Write a story about norms and norm carrying!

The theme for this year's Integration and Diversity Week (23rd to 29th of April) is Norms. Issues associated with a norm critical approach, for example, about how power and privileges are distributed in Lund, or how certain norms counteract values like diversity, inclusion and equal rights and opportunities. All norms are not all bad, discriminatory and exclusionary, but can of course be good, equitable and inclusive. Norms involves many different types of values and phenomena in life, such as who speaks loudest in terms of body image and functional capacity, age, sexuality, male or female, class, socio-economy and education, birth country, skin color, religious believes, and more.

In work for diversity and equality, there are sometimes targeted actions for specific groups considered as "special needs" because of not fitting into the norms. A common assumption is as that those who belong to the norm need to know more about those who are "different" to create "tolerance" and achieve diversity in the long-term. The risk of such an approach is, however, to further point out marginalized groups, and strengthen the benefits of the normative subjects, because not questioning what is considered "normal" in the organization.

According to Lund’s guidelines for diversity and the local integration policies, a norm-critical approach should instead guide the work for equality and diversity.

A norm critical approach is, on the contrary, based on the organization. This means looking at the norms, values, processes and structures that form the basis for the routines, to be able to investigate the conditions this creates for employees and users. What does the organization think about the employees? What does the policy documents and business plans say? The goal is that no norms or structures shall be discriminatory or give benefits to certain groups. By broadening the norms, we include more and achieve equality and diversity. Norm focus makes equality an important question for everyone!

Since norms and norm carrying is a relatively new and untested approach, we welcome all citizens in Lund and all our partners to write short stories about the theme for this year's Diversity Week. Write to us and tell us when you realized that you were a norm carrier. Choose an experience from your own life when you or your organization understood that you were a norm carrier, and tell us about it! What we're looking for this time is to produce stories that explain the norms and norm carrying. Not because norm breaking is unimportant, but to illustrate the meaning and purpose of the activities in this year's theme and the projects that we are running.

Please send your story to bengt.o.persson@lund.se or write directly on the Diversity Weeks new blog: www.mangfaldsrundan.blogspot.com

In Hamburg our BIF partners have begun working with street interviews. These are the questions for the inclusion street interviews that they have agreed on:

1. What does the word inclusion mean to you?
2. Where do you come in contact with inclusion?
3. In which places isn´t that given?
4. What should be improved or what have to be changed?

For people who don´t know how to answer the first question we have summarized a short definition of the word inclusion.

Inclusion is the claim, that every person in his individuality is accepted by the society, and gets the chance to be or to take part of it as a fully entitled member.

The German friends wish that the other BIF partners would like to make the same interviews in the streets of Riga, Zabrze, Lund, Vilnius and Klaipeda.

Communicated by

Bengt Persson

February meeting in film

Impressionistic film from February meeting.
http://vimeo.com/38160427

Film about BIF project was published in Zabrze. The report begins 3 minutes and 50 seconds into the film: Zabrze Municipality local channel TVZ

Enjoy the first video documentation from the projekt planning conference in Lund 14th-16th February.

Bangol workshop at Culture Centre Scania (click)

Dear BIF Friends

Thank you for all your contributions during the conference. Here comes a quick response to the question that was raised about different dialogue methods. Eva Broms sends you this web address: http://democracy.se/

Here you will find lots of descriptions, in English and other languages, of how to plan and arrange your dialogue meetings. If you combine this knowledge with a goal oriented inclusive invitation campaign, that includes youngsters with as many different experiences as possible, you will set the stage for an interesting Transversal Dialogue. Try also to invite independent people, not representing specific organizations. You can warm up the participants by using some of the exercises in the BREAK program. Good luck!

More inclusive city planning:

Help give Lund suggestions for getting there?
Around the highest point in the City of Lund a new neighborhood is growing up in Northern Europe's most attractive environment for enterprise, research and education. Northeast of the University Building in central Lund you find some of the world's foremost institutions of research and education, side by side with leading companies in IT, pharmacology and food.


This development will mean a big change in the character of the city of Lund, as many more international researcher projects are attracted to the city, and also through the sheer size of the development (estimates are that some 50,000 people will live and work in the area once it is finished…currently Lund has around 110,000 residents). It will also mean a big change through the creation of a large park and green recreational area close to the new city area, something which Lund currently does not have.


The city of Lund wants to include citizens in the development so that their ideas can make it even better, and so that they have opportunities to reflect and give their views on what is happening. We will do this in various ways, and we are always looking for new methods for participation…


You are at a conference right now discussing inclusion and democracy; can you help this city with suggestions of how to better include citizens in city planning? Your suggestions will be used as inspiration in our ongoing work with involving the citizens of Lund.

Please fill in this questionnaire to help us out (click here)