PROGRAMME HANDBOOK 2019-2020
BASED AT
WELCOME TO THE ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY. LET’S GET STARTED. 2
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
CONTENTS WELCOME
05
OUR EXPECTATIONS OF FELLOWS
30
Our Vision and Purpose
06
Your Commitment to Fellowship 30
About the Atlantic Fellows
08
YOUR FELLOWSHIP EXPERIENCE
11
Making the Most of your Fellowship Experience: Attendance, Participation and Preparation
Our Approach to Learning
15
Brave Space 31
Our Commitment to You 31
OUR PROGRAMME STRUCTURE, CURRICULUM AND COURSEWORK
14
Our Programme Structure
14
AFSEE Modules
15
Building Leadership and Community for Social Change
17
International Inequalities Institute: Research Themes
Who Facilitates this Learning Experience? 21
Coursework
Non-Residential Fellows’ Projects
20 22
30
LIFELONG COMMUNITY
32
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK: FEEDBACK AND LEARNING
33
AFSEE TEAM CONTACTS
34
GOOD READS
38
JOURNEY OF A FELLOW
39
ABOUT THE ATLANTIC PHILANTHROPIES
42
25
ADDITIONAL LEARNING SUPPORT
26
Academic Advising for Residential Fellows
26
Mentoring for Non-Residential Fellows
27
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
3
OUR VISION AND PURPOSE
At the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme, we believe that inequality is not inevitable and that a better, equitable world is possible. We envision a future with robust alternatives to our current global economy. We believe equity can be achieved through bold, imaginative responses that are forged through collective action and aligned to values of fairness, commitment, curiosity, kindness and courage. Our ultimate purpose as a programme is to support Fellows actively working to bring these alternative approaches to life. Creating these alternatives requires examining the bigger picture in the way inequality has manifested across time and space aligned with an understanding of its drivers and root causes as well as current trends and the dynamics these present. We know that without this holistic approach, challenges to inequality will remain piecemeal and solutions will likely falter. It is our aim to build this
Another distinguishing element of this learning journey is that it is embedded within a catalytic and life-long community, led by values and committed to enacting bold, systemic change. We take advantage of the great diversity
among Fellows by encouraging you to work together to share your knowledge and experiences, which will form a crucial part of your reflective analysis and leadership development. Through the programme experience, you’ll come to better understand yourself and others as you grapple with diverse ideas and perspectives and develop practices that enable you to engage in a peer-led and value-driven community.
bigger picture with you so that we can be more effective and strategic as we collectively drive systemic change.
To create this approach, we believe that we need to explore and understand economic systems in a different way than the traditional disciplinary approaches
currently offer. To fully understand our current structures and processes of economic organisation, we need an understanding of intersectional histories of class, race and gender, of how they have shaped the past, present and will likely be made in the future. By examining these histories through to their current manifestations as well as exploring leadership models and alternative ways of existing, we will reveal the key elements of social relations shaped through economic systems.
6
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
Photo right: Photography by Brian Sugden, 2008
Being able to explore these complex issues with a diverse group of experienced professionals will enable me to understand inequalities better and apply that understanding in my work. — Anjali SARKER, 2018-19 Fellow
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
7
ABOUT THE ATLANTIC FELLOWS
The Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity is one of seven interconnected Atlantic Fellows programs, which together create a global community to advance fairer, healthier and more inclusive societies.
7 PROGRAMS. 1 COMMON PURPOSE. GLOBAL COMMUNITY.
FOR RACIAL EQUITY
FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
FOR EQUITY IN BRAIN HEALTH
FOR SOCIAL EQUITY
FOR HEALTH EQUITY IN SOUTH AFRICA
FOR HEALTH EQUITY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
FOR HEALTH EQUITY
8
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
The Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (AFSEE) programme is based at the International Inequalities Institute (III) which leads ground-breaking research into global inequalities. AFSEE offers you the opportunity to critically engage with this research as you explore global responses to inequalities throughout and beyond your active fellowship year. You’ll also interact with our core learning partners (Action Learning Associates, University of Cape Town, Interaction Institute for Social Change) and a range of thinkers and practitioners who will be sharing their insights and experience in inequality-related research, policy, social movements and campaigning.
AFSEE is one of seven, inter-connected Atlantic Fellows programmes through which Fellows collaborate across disciplines and borders to understand and challenge the root causes of inequality. We work closely with the Atlantic Institute to sustain this community through providing opportunities for Senior Fellows to meet, learn from one another and connect over the course of your journey as a change-maker. You’ll be meeting some colleagues and Fellows from the other programmes during your active fellowship year, and through the Atlantic online hub, you’ll be able to start interacting with the broader fellowship community. Find out more about the Atlantic Institute and other Atlantic Fellows programmes here.
THE ATLANTIC INSTITUTE OFFERS ALL FELLOWS:
• Resources and opportunities to connect, work and learn together • Virtual and face-to-face platforms to share knowledge and approaches • Connections to a broader global network of equity focused initiatives. • Global awareness of work of the fellows, the programs and their shared mission
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
9
I view taking part in the AFSEE program as an opportunity to build strategic relationships, alliances and networks for future action against inequalities. This opportunity will give me a chance to learn from the other Fellows and incorporate those learnings into my work. — Maureen SIGAUKE, 2018-19 Fellow 10
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
YOUR FELLOWSHIP EXPERIENCE
We want to ensure that your fellowship experience is rewarding, stimulating and productive. We hope that as part of the AFSEE community you will feel empowered and enabled to question, challenge and develop new ways of thinking and doing things. In order to achieve this
another and the AFSEE team, you will be supported to emerge from the programme with enhanced capacity to:
shared aim, our programme takes the following approach.
alternative futures; exercise reflective and collective
think critically about the root causes of inequalities; apply rigorous multi-dimensional and intersectional analyses of social and economic inequalities when constructing leadership; and act as effective agents of social change.
We have invited you to become a Fellow knowing that you will arrive with an openness to new thinking and learning, and bring a wealth of experience in challenging inequality in diverse contexts using a wide range of approaches. We know that you will bring unique perspectives, experience and expertise, and imaginative ideas that will feed into the collaborative generation of novel, innovative and effective solutions. Through your interactions with one
Photo left: Photography by Felipe Correia
Importantly, following your fellowship year, you will be able to draw on the support of a lifelong community of allies for social change, and you will be expected to contribute to each other’s successes and to the life of the AFSEE community.
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
11
12
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
OUR APPROACH TO LEARNING
We see social change leadership as a journey, not a destination, for all of our Fellows. Our aim is to respond to your needs and goals to ensure you are equipped with the tools and skills you need to participate in and lead global social change for a more equitable future. Our curriculum and learning style are designed to support your unique approach to social change in the context of global inequality, and to allow us to learn from each other and the experiences we bring to the programme. Our approach also marries a structural analysis of global inequality and its manifestations to a review of the ways that people resist and challenge inequality. We begin with a shared recognition of the current challenges we need to overcome. We then focus on how to position
knowledge and community to create change, including the ways we can bring about change in ourselves to work more equitably and collaboratively. This includes reviewing our values, practices and critical skills, as well as systems change analysis and leadership development. This will enable you to create more equitable tools and ways of working that can be embedded not only into the conceptualisation of your fellowship projects but also in future initiatives.
AFSEE LEARNING OUTCOMES
Through the AFSEE programme, Fellows will:
• Understand the broader landscape for global inequalities, including root causes, systems change, intersectionality and narratives • Identify and examine alternative economic solutions, with a particular focus on the global South • Apply this learning to generate alternative approaches to advance systemic change • Begin practising values-led, collective leadership approaches • Recognise, participate in and champion a values-led and transformational community of Atlantic Fellows
Photo left: Mumbai. Photography by Johnny Miller, 2017-18 Fellow
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
13
OUR PROGRAM STRUCTURE
Our programme is designed to build knowledge by immersing you in the latest research and thinking on global inequalities and responses to them that advance systemic change, enhance skills through several modes of learning and project work, foster values towards effective and collective leadership for social change and cultivate community by enabling long-term, purposeful connections. This section offers an overview of how the programme is structured to deliver these outcomes, and details of our curriculum, coursework and assessment.
THE MODULES CONSIST OF: Lectures, panel debates and presentations to introduce you to key theories, concepts, and approaches for understanding and challenging inequality. Seminars and workshops to clarify and deepen your understanding of points and issues raised in the lectures, through practical work carried out individually and in groups. Deep immersion in AFSEE’s approach to social change leadership, with space for critical reflection around practice. Skills development opportunities to provide you with the tools to develop competencies that can help bring systemic change into being.
BUILD KNOWLEDGE Module content, delivered through various learning modes
ENHANCE SKILLS Module content, delivered through various learning modes
Curriculum themes Projects Mentoring, advising, and peer mentoring
Curriculum themes
Module content, delivered through various learning modes
Projects Mentoring, advising, and peer mentoring Communications Lifelong community
CULTIVATE COMMUNITY Projects Peer mentoring Lifelong community
14
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
FOSTER VALUES (COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP)
Projects Peer mentoring Lifelong community
The teaching in each Module will equate to 30 hours of contact time per week. 25% of this content will be delivered through lectures and panel debates. 25% of the content includes opportunities for you to self-direct your learning through check-ins, open space and reflection (especially in Modules 2, 3 and 4). The remaining 50% of the Modules will be practice-oriented workshops and presentations, emphasising skills-based learning, including mindfulness practice, action learning, communication training, building alliances and relationships and strategy design. There will be a key focus on you interacting with fellow Fellows and the AFSEE community to exchange and share knowledge, showcase your work, build teamwork and for peer-based learning.
Photo: 2017-18 and 2018-19 Atlantic Fellows
These Modules are complemented by monthly one-to-one check-ins with Sara Camacho Felix for Non-Residential Fellows, monthly group meetings and social events for Residential Fellows, meetings with your advisor or mentor, pastoral care check-ins with Surya Turner, virtual action learning sets, meetings on communications and impact
with Karen Shook and ad-hoc meetings with the AFSEE team. These are detailed elsewhere in the Handbook and depicted in the Journey of a Fellow. Your Modules conclude with Fellows Days, a coming together of two generations of Fellows to celebrate their contribution to understanding and challenging inequalities, to forge deep and meaningful connections and build solidarity, and to bring bold questions and ideas for social change into the heart of this growing community.
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
15
AFSEE MODULES
MODULE 1 Core Concepts in Social and Economic Inequalities
MODULE 2 Leadership and Social Change
MODULE 3 Leadership and Social Change
*Assessed half-unit for Residential Fellows
*Assessed half-unit for Residential Fellows
WHEN
10-20 September 2019
4-8 November 2019
20-24 April 2020
15-19 June 2020 20-21 June 2020 (Fellows Days)
WHERE
LSE London, UK
LSE London, UK
LSE London, UK
University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
HOW LONG
9 Study Days
5 Study Days
5 Study Days
5 Study Days 2 Fellows Days
WHAT
Introduction to Atlantic Fellows programme, AFSEE and our approach to values, community, leadership and change Core concepts: histories, systemic change (including root causes, narratives), intersectionality WHAT WILL I LEARN (LEARNING OBJECTIVES)
Interplay between inequality challenges and alternatives
Collaborative learning around global inequality challenges and issues Facilitative leadership for social change
Alternatives to social and economic inequalities
Reflection on values and how these values connect to equity Developing a self-reflective practice of learning
Relational skills to strengthen leadership
Application of systems change approach to global inequalities
Deepening reflective practice
ALL FELLOWS RESIDENTIAL FELLOWS
Application of values-led collective leadership practices to own work and group work Lifelong approach to community and values
Self and group evaluation of the fellowship experience
Establishing commitment and accountability for learning
You’ll be invited to give a brief presentation during the Module about yourself and what you’d like to achieve through the fellowship.
Interplay between inequality challenges and solutions in the African context
Connections with the next cohort and to other (non AFSEE) Atlantic Fellows
Critical self-reflection on leadership and approaches to values-led, collective leadership
COURSEWORK
MODULE 4 Inequalities in Africa and Collective Leadership
Commitment to ongoing reflective practice of learning
Reflective and intention setting essay 5 June 2020
Reflective think-piece 1 November 2019 Blog post (1 of 2) 1 February 2020
Blog post (2 of 2) 15 July 2020
Essay on values-led leadership
Presentation during the
and its applications to challenging inequalities
Module on an issue related to leadership, change and social inequality
12 December 2019
NON RESIDENTIAL FELLOWS
Project proposal 1 November 2019 Presentation during the
Module on your proposed project idea.
Project submission 31 August 2020
Revised project proposal 1 December 2019
MSC INEQUALITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE Modules are scheduled to take place outside of MSc Inequalities and Social Science (MISS) teaching in order to facilitate the attendance of Residential Fellows. Residential Fellows should note that the MSc teaching structure is outlined in the MISS Handbook, which you will receive separately from the Department of Sociology. For Residential Fellows, Modules 2 and 3 will count as a half Academic Unit (0.5) towards the MSc in Inequalities and Social Science. 16
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
BUILDING LEADERSHIP AND COMMUNITY FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
Supporting you in your development as a catalyst for social change is central to the fellowship experience. This year provides you with an opportunity to explore, together with your fellow Fellows, who you are in relation to change and who you are becoming as a leader for social change. We invite you to engage in a process of mutual
and individual reflection and inquiry on what it means to be a leader for equity, and to take ownership for your own evolution as a leader and as a community of leaders. Along with your own insights on inequality, each of you have come to this programme with a vision and commitment to facilitate transformative change. You also bring significant experience applying different leadership styles and practices in a wide range of contexts. You will draw on your knowledge and experience, adding new insights gained from the learning on the programme, as you work together to understand how to enhance your
Over the course of the year, you’ll use a range of methods and formats to explore social change leadership: group discussion and reflection, written pieces, action learning sets and formal training in facilitative leadership and communications. Your projects and dissertations are key vehicles through which you will be articulating your vision and case for change in ways that are resonant with your evolving approach to leadership. For this journey to produce holistic, deep-seated transformation, we believe it is essential to work across three dimensions: the level of the self, inter-personal relationships and community, and outer or public leadership. These three areas are closely related to each
other, making it necessary to explore and deepen practice in one area in order to be effective in another.
collective capacity to deliver systemic change.
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
17
OTHER LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES
We hope that during your time in London you will make the most of opportunities to attend events and immerse yourself in the varied and rich learning opportunities available. In particular, LSE hosts many notable speakers, interesting debates, and presentations of cutting edge research that you can choose to attend. Throughout the year, III and AFSEE host public lectures, conferences, workshops and other smaller events that you are encouraged to attend. We capture and share key messages from our events through our social media channels, AFSEE and III websites, newsletters, podcasts and videos in order to expand their reach to a wider public, as well as to make them available to our Senior Fellows worldwide. To view our past events, go to our website. https://afsee. atlanticfellows.org/events
28
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
We also organise events that permit current and Senior Fellows to engage as peers and to exchange ideas and experiences in more intimate conversations with experts within the AFSEE community. During Module weeks, there will be exclusive opportunities to meet, network and converse with researchers, activists, practitioners and social change leaders who join us for our public events. LEARNING PLATFORM Canvas is the online platform that AFSEE uses to post the
handbook for each Module, course literature, preparatory readings, programme slides and other related learning resources. You will be allocated your log-in prior to Module 1, and should regularly use this platform to access these materials.
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
29
GOOD READS
These are recommended by the team as good reads to further ground your understanding of inequalities, leadership and social change. Dorling, D. (2011) Injustice: Why Social Inequality Persists. Bristol: Policy Press. Federici, S. (2004) Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. New York: Autonomedia. Gaventa, J. (2016) Finding the Spaces for Change: A Power Analysis. IDS Bulletin 37 (6). November 2006. Graeber, D. (2011) Debt: The First 5000 Years. New York: Melville Publishing. Green, D. (2016) How Change Happens. Oxford University Press.
Also accessible as a free download at http://how-change-happens.com/download/ Hickel, J. (2017) The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions. London: William Heineman. International Futures Forum, Three Horizons online resources http://www.iffpraxis.com/three-horizons Pickett, K. and Wilkinson, R. (2009) The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. London: Allen
Lane (excerpts available through The Equality Trust website). Raworth, K. (2017) Doughnut Economics. London: Random House.
38
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
TOWARD FAIRER, HEALTHIER, MORE INCLUSIVE SOCIETIES
ATLANTIC FELLOWS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
45
International Inequalities Institute, LSE Houghton St, London, WC2A 2AE United Kingdom afp@lse.ac.uk ATLANTICFELLOWS.ORG