2018 AdRF Program: WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT
Engaging in critical analysis and enlightened debates about enterprises/projects that face business challenges, Fellows will learn how to identify and build on the opportunities that accompany social and business innovation. At the same time, AdRF puts together every year a timely and exciting social sciences theme as follows:
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Representation of marginalized groups in media, culture and social life
In her Oscar 2018 speech, Hollywood actress Frances McDormand urged her fellow actors to demand an “inclusion rider” – a clause that they can insist be inserted in their contract that ensures cast and crew on a film meet a certain level of diversity. McDormand’s call is one of many recent campaigns, initiatives and programmes – from #AllWhiteFrontPages, #OscarsSoWhite to #LatinosLeftOut, demonstrating the increasing visibility and urgency of the issue of diverse and fair representation in media, culture and social life.
The 2018 AdRF social sciences program will explore current debates and practices related to the theme of inclusion and diversity in media and cultural representations as well as in social life, particularly as they relate to ethnic, religious, racial and gender marginalized groups. The program will address not just the question of how marginalized groups are depicted in media and culture, but crucially also, how more equal participation of marginalized groups in the production of media and culture, and minorities’ self-representation in this process, can help challenge narrow and stereotypical depictions and contribute to a more diverse, just, and moral public sphere.
Specifically, the program will be divided into two key sections:
- The under-representation, invisibility and misrepresentation of marginalized groups: This section will focus on two key problems. First, the invisibility of minority groups in films, television programs, and the arts. Second, the misrepresentation of marginalized groups: in instances in which these groups are made visible, they are frequently depicted in highly stereotypical and often negative and demeaning ways that further marginalize, dis-empower and Other them.
- The ethics and impact of diversity and self-representation in culture, media and social life: This section will focus on efforts to address the problems and challenges discussed in the first section. It will consider the ethics and value of creating spaces – in social life and in the cultural scene – for encountering marginalized groups not as exotic Others, threats or victims, but as integral part of the social fabric. We will discuss the implications of enhancing the inclusion of marginalized groups in the production process, and especially in senior and leading roles in the media and the arts, and of encouraging and facilitating platforms for minorities’ self-representation, i.e. to allow them to speak for themselves. The discussion will also include consideration of the challenges in creating a more just and equal media and cultural landscape.
By the end of the program, Fellows will have developed a comprehensive framework and set of tools for driving their strategy in their own organizations as well as working on the areas of weakness that are preventing them from taking their businesses to the next level. The program will highlight both the strategic and the implementation challenges of this journey. As well as developing critical thinking abilities about some of the global challenges we are facing and how collectively we can fight retrenchment, exclusion and fear.