[Xmca-l] REQUEST FOR WAYS ACADEMIC SCHOLARS ACROSS DISCIPLINES CAN ENGAGE AND CREATE COMMUNITIES OF DESTINY

[lpscholar2@gmail.com]

Mike, you have asked for concrete examples of scholars finding routes or courses to engage with passion in creating communities that can offer sustained responses of hope to the rise of Trump.

I want to introduce Ana Heras from Buenos Aires Argentina who has been participating/performing in developing what she calls ‘communities of destiny’ through explicit focus on creating spaces of ‘refuge’. Of central concern is the formation of a ‘public’ school that is democratically instituted. 

Ana’s work, play, and performance is a unique blend of [perezhivanie] exemplary of first ‘living through’ experiences [as mediated] AND THEN ‘working and playing and performing through’ what was previously ‘lived through’. [as mediated]
I asked Ana if it was ok to share her ways of creating [spaces of refuge] through [communities of destiny].

There is profound overlap with her work that rises to the concrete and with XMCA ways of proceeding.

ANA is involved in forming and sustaining a publicly funded school in the heart of Buenos Aires that is key to forming and sustaining spaces of refuge. 
What I believe is particularly relevant is the notion of [becoming] within the ways the communities of destiny use ‘memory’ and multiple theories and methods intentionally as a living phenomena of moving back and forth creating MUTUALLY democratic spaces of refuge. Places from which community members can anticipate launching into the *open see* of unknowing, uncertainty, and this being a launch into vitality from spaces of refuge.

Ana uses different theoretical traditions. However the formations that develop within her traditions  overlap profoundly with cultural-historical traditions such as performances of ‘third spaces’. 
 I believe the institutional formation of a democratic school in Buenos Aires being a concrete example that is ongoing and is a community of destiny engaging with memory is a living example of what is possible.
Ana’s work  has a lot to offer as a pragmatic expression of both living through AND working through using powerful and expansive methods of acknowledgement that may present vital alternatives that answer Mike’s call for rising to the concrete. 

I have other articles of Ana’s if this thread resonates?











Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Ana Inés Heras
Sent: February 5, 2017 2:43 AM
To: Larry Purss
Subject: Re: Request to share your CERN proposed article

Dearest Larry

I am honored by your message. Yes, you can share the pieces I sent and / or other pieces you may see fit. Muchas gracias, Larry.

I believe I had sent you this link a while ago, but just in case:
The book children and our team made:
In English: https://proyectodeautonomia.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/a-city-in-flames-and-a-community-of-destiny1.pdf
In Spanish: https://proyectodeautonomia.wordpress.com/2015/12/07/la-ciudad-en-llamas-y-la-comunidad-de-destino/
Presentation of the book at the University in 2016 
https://proyectodeautonomia.wordpress.com/2016/11/21/presentamos-la-ciudad-en-llamas-en-unsam/

As other examples, tho in Spanish, I can provide these posts, related w what has been happening here lately re: our national scientific / resesarch system. I have been participating as a member of the scientific community and as someone who believes in assembly-like, direct democracy gatherings:

https://proyectodeautonomia.wordpress.com/2017/02/05/4-de-febrero-asamblea-en-conicet/

https://proyectodeautonomia.wordpress.com/2017/02/01/plenarios-preparatorios-de-la-asamblea-de-cyt-del-4-de-febrero/

https://proyectodeautonomia.wordpress.com/2017/01/03/navidadencienciaytecnica/

Muchas gracias, Larry, once again.
Hasta la victoria,
Ana Inés




Dra. Ana Inés Heras Monner Sans
Investigadora Independiente CONICET (CEDESI UNSAM)
e Instituto para la Inclusión Social y el Desarrollo Humano

http://proyectodeautonomia.wordpress.com/
http://www.aacademica.org/ana.ines.heras 
http://www.unsam.edu.ar/escuelas/humanidades/centros/cedesi/_presentacion.asp 
http://www.incluir.org.ar/



2017-02-04 18:12 GMT-03:00 <lpscholar2@gmail.com>:
Hi Ana,
 
Mike Cole who is a central participant at the XMCA list serve has asked for concrete examples of how academics can descend from their ivory towers and engage meaningfully with their publics who will never go to a university.
 
I believe your work is exemplary in this regard and will speak to his request for concrete examples. I am proposing to send your CERN proposal that outlines your general approach but wanted to check with you first.
This list serve generates multiple threads that sometimes go nowhere and other times mushroom into extended explorations.
 
The common factor on this list serve is Vygotsky and cultural-historical theory/psychology.
 
At the moment with the rise of Trump there is a concerted question of how academics can become relevant in generating community transformation.
 
Your having a living experience of community engagement AND then the ‘working through’ of what has been previously ‘lived through’ i believe is exemplary to answer Mike Cole’s request. You offer a concrete manifestation of what is possible when refuges are created and sustained.
 
Let me know if I can post your CERN proposal you sent me last year that was a work in progress.
Thanks Ana
 
Sent from my Windows 10 phone