SUMMARY BY PETER LAURITZEN ON HENDRIK OTTEN’S PAPER

Theses on the inter-relationship between European Youth Meetings, Intercultural

Learning and Demands on Full-time and Part-time Staff in these meetings

Thesis 1

“National cultures” are increasingly subject to influence from other cultures. The
Europe of the future will be multicultural.

Thesis 2

Intercultural learning must become an integral part of the every day culture and
learning environment. The idea of continuing to put the practice of national culture
learning first and international culture learning second is wrong.

Thesis 3

Tourism and travelling are not automatically producing attitudes leading to curiosity
about other cultures, tolerance and understanding. Attitudinal change in international
youth work will have to be contained within the educational aims and objectives of the
planners of exchanges.

Thesis 4

International youth meetings can easily end up with superficial impressions. However,
they should be planned in such a way that they can leave a deep and lasting
impression. This can only be achieved through involvement, recognition of common
social and cultural interest and relevance of the international meeting in one’s own
life.

Thesis 5

Any form of international meeting and exchange will be influenced by the acquired
prejudices of the participants. No moral appeal can make stereotypes and clichés
disappear. They seem to be prerequisite for the economy of human relations.
However, intercultural learning offers the opportunity to develop existing prejudices
into reflected experiences within other cultures.

Thesis 6

It is not enough only to be curious about other cultures. One also has to be aware
about one’s own cultural construction (or socialization). This will be particularly
enabled through confrontation with another culture. This offers the unique opportunity
to prepare the multicultural society of tomorrow socially and politically as a society
marked by democratic participation and tolerance in international activities.

Thesis 7

International youth work is also an important contribution to personal development.

Educational objectives are strengthening personal identity, leadership and awareness
of one’s own situation in life, development of communication skills, increasing the
capacity for interaction and social competence. These general educational objectives
of youth work will have to be made part of the curriculum of intercultural learning.
 Thesis 8

“Youth for Europe” and other youth related exchange programmes of the European
Community have to become open to new publics, i.e. they need to become
programmes serving young people who have so far not had the opportunity to profit
from exchanges.

Thesis 9

Some notions stemming from role sociology and interaction theories have to be
introduced into intercultural learning. These notions are: role distance, empathy and
tolerance of ambiguity. These concepts can help educationalists to better plan the
process of role-changing taking place in intercultural meetings and to prepare and
develop the capacity of taking a distance from one’s own role – an important
prerequisite for learning within an international meeting situation. International
learning is also strongly influenced by language competence and group dynamic
constellations.

Thesis 10

Training programmes for youth exchange organizers need to concentrate on:

preparation, organization, running and evaluation of activities. They should contain
practical and theoretical elements of learning and aim at the stimulation of
intercultural learning.
They need to include cognitive, emotional and pragmatic learning and they should
bring about a change of attitudes in those participating in international exchanges
which will bring us closer to a peaceful world, multicultural in its everyday reality.

Council of Europe, Training courses resource file Volume 9, European youth meetings
and Intercultural learning, Strasbourg 1991

Comments

The original “Ten theses…” document was written by Hendrik Otten (ikab.de) and
published in 1990.It has substantially influenced thinking and practice of intercultural learning
within the youth field since then. Though, many developments have shaped the socio-political
situation in Europe and beyond in the years after: increased mobility of people, enhanced
cooperation between states, migration flows, further recognition of (international) youth work
to name a few. These developments are reflected in the updated and revised edition that can
be downloaded from the link provided below.
This summary, of 1991, although partly outdated (i.e “Youth for Europe” was a mobility
programme in the ‘90s…) constitutes a concise and inviting introduction to the original
document. Written by Peter Lauritzen, a prominent figure, an insightful thinker in the shaping
of European youth programmes and policies under the aegis of the Council of Europe (and not
only) since the 70’s. Unfortunately he passed away on May 29, 2007. His several writings (a
number can be found in: Eggs in a pan, Lauritzen P. 2008) will definitely be of your inspiration.

Further reading
“Ten theses...” Revisited & updated, February 2009
http://www.nonformality.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/ten.pdf
“Ten theses…” Original document, 1997
http://ikab.de/reports/thesen_en.html