey, Peru), language groups (Shipibo, English), subcultures (lovers of heavy metal or classical art), social classes (mega–rich, middle class, workers), genders (including transgender), sexual preferences, disabilities, age groups—in short, any feature with which a group of people can identify and upon which they can, if they choose, develop and experience a sense of community. A particularly interesting and relevant example of a cultural group is a community of practice (Wenger, 1998)—a group of people who identify with each other not primarily because of who they are (however defined), but because of what they do. A community of practice has common professional or artistic activities; examples include pianists, accountants, hobby pilots, and bird watchers, but also members of religious groups who identify themselves by means of traditional or codified customs and behaviors. According to Spencer–Oatey and Franklin (2009: 3), “an intercultural situation is one in which the cultural distance between the participants is significant enough to have an effect on interaction/communication that is noticeable to at least one of the parties”. Cultural distance may be regarded as a negative aspect of intercultural communication, but it can also be seen as an advantage and an opportunity. Any reduction of cultural distance by overcoming intercultural hindrances can lead to new intercultural communication. The future consequences of such communication are both significant and unpredictable. Similarly, the future impact of intercultural practice and research, and of the contributions to this book, can be difficult to predict. We do not know in advance where and when the effects will be felt, or by whom. That unpredictability is reflected by the diverse thematic spectrum of this book. When considering questions of interculturality, it is important not to oversimplify concepts of culture. Cultural boundaries are generally fuzzy,
- 21. Martina Koegeler-Abdi and Richard Parncutt 7 subjective, and in a state of flux. They are also structured in overlapping hierarchies and networks. Most people (including those without a recent background of migration) have multiple identities in the sense that they belong simultaneously to different cultural groups; we may speak of cultural hybridity. Cultural identity is generally ambiguous and context– dependent: the identity that a person feels or the cultural behaviors that she exhibits depend on the context in which she finds herself—the people she is with, the location, the situation. Finally, each individual is actively involved in the construction and negotiation of cultural boundaries. In the sociology of academia, the creation, reinforcement, questioning and dismantlement of boundaries between disciplines has been called boundary work by Gieryn (1983)—a concept that can be applied more broadly to the symbolic boundaries that demarcate any kind of cultural group, including class/economic, ethnic/racial, gender/sex, professional, national or geographical (Lamont & Molnár, 2002). The concept of interculturality generally includes transculturality; interactions between cultures generally change the cultures themselves. For example, the Egyptian Coptic community in Graz, Austria, is not the same as Coptic communities in Egypt, because the people in Graz have adapted to their situation in Graz.During that time they may not have adapted to changing social and political constraints in Egypt. It is therefore misleading to speak of cultural groups as if they were constant. All of the above–listed features of cultural groups (their behaviors, Weltanschauungen, linguistic and perceptible markers and so on) can change with time as a function of their changing situations, aspirations, constraints and intercultural interactions. The word integration is often used in the general sense of a solution to problems of interculturality. This may be coupled with the tacit assumption that only migrants must change or adapt. When migrants arrive in a new country or city, they are expected to “integrate” while the “locals” (those who had been inhabiting that piece of land for a longer period of time) merely observe. The locals consider (perhaps correctly) that they have more rights than the newcomers, which justifies the implicit belief that only the migrants need to adapt. In reality, any society is changed by any influx of migrants of any kind. The locals inevitably adapt— just as the migrants do. The cultural groups to which both sides belong are changed by the interaction. Of course, both sides still retain important features or their original identity; the result is an increase in the multiplicity, ambiguity and context–dependency of their cultural identity. In this book, we use the term “integration” in this complex sense. It is generally an interaction that changes all participants.
- 22. Introduction 8 We define a “practitioner” as any person who is professionally involved in any practical project or activity in any area of interculturality. That includes project directors/leaders, supervisors, coordinators, administrators, organisers, planners, developers, activists, artists, musicians, actors, teachers, educators, social workers, publishers, advisors, consultants, officials, promoters and policy makers. Similarly, we define a “researcher” as any person who is qualified in a relevant academic discipline (e.g. humanities, sciences; economic, legal, religious studies) and professionally involved in research in any area of interculturality. Interculturality research addresses all kinds and aspects of inter– and transcultural interaction. Multidisciplinary Review Procedures cAIR, and consequently this book, aims for an unusual combination of breadth (all areas of interculturality practice and research), constructive collaboration (interactions among those areas—especially between practice and research); and quality (ensured by fair, helpful evaluation procedures). It has not been easy to simultaneously approach these three goals. The greater the breadth, the more difficult the quality control, because experts from one area are not necessary experts in another, and accepted procedures for quality control are different in different areas. Similarly, collaboration becomes more difficult, the more distant two cultural groups lie from each other. Different cultural groups may also bring very different expectations to a common project such as cAIR. That also means that they have different implicit conceptions of quality. We considered this problem when deciding who would organize which aspects of the conference and who would edit this book. The two editors belong to the humanities and natural sciences respectively, which forces us to constantly negotiate this one boundary of different standards between us. However, due to the wide practical and disciplinary range, quality control needed a similarly broad spectrum of experts beyond our narrow editorial supervision. At the risk of imposing a Western academic concept of quality onto such a broad project, we have attempted to ensure a high standard by a multi–level peer–review procedure. Peer review has the advantage that the people doing the reviewing belong (as far as possible) to the same cultural group as the people being reviewed, and so share ideas about quality and quality control as well as common ways of communicating. Although existing academic models are culture–specific and infected by the neoliberal spirit of our times, we had little alternative but to follow their broad direction; the same problem was encountered, incidentally, by the
- 23. Martina Koegeler-Abdi and Richard Parncutt 9 Conferences on Interdisciplinary Musicology and the Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies upon which cAIR was modeled. The main aim of those research infrastructures was to bring together humanities and sciences in all areas of music research; by analogy, cAIR aims to bring together practice and research in all areas of interculturality. Our review procedure was divided into three stages. In every stage, we aimed to remain sensitive to the different approaches to evaluating quality of practitioners and researchers, as well as other cultural groupings. In the first stage, which was double blind, contributions to the conference program were independently reviewed by two experts: one a practitioner and one a researcher in the specific area of the contribution. On the basis of those reviews, contributions were either accepted or rejected; a contribution was only rejected if both reviewers, practical and research, independently recommended rejection. In the second stage, conference presentations were invited to this book on the basis of their quality, as judged by the editors or other conference participants, as well as the relevance and diversity of addressed topics. In the third stage, invited written contributions to this book were reviewed by two experts—again, one a practitioner and one a researcher, and both working in the specific area of the contribution. As far as possible, these final reviewers were not the same as the original reviewers of the corresponding conference submission. Reviewers at this stage were offered the opportunity to remain anonymous, and most of them did. Overview of the Book This book is organized into three different parts, each grouping chapters from different disciplinary backgrounds around a common theme: Part I—Intercultural Education and Political Practices, Part II—Difference and Inclusion, and Part III—More than Words: Communication and Interaction. The team around Ruth Boyask, including scholars and practitioners, opens Part I with their contribution “Partnership research about ‘difference’: Co–constructing local educational policy.”Their work applies person–centered methods to approaching young people on equal terms and learning about their experience of diversity in British schools. Together with the Plymouth City Council they apply their findings to create more equitable school policies in their local context. Matt Clement also works with British youth and school policies, but his research on “Deadly Symbiosis: How school exclusion and juvenile crime interweave” analyses the consequences of school policies as institutionalized forms of inequality that marginalizes and criminalizes certain children, taking class
- 24. Introduction 10 into consideration as another aspect of interculturality. Sharon Schneider’s “Transcultural School Social Work: A case study of children’s rights in practice” analyses the relationship between student suspensions and their ethnic backgrounds, and develops a human rights–based social work approach to enhancing the wellbeing of a diverse student body. In the last chapter of Part 1, Marieke van Egmond and her colleagues look at “Cultural meaning systems of learning and their influences in the international university context.” They reflect on the philosophical underpinnings of learning beliefs and their impact on higher education in an international university in Germany, asking students from a wide range of cultural backgrounds what constitutes learning for them. Their findings have already been implemented in intercultural training and orientation programs for faculty and incoming students. Part II addresses the question how to theorize and at the same time work practically with intercultural difference. Andrew Ryder and Margaret Greenfields’s chapter on “The Traveller Economic Inclusion Project: An inclusive and intercultural approach to research” presents the work of the “action research project” on the economic inclusion of Gypsies and Travellers in the UK. Their methodology exemplifies the interaction of practice and research on equal terms in that community members participate in the research and co–produce the methodology. Their chapter reviews the potential of this approach for social change and its implication for research processes. In “Neuland: Refugees and Austrian residents get connected,” Margerita Piatti and Thomas Schmidinger facilitate and analyse personal intercultural communication in a specific majority/minority setting. The Neuland project promotes and supervises a buddy/tandem system between Austrian residents and refugees in a rural area of Lower Austria to build a community and decrease prejudice. The members of each tandem learn from each other in a series of formal and informal meetings. The chapter on “Race, genes, and culture” by Ulrich Kattmann theorizes “racial” difference as a social construct from a biological point of view. Kattmann offers an overview of the developments that lead to the correlation of physiological markers and so–called races, and he deconstructs these assumptions that have long been a fundamental source of racism. The chapter closes with a suggestion about how to address and deal with the very real effects of the fictional concept of race in daily life. Johanna Kint’s team presents the chapter “Nextdoor/Quartier: Improving social cohesion in the Brussels neighborhood through research and design in interaction”, which asks how the design and shaping of urban spaces affects communities and intercultural exchange. She describes how students experienced the creation and implementation of design
- 25. Martina Koegeler-Abdi and Richard Parncutt 11 suggestions for a “migrant neighbourhood” in Brussels, and analyses not only the societal relevance of their research in a specific location, but also the necessity, and challenges, of including the inhabitants in design decisions and their implementation. The contributions in Part III aim to integrate practice and research in diverse areas where not only communication, but also practical cooperation come into play. In the chapter, “Multilingual Graz—From research to practice,” a team led by Barbara Schrammel-Leber maps out the linguistic diversity of Graz, Austria. They present their approach to the task of creating a database about linguistic diversity and its manifestations in city life. They then examine the role of language documentation and sociolinguistic interpretation in the development of institutional language policies. The team has also created a public exhibition and teaching materials based upon their research. Barbara Mazur addresses a different, and often overlooked, aspect of intercultural business communication and diversity management: religion. Her chapter “Managing Eastern and Western Christians in one organization” examines the role of Orthodox and Catholic religious affiliations in management, intra–company cohesion, and hiring practices in a Polish business context, and aims to sensitize management practices accordingly. The book closes with a contribution by Manju Jaidka, who describes the practice of transculturality through her own literary journey in “Building bridges: Literature across borders.” Her work brings together theoretical and practical reflections on interculturality by asking what it means to engage holistically with this world as a practitioner/teacher, scholar and transnational promoter of literary exchange. Works Cited Gieryn, Thomas F. “Boundary–work and the demarcation of science from non–science: Strains and interests in professional ideologies of scientists.”American Sociological Review 48.6(1983):781–795. Lamont, Michèle, &Molnár, Virág. “The study of boundaries in the social sciences.”Annual Review of Sociology 28(2002):167–195. Snow, Charles Percy. The two cultures and the scientific revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960. Spencer–Oatey, Helen and Peter Franklin. Intercultural interaction: a multidisciplinary approach to intercultural communication. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Wenger, Etienne. Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
- 27. PART I INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION AND POLITICAL PRACTICES
- 28. CHAPTER ONE PARTNERSHIP RESEARCH ABOUT “DIFFERENCE”: CO–CONSTRUCTING LOCAL EDUCATIONAL POLICY RUTH BOYASK, ARNET DONKIN, SUE WAITE AND HAZEL LAWSON Abstract We consider how a partnership between two universities in the South West of England and a unitary local authority was put to work to mutual benefit. We show how research might directly inform local policy by grounding research in a local authority’s practical needs to address ethnicity and racism, maximising the impact of our research and responding to international developments in evidence–based policy. The study explored the potential of young people to act as expert informants in social policy decision–making by asking them to identify how they differed from one another, which differences impacted upon their schooling and comparing these differences with generic social categories such as ethnicity, gender, class, disability for example (Boyask et al., 2009b). One response to the findings of the project was a structured reflection upon the capacity of our local authority partner to enact policy initiatives informed by the young people (Boyask et al., forthcoming 2013). Our investigation suggested that while some national policies intended to provide for individual needs in recognition of diversity, in practice this was difficult. Most local policy decisions were made on the basis of the needs of social groups identified through centralised data gathering (such as school test scores and numbers of children accessing free school meals). We recognise tensions for local authority officers who must follow recent national policy directives that prioritise both social
- 29. Partnership Research about “Difference” 15 group and individual needs. And finally, we suggest that dialogic partnerships between researchers and policy officers can inform policy decision–making by taking account of contextual understandings of social categories on the one hand, and dislodging the power of nationally defined categories of difference on the other. Introduction There are inequities within society that manifest themselves as trends in the social outcomes for some groups of people; groups are defined, for example, through ethnicity, gender, class, disability. Yet individuals are unique, experience group membership differently and consequently have different outcomes. This highlights a central dilemma for social policy that needs to be confronted in the pursuit of social justice: if policy–makers respond only to group needs and redistribute social goods accordingly, then individual needs may be overlooked; however, emphasising the uniqueness of each and every individual and attending to needs on that basis homogenises difference and is likely to reproduce existing social inequalities within society. While social policy has traditionally been concerned with redistribution of social goods along group lines, there is a tendency in recent policy initiatives to focus upon providing for the needs of individuals, articulated through national policies in England such as “Every Child Matters” (DfES, 2003) and “Personalised Learning” (DfES, 2006). The social sciences have long sought to resolve the relationship and tensions between the individual and society theoretically; for example, Tajfel’s (1974) theory of social identity in social psychology or Giddens’ (1984) theory of structuration in sociology. However, while such arguments are theoretically robust and even translate quite readily to policy texts, conceiving of how their subtleties might work to influence practice is much more difficult (see Boyask et al, 2009a). Whilst the dominant assumption about the relationship between policy and practice is one of transmission, the actualisation of policy is inevitably much more complex (Ball & Bowe, 1992; Kaur et al, 2008). So for example, the individual has been inserted at the level of policy rhetoric in policies, such as those above, yet implementation efforts continue to be centred upon social categorisation (Boyask et al, 2009a). Our chapter engages with this problematic within a partnership between two universities in the South West of England and a unitary local authority. Together we have been researching young people’s individual experiences of school and using these findings to explore through dialogue within one another the potential
- 30. Chapter One 16 of a research partnership for informing the enactment of local policy in consideration of the problematic of individual and group needs. A Local Stimulus for Research Partnership A conversation with our local authority partner particularly highlighted this problem for us. In a discussion on what our partnership and the results of our small scale study might contribute to his work and that of his colleagues in the local authority, he said that “we can only work within those established categories that are handed down to us” (Donkin, Arnet; Conversation 25 January 2010). Arnet experiences the weight of authority conveyed through national policy, and finds his capacity to define and act upon difference limited by handed–down categories. When enacting policy from the top down, he says that: it’s easy to forget that what we are working with are human beings who have a complex multiplicity of identities and that the way any individual will experience life will not be as ‘a black person’ or as ‘a looked after child’1 but actually they will experience life through the interactions that they have with a whole range of different people and each of those people that they interact with will actually create their identity in a slightly different way (Arnet Donkin). In essence, Arnet lives the central dilemma between social and individual difference that we are intending to address through our work together. It has been the intention of our work to date to refine our knowledge of non–categorical experiences of difference through researching the subjective experiences of young people in relation to difference and diversity and to use this knowledge for developing nuanced practices in school and other social institutions that neither homogenise nor over–generalise difference. The importance of this work for us is that despite a constant flow of social policy initiatives that intend to address social inequalities, inequalities are entrenched within our society, and there is evidence to suggest these are exacerbating within particular communities (e.g. Blanden and Machin, 2007). To extend his capacity to respond equitably to need, Arnet must reconcile action upon two conceptualisations of difference, his utilisation of social group categories and his recognition of unique difference (see Lawson et al, forthcoming 2013). This reconciliation is necessary to enable him to negotiate the potentially over–generalising 1 “Looked after children” are subject to a care order or voluntarily accommodated outside the home by the local authority under the Children Act 1989.
- 31. Partnership Research about “Difference” 17 effects of the former and homogenising effects of the latter. Whilst his reflection upon the complex multiple identities of our young people participants reminds us that we share theoretical conceptualisations of difference, his accountability to national policy frameworks highlights the complexity of using these conceptualisations within practice. Working in partnership, we are ever mindful of the intractability of our task to find a balance that accommodates this tension. In this chapter, we draw upon our project of working towards more equitable and nuanced responses to difference through a partnership between university researchers and a local authority. We proffer our hopes for working towards solutions, and also lay bare some of the difficulties we have experienced in taking forward our project. We focus our analysis through a recount of an exchange between two partners of this project, Ruth Boyask (researcher) and Arnet Donkin (policy adviser). The research team has worked to frame transcribed elements of a conversation between Ruth and Arnet that present the process of co–constructing understanding of difference, also drawing upon the report of the collaborative small scale study co–authored with Hazel Lawson and Sue Waite (Boyask et al, 2009b). This conversation was centred on the findings of the study, Arnet’s response to the report of those findings and a discussion on how we might use those findings with others at Plymouth City Council. The overall study occurred just prior to the election of a new Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2010. The changes in government and policy direction have resulted in change to the role of local authorities in social provision. Under the rhetoric of personal responsibility and professional autonomy the substantive role of local authorities has shifted from social service providers to strategists and commissioning agents (see DfE, 2011). The enactment of the new policy focus is significantly influenced by wider economic issues. Local authorities have recently had their budgets cut, forcing them to implement the new direction alongside making substantial financial savings. While the changes have been underpinned by an espoused commitment to localisation, the focus upon economic efficiency has resulted in many challenges for fair distribution of social services. The changed locus of responsibility from central to local control suggests some consonance with our own work, yet we are concerned that responsibility has been devolved without reference to the concept of an overall social good nor adequate resources for localised provision.
- 32. Chapter One 18 The Context for our Study The project team consists of three university researchers (from two universities in the South West of England) and a senior advisor to a local authority within the South West region, in the urban centre of Plymouth. The South West of England is a particularly important place to examine difference. It is accountable to national strategies regarding diversity, yet demographically there are fewer apparent differences as opposed to other regions in England. While Plymouth is distinctively more diverse in its ethnic and religious communities than other smaller areas and centres in the South West, compared with other English cities it is relatively culturally homogenous. Plymouth differs quite markedly from multi–cultural, multi–faith London, whose problems are normalised within most national policy (Ball, 2008). We are interested in how difference is experienced within our particular social context, and in what respects these experiences of difference might be better served by policies which resonate with the nature and characteristics of the population within this particular locality. We are attempting to find ways to negotiate between social and individual differences, researching specific experiences of difference and identifying within our data, discourses of social and individual difference. There are substantial datasets and recurrent data gathering within both research and policy spheres that distinguish on the basis of social group difference (for example, the National Pupil Database). While such approaches are concerned with the application of predetermined categories of difference, the categories themselves are not fixed. Changing concepts of equity result in changes to the categories. For example, as the human rights discourse embodied in the United Nations declaration of 1945 fragmented and came to include race and gender rights, it became more important for social provision that government agencies tracked ethnicity and sex (Boyask et al, 2009a). As individual differences assume greater importance within the current diversity discourse, categorisation also changes. Arnet identifies a new category he has been given to work with: It is interesting that we now have got a new category around socio– economic deprivation, so that has suddenly been identified and recognised who you are, if you are a white working class boy. It has been there for a while, but now it is officially there. So now we can actually target resources into that area (Arnet Donkin). Recognition may occur unofficially or emerge through the normal course of his work, but Arnet attributes significance to official recognition,
- 33. Partnership Research about “Difference” 19 in that it enables him to put in place processes for redistributing social goods that are intended to change the material conditions of recognised identities. Yet his comment also implies that difficulties may arise when local authorities work from policies that recognise diversity or individual differences and not discrete social group categories. How do you make decisions about targeting resources without official categories? The categories that influence policy concerned with social provision have proliferated, and the increase in numbers is also accompanied by substantive data gathering that has extended beyond categorisation to collect information about personal differences. For example the variables included in the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)’s Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) are intended to measure both social group differences (e.g. parental socio–economic status as a measure of class) and individual differences (e.g. personal characteristics). While we are yet to determine how best policy makers may make use of knowledge about individual differences to enhance social provision, we feel that improved understanding of the ways that young people differ from one another is important. However, we think the methods of data collection used by studies such as LSYPE do not go far enough. The LSYPE data collection, consisting of a questionnaire completed through face–to–face interview and some self–completion, makes assumptions about and constrains possible responses. The survey defines which individual differences between the young people are significant to their outcomes. Grounding Policy through Local Insight Our empirical work to date has started from a premise that young people themselves are a valuable source for insights on difference, to the extent that they can inform us about the kinds of difference significant for policy and practice. We maintain that these insights are best acquired through methods sensitive to diversity that reflect how participants choose to express their experience of difference as their substantive understandings of differences, such as allowing participants to choose personally and culturally appropriate modes of response (Waite, Boyask & Lawson, 2010). In February 2009 Plymouth City Council funded a small study that explored methods for prompting and capturing young peoples’ recollections of difference throughout their life course, which generated some preliminary findings about the nature of those differences (see Boyask, Lawson, Waite & Donkin, 2009b for the research findings). We recruited forty 18–20 year olds whose “home town” was Plymouth and
- 34. Chapter One 20 invited them to attend a research evening. 17 young people attended the evening and two chose to withdraw by leaving the session early. The evening started with a 45 minute performance by four actors from the Mirror Mirror theatre company, who used Playback theatre (see Rowe, 2007) to stimulate the participants’ recollections of difference at school. For the first four minutes each of the actors briefly told a story of difference from their own experience, and their narrative was followed by them and their fellow actors “playing back” or acting out the story. These were followed by narratives from the participant audience, similarly played back by three of the actors and facilitated by the fourth in the role of conductor. During the following 55 minutes the participants were broken up into three groups facilitated by the Playback actors and observed by researchers undertaking three different activities. The first activity was a small group discussion on words and ideas about difference, intended to explore appropriate language to use with young people with different educational histories. After this discussion, participants were asked to make an individual choice of expression to represent their recollections of difference at school using video diary, conceptual mapping, and timelines, for example. Finally the small groups came back together to discuss the kinds of times, places and people who had been significant in their recollection. The whole group reconvened for a final 15 minute plenary session facilitated by the theatre company. Whilst the findings from the evening were largely methodological (for further details, see Waite et al, 2010), we also generated some preliminary findings that represented the young people’s conceptualisations of difference. Through this project, the project team has come to characterise the tension between social categories and individual experiences as one between the general and the specific. That is, social groups or categories are formulated from generalisations about the experiences of individuals, yet our investigations of specific cases reveal that subjective experiences do not readily map onto such generalisations. Some young people within our study recalled difference as a much more personal and nuanced phenomenon, often closely associated with temporal, spatial and relational aspects of their life experience. For example, one young woman suggested there are differences between primary and secondary school. “In primary school they keep you repressed, they don’t tell you about the world” (audio–recording, 19th February 2009). She suggested that growing up happens in secondary school when you are forced to confront real–life challenges like taking national qualifications. Even when experience of difference did accord with official categories, our data suggested that young people’s identification with social group categories had been
- 35. Partnership Research about “Difference” 21 structured by the categorization and labelling that occurred through their engagement with social policies and institutional practices. For example, one young man who had a clear class consciousness had attended a fee– paying special school where other students were privately funded, yet his fees were paid by the local authority. Moreover, identification with a social category (either one’s own or how one is identified by others) may act as a limit upon individual potential and agency rather than open opportunities and new possibilities as intended by reformist policies. This same young man complained about the class disjuncture that he experienced at school and its impact on his relationships with his peers. In follow up research team discussions we have wrestled with the dynamic between subjective experience and the categorisation that is the main driver of funding and provision. We are interested especially in how subtler awareness of the experience of difference, which can be developed through co–constructing understanding through research, might prove useful when shaping provision at a local level. In the next section, we consider the local authority partner’s response to the research. Dialogic and Reciprocal Research/Policy Transfer In this section, we reflect upon the dialogue prompted and supported by our research. The project team engaged in conversation around issues of difference and diversity for over a year. In that time we shared our thinking and developed some congruence in some fundamental assumptions about difference. We recognise the problematic nature of labelling, and suggest that these problems are highlighted when predetermined categories are transposed to a culture unfamiliar with such generalisations. In the remainder of the chapter we use a combination of written narrative and transcribed excerpts from one of a series of conversations recorded by the project team to capture our collaborative construction of knowledge. While discussion amongst the university researchers has subsequently been developed through our collaborative writing, conversation seemed to be a more equitable way of co–constructing knowledge with our local authority partner (see Waite et al., 2010 for more on our commitment to person–centred research). Arnet: Ethnicity, how do we define that? It’s not so straight forward really. The danger is if we just talk about people by those constructs we then start to define who those people are. This morning I was in a school talking about how that school could develop more positive attitudes towards pupils from different ethnicities and backgrounds and we specifically started talking about gypsy travellers and Romany groups because the area that the
- 36. Chapter One 22 school is in currently has, well they haven’t had anybody from that group for the last four years. So it has sort of become an unknown, however, the area is also an area that has been, one of two areas in the city that has been designated as a potential area for a new site, travellers’ site, and so their attentions, if that planning permission goes through, then the likelihood is that that school will start to receive more travellers, so my question to the school was “What could you be doing to help people better and understand something of that culture”, and then we started talking about who we are talking about when we are talking about gypsy and travellers…. Ruth: because they are all different. Arnet: They are all different. There are those that are really travelling and who will be here for a week or two weeks and then will move on, but then there are those that actually just buy a house and live in a house but are still gypsy, Romany people and are of that tradition and ethnic background. So it is very complex…the danger is, if we just go by that label then actually we perpetuate the stereotype. So somebody comes in, you are a gypsy traveller. Tick. That’s what you are, so that’s how we will respond to you, but actually that person may not fit that mould. If gypsies and travellers had been commonplace within the school, then experience alone could have helped them to recognise the variations that underpin this general category. However, developing nuanced understanding becomes more difficult in an unfamiliar culture and is more likely to result in instrumental implementation of policy. That is, the experiences of individuals become associated with general categories, whether they hold true or not, and provision is measured through ticking boxes. This offers a powerful argument for ensuring that research on difference occurs in areas which have fewer apparent social group differences. Whilst national policy may provide for categorical difference that is determined as important at a national level, how can we support local policy–makers and practitioners (who are also working on the ground) to enact such provision when they lack insight derived from personal experience? Sensitivity to Local Understanding and Experience of Difference How do you sensitise professionals to the need to respond and reflect upon individuals’ differences?
- 37. Partnership Research about “Difference” 23 Arnet: I guess one of the things that we are trying to promote in the city is for schools to develop links with schools in other areas, whether it is abroad or whether it is in the UK. And because it is about actually meeting people and actually having relationships, dialogues with individual people. In a sense when you meet somebody you don’t put them into a box do you? You don’t sort of suddenly in your head go ‘tick’. You might categorise in a very broad sense. You might look at somebody and think that person is black or that person is Asian, but you wouldn’t go into that sort of fine detail that we go into, in that way of categorising ethnicity, through policy. What you are more interested in, what we notice with children is that they very quickly look for areas of similarity. So they very quickly start talking about music interests or sport interests and discover actually, you know, we both like the same rap music or actually they like Goth music and we like whatever. And that is the difference. It suddenly starts to emerge, we don’t like them not because they are Asian, but we don’t like them because they don’t like rap music and we like this music. And it is sometimes as simple as that. Or they like Arsenal and we like Tottenham. And that is what is on top for them as opposed to the ethnicity, sometimes we as policy makers jump to the wrong conclusions about why people don’t get on because actually there is, if you like, street culture, which is transient and it’s those things that sometimes make more difference to young people than what we perceive to be categories of difference. We are talking about how we actually build relationships with and understanding of people from different cultures. It is not just as simple as saying we will try and expose you to Asian people socially—such a broad category. Through Arnet’s responsibility for addressing disparities in the social outcomes of different ethnic groups, he is able to create opportunities for schools to expand their knowledge of difference through extending their experiences. However, in the preceding paragraph Arnet is teasing out the subtleties of difference, revealing that the activity he promotes under the auspices of provision for ethnic minorities may have little direct connection with ethnic categories. When the subtleties that Arnet describes are compared with our study’s findings on the nature of young people’s concepts of difference we find there are two main implications. First, Arnet’s view corresponds to our finding that young people’s conceptualisations of difference are phenomenological rather than categorical, and a result of their particular set of experiences. Arnet suggests provision should similarly be experiential, and that widening experience will improve relationships between people of different ethnic backgrounds. This suggests that successful policy interventions can be developed at the level of experience and that enacting such policy in practice requires awareness of how
- 38. Chapter One 24 understanding is formed by experience and relating experience to pre– existing schema. However, a second implication corresponds to the potentially miseducative nature of experience (Dewey, 1938). The second finding from the pilot study was that some young people’s conceptualisations of difference were categorical to a greater degree than others, and this appeared to be directly related to their experiences. Through their encounters with social policy and provision they became more sensitised to the categories used to differentiate one group from another within social institutions. In the case of the young man in the example above, this had negative implications for how he viewed differences in terms of both his own identification as someone who was different and how he viewed others as different from himself. These implications warrant further consideration within an environment where difference is exceptional, such as the case of ethnic diversity in the South West, not least because of the difficulties people working at the local authority level have in defining difference for themselves or responding to the differences they encounter in their particular contexts. If policy–workers lack the awareness or autonomy to define and intervene in the conditions of their own specific and local circumstances, their professional practices can have profoundly miseducative effects. Arnet: Our capacity [to define difference] is to work within those established categories [such as ethnicity] and to signpost to schools and other agencies the need to prioritise, or not, activity for those groups and according to some fairly tight empirical data which will be about achievement or about exclusion or health data and so on, and the moving around of resources, financial resources and other resources to meet perceived needs within those categories and then to support that by a layer of training so that the resources get used in a way that we believe is going to be most effective to tackle what ever the issue is. So yes, within the local authority it’s quite limited in terms of, you know, our manoeuvrability on this. Mediating between National and Local Policy The restricted manoeuvrability at the local authority level should be viewed within a wider national policy context. National drivers such as the government’s National Strategies for schooling (DCSF, N.D.) reduce the autonomy of local authorities and affect their capacity to make regional education decisions. Arnet: The way we have to work is defined, via national strategies, they set the agenda basically and we have to respond to that agenda. Whilst
- 39. Partnership Research about “Difference” 25 national strategies are not compulsory, it’s very hard to do something outside of that agenda. You have to be very clear and committed to wanting to go in a different direction from national strategies. It will be interesting to see what happens after 2011 when, you know, the Government decides to lose national strategies, so we will wait and see how that will be. But the rhetoric at the moment is that the autonomy goes back to schools, so I’m not quite sure where that will leave the local authority either. So there is a shift from centralised control right down to very local level at school level and I am very curious as to where local authorities will sit within that new frame. It may also be that the formation of a coalition Conservative/Liberal government in May 2010 committed to increasing self–government of schools and reducing local authority influence reinforces the tendency for less mediation of general policies for local circumstances. Greater freedom might enable schools to be more responsive to their particular communities, but might also increase the danger of a fragmented and inadequate understanding of difference outside their experience. In spite of these challenges, Arnet feels that he is trying to take greater account of young people’s own experiences of difference in his work. He had recently been drafting Plymouth City Council’s inclusion policy for children and young people. He has previously mentioned this policy at project team meetings, suggesting that our pilot study findings would be useful to his draft. Arnet: What I am currently doing is going around visiting about 15 different schools talking to groups of young people about what was written in here and what their experiences of some of those principles that are in here and I am asking them to say right you need to write down some anecdotes of their personal experiences of those principles, I will take some of those and they will get written into the final draft, so within a document that is full of policy speak there will be some voices of young people that will be coming through but hopefully it will help to ground the policy speak in real experience and I think that creates a bridge for people reading them, so that it can be translated from a systems approach to a human level approach. In other words, Arnet is using cases or vignettes from young people’s experience to illustrate his policy constructs. They function to exemplify the fundamental existence of social group categories and associated outcomes.
- 40. Chapter One 26 Some Concluding Thoughts As their conversation comes to a close, Ruth asks Arnet to consider whether there is further application for our findings: Can the local authority do something more than reuse authorised categories of difference as the prompts for young people’s recollections of their own experiences of difference? Our findings indicate that implications arise for young people just through receiving the categories that are ascribed to them. How might this discovery alter the future ways that policy – makers and practitioners perceive and respond to their differences? As researchers, we have witnessed the tension for policy makers and implementers positioned between structure and broad brush categorisation on the one hand and local knowledge and sensitivities on the other. Funding and accountability usually follow the former; while the latter call for more situated responses. While current policy has changed the balance and directed accountability for social provision to the local level, we fear that the accompanying demand for economic efficiency has reduced the capacity for local authorities to act upon the needs of individuals. Thus, the advantages of attending to specificity may be lost in the current policy climate, emphasising the importance of macro–level policy that appropriately supports local policy enactment. Implications for the Future There are two important considerations in determining a future course of action from our experiences in our research/policy/practice partnership. Firstly, we need to acknowledge the difficulties of changing social practice. The work of the local authority is affected by tacitly held beliefs and knowledge about professional roles at the level of individuals, and it is this that we believe can be altered through partnership and ongoing dialogue (Boyask and Quinlivan, 2008). Understandably the work of the local authority is also affected by accountability to national policy priorities, and change at this level is much more difficult to effect. While Arnet recognises that national policy frameworks are insufficiently subtle to intervene in the full range of differences that affect children and young people’s social outcomes, at a material level his work is structured and shaped by those external forces. Pure research can circumnavigate the complexities of power and knowledge through describing their production (through Foucault’s discourse analysis for example); applied research must grapple with the effects of power and knowledge on social practice. Changes in understanding are required by university researchers attempting
- 41. Partnership Research about “Difference” 27 policy–practice–research partnerships. In attempting to work together for change, we must be prepared for compromise. The research practice interface must not be viewed as unidirectional but as a dialogic and reciprocal endeavour. Second, we need to consider for policy and practice the implications of tensions between social group and individual approaches to difference. Whilst there is within a categorical approach to difference the risk of personal constraint, we must retain perspective on what is lost when we ignore social trends in inequalities. Debate continues on how we might close the gaps between the most socially advantaged and disadvantaged groups within the United Kingdom, yet it is generally appreciated that overall changes to social provision in the modern period have improved outcomes and quality of life for a larger proportion of the population (for example, see Paterson, 2001, regarding education). Debates also rage on the extent and nature of individualism within society (see, for example, Peters & Marshall, 1996 on the individual in post–modern society). In acknowledging individual differences, are we empowering previously disaffected individuals or are we advocating for a radical individualism that counteracts communitarian values? Whilst policy in recent years has sought to represent increasing regard for individual differences, we suggest that such representations are difficult to enact in ways that do not harm the social good. These considerations suggest to us a dialogic course of action. When working with categories, such as ethnicity and disability, how the meaning of these categories change for individuals through their experiences can be considered. The aim would be to show how context, in particular temporal, spatial and inter–relational contexts, affect the lived experience of categories of difference and consequently affect outcomes. For example, one might examine how individuals’ location in the South West of England may affect their perception of their own and others’ ethnicity. Arnet: My immediate thought when you talk about that is, I immediately went to thinking about the social construct and disability and a conversation I had with a friend of mine in London who was a thalidomide victim, who is very, very strong. Who is very clear in saying how it was the context of the environment that disabled him, it wasn’t his disability it was actually… Ruth: …the way it was responded to. Arnet: the way people responded to him. How they build houses. Where people put the light switch, things like that, that actually disenabled him and made him feel disabled in different places. And you know, that is quite
- 42. Chapter One 28 strongly embedded in disability theory but actually talking to him it was very powerful that message. And so when is a black person a black person, when they are in Plymouth surrounded by white people, how black can you be? While this work has the potential to expand social categories so that policy–workers at Plymouth City Council can develop more nuanced responses to the specific cases that they encounter, we also feel that more work needs to be done to dislodge the power of categories of difference defined at a national level. In keeping with our dialogic approach to partnership, we hope that the discussion will contribute to policy–workers’ professional practice, but we also intend that it will serve a purpose for the project team in working towards the goal of improving our understanding of how research into subjective experience may better inform policy and practice. There is an emergent interest in dialogue between social researchers and national policy–workers, exemplified in the field of education in the United Kingdom with the development of a special interest group for educational research and policy–making in the British Educational Research Association. Under the previous government, the Department for Children Schools and Families organised workshops that intended to help focus on improving responses to difference through existing social policy and generating recommendations for future development. However, we suggest that these may not acknowledge sufficiently the complexity and challenges of translation from awareness to practice. They would be strengthened by local articulation of research and policy that supports mediation of the general to the specific. Through using forums such as our partnership for the dual purpose of deepening understandings of both policy and research, the impact of research such as that described here could be substantially enhanced through the development of policies (at institutional, local authority and national levels) for children and young people that have greater sensitivity to and recognition of personal experiences of difference. We would strongly advocate the importance of supporting in–depth locally responsive social research in addition to large scale, generalizing studies in order to develop policy responses which do not over–generalize nor homogenize cultural difference.
- 43. Partnership Research about “Difference” 29 Works Cited Ainscow, M., Conteh, J., Dyson, A., and Gallanaugh, F. “Children in primary education: Demography, culture, diversity and inclusion.” University Research Report No. 5/1. Cambridge: University of Cambridge, 2007. Ball, S. Class strategies and the education market: the middle class and social advantage. London: Routledge Falmer, 2003. Ball, S.J. The Education Debate. Bristol: Policy Press, 2008. Ball, S., J. & Bowe, R. “Subject departments and the 'implementation' of the National Curriculum policy: an overview of the issues.” Curriculum Studies 24.2 (1992): 97–115. Blanden J, and Machin S. Recent changes in intergenerational mobility in Britain. London: Sutton Trust, 2007. Boyask, R., Donkin, A., Waite, S., and Lawson, H. “Autonomy and governance in local authority provision for children and young people,” Policy Futures in Education, 11.5. forthcoming 2013. Boyask, R., Carter, R., Waite, S, and Lawson, H. “Changing Concepts of Diversity: Relationships between Policy and Identity in English Schools.” Educational Enactments in a Globalised World: Intercultural Conversations. Eds. K. Quinlivan, R, Boyask and B. Kaur, Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2009a. 115–128. Boyask, R., Lawson, H., Waite, S., and Donkin, A. “The Diversity Project: Summary Report on Findings: Focus Group Evening.” Research Report, University of Plymouth; University of Exeter; Plymouth City Council, 2009b. Boyask, R. and Quinlivan, K. “Professional identity and performance within turbulent school cultures,” European Conference on Educational Research, University of Gothenburg. Sept 10–12, 2008. Dewey, J. Experience and Education. New York: Macmillan, 1938. Donkin, Arnet and Boyask, Ruth. Audio–recorded conversation. 25 January 2010. Great Britain. Department for Children Schools and Families. The National Strategies. No date. Web. 25 May 2010. <http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/> —. Department for Education (DfE). Support and Aspiration: A New Approach to Special Educational Needs and Disability. London: The Stationery Office. 2011. —. Department for Education and Schools. Every Child Matters [Green Paper] 2003.Web. 14 March 2008.
- 44. Chapter One 30 <http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/_files/EBE7EEAC90382663 E0D5BBF 24C99A7AC.pdf > Giddens, A. The Constitution of Society. Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge : Polity, 1984. Lawson, H., Boyask, R. and Waite, S. “Construction of difference and diversity within policy and classroom practice in England.” Cambridge Journal of Education, forthcoming 2013. Kaur, B., Boyask, R., Quinlivan, K., and McPhail, J. “Searching for equity and social justice: Diverse learners in Aotearoa, New Zealand.” The education of diverse populations: A global perspective. Ed. G. Wan. The Netherlands: Springer Science and Business Media, 2008: 227– 251. Paterson, L. “Education and Inequality in Britain,” paper prepared for the social policy section at the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Glasgow, 4 September 2001. Web. 5 April 2010. <http://www.institute–of–governance.org/publications /working_papers/education_and_inequality_in_britain> Peters, M., and Marshall, J. Individualism and community: Education and social policy in the postmodern condition. London: Falmer Press, 1996. Reay, D., Crozier, G., James, D., Hollingworth, S., Williams, K., Jamieson, F. and Beedell, P. “Re–invigorating democracy? White middle class identities and comprehensive schooling.”The Sociological Review 56.2 (2008): 238–255. Rowe, N. Playing the other: Dramatising personal narratives in playback theatre. London: Jessica Kingsley, 2007. Print. Tajfel, H. “Social identity and intergroup behaviour.”Social Science Information 13 (1974): 65–93. Waite, S., Boyask, R. and Lawson, H. “Aligning person–centred research methods and young people’s conceptualisations of diversity.” International Journal of Research Methods In Education (2010): 69– 83.
- 45. CHAPTER TWO DEADLY SYMBIOSIS: HOW SCHOOL EXCLUSIONS AND YOUTH CRIME INTERWEAVE MATT CLEMENT Abstract The fate of the most marginalised youth has long been a key theme as social scientists have sought to analyse and explain this condition. This paper attempts to measure the extent to which different institutions, the education sector and the criminal justice system, operate in a way that leads to a small section of youth being separated off from their peers in a process of exclusion from school and inclusion within the criminal justice system (CJS). It addresses current UK policy concerns about the scale of non–involvement in education amongst teenagers, how current processes of austerity are exacerbating these problems, as reflected in England’s riots of 2011.The psychological and social consequences of this condition are discussed, drawing on Marx, Elias, Bourdieu and Wacquant. By promoting greater recognition of the scale of marginalisation it promotes the value of intercultural research and practice. Research Background This project compiles evidence of the mentalities and behaviour generated by anti–social or marginalising effects, gathered from youth involved in the juvenile justice system, through interviews to capture aspects of their life histories that illustrate the phenomena alongside quantitative data collected to measure the key factors determining inclusion in this decivilising process, that forms the life—world or habitus—a product of long–term interdependency generating modes of behaviour and self–control amongst social figurations over time.With Marx, this paper
- 46. Chapter Two 32 argues that the chief “anti–social sources of crime” (Marx, 1971: 33) are not the merely symptomatic antisocial behaviour of the accused, but, rather, society’s desocialising failure to maintain a marginalised minority within the state education system. Statistical evidence for the backgrounds and status of criminalised youth highlights a disturbing triangulation of school exclusion, residential social care and delinquency—which contributes to the recent record numbers of young people in custody in Britain. Research Aims and Methodology This collaborative project between myself and the Performance and Analysis Team at Bristol City Council aims to compile quantitative data gleaned from the Youth Offending and Education databases in order to trace the correlation between school exclusion and youth offending in a typical UK city. Looking at 2 cohorts (i.e. year groups) of young people aged 16–18 to see what percentage of offenders had their education disrupted by significant amounts of exclusion from school. The motivation for carrying out this research came from my experience as a practitioner, supporting the rehabilitation of those found guilty of offending between the ages of 12 and 18. Between 2006 and 2010 the impression I gained from the situation of the young people with whom I had been involved was that many of them had failed to regularly attach themselves to the secondary school system. The pattern of behaviour varied. Some had been officially excluded from their selected secondary school and their subsequent transfer to another institution had been problematic: Some had remained on a school’s roll but not attended regularly: Some young people had never been allocated a school—their absence was therefore not noted and the systems of the local education authority were effectively unaware of their existence. My job role is within Bristol’s Youth Offending Team; a multi–agency partnership of professionals from different backgrounds such as social work, teaching, the police service and youth work. Our role is to support the rehabilitation of these young people: Central to this is identifying the biggest barriers to their inclusion in the norms and routines of teenage life, and regular school attendance is widely recognised as a vital element in this process. This subject is frequently aired at team meetings, as many practitioners feel that ensuring school attendance could go a long way towards overcoming marginalisation, and often found themselves frustrated by the fact that schools, social workers, parents and often the young people themselves do not prioritise securing educational inclusion.
- 47. Deadly Symbiosis 33 Another problem hampering the resolution of this dilemma is the way in which official statistics do not state its scale accurately. Government targets tend to focus only on those officially excluded, constituting only a small fraction of those not in school. Key figures are represented as a percentage of the whole school population rather than concentrating on how acute the problem is within particular marginalised minorities. Both these measures tend to underplay how significantly this exclusion impacts upon those least able to overcome it. Taking the annual cohort of Bristol’s young people involved in the criminal justice system (approximately 300), I discovered that 142 were on record as having some significant disruption to their secondary education—almost 50 per cent.1 By gathering information on the levels of secondary school exclusion within this cohort, we can establish whether this phenomenon is sufficiently statistically significant to form part of the explanation for rates of delinquency. Also, many young people excluded from school end up receiving education other than at school. This has been recognised in a recent government report “Ending Gang Violence” which says of one study by UK gang expert John Pitts: “almost two–thirds of gang members in the study had been permanently excluded from school, and there is evidence that exclusion from school can accelerate offending and anti– social behaviour. This can often start with repeat truancy. To address this serious issue, we have announced that we will reduce the persistent absence threshold from 20% to 15%” (Home Office, 2011:17).Clearly the Alternative Education programme is failing; creating desocialisation due to young peoples’ separation from both mainstream provision and their peer group. The graphs produced should be symptomatic of the scale of the issues around young peoples’ exclusion and offending behaviour in UK cities generally, as Bristol is in many ways a typical UK provincial city: so the results have national policy implications about how educational entitlement is regulated. Also I aim to cross–reference these individuals with those registered as looked after, i.e. young people whose parenting responsibility lies with the state, to assess the degree of correlation between the two – and how authorities in loco parentis could do more for the children in their care. This phenomenon of significant levels of school exclusion amongst the most marginalised is generally understood at a common sense level by many professionals working with disadvantaged young people—but not counteracted by regulatory strategies within the 1 Figure is an average of the total number of people live on the database of Bristol’s “Youth Offending Information Service” (YOIS) between 2007–11 (author’s research notes).
- 48. Chapter Two 34 relevant social care, criminal justice and educational institutions. By assembling a set of figures that show reliably the scale of the problem professionals working in this sector will be empowered to make the case for allocating increased time and resources with the aim of ensuring that entitlement to education is a reality for all young people. Quality intercultural research could therefore improve practice—and impact positively on the life chances of a vulnerable group, who often make poor transitions from youth to adulthood when their educational entitlement is neglected by those institutions formally committed to the process. Previous to this quantitative study, I carried out ethnographic qualitative research—collecting notes and compiling case studies based upon several years of visiting a selection of teenagers at Ashfield Young Offenders Institution whilst working for the Youth Offending Team, a multi–agency partnership of social workers, teachers, youth workers, police officers and court specialists based in Bristol, the provincial ‘capital’ of south–west England. My research focus here was the phenomenon of teenage knife crime. As a participant observer in these young peoples’ situations, my position was not neutral— rather, it was a part of the “street level bureaucracy” that works for their reform and rehabilitation (Lipsky, 1982: 1). Such limited empirical evidence as was presented in three case studies described the dilemmas inherent in the situation of those committing these crimes: what factors precipitate their actions, and how social policy responds (Clement 2010a).This chapter will unravel some of the processes underlying this scenario, noting the correlation between their adopting risk–laden survival strategies and the degree of socialisation they receive through school attendance. Maggie Atkinson, the UK Children’s Commissioner, recently highlighted the significant degree of illegal exclusion from school that is occurring nationwide, noting the various ways that headteachers can persuade parents not to appeal against their child’s removal from school, and turn a blind eye to the persistent absence of those pupils they believe will undermine the school’s overall standard of academic achievement. The research underpinning Atkinson’s report highlighted that over half of those young people with a criminal record had experienced exclusion from school (Atkinson, M. 2012: 2). This city–wide study should compliment Atkinson’s research and allow the construction of a statistically valid evidence–base, demonstrating the decivilising process which literally degrades the life–quality of this most marginalised group, as well as generating risk of harm to their peers, their families and other victims. This clearly has remedial implications for future cohorts whose absence from the socialising benefits of school attendance will tend to exacerbate
- 49. Deadly Symbiosis 35 their decivilisation and, in some cases, strengthen attachments to the alternative role models of the informal economy of the street gang. Over time, this research could allow the local authority based collaborative research team to track the costs of care interventions and institutional fees associated with the various agencies that have intervened during these “poor transitions” for the most marginalised young people; in order to demonstrate the unsustainability of the sticking–plaster social policy whereby young people excluded from school are placed on “alternative education” programmes that lack the socialising capacity of mainstream academic institutions (Barnardos, 2010: 2). Anecdotal evidence from my experience of working with dozens of young people within the criminal justice system would seem to suggest that the coincidence of these two factors may be statistically significant. By compiling a rigorous profile of this degree of symbiosis, it is hoped that the city authorities can be presented with incontrovertible evidence of the social cost of allowing some pupils to opt out of their statutory education. The policy implication is that more money and resources targeted at keeping these young people in schools would be well spent if it resulted in a subsequent reduction in their rates of incarceration. The latter is a powerful experience for any young person to go through, costing the state a considerable amount in accommodation fees, and inflicting a corrosive institutionalisation upon these vulnerable youth that seems to play out in high levels of recidivism and difficulty in positively reintegrating into society. I maintain that re–regulation of the school system to ensure pupils do not remain excluded can only occur if local education authorities regain control over school admissions. As things stand, the competitive nature of current educational legislation ensures no school has an interest in retaining excluded pupils, rather the reverse, so this minority find themselves lost, removed from the educational mainstream. In order to live up to the promise of recent legislation that Every Child Matters we need to give local authorities the powers to ensure re–inclusion takes place. Over time, this research will be compiled through collaboration with the Performance and Analysis Team at Bristol City Council, cross– referenced with information from the Youth Offending Team database: This could allow the team to track the costs of care interventions and institutional fees associated with the various agencies that have intervened during these poor transitions for the most marginalised young people; in order to demonstrate the unsustainability of the sticking–plaster social policy whereby young people excluded from school are placed on
- 50. Chapter Two 36 alternative education programmes that lack the socialising capacity of mainstream academic institutions. For these “teenagers under the knife” (Clement, 2010a: 439), this process of marginalisation is already having a decivilising impact: Advancing austerity could widen the ranks of those exposed to this level of insecurity, heightening fears of loss of status and damaging the fabric of everyday life. By demonstrating the “triangulation” effect of the three social factors – youth offending, young people “looked after” by the state and exclusion/absence from secondary schooling I hope to outline both the scale of the problem for this alienated minority, and how the lack of positive socialisation through education has disempowered them from overcoming advancing marginalisation. The rising level of re–offending amongst this group, despite a recent fall in the numbers incarcerated in Young Offenders’ Institutions (YOIs), is testament to the way in which neoliberal economic models and policies have institutionalised inequality in the outcomes of young people. This can allow new cultural forms to emerge outside the rigidities of the previous system of industrial structuration, which challenge assimilation and pose new problems of integration for society as a whole. By re–introducing a degree of educational regulation, it is possible that some of the more unpredictable and anti–social outcomes of this decivilising process could be overcome. Below I discuss how previous analysis of youth transitions informed this intercultural project. Implications Having previously worked as a secondary teacher in a Bristol school, the author wished to research the degree to which school exclusion necessarily led to broader societal or social exclusion, typically expressed through juvenile delinquency. Research into levels of juvenile delinquency is a well–trodden field in sociology; ever since McKay and Shaw tracked youth crime rates in different areas of Chicago to reinforce Burgess’ concentric zone theory, which explained how social inequalities are represented in city space (Park et al, 1983: 15; Smith, 1988: 5).The validity of this particular research programme is its intercultural focus on identifying which factors are triggers for its acceleration, and how interested parties can work together to ameliorate the condition. There is currently a need for a renewed focus on levels of UK youth delinquency as a litmus test of society’s capacity to promote social cohesion, as the 2011 English riots made only too clear (Clement, 2012b: 127): If school exclusion is a statistically significant predictor of youth crime then
- 51. Deadly Symbiosis 37 research and practice that focuses on breaking down this deadly symbiosis must have a high value. Most recently, Jean Kane’s research has empirically tested this theory—namely that “the young people most vulnerable to social exclusion were also those most likely to be excluded from school” (Kane, 2011: 16).The context is one where: The apparent paradox between policy which emphasises inclusion but continues to exclude begins to look false: social inclusion policies are not at odds with exclusion. Rather, they have helped to solidify the economic identity of one group as needy and different from other groups, set apart by virtue of their reliance upon government welfare (Kane, 2011: 18). Another facet which my earlier research has explored involves describing some of the social–psychological consequences of this process, using Elias’ notion of the civilising process to measure how these excluded young people may be mentally affected by the lack of socialisation and integration caused by their educational exclusion. By combining Wacquant and Elias I wanted to ask is this process decivilising? (Clement, 2010a 440)And, despite their intentions, are some government policies toward the excluded actually reinforcing these mentalities by pathologising them i.e. placing an anti–social stigma upon them through arrests, curfews and anti–social behaviour orders (ASBOs)? (Rodger, 2008: 3).Marx was explicit on this point: Crime must not be punished in the individual but the anti–social sources of crime must be destroyed to give everyone social scope for the essential assertion of this vitality. If man is formed by circumstances, then his circumstances must be made human (Marx, 1971: 32–33). The implication is that this long–term institutionalisation of inferiority is breeding behaviour that could be characterised as a “decivilising spurt” (Elias, 2000: 253), where codes of violence play a greater role in everyday living. This leads to the principal research questions: What are the implications of this growth of anti–social conditions for today’s urban outcasts. Will this minority who are becoming reluctant gangsters, grow in proportion as their “advanced marginality” (Wacquant, 2008: 1; Squires and Lea 3) leads to “a world of gangs” (Hagedorn, 2008: 1). Can their situation be ameliorated if their subculture can be positively integrated through their guaranteed inclusion in the school system?
- 52. Chapter Two 38 From “Learning to Labour” to Social Exclusion In order to understand how the transition from school to work can be interrupted in this fashion, derailing young people from more functional career paths, it is necessary to analyse the historical context whereby the relatively “secure’” transitions of the post–war era have been transformed through the last three decades of neoliberal economics (Goodwin et al 2002).At the end of the thirty years of welfare state expansion in Britain and Europe which had been characterised by rising working class living standards and expectations – Paul Willis chronicled how this process worked in secondary schools in his influential text “Learning to Labour: How working class kids get working class jobs”. He demonstrated the way in which the least academically able cohort of the school system acted out their rebellion within the school system – in preparation, he argued, for their absorption into the low–skilled employment sector upon leaving school (Willis, 1977: 18). After the decade of mass unemployment in the 1980s and the substantial reorganisation of the economy in the subsequent 30 plus years, these secure opportunities were no longer available and the rigid demarcations and classifications of the industrial era no longer seemed to apply. Whilst the overall level of educational achievement was rising, the bottom section of the cohort seemed more detached, or “excluded” from the bulk of society. Often this process of exclusion began with its namesake – i.e. exclusion from school, which increasingly appeared to deal a severe blow to young people’s ability to re–attach themselves to the education system. As Bourdieu stressed, in order to [g]rasp the essential of each person’s idiosyncrasy and all the singular complexity of their actions and reactions sociologists must uncover the objective structures past and present expressed in the actual academic institutions through which they traverse” (Bourdieu cited in Atkinson W., 2010: 10). The thirteen years of UK Labour government from 1997 to 2010 included a theoretically sophisticated programme of social policy designed to address the problem of widening social exclusion in Britain’s most deprived areas. One aspect of this was the formation of “multi–agency partnerships”, which would allow public sector workers to collaborate in resolving issues of deprivation which are so often interlinked. One example is the Youth Offending Team, an institution formed in the early 2000s to address juvenile delinquency, which combines social workers, police officers, teachers and other support workers. By linking up and
- 53. Deadly Symbiosis 39 carrying out interventions based around joined–up working, a picture has emerged of where the systemic failures tend to cohere, and what allows those excluded from the protection of mainstream institutions to become detached and marginalised from the norms of everyday life. Social exclusion has been recognised since the 1980s as a product of the institutionalisation of patterns of unemployment and deprivation in poorer areas. This “jobs gap in Britain’s cities” (Turok, 1999: 1) has been complimented by an extensive educational re–organisation, which has left a secondary “schools gap” in the poorer localities of cities such as Bristol. At the same time the local area education authorities have lost the legal power to regulate and ensure a comprehensive education for all, which has resulted in a minority being either excluded from, or choosing not to attend, secondary school. The fact that this is now affecting a second generation of young people, many of whom whose parents were the victims of the first generation of mass UK unemployment in the 1980s, exacerbates the presence of negative role models and creates an alienating life world or habitus for today’s marginalised youth. At the same time, Britain’s level of incarceration continues to rise alongside growth in global prison population, it is the highest in Europe outside Turkey: In 1993 the UK prison population was 45,000; by March 2012 the figure had almost doubled to a staggering 88,434 (Ministry of Justice, 2012).These national trends are reflected in the story of Bristol, the regional capital of the South–west and England’s fourth richest city. The Poverty of Education Deindustrialisation in Bristol through the 1980s and 90s has been accompanied by social decline in “neighbourhoods of relegation” (Wacquant, 2008: 114).One notable aspect of this phenomenon has been school closures: Falling pupil numbers in schools in poorer areas have been largely caused by the effects of the 1988 education act which allowed academically successful schools to grow at the expense of their neighbours. Inevitably those in areas of social housing have lost out in this beauty contest and Bristol has closed 5 secondary schools in areas of social deprivation in the last decade. Not only has this decivilised the environment and encouraged families traditionally less engaged with the school system to conclude that they need not participate in schooling, it has degraded the quality of those remaining schools in poorer areas, as more conscientious parents feel increasingly obliged to move their children out of schools labeled as failing: The whole process is a vicious circle—a self–fulfilling prophecy. This has created a type of educational
- 54. Chapter Two 40 apartheid with the gap widening between the rising prospects of the bulk of pupils, contrasting with worsening circumstances of many of those living on council estates. Indeed, the whole project of social mixing across the working class which council estates represented has been undermined by the widespread selling off of council houses since the early 1980s, which, in turn, has tended to remove aspirational residents from these areas and tip the social balance towards the sort of culture of poverty or underclass2 existence described in many accounts of social problems. The poverty of Bristol’s secondary school system can be explained by this type of discourse. Despite being the UK’s fourth richest city, its secondary school results in terms of exam scores at 16 in 2009 were the second–worst in the country. This led to some official recognition of the problem and there have been significant improvements in the city’s league table position since then. The majority of the secondary schools have become academies—funded directly by national government with less local oversight and accountability. In the process two formerly fee–paying schools have joined the state sector and their high GCSE results have helped to lift the overall percentage of successful Bristol pupils. Another reason for Bristol’s historically poor results is the high level of attendance at private (public) schools—18%—which removes some high scorers from the end results: Also, many parents bus their children to outlying schools which boosts the scores of neighbouring areas at Bristol’s expense. This, plus the closure programme, had hollowed out the old model of city provision from the early 2000s to 2009 with predictable poor results (Clement, 2006: 5). Before the 1988 education act, local education authorities controlled school provision and managed the budgets, employed the teachers and regulated its outcomes. This meant a person who school A felt compelled to remove was re–accommodated at school B—usually the nearest alternative institution—with comparatively little difficulty. As all schools were liable to take these excluded pupils they recognized there was no point excluding except as a last resort, and tended to be imaginative in their efforts to retain pupils. However, the imposition of a national curriculum pressurised schools to standardise their provision and undermined the efforts of schools to vary their methods to ensure pupils remained motivated, leading to greater retention (Ball, S., 2008: 28). Above all the act gave headteachers control of their budgets and responsibility for selling their product—all of which added to pressures to exclude those deemed to be undermining the education of others through 2 Both these terms are contentious, constituting labels which then devalue those people to whom they are attached.
- 55. Random documents with unrelated content Scribd suggests to you:
- 56. kauppalaiva, kello on yhdeksän. Tulimmaista! Postivaunut eivät myöhästy minuuttiakaan. — Onko tuo herra nuori? kysyi abotti Cruchot. — On, vastasi herra des Grassins. Hänen matkatavarainsa täytyy painaa keskimäärin kolme sataa kiloa. — Nanonhan ei palaakaan, sanoi Eugénie. — Hänen täytyy olla teidän sukulaisenne, sanoi presidentti. — Jatkakaamme peliämme, virkkoi rouva Grandet lempeällä äänellä. Herra Grandet'n äänestä huomasin, että hän oli huonolla päällä; ehkäpä hän ei pidä siitä, että huomaa meidän keskustelleen hänen asioistaan. — Neiti, sanoi Adolf naapurilleen, hän on varmaankin serkkunne Grandet, hauska nuori mies, jonka olen joskus nähnyt herra de Nucingenin tanssiaisissa. Adolf ei voinut jatkaa, sillä hänen äitinsä polki häntä jalalle. Pyydettyään pojalta ääneen pari sous'ta panostaan varten, sanoi hän tämän korvaan: — Osaatko pitää suusi kiinni, tyhmyri! Samassa palasi Grandet ilman suurta Nanonia, jonka askeleet, samoinkuin tavarankantajankin kuuluivat porraskäytävästä. Grandet'n seurassa astui sisään muukalainen, joka jo jonkun ajan oli pitänyt koko seuran uteliaisuutta ja mielikuvitusta sellaisessa jännityksessä, jota voi ehkä verrata siihen, mikä syntyy kun etana ilmestyy mehiläispesään tai riikinkukko kanatarhaan.
- 57. — Istukaa lieden ääreen, sanoi Grandet hänelle. Ennenkuin nuori muukalainen istuutui, tervehti hän kohteliaasti koko seuraa. Miehet nousivat vastaamaan tervehdykseen ja naiset kumarsivat juhlallisesti. — Teillä on varmaankin kylmä, herrani? sanoi rouva Grandet; te tulette ehkä…? — Tuollaisia ovat naiset, sanoi vanha viinitarhuri, katsahtaen kirjeensä takaa, jota piti kädessään, jättäkää toki nuoriherra rauhaan! — Mutta, isä, herra tarvitsee ehkä jotain, sanoi Eugénie. — Hänellä on kieli, millä puhua, vastasi viiniporvari jyrkästi. Ainoa, joka tunsi hämmästystä tämän välikohtauksen johdosta, oli juuri tullut muukalainen. Muut olivat jo tottuneet Grandet'n yksinvaltiaaseen käytöstapaan. Vieras oli noussut viimeisten kysymysten ja vastausten aikana, asettunut seisomaan selkä kamiiniin päin ja nostanut toisen jalkansa tulta vasten, lämmittääkseen kenkänsä anturaa, ja sanoi nyt Eugénielle. — Serkkuni, kiitän teitä, olen syönyt Tours'issa. Ja, lisäsi hän, katsoen Grandet'hen, en kaipaa myöskään mitään, en ole edes väsynyt. — Herra tulee pääkaupungista? kysyi rouva des Grassins. Kun herra Charles — se oli Parisin Grandet'n pojan nimi — kuuli itseään puhuteltavan, otti hän esille pienen nenäkakkulan, joka riippui ketjusta hänen kaulassaan, pani sen oikeaan silmäänsä tarkastellakseen pöytää ja sen ääressä istuvia ihmisiä, tähysti sangen
- 58. nenäkkäästi rouva des Grassins'ia, ja vastasi sitten, kaikkia kyllin katseltuaan. — Kyllä, rouva. — Te pelaatte arpapeliä; jatkakaa, minä pyydän, se on liian hauskaa, jotta sitä voisi jättää kesken. — Olinhan heti siitä varma, että serkku se on, ajatteli rouva des Grassins heittäen vieraaseen pikaisia tutkivia silmäyksiä. — Seitsemän viidettä, huusi vanha abbé. Huomatkaahan toki, rouva des Grassins, eikö se ollut teidän numeronne? Herra des Grassins pani pelimarkkansa vaimonsa numerolle; mutta jälkimäinen, pahojen aavistusten valtaamana, katseli vuoroin Parisin serkkua vuoroin Eugénieta, ajattelematta enää peliä. Nuori perijätär heitti tavan takaa salaisia silmäyksiä serkkuunsa, ja pankkiirin rouvan oli helppo niissä huomata kasvavan ihmettelyn ja ihailun. Toinen luku. Herra Charles Grandet, kaunis kahdenkolmatta vuotias nuori mies, oli tällä hetkellä hienoine käytöstapoineen omituinen poikkeusilmiö näiden kunnon maakuntalaisten keskellä, jotka kukin kohdaltansa panivat tarkkaan merkille hänen eleensä voidakseen niistä myöhemmin tehdä pilaa. Kahdenkolmatta vuotias on useassa tapauksessa vielä lapsi. Sadasta kahdenkolmatta ikäisestä olisi varmaankin yhdeksänkymmentä yhdeksän käyttäytynyt samalla tavalla kuin
- 59. Charles Grandet. Muutamia päiviä ennen kuvattua iltaa, oli hänen isänsä hänelle ehdottanut, että hän lähtisi joksikin kuukaudeksi setänsä luo Saumuriin. Ehkä oli Parisin Grandet'lla mielessä rikas veljentytär. Charles, joka matkusti ensi kertaa maaseudulle, oli päättänyt esiintyä siellä maailmanmiehen koko ylemmyydellä, saattaa koko kyläkunta loistollaan varjoon, alottaa siellä uusi ajanjakso ja tuoda sinne kaikki parisilais-elämän keksinnöt. Sanalla sanoen, hän oli päättänyt käyttää Saumurissa enemmän aikaa kynsiensä kunnossapitoon kuin Parisissa ja esiintyä puvustonsa puolesta kaikella sillä hienoudella, jonka moni nuori maailmanmies mukavuutensa tähden usein laiminlyö. Charles oli sentähden ottanut mukaansa Parisista kauneimman metsästyspuvun, kauneimman pyssyn, kauneimman jahtipuukon ja kauneimman tikarintupen. Niinikään oli hänellä matkassaan mitä suurinta kekseliäisyyttä todistava valikoima erilaisia liivejä: hänellä oli harmaita, valkeita, mustia, ruskeita, kullankirjavia, helyillä koristettuja, täplikkäitä, kaksinkertaisia, pysty- ja kääntökauluksisia, ylös saakka kiinnitettäviä, kultanappisia. Hän toi muassaan kaikenlaatuisia siihen aikaan käytettyjä kauluksia ja kaulaliinoja. Hänellä oli kaksi Buisson-pukua, ja hänen liinavaatteensa olivat hienointa lajia. Matkassaan oli hänellä myöskin äitinsä lahjoittama kaunis kullattu vaatetuslippaansa. Häneltä ei puuttunut mitään täydellisen keikarin varustuksista. Niinpä ei saa unhottaa pientä ihastuttavaa kirjoitustelinettä, minkä hän oli saanut ainakin omasta mielestään rakastettavimmalta kaikista naisista, Anettelta, joka nyt aviopuolisona ikävissään matkusteli Skotlannissa, epäluulojen uhrina, pakoitettuna hetkeksi uhraamaan onnensa. Charles'illa oli kaunista paperia varta vasten matkassaan kirjoittaakseen kirjeen joka neljästoista päivä tälle naiselle.
- 60. Hänellä oli siis kaikki mahdolliset parisilaiset ylellisyystarpeet mitä ajatella saattaa, aina ratsupiiskasta lähtien, joka kelpaa kaksintaisteluun manaamiseen, hienosti kaiverrettuihin pistooleihin saakka, joilla kaksintaistelu suoritetaan — siis kaikki ne työkalut, joita nuori tyhjäntoimittaja tarvitsee pitääkseen puolensa elämässä. Koska hänen isänsä oli kehoittanut häntä matkustamaan vaatimattomasti, ilman palvelijaa, oli hän tullut hänelle yksin varatuissa postivaunuissa; hän ei tahtonut pilata omia hienoja matkavaunujaan, mitkä olivat määrätyt hänen Anetteansa varten, joka tulisi häntä tapaamaan ensi kesäkuussa Badenin terveyslähteille. Charles oli odottanut kohtaavansa setänsä luona satoja vieraita, saavansa ottaa osaa riistanajoon setänsä metsissä ja elää joka suhteessa linnanisäntien elämää. Hän ei ollut luullut tapaavansa setäänsä Saumurissa vaan oli täällä kysellyt vain tietä Froidfondiin; mutta saatuaan tietää hänen olevan kaupungissa, luuli hän tapaavansa hänet suuresta linnasta. Hän oli tätä ensi kohtausta varten antanut teettää keikarimaisen, yksinkertaisen loisteliaan matkapuvun, jonka vaikutus oli ihastuttava — käyttääksemme tuota sanaa, jolla näinä aikoina merkitään jonkun asian tai ihmisen erikoinen täydellisyys. Tours'issa oli hän antanut peruukintekijän kähertää kauniin ruskean tukkansa; hän oli siellä myöskin vaihtanut liinavaatteensa ja sitonut kaulaansa mustan silkkiröyhelön, joka yhdessä pyöristetyn kauluksen kanssa muodosti hauskan puitteen hänen valkeille, iloisille kasvoilleen. Puoleksi napitettu matkatakki oli lujaan kiinnitetty hänen vyötärensä ympäri, sallien kuitenkin kasimiriliivin ja sen alla olevan toisen valkean liivin tulla näkyviin. Huolimattomasti taskuun pistetty kello oli lyhyellä kultaketjulla kiinnitetty napinreikään. Hänen harmaat housunsa olivat sivulta napitetut ja niiden saumat olivat mustalla silkkiompeleella
- 61. kaunistetut. Kädessään heilutteli hän sulavasti kultapäistä koristeltua keppiä, jonka kädensija ei turmellut hänen harmaiden hansikkaidensa tuoreutta. Myöskin hänen lakkinsa todisti erinomaista makua. Ainoastaan parisilainen hienoston piireistä saattoi esiintyä tällä tavoin, joutumatta naurun alaiseksi, levittää itsetyytyväisyyden sopusoinnun kaikkien näiden turhanaikaisten korujen ylle, joita vielä säesti nuoren miehen rohkea katse, miehen, jolla oli hyviä pistooleja, tarkka käsi ja oma Anettensa. Se, joka tahtoo täysin käsittää saumurilaisten ja nuoren parisilaisen hämmästyksen, sen eloisuuden, minkä tämän muukalaisen hienous loi tuvan harmaihin varjoihin ja niihin olentoihin, jotka muodostivat tämän perhekohtauksen — hän kuvitelkoon Cruchot'ita tuona hetkenä. Kaikki kolme ottivat nuuskaa nenäänsä eivätkä enää muistaneet pudistaa päältään niitä keltaisia ja mustia jyväsiä, jotka putoilivat heidän kellertäville paidanröyhelöilleen. Heidän pehmeät kaulaliinansa ottivat varsin mielivaltaisia muotoja ja heidän liinavaatteensa, joita heillä oli sellainen määrä, että niiden pesu suoritettiin vain puolivuosittain, olivat laatikoissa saaneet harmahtavan, makaantuneen värin. Niissä näkyi ikävästi vanhuuden merkit. Miesten kasvot, yhtä kuluneet kuin heidän nukkavierut takkinsa, yhtä poimuiset kuin heidän housunsa, tekivät väsähtäneen ja irvistelevän vaikutuksen. Huolimattomuus koko muuhun puvustoon nähden, joka oli kauttaaltaan epätäydellinen ja iloton kuten usein on tapa maaseudulla, missä ihmiset eivät pukeudu toistensa tähden, vaan missä jokainen paljoksuu hansikkaparin hintaa, säesti Cruchot'iden
- 62. koko muuta olemusta. Muotipelko olikin ehkä ainoa seikka, jossa Grassins'it ja Cruchot'laiset täydellisesti olivat samalla kannalla. Parisilainen tarttui lorgnettiinsa tutkiakseen huoneen kalustoa, laattian palkkeja ja seinien väriä, johon kärpäset olivat jättäneet niin runsaasti merkkejä, että ne olisivat riittäneet tietosanakirjan pisteiksi. Myöskin loton pelaajat kohottivat neniänsä ja tähystelivät muukalaista yhtä suurella ihmetyksellä kuin jos heillä olisi ollut kiraffi edessään. Herra des Grassins ja hänen poikansa, joille maailmanmiehen näky ei ollut outo, yhtyivät kuitenkin tähyilemään naapuriensa kanssa, olipa että siihen vaikutti yleinen mieliala tai halu osottaa hyväksymistään ja tulkita se naapureilleen merkitsevällä silmäniskulla: — Kas tuommoisia ollaan Parisissa. Kaikki voivat muuten mielin määrin uutta tulokasta tarkastaa pelkäämättä loukkaavansa talon isäntää. Grandet oli syventynyt pitkään kirjeeseen, jota hän piti kädessään, ja oli ottanut sitä varten pöydältä ainoan kynttilän, välittämättä sen enempää vieraistaan. Eugénie, jolle moinen puvun ja mieskohtaisen esiintymisen täydellisyys, oli ennestään kokonaan tuntematon, luuli näkevänsä orpanassaan taivaallisista korkeuksista alas astuneen olennon. Suloisella mielihyvällä hengitti hän tuoksua, joka lähti vieraan kiiltävästä, kauniisti käherretystä tukasta. Hän olisi tahtonut kädellään koskettaa tämän hansikoiden hienoa nahkaa. Hän kadehti hänen pieniä käsiään, hänen hipiäänsä, hänen piirteidensä tuoreutta ja hienoutta. Lyhyesti, jos voisi vertauksen avulla kuvata sitä vaikutusta, minkä nuori keikari teki tähän kokemattomaan tyttöseen, joka tähän saakka oli parsinut sukkia ja paikkaillut isänsä pukuja ja jonka elämä oli kulunut näiden likaisten seinäin sisäpuolella hiljaisen
- 63. kadun varrella, jossa tuskin sai nähdä enempää kuin yhden henkilön käyvän ohi tunnissa — tässä tytössä herätti hänen orpanansa näkeminen suloista mielihyvää, samanlaista, jonka saa nuoressa miehessä aikaan joku niistä haaveellisista, Westallin piirtämistä naiskuvioista englantilaisissa matkalaukuissa, kuvioista, jotka ovat niin hienolla tavalla piirretyt että pelkää näiden taivaallisten olentojen henkäyksestäkin häviävän olemattomiin. Charles otti taskustaan kirjaillun nenäliinan, Skotlannissa matkustavan maailmannaisen käsialaa. Kun Eugénie näki tämän hienon käsityön, mikä oli rakastavalla kädellä tehty aikoina, jotka olivat menneet rakkaudelta hukkaan, tarkkaili hän uteliaana orpanaansa nähdäkseen aikoiko tämä todella käyttää sitä. Orpanan käytöstapa, hänen kädenliikkeensä, hänen tarkoituksellinen suorasukaisuutensa, hänen välinpitämättömyytensä lipasta kohtaan, joka oli tuottanut niin paljon iloa rikkaalle perijättärelle ja jota hän joko piti arvottomana tai naurettavana, ja lopuksi kaikki se hänessä, mikä loukkasi Cruchot'laisia ja Grassins'eja, miellytti tyttöä niin suuresti, että saattoi olla varma siitä, että hän nukuttuaan näki unta tästä ihmeellisestä fenix-linnusta. Pelinumeroja vedettiin yhä hitaammin ja kohta lotto kokonaan lakkasi. Suuri Nanon astui sisään ja sanoi kovalla äänellä: — Antaisiko rouva puhtaita lakanoita, jotta voin tehdä tälle herralle vuoteen. Rouva Grandet lähti Nanonin mukaan. Rouva Grassins sanoi silloin matalalla äänellä. — Kukin pitäköön rahansa, jättäkäämme peli.
- 64. Jokainen otti kaksi sou'ta vanhassa kukkarossa säilytetystä pohjarahastosta pöydältä. Koko seura liikahti ja teki neljänneskäänteen tulta kohti. — Te olette siis lopettanut? kysäsi Grandet jättämättä kirjettään. — Kyllä, vastasi rouva des Grassins, mennen istumaan Charles'in viereen. Eugénie, antautuen niihin ajatuksiin, jotka ensi kertaa herännyt lemmentunne nuoressa tytössä herättää, lähti hiljaa huoneesta mennäkseen auttamaan äitiään ja Nanonia. Jos joku taitava rippi-isä olisi pannut hänet tunnustuksille, olisi hän varmaan tälle myöntänyt, ettei hän ajatellut enemmin äitiään kuin Nanoniakaan, vaan että häntä ajoi vastustamaton halu pitää huolta orpanansa huoneesta, katsoa, ettei mitään sieltä puuttuisi, ja järjestää kaikki siellä mahdollisimman hyvään kuntoon, jotta huone näyttäisi niin hienolta ja siistiltä kuin suinkin. Eugénie uskoi, että hän yksin saattoi ymmärtää orpanansa maun ja mielihalut. Hän tulikin itse asiassa oikeaan aikaan osottaakseen äidilleen ja Nanonille, jotka tekivät paluuta, että kaikki oli vasta puolitiessä. Hän antoi suurelle Nanonille määräyksen lämmittää lieden edessä vuoteen lakanat; itse peitti hän vanhan pöydän liinasella ja teroitti Nanonin mieleen, että tämän piti vaihtaa liinaa joka aamu. Hän sai äitinsä vakuutetuksi, että oli välttämätöntä virittää kelpo tuli kamiiniin, ja käski Nanonin, isälle mitään puhumatta, noutaa eteisestä suuren kantamuksen puita. Sitten juoksi hän etsimään kätköistä kiiltävän tarjottimen, joka oli vanhan La Bertellièren peruja, kuussyrjäisen kristallilasin, pienen kullatun lusikan, jonka siloitus kuitenkin oli jo pahasti kulunut, vanhanaikaisen pullon, johon oli kaiverrettu lemmenjumalia, ja asetti kaikki voitonriemuisena kamiinin
- 65. nurkalle. Hänessä oli neljännestunnin ajassa herännyt enemmän ajatuksia kuin koko muun elämänsä aikana. — Äiti, sanoi hän sitten, orpanani ei varmaankaan kärsi talikynttilän hajua. Jos ostaisimme vahakynttilän?… Ja hän lähti kepeänä kuin lintu etsimään kukkaroaan, josta otti kuukausrahansa, sata sou'ta. — Tuoss' on, Nanon, käy nopeaan. — Mutta mitä sanoo isäsi? Tämän peloittavan kysymyksen teki rouva Grandet, kun hän näki tyttärensä tulevan kantaen kädessään vanhasta Sevres'in porsliinista valmistettua sokerirasiaa, jonka Grandet oli tuonut Froidfondin linnasta. — Ja mistä otat sokerin? Oletko hullu? — Äiti, Nanon voi ostaa sokeria samalla kertaa kuin vahakynttilänkin. — Entäs isäsi? — Mutta onko kohtuullista, ettei hän sallisi tarjottavan lasia sokerivettä veljenpojalleen. Muuten, ei hän huomaa koko asiaa. — Isäsi huomaa kaikki, sanoi rouva Grandet, nostaen päätään. Nanon vitkasteli, sillä hän tunsi herransa. — Mutta menehän nyt, Nanon, kun tänään on minun syntymäpäiväni, sanoi Eugénie, isäänsä matkien.
- 66. Nanon päästi leveän naurun, kuullessaan ensi kertaa elämässään nuoren emäntänsä laskevan leikkiä, ja totteli. Sillä aikaa kun Eugénie ja hänen äitinsä koettivat parhaansa mukaan somistaa huonetta, jonka Grandet oli määrännyt veljenpojalleen, sai tämä nauttia erinomaista huomaavaisuutta rouva des Grassins'in puolelta. — Olettepa varsin päättäväinen, herraseni, sanoi rouva, kun voitte näin jättää talvisen Parisin huvitukset, tullaksenne tänne Saumuriin. Mutta, jollemme teitä pahoin säikytä, niin takaanpa, että voitte täälläkin viettää hupaisia hetkiä. Samalla heitti rouva Charles'iin oikean maaseutulaissilmäyksen — sellaisen, mikä on yhtä ominainen maaseudun naisille kuin papeille, joille jokainen nautinto on synti ja rikos. Charles tunsi niin suurta ikävää siinä istuessaan, kaukana siitä avarasta linnasta ja loistosta, jonka hän oli kuvitellut kuuluvan setänsä ympäristöön, että rouva des Grassins tarkemmin katsoen sentään oli hänestä kuin puolittain himmentynyt kuva jostakin hänen parisilaisittaristaan. Charles vastasikin sentähden kohteliaasti hänelle osotettuun vieraskutsuun ja antautui keskusteluun, jonka kestäessä rouva des Grassins asteettain hiljensi ääntään saadakseen sen sopusointuun tiedonantojensa tutunomaisuuden kanssa. Hänellä ja Charles'illa oli varma tarve uskoutua toisilleen. Kun siis ensimäiset sievistelevät lauseparret olivat vaihdetut, saattoi viekas pikkukaupungin rouva kuiskata Charles'ille tarvitsematta peljätä, että muut, jotka puhuivat, niinkuin koko Saumur tähän aikaan, viinin kaupasta, häntä kuulisivat.
- 67. — Jos sallisitte meille kunnian nähdä teidät luonamme, tekisitte sillä varmaan yhtä suuren ilon miehelleni kuin minulle. Meidän perheemme on ainoa Saumurissa, jossa voitte tavata sekä korkeamman porvariston että aatelin. Niinhyvin edellinen kuin jälkimäinen kunnioittaa yhtä suuressa määrässä miestäni — sen voin ylpeydellä teille vakuuttaa. Niinpä teemmekin parhaamme tarjotaksemme heille edes jotain hupia täällä syrjäkylässä. Hyvä jumala, kuinka tulette ikävystymään, jos jäätte herra Grandet'n luo. Setänne on kauppasielu eikä ajattele muuta kuin viinisatojaan, tätinne on ikävä pikku pyhimys, jonka päähän ei mahdu yhtaikaa kahta ajatusta, ja orpananne on pieni tyttölepakko, vailla kasvatusta ja seuratapoja, eikä kelpaa muuhun kuin parsimaan pyyhinliinoja. — Tuo rouva ei ole hullumpia, ajatteli Charles Grandet, vastaten kohteliaisuuksilla naapurinsa kiemailuihin. — Näyttääpä siltä kuin tahtoisit anastaa itsellesi herra vieraamme, sanoi nauraen paksu suuri pankkiiri. Kuultuaan tämän huomautuksen vaihtoivat notario ja presidentti pari ilkeämielistä sanaa; mutta pappi katsoi viekkaasti rouva des Grassins'ia kohti ja sanoi otettuaan ajatuksensa vahvikkeeksi annoksen nuuskaa ja tarjottuaan sitä senjälkeen muillekin: — Kukapa voisi paremmin kuin arvon rouva lausua vieraalle Saumurin tervehdykset? — Kuinka niin! mitä tarkoitatte? kysyi herra des Grassins. — Tarkoitan teidän, rouvan, Saumurin kaupungin ja vieraan parasta, herraseni, vastasi viekas vanhus siirtyen lähemmäs Charles'ia.
- 68. Kirkkoherra Cruchot ei näköjään ollut koko aikana huomaavinaan Charles'in ja rouva des Grassins'in keskustelua, mutta arvasi kuitenkin hyvin sen sisällön. — En tiedä, herrani, vieläkö minua muistatte, sanoi, vihdoin Adolf, pakoittautuen mahdollisimman välinpitämättömän näköiseksi. Minulla on kerran ollut ilo olla teidän vastatanssijananne paroni de Nucingenin kutsuissa, ja… — Muistan vallan hyvin, vastasi Charles, hämmästyneenä siitä, että oli jo joutunut yleisen huomion keskipisteeksi. — Herra on teidän poikanne? kysyi hän rouva des Grassins'ilta. Kirkkoherra loi ilkeän silmäyksen äitiin. — Kyllä, herra, vastasi jälkimäinen. — Te olitte siis vallan nuorena Parisissa? kysyi Charles nuorelta herra des Grassins'ilta. — Kysyttekin, virkkoi pappi, me lähetämme lapsemme, Babyloniin heti kohta kun ne vieraantuvat imettäjästä. Rouva des Grassins loi kirkkoherraan syvän hämmästyneen katseen. — Täytyy tulla maaseudulle, jatkoi pappi, jos mieli tavata naisia, jotka neljääkymmentä käydessään ovat yhtä nuorekkaita kuin rouva des Grassins, siitä huolimatta, että heidän poikansa kohta ovat lakitieteen kandidaatteja. Muistanpa vielä kuin eilispäivän sen ajan, jolloin nuoret herrat ja neidit nousivat tuoleilleen nähdäkseen teidän tanssivan, rouvani. Teidän valloituksenne…
- 69. — Sinä vanha konna! ajatteli rouva des Grassins. Mahdatkohan arvata tarkoitukseni? — Näyttääpä siltä kuin olisi täällä mahdollisuuksia valloituksiin, ajatteli Charles, napitti pitkäntakkinsa, pani kätensä liivin aukeamaan ja heitti katseen huoneen päästä päähän, jäljitellen Lord Byronin asentoa Chantreyn tunnetussa maalauksessa. Se tarkkaavaisuus, jolla isä Grandet oli syventynyt kirjeensä lukemiseen, jäi yhtä vähän notariolta kuin presidentiltä huomaamatta. Molemmat koettivat arvailla kirjeen sisältöä ukon tuskin huomattavista kasvojen väreistä, joita kynttilä valaisi. Tynnyrintekijä saattoi vaivoin säilyttää piirteidensä tavallisen jäykkyyden. Lukija voi arvata, kun hän saa tietää sen sisällön, kuinka kovalle koetukselle ukko Grandet oli pantu: Veliseni! Onpa jo kulunut kaksikolmatta vuotta siitä kuin viimeksi toisemme näimme. Minun häissäni tapasimme viime kerran toisemme ja iloisina erosimme kukin haarallemme. Enpä voinut silloin aavistaa, että sinä kerran olisit oleva ainoana tukena sille suvulle, jonka menestyksestä silloin niin suuresti iloitsit. Kun tämä kirje tulee käsiisi, ei minua enää ole olemassa. Olen vararikon edessä, ja sen häpeän yli en jaksa elää. Olen vitkastellut kuilun partaalla toivossa että voisin pelastaa asemani. Nyt täytyy minun hypätä alas kuiluun. Kaksi vararikkoa, vaihtovälittäjäni ja Roguinin, notarioni, on vienyt viime roponi ja nyt olen puilla paljailla. Minun on tuskallista ajatella että olen velkaa enemmän kuin neljä miljoonaa voimatta maksaa saamamiehilleni enempää kuin viisikolmatta sadalta. Onnettomuuden lisäksi on viinieni hinta
- 70. laskemassa syystä että teidän satonne on ollut niin runsas. Kolmen päivän kuluttua on Parisi sanova: herra Grandet oli lurjus! Saan viedä häpeällä hiukseni hautaan. Riistän pojaltani hänen nimensä, jonka olen liannut, sekä hänen äitinsä perinnön. Hän ei tiedä mistään, onneton poikani, jota jumaloin. Olemme sanoneet toisillemme hellät jäähyväiset. Kaikeksi onneksi ei poikani huomannut, että viime jäte elinvoimaani lyyhistyi kokoon tuona hetkenä. Onko hän minut kerran kiroova? Veljeni, veljeni, lastemme kirous on hirveä! He voivat vedota meidän tuomiostamme, mutta heidän on peruuttamaton. Grandet, sinä olet vanhempi veljeni, sinun tulee minua auttaa: suojele minun hautaani Charles'in katkerilta sanoilta! Veljeni, jos kirjoittaisin sinulle verelläni ja kyynelilläni, en voisi niillä tulkita niin suurta tuskaa kuin tällä kirjeellä; jos voisin itkeä, jos voisin vuodattaa vereni, olisin jo kohta kuollut enkä kärsisi enää. Nyt kärsin ja katselen kuolemaa kuivin silmin. Sinä olet nyt Charles'in isä. Hänellä ei ole mitään sukulaisia äidin puolelta — itse tiedät, minkätähden. Miksi en ottanutkin huomioon yhteiskunnallisia ennakkoluuloja? Miksi kuulinkin rakkauden ääntä? Miksi meninkin naimisiin hienon herran tyttären kanssa? Charles'illa ei ole mitään sukua. Oi onnetonta, onnetonta poikaani!… Usko minua, Grandet, en rukoile sinulta apua itselleni — eikähän sinun omaisuutesi riittäisi peittämään kolmen miljoonan vajausta mutta poikani puolesta sinua rukoilen. Minä nostan rukoillen käteni sinua kohti, kuoleman hetkellä uskon sinulle poikani. Ilman tuskaa katselen pistoolejani, ajatellessani, että sinä olet Charles'in isä. Hän piti minusta; olin aina hyvä hänelle, en milloinkaan häneltä mitään kieltänyt — toivon ettei hän ole minua kiroova. Muuten, sinä olet itse
- 71. näkevä, että hänellä on äitinsä hellä sydän, hän ei ole koskaan tuottava sinulle surua. Poika parka! tottuneena iloon ja loistoon ei hän tunne mitään niistä kieltäymyksistä, joita me molemmat olemme kerran kokeneet… Ja nyt on hän rutiköyhä — ja yksin. Niin, kaikki hänen ystävänsä jättävät hänet, ja minä, minä olen syynä hänen häpeäänsä. Ah, toivoisinpa, että käsivarteni olisi kyllin voimakas lennättääkseen hänet yhdellä heitolla taivaihin, äitinsä luo. Hulluutta! Käännyn takaisin omaan ja Charles'in onnettomuuteen. Olen lähettänyt poikani luoksesi, jotta säälivällä tavalla ilmoittaisit hänelle kuolemastani ja hänen tulevasta kohtalostaan. Ole hänelle isänä, hyvänä isänä. Älä riistä yhdellä iskulla häneltä hänen joutilasta elämäntapaansa. Sillä voisit hänet tappaa. Rukoilen häneltä polvillani, ettei hän tekisi minua vastaan vaatimusta äitinsä perintöosasta. Mutta se on tarpeeton pyyntö; hänellä on kunniantuntoa, ja hän käsittää, ettei hän voi liittyä velkojiini. Paljasta hänelle ne kovat elämänehdot, joihin olen hänet saattanut; ja, jos hän säilyttää minut rakkaassa muistossa, sano hänelle minun puolestani, ettei kaikki ole häneltä vielä hukassa. Työ, joka meidät molemmat teki kerran rikkaiksi, voi saattaa hänelle takaisin sen omaisuuden, jonka olen häneltä riistänyt. Ja jos hän tahtoo kuulla isänsä neuvoa, isänsä, joka soisi voivansa jättää hetkeksi poikansa tähden hautansa, lähteköön hän Intiaan. Veljeni, Charles on rehellinen ja rohkea nuorukainen; saata hänet matkaan, sillä hän kuolisi mieluummin kuin jättäisi maksamatta varat, jotka sinä hänelle lainaat, sillä varmaan avustat häntä lainalla — muuten ei omatuntosi jätä sinua rauhaan. Ah, jos ei lapseni saa sinulta hellyyttä, eikä aineellista apua, olen iankaikkisuudessa vaativa Jumalalta
- 72. kostoa kovuudellesi. Jos olisin voinut pelastaa jotain omaisuudestani, olisi minulla ollut oikeus pidättää hänelle joku määrä äitinsä perintö-osasta; mutta viime kuun suoritukset ovat kokonaan tyhjentäneet rahalähteeni. En olisi kuollut epätietoisena lapseni kohtalosta, olisin tahtonut kädenlyönnillä vahvistaa lupauksesi siitä, että pidät Charles'ista huolta — mutta nyt puuttuu minulta siihen aikaa. Kun Charles on matkalla luoksesi, ojennan velkojilleni selvityksen pesäni tilasta. Uskon voivani selkeän kirjaintilan avulla osottaa, etten ole itse aiheuttanut onnettomuuttani. Se täytyy minun tehdä Charles'in tähden. — Hyvästi, veljeni. Olkoon Jumalan siunaus palkkasi siitä holhouksesta, jonka sinulle olen uskonut ja jonka varmaan, luotan siihen, olet ottava vastaan. Lakkaamatta on puolestasi rukoileva yksi ääni siinä valtakunnassa, jonne meidän kaikkien kerran täytyy lähteä, ja jossa minä sinä hetkenä, jona tätä kirjettä luet, jo olen. Victor-Ange-Guillaume Grandet. — Mitä juttelettekaan, sanoi isä Grandet, taittaen huolella kirjeen ja pistäen sen liivintaskuunsa. Hän loi veljenpoikaansa pelokkaan, tutkivan katseen, johon hän kätki kaikki mielenliikutuksensa ja suunnitelmansa. — Oletteko jo lämmitellyt? — Olen, vallan mainiosti, rakas setä. — Kas, missä ovat meidän naisväkemme? huudahti setä, unohtaen että veljenpojan piti nukkua hänen luonaan.
- 73. Samassa tulivat Eugénie ja rouva Grandet sisään. — Onko kaikki jo tuolla ylhäällä kunnossa? kysyi tynnyrintekijä, joka jo oli saavuttanut vanhan kylmyytensä. — Kyllä, isä. — Siispä voitte antaa, rakas veljenpoikani, jos olette väsynyt, Nanonin näyttää teille tien huoneeseenne. Se ei todellakaan ole mikään hienonmaailman huone, mutta te saatte antaa anteeksi köyhälle viinitarhurille, jolla ei aina ole äyriäkään kukkarossa. Verot nielevät kokonaan pienet tulomme. — Emme tahdo olla vaivaksi, Grandet, sanoi pankkiiri. Teillä on varmaan paljon juteltavaa veljenpoikanne kanssa. Toivotamme siis hyvää iltaa. Huomenna näemme toisemme. Nyt nousi koko seura ja kaikki tekivät lähtöä, kukin omaan totuttuun tapaansa. Vanha notario etsi oven nurkasta lyhtynsä ja tarjoutui saattamaan Grassins'it kotia. Rouva des Grassins ei ollut varustautunut siltä varalta, että illanvietto loppuisi ennen aikaansa ja hänen palvelijansa ei sentähden ollut vielä saapunut. — Suonette minulle kunnian tarjota teille käsivarteni? sanoi abbé Cruchot rouva des Grassins'ille. — Kiitos. Minulla on poikani, vastasi tämä kuivasti. — Naisten ei tarvitse peljätä minun seurassani, sanoi kirkkoherra. — Anna toki käsivartesi herra Cruchot'lle, sanoi rouvalle hänen miehensä.
- 74. Pappi kulki kaunis rouva käsipuolessaan verraten nopeasti, niin että he pian olivat muutaman askeleen mitan päässä muusta seurasta. — Hän on sangen hauska, tuo nuori mies, sanoi pappi, puristaen rouvan käsivartta. Nyt, hyvästi rypäleet, korjuu on tehty! Te voitte sanoa jäähyväiset neiti Grandet'lle, parisilainen hänet vie. Jollei tuo orpana ole pikiintynyt johonkin parisittareen, on Adolf-poikanne hänessä tapaava sangen vaarallisen kilpailijan. — Olkaa huoleti, herra abbé! Tuo nuori mies on pian näkevä, että Eugénie on vailla henkevyyttä ja suloa. Oletteko häntä tarkastanut? Hän oli tänä iltana keltainen kuin vaha. — Olette kenties jo huomauttanut orpanaakin siitä? — Mikäpä olisi minua estänyt sitä tekemästä. — Asettukaa aina Eugénien rinnalle, rouva, niin ei teidän tarvitse tuhlata sanoja serkusta. Nuori mies on kohta tekevä vertailun, joka… — Onpa hän jo luvannut syödä ylihuomenna päivällistä luonani. — Ah, jos vain haluaisitte, rouva… sanoi pappi. — Ja mitä tahtoisitte minun haluavan, herra abbé? Luuletteko voivanne antaa minulle huonon neuvon? Olenpa jo saavuttanut yhdeksännenneljättä ikävuoteni ilman että nimeni on saanut tahraa, enkä pane sitä peliin, vaikka saisin sillä Suur-Mogulin valtakunnan. Olemme molemmat siinä iässä, jossa pitäisi jo tietää mitä puhuu. Teillä on todella, ollaksenne hengen mies, omituisia mielipiteitä. Hyi! Sellaiset vain sopivat Faublas'lle.
- 75. — Oletteko siis lukenut Faublas'ta? — En, herra abbé, mutta kyllä "Vaarallisia suhteita". — Ah, se kirja on paljon siveellisempi, sanoi pappi naurahtaen. — Mutta te saatatte minun pääni pyörälle niinkuin kenen hyvänsä nuorenmiehen! Tahtoisinpa suoraan sanoen… — Niin, sanokaa pois, että aiotte neuvoa minulle ruman tien. Onhan asia selvä. Jos tuo nuori mies, joka ei ole hullumpi, sen myönnän, rakastuu minuun, ei hän enää ajattele serkkuaan. Parisissa, tiedän sen kyllä, pitävät nuoret kunnon äidit sillä tavalla huolta lastensa onnesta; mutta me elämme maakunnassa, herra abbé. — Se on totta, rouva. — Enkä minä enemmän kuin Adolfkaan suostuisi siitä hinnasta ostamaan edes sataa miljoonaa. — Rouva, eipä olekaan kysymys sadasta miljoonasta. Luulenpa, että kiusaus silloin molemmin puolin olisi ylivoimainen. Mutta olenpa vain sitä mieltä, että kunniallinen nainen voi antautua kaikella varovaisuudella pieneen keimailuun ilman seurauksia, ja siten täyttää seuraelämän tapoja, jotka… — Niinkö arvelette? — Eikö meidän ole syytä puhua suutamme puhtaaksi toinen toisellemme?… Sallitteko että niistän nenäni? Vakuutan teille, rouva, että hän katseli teitä paljon imartelevammin lorgnettinsa läpi kuin minua; mutta annanpa hänelle anteeksi, että hän suo suuremman huomion kauneudelle kuin vanhuudelle…
- 76. — Se on selvä, sanoi presidentti karkealla äänellään, että Parisin Grandet on lähettänyt tänne poikansa naimatarkoituksissa… — Mutta siinä tapauksessa ei orpana toki olisi pudonnut taloon kuin pommi, vastasi notario. — Se ei merkitse mitään, huomautti herra des Grassins, ukko on toiminut kaikessa hiljaisuudessa. — Des Grassins, ystäväni, olen kutsunut päivälliselle tuon nuoren miehen. Nyt täytyy sinun kutsua herra ja rouva de Larsonnièren sekä Hautoyt ynnä heidän kauniin neiti tyttärensä; jospa hän pukeutuisi hauskasti sinä päivänä! Hänen äitinsä puettaa hänet aivan hullusti mustasukkaisuudesta!… — Toivon, hyvät herrat, että tekin suotte meille kunnian nähdä teidät vierainamme, lisäsi hän kääntyen molempain Cruchot'iden puoleen. — Olette kotinne kohdalla, rouva, sanoi notario. Erottuaan kolmesta Grassins'ista, kääntyivät kaikki kolme Cruchot'ta kotia kohti, selvitellen päivän tapahtumia kaikella sillä erittelykyvyllä, joka on ominainen pikkukaupunkilaisille heidän pohtiessaan päivän merkkitapahtumia. Cruchot'laisten ja Grassins'ien keskenäinen suhde näytti muuttuneen. Se ihmeteltävä vaisto, joka ohjasi näiden suurten laskumestarien kaikkia toimenpiteitä, sanoi heille, että hetkellinen liitto yhteistä vihollista vastaan oli välttämätön. Heidän täytyi yhdistää voimansa estääkseen Eugénieta rakastumasta orpanaan ja Charles'ia ajattelemasta Eugénieta. Pystyisiköhän tuo parisilainen vastustamaan heidän kavalaa ystävyyttään, heidän tuttavallisia parjauksiaan, heidän imarteluaan ja heidän viattomia naamojaan?
- 77. Kun vieraat olivat lähteneet, sanoi herra Grandet veljenpojalleen: — Täytyy lähteä nukkumaan. On liian myöhäistä enää keskustella niistä asioista, joiden vuoksi te olette tänne tullut; huomenna on siihen aikaa. Me syömme aamiaista kello kahdeksan. Kello kaksitoista syömme jonkun hedelmän, pienen leivänpalan ja juomme lasin valkoviiniä; myöhemmin, kello viiden aikaan, kuten parisilaisetkin, syömme päivällisen. Siinä päiväjärjestyksemme. Jos haluatte katsella kaupunkia ja sen ympäristöjä, on teillä siihen yllinkyllin aikaa. Suonette minulle anteeksi, jolleivät työni salli minun koko aikaa pitää teille seuraa. Luultavasti saatte tavantakaa kuulla, että minä muka olisin äveriäs: herra Grandet, herra Grandet! huudetaan vastaanne joka puolelta. Annan heidän hokea mitä hokevat, minua eivät he sillä vahingoita. Mutta minulla ei ole äyriäkään, minä teen vielä tällä iällä työtä kuin nuorin turpeenvääntäjä, jolla ei ole muuta kuin pala karua maata ja käsivartensa. Saatte ehkä pian itse kokea, minkä arvoinen taaleri on, kun sen ansaitsee otsansa hiessä. — Hei, Nanon, kynttilät! — Toivon, että löydätte huoneestanne kaiken, mitä tarvitsette, sanoi rouva Grandet; jos kuitenkin jotain puuttuisi, voitte huutaa Nanonia. — Rakas täti, luulenpa, etten kaipaa mitään. Olen tuonut itse kaikki mukanani. Sallikaa minun toivottaa hyvää yötä teille ja nuorelle orpanalleni! Charles otti Nanonin käsistä sytytetyn anjoulaisen vahakynttilän, joka oli jotenkin kellertävä väriltään ja niin tavallisten talikynttilöiden näköinen, ettei Grandet huomannut edes tämän ylellisyysesineen olemassaoloa.
- 78. — Tulen näyttämään teille tietä, sanoi isä Grandet. Sensijaan että olisi avannut oven pääkäytävään, avasikin Grandet keittiön naapurihuoneen oven. Tämän huoneen eroitti käytävästä suurella pitkulaisella ikkunalla varustettu ovi, mikä ei kuitenkaan voinut estää vetoa, joka tunki sisään käytävästä. Talvella puhalteli tuuli oven raoista niin rajusti, että, huolimatta ovenpieliin naulituista suojuslaudoista, oli toisinajoin melkein mahdotonta pitää huonetta siedettävän lämpimänä. Nanon meni sulkemaan suuren portin, lukitsi salin oven ja päästi kahleista pihalle paimenkoiran, jonka ääni oli niin sortunut, että saattoi luulla sen sairastavan kurkkutulehdusta. Tämä julma eläin ei totellut ketään muuta kuin Nanonia. Nämä molemmat maalaiset olennot tunsivat toisensa. Kun Charles näki kellastuneet ja savustuneet seinät ja kuuli madonsyömäin porrasten natisevan sedän askelten painosta, oli hänen pettymyksensä saavuttanut huippunsa. Hän luuli olevansa kanakopissa. Hänen tätinsä ja serkkunsa, joiden puoleen hän kääntyi nähdäkseen heidän kasvonilmeensä, eivät ymmärtäneet hänen hämmästyksensä syytä, tottuneet kun olivat tähän porraskäytävään, vaan pitivät hänen katsettaan ystävyyden ilmauksena ja vastasivat siihen suloisella hymyllä, mikä sai Charles'in kokonaan epätoivoon. — Miksi hiidessä lähettikin isäni minut tänne? ajatteli hän. Noustuaan vähän matkaa portaita, näki hän edessään kolme heleänpunaiseksi maalattua, kaikkia koristeita vailla olevaa ovea, jotka olivat täydellisesti samassa tasapinnassa kuin pölyinen seinäkin. Niiden kielekkeihin päättyvät rautasaranat olivat näkyvissä.
- 79. Yksi näistä ovista, se, joka nähtävästi johti keittiön vieressä olevan huoneen yläpuolelle, oli selvästi kiinni muurattu. Tähän huoneeseen pääsikin ainoastaan Grandet'n huoneen läpi; sen ainoa ikkuna, joka oli pihalle päin, oli varustettu lujalla rautaristikolla. Kukaan, ei edes rouva Grandet, saanut astua tähän huoneeseen, jota saituri piti yksin hallussaan kuin kullantekijä pajaansa. Siellä oli varmaan jossain salaisessa kätkössä saiturin kassa, siellä hänen kiinnityskirjansa, siellä hänen kultavaakansa; siellä kirjoitti hän varmaan yön aikaan kuittinsa ja velkakirjansa ja teki salassa suunnitelmiaan — kaikki sillä taidolla ja varovaisuudella, että ihmiset, jotka joutuivat tekemisiin hänen kanssaan, saattoivat luulla hänellä olevan käskettävänään ties mitä haltioita ja henkiä. Kun Nanon veti hirsiä, kun susikoira piti haukkuen pihalla vartiota ja kun rouva ja neiti Grandet olivat jo aikoja nukahtaneet, tuli vanha tynnyrintekijä sinne katselemaan, ihailemaan, hypistelemään ja lajittelemaan kultaansa. Seinät olivat paksut ja ikkunaristikot lujat. Hänellä yksin oli avain tähän työpajaan, missä hänen kerrottiin antavan määräyksen jokikisen hedelmäpuun hoidosta ja laskevan etukäteen tarkan tarkkaan viinisatonsa. Eugénien huoneen ovi oli vastapäätä tätä kiinnimuurattua ovea. Sen vieressä olivat aviopuolisojen huoneet, jotka ulottuivat yli koko talon toisen päädyn. Rouva Grandet'n huoneesta vei lasiovi Eugénien huoneeseen. Isännän huoneen eroitti laudoitus emännän huoneesta ja paksu muuri salaperäisestä työpajasta. Isä Grandet oli määrännyt veljenpoikansa toisen kerroksen ullakkohuoneeseen oman huoneensa päälle, voidakseen kuulla, liikkuiko veljenpoika huoneestaan yön aikaan.
- 80. Kun Eugénie ja hänen äitinsä olivat tulleet oven kohdalle, suutelivat he toisiaan ja toivottivat hyvää yötä; sitten he, sanottuaan Charles'ille joitakin tavanmukaisia jäähyväissanoja, jotka kuitenkin lähtivät tytön lämpimästä sydämestä, lähtivät huoneihinsa. — Tässä on huoneenne, sanoi isä Grandet Charles'ille, avaten oven. Jos haluatte käydä ulkona, niin kutsukaa Nanonia. Jos ilman häntä menette pihalle — hyvä Jumala! Koira söisi teidät suuhunsa. Nukkukaa hyvin. Hyvää yötä… Kas, naiset ovat antaneet lämmittää huonettanne! jatkoi hän. Samalla tuli Nanon kantaen lämmityspulloa. — Vielä tuokin! huudahti Grandet. Pidättekö veljenpoikaani naishempukkana? Menekkös tiehesi lämmitysvehkeinesi, Nanon! — Mutta vuode on kostea ja herra näyttää hennolta kuin nainen. — No tee tahtosi, sinulla on aina oma pääsi, sanoi Grandet, töytäisten Nanonia olkapäähän. Sen jälkeen astui saituri portailta alas, muristen epäselviä sanoja. Charles jäi ihmeissään seisomaan matkakapineidensa keskelle. Hän katseli ullakkohuoneen seinämiä, joita verhosi keltainen kukikas paperi, jommoisia tapaa vain kurjissa maalaisravintoloissa, kamiinia, joka oli karkeasta hiekkakivestä ja jonka pelkkä näkeminen pani palelemaan, keltaisia, meriruoholla päällystettyjä tuoleja, joissa näytti olevan useampia kuin neljä kulmaa, avointa yöpöytää, joka oli niin suuri, että siihen olisi mahtunut kersantti varustuksineen, ja kurjaa mattoa, joka oli katosvuoteen edessä, mikä viimemainittu pienimmästäkin liikkeestä narskui kuin aikoen joka hetki syöstä
- 81. kokoon. Sitten kääntyi hän vakavana Nanonin puoleen ja sanoi hänelle: — Lapseni, sanoppas minulle, olenko todella herra Grandet'n, Saumurin entisen määrin, Parisin Grandet'in veljen luona? — Olette, herra, hyvin rakastettavan, hyvin lempeän ja hyvin ystävällisen herra Grandet'n luona. Autanko teitä avaamaan matkalaukkujanne? — Sen voin itsekin tehdä, nahkapoikaseni! Olettepa varmaan palvellut matruusina keisarin laivaväessä. — Hi! Hi. Hi! nauroi Nanon, keisarin laivaväessä! Kuinka hullunkurista! — Hakekaa yönuttuni tuosta matkalaukusta. Tässä on avain. Nanon hämmästyi suuresti nähdessään vihreän-silkkisen, kultaisilla kuvioilla kirjaillun yönutun. — Otatteko tämän päällenne, kun menette nukkumaan? kysyi hän. — Kyllä. — Pyhä Neitsyt! kuinka kaunis alttaripeite tuosta tulisikin seurakunnalle. Rakas herra, lahjoitattehan tuon kirkolle, niin pelastatte kuolemattoman sielunne — muuten menette kadotukseen. Kuinka kaunis olettekin tuossa yönutussa! Menenpä kutsumaan neidin tänne, että hänkin saa teidät nähdä. — Seis, Nanon! Osaatteko vaieta? Nyt saatte mennä, tahdon nukkua. Huomenna järjestän asiani. Ja koska yönuttuni teitä niin
- 82. miellyttää, voitte sen avulla pelastaa sielunne. Olen liian hyvä kristitty voidakseni teiltä sitä kieltää, kun täältä lähden. Voitte sitten tehdä sillä mitä haluatte. Nanon jäi seisomaan kuin naulittuna paikoilleen katsellen Charles'ia. voimatta uskoa sanaakaan tämän puheesta. — Minulle tuo kaunis nuttu! puheli hän poistuessaan. Luulenpa, että herra jo uneksii. Hyvää yötä. — Hyvää yötä, Nanon. — Mitä varten olenkin tänne tullut, ajatteli Charles, ennenkuin nukahti. Isäni ei ole mikään pölkkypää, matkallani täytyy olla jokin tarkoitus. Hui! Huomiseksi vakavat asiat, sanoi muistaakseni joku kreikkalainen veitikka. — Pyhä Neitsyt! kuinka kaunis onkaan serkkuni, ajatteli Eugénie keskeyttäen rukouksensa, jota ei sinä iltana lainkaan saanut päätetyksi. Rouva Grandet ei ajatellut mitään laskeutuessaan levolle. Välioven läpi, joka oli laudoituksen keskikohdalla, kuuli hän, miten saituri käveli huoneessaan edes takaisin. Kaikkien pelokkaiden aviovaimojen tavoin oli hänkin tutkinut miehensä luonnetta. Samoinkuin lokki aavistaa myrskyn tulon, oli hänkin aavistanut tuskin näkyvistä merkeistä, mikä myrsky Grandet'ssa oli nousemassa. Mutta hän, käyttääksemme hänen omaa lauseparttaan, "tekeytyi kuolleeksi". Grandet katseli kaksinkertaista rautaovea, jonka oli antanut tehdä työhuoneeseensa ja murisi:
- 83. Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world, offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth. That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to self-development guides and children's books. More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading. Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and personal growth every day! ebookbell.com