Proposal for an oral history project about the 1968 movement on a multilingual CMS platform
1968stories.com
The 1968 movement live and online
A joint initiative of the Swiss Social Archive, Limmat Editions, Zurich
and AV Productions Nigg, Zurich
This project proposal has been designed in the format of the planned website 1968stories.com. For further information about the content and realisation of the project, please contact the project coordinator.
Possible partner organisations: Institut für Geschichte und Biografie (Hagen, D), Oral History Research Office of Columbia University (New York, USA), Oral History Society (GB), Centre d'étude des mouvements sociales (Paris, F), Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli (Milano, I) and the International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam, NE)
Advisory board: Ferruccio D'Ambroggio, lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI); Urs Kälin, archivist at the Swiss Social Archive in Zürich, Dr. Hanspeter Kriesi, Professor of Politics at the Universtity of Zurich; Katrin Rieder, historian; Janick Marina Schaufelbuehl, assistant at the Institute of Social and Economic History at the University of Lausanne; Dr. Jakob Tannner, Professor of Social and Economic History at the University of Zurich and Jürg Zimmerli, publisher of Limmat Editions. The Advisory board will be completed with experts from the partner organisations.
Project coordination and contact: Heinz Nigg, nigg@av-produktionen.ch
Web profile:
English I français I deutsch I italiano I and in other languages
Home |
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Workshops |
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Oral History |
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CMS |
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Getting active |
Stories |
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Cities |
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Themes |
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Texts |
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Images |
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Audios |
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Videos |
Organisation |
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Partners |
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Advisory board |
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Moderators |
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Coordinator |
Support |
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Schedule |
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Links |
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1968stories.com
English I français I deutsch I italiano I and in other languages
Home
The 1968stories.com website documents memories of the 1968 movement and its consequences from the point of view of those who were involved. More>
What did the events of 1968 mean for the former activists of the 1968 movement, and how do they now view themselves and their involvement at that time? How did the1968 movement affect the life of societies in which it was active?
1968stories.com gives former activists the opportunity to address their own history. In addition, younger generations are given an insight into one of the most exciting periods of recent history, which is already slipping out of living memory. There are only few accounts of contemporary witnesses available either in book form or online.
There are today mainly two approaches to 1968, from the historical-academic perspective of the younger generation dealing with contemporary history through university research, and from the perspective of contemporary witnesses, who are developing a picture of that time in the context of oral history.
1968stories.com is an oral history project which involves contemporary witnesses through workshops in a process of collective recollection. Witnesses from a variety of countries have their say, activists with diverse educational backgrounds and careers who were involved in various aspects of the 1968 movement: environment, social, work, gender, education, human rights, third world, urban development, arts and media practise, through to alternative culture and subculture.
The aim of1968stories.com is to advance a more sophisticated understanding of the emergence and progress of movements in civil society.
1968stories.com is supported by educational institutions which are active in the sphere of oral history or the study and documentation of social movements.
The project idea has its origin in Switzerland, where several workshops about the 1968 movement, in German, French, and Italian, will be held in 2007.
Individuals and groups from every country in which the 1968 movement left its mark can take part in the initiation and conduct of workshops. The workshops should be realised with local resources. The uploading of the outcomes of the workshops onto 1968stories.com is linked to certain conditions. More > Workshops
Workshops
What is Oral History?
Oral History is verbal historical research involving contemporary witnesses. Methods of recording the living memories of all kinds of people are used not only in academia but also in adult education and in social movements. 1968stories.com is a cultural initiative in the tradition of worker education, animation socioculturelle, community arts and media practice of the 1960s and 1970s. Further connections exist with action research and with artistic forms of applied scholarship. More>
An academic approach to oral history is practised at the
Oral History Research Office of Columbia University in New York:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/oral/philosophy.html
An educational approach to oral history is taken by the Oral History Society
in Great Britain:
http://www.ohs.org.uk
CMS: a Platform for Groups
A Content Managment System (CMS) is a web application which allows a non-technical user, either alone or in a team, to create and maintain a website. Content Management Systems permit the automation of navigation, the indexing of contents and the administration of access rights. The XY CMS is used for 1968stories.com. The XY CMS permits the facilitators of the workshops to make public the texts and graphic materials they have collected simply and quickly - and in the language they choose.
Getting active
Individuals, teams and organisations who have some experience with oral history and wish to conduct a workshop about the 1968 movement can publish their outcomes on the multilingual1968stories.com platform. To do so, their workshops must be conducted according to certain minimal standards. More about the standards >
1. Professional and methodical ability of the workshop facilitators.
The facilitators live in cities and regions of the world on which the 1968 movement left its mark. They have experience in adult education, and oral history. However, they may also come from an artistic or academic background enabling them to conduct oral history workshops. They are also to handle issues of confidentiality and copyright.
2. Financing and duration of workshops
Every workshop finances itself from local resources. The workshops last for a minimum of 10 evenings of three hours each. The workshops begin in autumn 2007. The outcomes of the workshops will be uploaded during 2008, as the media remember the 40-year anniversary of the 1968 movement. Further workshops can be held at any time, independent of the anniversary, and their outcomes published on 1968stories.com.
3. Duties of facilitators
Facilitators are responsible for the financing, organisation, conduct and documentation of the workshops on the 1968stories.com internet platform. Wherever possible the outcome of the workshops should also be made public in some other way (events, exhibitions, readings, or book publication).
4. Selection of workshop participants
The facilitators organise a stable group of at least eight workshop participants. The selection of participants should be guided by balanced criteria: gender, age within the range of the 1968 generation, educational background, career, and nature of political, social or cultural engagement.
5. Workshop themes
The following themes should be addressed in the workshops (in whichever order suits the group best):
Social and cultural origins of the activists
Socialisation, norms, and values
Encouragements and obstacles in the development of abilities and interests
Lifestyles
Politicisation and entry into the 1968 movement
Involvement in the movement, high and low points, friendships and antagonisms
Ideas, role models, and achievements of the 1968 movement
Critiques of the 1968 movement
Issues of sex and gender
Reactions within the social and political environment - including media, police, and the law
Impact of the 1968 movement on society and culture
The future: societal development, age, and contact with the younger generation
6. Procedure
A variety of methods and creative means, focused on the themes, should be used in the workshops. These may include:
Group discussion of particular issues
Biographical writing (creative writing)
Collection and presentation of documents (photos, objects, articles, etc)
Some of the discussions should be recorded and transcribed. Audio and video recordings should be handled confidentially. The outcomes of the workshops may only be published on 1968stories.com with the written permission of the workshop participants. A public event should take place at the end of every oral history workshop.
7. Media coverage
Wherever possible, the oral history workshops should have media coverage so as to reach as large a public as possible.
8. Copyright und Some Rights Reserved
The copyright for the texts and documents generated during the workshops rests with the facilitators. Materials published on the website are under a restricted copyright (some rights reserved). The website users should be permitted to reproduce, circulate and make public its contents - but not for commercial use, and without altering the contents. How the licence works:
Stories
The outcomes of the workshops can be viewed by:
cities
themes
texts
images
audios
videos
Organisation
Partners: Institutions in the field of oral history and the study of social movements
Advisory board: Individual experts and representatives of the partner organisations
Moderators: Initiating and conducting the local workshops
Project coordinator: overall responsibility and link to partners, advisory board, and moderators
Support
Sponsors will be mentioned by name and with their logos.
Schedule
January/February 2007:
Formation of the partnerships and the advisory board
March/April:
Search on the part of the advisory board and the project coordinator for potential workshop facilitators
May - September 2007:
Financing of the oral history workshops by the facilitators and their local partners
October 2007 - April 2008:
Conducting of the workshops and preparation of their outcomes for the www.1968stories.com CMS platform
2008:
Uploading of the outcomes and local events (readings, exhibitions, further publications)
Links
Links to institutions in the field of oral history and to institutions and projects documenting and studying social movements
An evaluation of various CMS will be completed by the end of March 2007 and a system suitable for
the needs of 1968stories.com selected.
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1968stories.com : The 1968 movement live and online / 2007-01-06
1968stories.com : The 1968 movement live and online / 2007-01-06