The value of culture in conflict
- Submitting institution
-
Middlesex University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 1367
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
-
-
- Location
- -
- Brief description of type
- Multi-platform research project including a series of workshops and a curatorial programme
- Open access status
- -
- Month
- October
- Year
- 2017
- URL
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http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/31150/
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The Value of Culture in Conflict focused on producers of handmade goods and examined their socio-economic lives, histories, traditions, economic and political ambitions and visions of alternative futures. It was shaped by notions of development, defined as the expansion of social opportunities through the creation of active public policy (Drèze and Sen, 1997); and as a process that enhances the freedom of those actively pursuing objectives they value and choose (Sen, 1999). Acknowledging that craft people’s creative identities give meaning to their lives and provide context for their actions (Arendt, 1958), Raina’s research focused on their marginalisation. Crafts provide intermittent incomes, low social status and a precarious existence, which makes them vulnerable to exploitation, changing conditions of production, and competition from machine-made imitations. As participants in the global creative economy, they are under-represented in international cultural-policy discussions (UNESCO, 2013).
The project was awarded one of ten PACCS Conflict Theme Innovation Awards (ESRC / AHRC). Through a range of workshops and an exhibition at the National College for Arts in Rawalpindi that travelled to London, it explored the visual and material cultures of Azad Kashmir – a contested territory between India and Pakistan - to understand the shifts caused by regional conflicts. It used a cultural mapping methodology to explore how communities of women rely on coded, tacit and community-specific knowledge and skills to rebuild their lives. Training in culturally valued, socially relevant material practices was provided, connecting craftswomen who practice traditional skills in an attempt to rebuild their lives, to real audiences outside of their geographies. Raina’s project functioned as a framework enabling transformation and empowerment, within which social and material practices were connected to the generation of sustainable livelihood. However, its significance was not only financial; it contributed to the amplification of voices, agency and empowerment.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -