080009 VU B420 Theories of Culture: Giving an academic voice to grassroots practitioners, (2025S)

Theoretical framework:
Grassroots organizations are led by practitioners, social workers, and educators, who define themselves as "frontliner humanitarians". Often, they are distancing themselves from "academics", whom they criticize for being preoccupied with gaining analytical distance and engage in conceptualization, while they focus on being "mainly interested in finding solutions." One notion that allows to work beyond this gap is "social capital" (Castiglione et al 2009, Cook 2022; for a discussion of social capital in the Lebanese context see: Egan/Tabar 2016).

1. It allows the knowledge and experiences of those on the ground to be recognized and integrated into broader academic and policy discussions. This helps avoid the risk of "top-down" approaches that may be out of touch with realities on the ground.
2. Grassroots practitioners, particularly in fields like community mobilization, education, or social work, often have intimate knowledge of local communities' needs and strengths.
Giving them a voice can enrich academic discourse with context-specific solutions that are more likely to be effective in real-world applications.
3. Many grassroots organizations are driven by action and solutions, while academics focus on systematic inquiry and theory-building. When these perspectives are combined, the result can be more holistic and practical frameworks that better serve both practitioners
and policymakers.
4. Giving practitioners an academic voice can validate their experiences, empowering them and boosting their credibility in formal settings. This recognition can also improve their influence in shaping policies that better reflect local needs and realities.
By fostering this connection with the perspective of "social capital" building, not only are the challenges and successes of grassroots practitioners acknowledged, but new pathways can be
created for policies that are both informed by practice and grounded in rigorous analysis. It’s a mutually beneficial dynamic that can lead to more effective, reflexive and therefore inclusive solutions.

Seminar plan
The dual aspect of social capital building to enhance community mobilization - both as a solution and as an on-the-ground process among all participants, including academic researchers - will
serve as the guiding analytical perspective. We will approach this perspective both theoretically (through preparatory and complementary reading) and practically (through interviews and
analysis).
In the first part of the course, we will use readings to clarify what is meant by community mobilization in the humanitarian sector and what are the special features of working in the humanitarian sector to succeed. Also, we will scrutinize the notion of "social capital" as a
concept that is relevant in humanitarian work for community mobilization and as an academic concept (between others Castiglione et al 2009, Cook 2022). We will also critically asses the gap between frontliners and academics (Bartunek/Rynes 2014, Leresche et al 2020). Building on this, the seminar group will develop questions that are dedicated to the everyday practices of humanitarian workers and the role of "social capital building" in the field of
humanitarian work/ community mobilization.In doing so, we will between others be guided by the method of biographical interviews, to which there will also be an introduction (Bendix 2008, Völter et al 2009).

In the second part of the seminar, empirical material will be collected and analyzed: Students will search for an institution within the humanitarian sector whose work they will contextualise.
They will also have to find a person with whom they will conduct an interview on their work biography. These interviews are evaluated together in the block seminar.

The third part concludes with a re-reading of complementary literature that is tailored to the topics that were developed in the block session.

The course will be held in English; discussion can be in German.