He says, ‘Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man.’ He stated that all knowledge, spiritual and secular, is stored in the human mind, just as a huge banyan tree lies within a tiny seed. The function of the teacher is only to help that seed sprout and grow by offering suggestions. Gandhiji emphasizes the role of the teacher in the learning process. The child’s relationship with the teacher is significant. Further, the distinction between teacher and the taught gets blurred during the teaching-learning process since both pick up knowledge through praxis.

The Nai Talim is, for all purposes, dead. Even Gandhian institutions in the country do not follow the Nai Talim in letter and spirit. Far from being self-sufficient, education has either become state supported, with questionable quality, or commercialized and elitist, out of the reach of common citizens. Gandhiji’s concept of Nai Talim or basic education is a grand idea and was in keeping with the time he was alive. Indeed, after independence there was great enthusiasm in India about taking up basic education in right earnest. Many primary schools were opened and other institutes established. However, such schools have become defunct today with a few exceptions. This points to the fact that the concept of Nai Talim has to be modified with the changing times to keep it viable.

The teacher helps the taught to prepare him/herself for a larger life. The methodology of Nai Talim lays special accent on the relationship between the teacher and the taught. There should be a perfect understanding and mutual empathy between the teacher and the taught. This is possible only when they live together and participate in the learning process. Besides, obtaining faith, sympathy and mutual respect between the learner and the teacher is important in all Nai Talim institutions.

The endeavor of Nai Talim is to achieve a harmonious development of head, heart, and hand, based on sound moral principles. In his experiments, Gandhiji was very clear that he would work for an education that will not make the person, a servant. Perhaps, he becomes a servant of livelihood, which is a very small part of his entire life. This is not education. True education should give a practical knowledge. One of the core ideas of Nai Talim is that, education is child-centric, correlated to the swabhava of the child, particularly the Basic and Primary education.

The child is not burdened with the idea of learning and education. Gandhiji was experimenting and designing an education process to make masters, not servants! Gandhiji’s model is timeless and is not past, present and future bound. In his pattern of learning systems, there is a correlation with the environment and that is how knowledge connectivity will be more organic.
In the currunt senerion of valatile changes, rural areas need to be brought under the preview of the basic education or what we call it as Nai-Talim. For strenthening the institutional capability in rural areas and social cohesievness, Govt. Of India is allready bust in training the teachers at different capacities. To bring about a social transformation in rural India Government of India has set up National Council for Rural Institutes to train the teachers and develop among them skills and competence. The education at par with the Gandhian principles is of dire need to transform India.
The NCRI is already veering to accord financial aid to the rural Institutions offering education in campatible with the Gandhian Philospy of Peace and non violence. The collaboration is being saught by the council from NGOs and educational Institutions to go for a rigrous study.
In the Nai Talim pattern of education, schools should not be a burden on the State. The role of the State will be that of a facilitator, to create a pool of expertise in the field of education to act as a guide and reference. The recurring expenses of the school should be met from the work and produce of the school. Provision for capital expenditure has to be made by the State. Every Nai Talim school should cook and serve mid-day meals in the school premises. The work of cooking and cleaning should be assigned to the students under the supervision of teachers and the meal should be shared by them. Wherever possible, residential schools can also be planned.
A minimum of three to four hours physical labour and engagement in productive occupations by the students and teachers together should be a must.

Ironically, the schemes are limited only to the capital cities haing no purpose and the slogans remain in dictionaries only. The Basic Education mission need to be popularised in the state like of Jammu and Kashmir, Gujrat and other termoil turn areas where the need is strongly being felt. NCRI and other agencies should come up with a big agenda to groom the personalities of rural kids so that they may not become prey of nafarious designs.
The Institional collaboration be sought at an earliest so as to achieve the objective of Gandhian concept of Nai Talim.

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Without those abilities you just have no chances to succeed. If you want to start your very own home business, the question sounds, how would you do that? How would you start working and where from you could get help? Well, you do not need to invent the wheel again, just follow those, who have succeeded and who want to help the newbies.

1. What Is Your Expertise?

We all are talented, but in the different things. Many people have never thought their strengths, but have automatically started the studying or working. If they are satisfied with the work they do, that is fine. However, most home business entrepreneurs have to think carefully, where they are good at, because that has an influence on their ability in the competition.

2. Where To Get The Guidance?

The Internet is full of good internet home business ideas. The challenge is to pick those, which fit to you, to your experience and natural talents. It is funny, that in the newbie phase, a rookie has to make so important decisions. But there is no shortcut, because you will learn a lot during your internet journey.

3. Can You Get A Mentor?

A mentor is a person, who will not do the work on behalf of you, but who can guide you and prevent the worst errors. He can be your partner in the discussions, but the final decisions are yours. If you manage to get a proven mentor, that would be fine.

4. Take Your Family With.

I would say, that the home internet business requires, that you take the whole family with, because the time, which you have to spend is quite big. You have to explain, why you want to run this business and what kind business it is. The family can increase your motivation, especially if you are going to use the money for the holidays, for instance.

5. What It Takes To Become An Entrepreneur?

When you are a worker, your boss says, what you have to do. When you are an entrepreneur, you have to invent by yourself, what you do and how you are going to make the needed income. If you will invest money, you will take the risk. It can happen that you will lose money, before you invent the right ways to work.

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Quick ± in 25 words or less, define knowledge management. Can’t do it? You’re not alone.

    There are an assortment of disciplines that have influenced the field of Knowledge Management (KM) thinking and praxis – the most prominent are philosophy, in defining knowledge; cognitive science (in understanding knowledge workers); social science (in understanding motivation, people, interactions, culture and environment); management science (in optimising operations and integrating them within the enterprise); information science (in building knowledge-related capabilities); knowledge engineering (in eliciting and codifying knowledge); artificial intelligence (in automating routine and knowledge-intensive work) and economics (in determining priorities). As a result, there are enormous working definitions of KM and emergent philosophies circulating in the literature and around corporations of the world.

            One cannot get a clear understanding and definition of what KM is without studying the various concepts of knowledge and information (including data), as well as the tacit, implicit, and explicit knowledge dimensions. Much of the still existing confusion that surrounds the topic of KM is based on the varied scholars’ interpretations and suggestions distinguishing the terms information and knowledge as well as the terms tacit, implicit, and explicit.

 What is knowledge?

             Some authors appear to try to avoid the epistemological debate on the definition of knowledge by comparing data, information, and knowledge. However, von Krogh et al. (2000) or Kakabadse et al.’s (2003) understanding of knowledge as ‘justified true belief” goes back to Michael Polanyi’s original work (we know more than we can express) (Polanyi 1958), an epistemological position which is acknowledged to have grown out of Plato’s discourses (Meno, Phaedo and Theaetetus). This definition has been particularly adopted by Western philosophy (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995), which provides a comprehensive taxonomy of knowledge models, Plato’s concept was also debated from Aristotle, one of his students, throughout continental rationalism, as well as from German philosophy (Kant 1965; Marx 1976; Hegel 1977); British empiricism (Locke 1987) to twentieth-century philosophers (Dewey 1929; Sartre 1956; Habermas 1972; Tsoukas 1996; cited in Kakabdse et al. 2003, p. 77).

            The above discourse implies that knowledge itself is a very multifaceted concept with many different variations and definitions. Based on the fact that the nature of knowledge is widely acknowledged on differing epistemological stands taken from the individual contributors, but led ultimately to the following definition of ‘knowledge’:

            “Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of knowers. In organisations it often becomes embedded, not only in documents or repositories but also in organisational routines, processes, practices and norms.” (Davenport and Prusak 2000, p. 5).

Knowledge: Tacit/Implicit/Explicit

            ‘Tacit’ knowledge is not expressible and can in no way be made directly explicit or in other words codified into rules and formulations (e.g. the way a project manager behaviourally interacts or communicates during a conflict-solving process). In other words it has to do with an individual’s aptitude for doing things or even cognitively thinking about things.

            ‘Implicit’ knowledge is expressible and by applying appropriate knowledge management practices it has the chance to be made explicit. Thus, implicit knowledge is then transferred into explicit knowledge in a direct way. This process of transferring can be observed through the propagation, application, the amalgamation or the interpretation of explicit knowledge. Interestingly, from time to time, the terms ‘tacit’ and ‘implicit’ are used interchangeably..

            ‘Explicit’ knowledge is expressed implicit knowledge. There is enough evidence from the literature as well as from practice, suggesting that the two terms ‘explicit knowledge’ and ‘information’ have exactly the same meaning. In other words, explicit knowledge should be regarded as implicit knowledge, which when expressed becomes information. However, whereas the management of knowledge is mostly understood as the management of the processes, which can support the conversion of employees’ individual knowledge into overall organisational implicit knowledge, the management of explicit knowledge is understood as the management of knowledge-objects typically held as information in the organisation’s information base or systems in form of data records or documents.

The history of KM

            Knowledge management (KM) is currently receiving significant attention, from both academics and practitioners, and is being addressed by broad range of academic literature and popular press. The study of human knowledge has been central subject matter of philosophy and epistemology since the ancient Greeks and western philosophers. Eastern philosophers, Tzu and Confucius in China and their contemporaries in India, have an equally long and well-documented tradition of emphasising knowledge and comprehension for the conduct of spiritual and secular life. The first attempts at KM, such as capture, storage and retrieval, began with the Cuneiform language in about 3000 BC.

            A number of management theorists have contributed to the evolution of KM, among them such notables as Peter Drucker, Paul Strassmann, and Peter Senge in the United States. Drucker and Strassmann have stressed the growing importance of information and explicit knowledge as organisational resources, and Senge has focused on the “learning organisation,” a cultural dimension of managing knowledge. Chris Argyris, Christoper Bartlett, and Dorothy Leonard-Barton of Harvard Business School have all examined diverse aspects of managing knowledge. In fact, Leonard-Barton’s well-known case study of Chaparral Steel, a company which has had an effective KM strategy in place since the mid-1970s, inspired the research documented in her Wellsprings of Knowledge. 

            The 1980s also saw the development of systems for managing knowledge that relied on work done in artificial intelligence and expert systems, giving us such concepts as “knowledge acquisition,” “knowledge engineering,” “knowledge-base systems, and computer-based ontologies. Knowledge management-related articles began appearing in journals like Sloan Management Review, Organisational Science, Harvard Business Review, and others, and the first books on organisational learning and knowledge management were published (for example, Senge’s The Fifth Discipline and Sakaiya’s The Knowledge Value Revolution).

            By 1990, a number of management consulting firms had begun in-house knowledge management programs, and several well known U.S., European, and Japanese firms had instituted focused knowledge management programs. Perhaps the most widely read work to date is Ikujiro Nonaka’s and Hirotaka Takeuchi’s The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation (1995).

            By the mid-1990s, knowledge management initiatives were flourishing, thanks in part to the Internet. Knowledge management, which appears to offer a highly desirable alternative to failed TQM and business process re-engineering initiatives, has become big business for such major international consulting firms as Ernst & Young, Arthur Andersen, and Booz-Allen & Hamilton.

What is KM?

            Murray E. Jennex (2005) tells us that during a conversation he had with a fellow engineer, he made the comment that it was too bad we could not get back to the moon. Murrray, of course, agreed and expressed the desire that the government would allocate funds for it. His friend then surprised him by saying it was not money that was the issue but that what really prevents the US from getting back to the moon is that they do not remember how to build Saturn V rockets, Apollo capsules, and Lunar Modules. It seems after the end of the Apollo programme; management ordered all the plans put on microfiche and all but a few of the paper copies destroyed. This was done, however, when there was talk of going back to the moon and engineers went to retrieve the plans, the usable paper copies could be found, and everyone who knew how to build the rockets, capsules, and modules were either dead or retired. Additionally, when the younger engineers began to reverse engineer these components, they were stymied because they did not understand the technology from that time; technology had advanced so much that the engineers had not been taught some of the fundamental issues faced by engineers of that time. In other words, they had forgotten the knowledge from the experience of solving the problems that prevented moon flights.

            The above does in fact show that the space program is an example of failed KM. They attempted to store relevant knowledge but when it came time to retrieve it, it could not be retrieved and applied to the current decision- making activity due to media volatility and a lack of capturing the relevant context that makes the critical knowledge usable.

 Why do we need KM?    

            Why do we need knowledge management? We need KM because we need a proper process to help organisations identify, capture, store, and retrieve critical knowledge. We need KM processes to help organisations deal with changing storage strategies. We need KM to help us deal with the transience of knowledge workers. We need KM processes to help organisations manage a glut of knowledge. Ultimately, we need KM to help organisations make sense of what they know, to know what they know, and to effectively use what they know. The whole point of knowledge management (KM) is to make sure that the knowledge present in an organisation is applied productively for the benefit of that organisation.

            An organisation’s emergency preparedness activities might involve collaborative efforts between various entities. A vital activity is responding to an actual crisis situation that hits one or more of the member organisations/entities. For some organisations, responding to a crisis situation in done within a consortium environment. Managing knowledge across the various entities involved in such efforts is critical. This includes having the right set of information that is timely, relevant, and is governed by an effective communication process given such organisational structures, and the need to manage knowledge in these environments through effective Knowledge Management Systems (KMS).

            KM efforts typically focus on organisational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, and continuous improvement of the organisation. KM efforts may overlap with Organisational Learning and may be distinguished from that by a greater focus on the management of knowledge as a strategic asset and a focus on encouraging the sharing of knowledge. KM efforts can help individuals and groups to share valuable organisational insights, to reduce redundant work, to avoid reinventing the wheel per se, to reduce training time for new employees, to retain intellectual capital as employees turnover in an organisation, and to adapt to changing environments and markets.

 Implications of Global cultural diversity on KM

            Global cultural diversity has profound implications for the effective design and implementation of knowledge management (KM) projects. Thus, the view on global cultural diversity recognises the existence of different organisational contexts and great care must be taken when making assumptions about patterns of organisational performance and innovations (Avgerou, 2002). For example, the wide gap in the availability and use of ICT across the world, and the influences ICT exerts on globalisation, raise questions about the feasibility and desirability of efforts to implement the development of ICT through the transfer of best practices from Western industrialised countries to developing countries, and whether organisations can utilise such ICT in accordance with the socio-cultural requirements of the contexts (Avgerou, 2002).

            Reliable research concludes that diversity and local context does matter, and that the global techniques employed in western industrialised countries should not be implemented mechanically in developing countries without consideration for the local context. Further, gender considerations have been shown to be of great importance in the successful adoption of ICT.

The Arab region Knowledge Evolution

            Recently, there have been a couple of noticeable groundbreaking models pursued by Dubai and Qatar to transubstantiate the region’s population into a ‘‘knowledge society.’’ Both of these initiatives deemed human development a central goal and targeted narrowing the knowledge gap between the Arab region and the rest of the world. At the latest Middle East World Economic Forum, held in Jordan in May 2007, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, launched an endowment of ten billion US dollars for an avant garde foundation called the ‘‘Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation’’ to promote knowledge in the region.

            The second major initiative occurred in Qatar, where the government gathered leading world university representatives into a center for knowledge-creation called ‘‘Education City,’’ which is headquarters for the ‘‘Qatar Foundation.’’ The main objective is to form the most powerful educational and research hub in the Middle East.

             One of these efforts may lead to Beit Elhikma II or may produce distinguished geniuses such as Averroes (ibn-Rushd) (1126-1198), who created the first domestic and exotic knowledge hybridisation model that is not only admired, but also accepted, by Western societies. Averroes published his commentaries on Aristotle based on the epistemic fundament that ‘‘knowledge is the conformity of the object and the intellect.’’ The comeback of the Arab mind in a systematic ‘‘brain gain’’ program is needed as happened in India.

            To align the intellectual capacities with new business requirements, the region must work on different fronts to invest in expatriates, to leverage its strategies to reverse the ‘‘brain drain’’ and to fill the knowledge gap at both intra- and inter-regional levels. To keep the momentum of the ‘‘Knowledge Society” paradigm, the sustainability of the paradigm needs uninterrupted diffusion and infusion of innovations and continuously relevant knowledge, which may need restructuring at the organisational level.

            The chimera of ‘‘epistemic sovereignty’’ is an outmoded self-centeredness that is not acceptable in the current globalised marketplace. More pointedly, epistemological pluralism is required for success in the realm of the ‘‘knowledge society’’. A ‘‘co-opetitive’’ relationship is considered crucial to build the ‘‘knowledge society’’. The Arab world can revert from the status of ‘‘knowledge entropy’’ to the former ‘‘golden age’’ of Islam – if the principles of modern knowledge are effectively leveraged and crossbred with traditions to result in a lucrative ‘‘knowmadism’’.

Knowledge transfer and social capital: the case of Corporate Egypt

            Most of the knowledge related initiatives in Egypt have been at the country and community levels with limited emphasis at the organisational level. According to the World Development report for Africa, Egypt needs to work fast in order to increase its knowledge base, to invest in educating the people about knowledge management, and to take advantage of the new technologies for acquiring and disseminating knowledge. The report emphasises the importance of (1) instituting policies that enable them to narrow the knowledge gaps that separate poor countries from rich countries; (2) promoting collaborations among the organisations—governments, multilateral institutions, nongovernmental organisations, and the private sector—in order to work together; and (3) nurturing a knowledge sharing culture.

            A study performed on 41 public/private organisations in Egypt using Hofstede’s (1980) cultural dimensions highlights the need for a change in network relationships and efforts to build the relational dimension of social capital. While the structural and cognitive dimensions are already in place, the insubstantiality of the relational dimension and the focus on individual achievement are curtailing members from sharing their expertise. It is apparent that the lack of trust in getting credit for the information they share makes it hard for them to volunteer their expertise unless instructed to do so and unless they feel the risk of not obeying commands.

            It was concluded that the initiative has to start at the top in order for knowledge workers to have confidence in the system and to be able to cross the cultural gap between a knowledge-hoarding and a knowledge-sharing environment. The initiative must define several processes in order to enable the cultural transition. The study showed that the development of social capital as an infrastructure for knowledge transfer is a critical facilitator of knowledge transfer within organisations. Combining members’ knowledge resources can lead to collaborative knowledge creation that has the potential to limit the economic and knowledge gaps that exist within Egyptian organisations.

Knowledge sharing / lessons learned / storytelling

            U.S. Army has installed knowledge sharing as a standard part of its work in both training and real duty in the form of its well known after-action reviews. No effort is considered complete until it has been reviewed and its lessons obtained, including the lessons learned from failures.

            During the U.S. military efforts in Bosnia, lessons learned were distributed on a frequent basis. Because such observations as, “avoid snow-covered roads with no vehicle tracks, as they are probably mined” were credited with saving lives, members of other cooperating armies frequently requested a copy of the latest “lessons learned.”

            Openness builds confidence and sharing stories openly builds confidence in employees and in the organisation as a whole. This openness also leads to the development of trust that can support innovation. This is done by individuals using stories to build confidence in themselves, the direction of their team or the future of the company. In these cases the moral of the story could be “We did it before and we can do it again”, or “Look how bright the future can be.”

            Companies can further develop the organisation and its employees if people are given the opportunity to reflect on both the positive and negative realities of their workplace. Learning from each others past mistakes or successes through stories can build awareness, skill and confidence. The “glory days” tales or “war stories” you hear informally or formally throughout a company present learning opportunities without having to actually go through the experience. This is what NASA did to convey the culture of excitement around advancing space exploration to a young generation.

            Texas Instruments is a company that is extremely serious about encouraging re-use of ideas and design by its engineers. To encourage this process Texas Instruments periodically holds a contest within the company to collect the best story based on “We didn’t build it here but we used it anyway.” Teams within Texas Instruments scramble to come up with the best story on design re-use. They then share the story with others at an awards dinner. The stories and the activities of the company serve to foster their knowledge-sharing culture. In a well known example, Texas Instruments has achieved .5 billion in additional wafer fabrication capacity as a result of their knowledge-sharing program.

 Knowledge work and knowledge workers

            Early literature on knowledge work tended to take a Taylorist view, separating ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’ and comparing it with the fundamentally different but more familiar, type of manual work or blue collar work (Drucker, 1999; Schultze, 2000). Task performance within knowledge work cannot be compared with the sequential prescribed performance of manual work, by claiming that knowledge work is the exact opposite. Contemporary concept of knowledge work integrates doing and thinking and involves an uninterrupted cycle of re-use and creation of knowledge, which can be compared to a process of learning by doing. It involves a large amount of tacit knowledge (Schultze, 2000).

             A knowledge worker in today’s workforce is an individual that is valued for their ability to interpret information within a specific subject area. They will often advance the overall understanding of that subject through focused analysis, design and/or development. They use research skills to define problems and to identify alternatives. The term was first coined by Peter Drucker (1959), as one who works primarily with information or one who develops and uses knowledge in the workplace. Toffler (1990) observed that typical knowledge workers (especially R&D scientists and engineers) in the age of knowledge economy must have some system at their disposal to create, process and enhance their own knowledge. In some cases they would also need to manage the knowledge of their co-workers. Knowledge workers engage in ‘’peer-to-peer’’ knowledge sharing across organisational and company boundaries, forming networks of expertise.

 Knowledge Management (KM) Strategy

            Two philosophies for managing knowledge have evolved over the past decade. Firstly, the codification or explicit-oriented approach, which aligns strategy with information management efforts, such as embedding knowledge in documents, which can be stored and reused. Secondly, the personalisation strategy or tacit-oriented KM style emphasises the human and hence more complex part of tacit or implicit knowledge. Attempts to externalise and transfer this type of knowledge are based on communication strategies, both faceto- face and technology supported, by facilitating informal networks.

            Traditionally, organisations tend to focus on the tangible part of knowledge, introducing information and communication systems to capture and document knowledge, even though these efforts might never have been explicitly termed a ‘KM strategy’ or aligned with organisational strategy. In recent years, however, KM researchers have realised that human KM is the challenge, which has revived the notion of social networks.

            Some other knowledge management strategies for companies include:

rewards (as a means of motivating for knowledge sharing) storytelling (as a means of transferring tacit knowledge) after action reviews knowledge mapping (a map of knowledge repositories within a company accessible by all) communities of practice best practice transfer collaborative technologies (groupware, etc) knowledge repositories (databases, etc) measuring and reporting intellectual capital (a way of making explicit knowledge for companies) social software (wikis, social bookmarking, blogs, etc)

 KM (CoPs) Strategy: A success story

            Communities of practice (CoPs) are designated networks of people who share information and knowledge. Community members exchange ideas, collaborate, and learn from one another in both face-to-face and virtual environments. For example:

            Caterpillar, Inc. is the world’s No. 1 producer of earthmoving machinery and a leading supplier of agricultural equipment. The organisation’s strategic driver for communities was just-in-time learning. In the past, Caterpillar employees attended in-class training on topics they might or might not find relevant to their daily jobs. By constrast, CoPs provide a platform through which employees can obtain timely answers to current issues or problems. Communities at Caterpillar are very narrowly focused in order to maintain a direct relationship between community activities and daily work. Communities are a way for Caterpillar employees to connect with the organisation’s global partners, customers, or teams in a virtual environment. Caterpillar currently has approximately 3,500 CoPs with about 40,000 unique participants. Approximately 7,000 Caterpillar dealers also participate in the organisation’s CoPs.

Knowledge management as “doing the right thing” (effectiveness) instead of “doing things right” (efficiency).

            The relatively stable and unchanging environment of the past allowed the luxury of predicting, pre-defining and pre-determining the future based on past data. Businesses could once define their business models, business practices and business value propositions – thereafter, the key challenge remained that of optimisation for increased efficiencies: of ‘doing things right’.

            However, changing customer trends, competitive products and services and changing societal and governmental pressures make the existing business models, business practices and business value propositions obsolete. Most of us are aware of the bloodbath in the desktop computer industry that eliminated many companies competing for business worldwide. However, some companies realised that the only performance outcomes that matter are the ones the customers really care about. They have been savoir-faire in tailoring and growing their customer value propositions around what the customers really needed rather than what they wanted to sell to customers. Dell has been an agile player that has been able to refine and play the game of ‘doing the right thing’ again and again, first in desktops and later in web hosting, printers, PDAs and storage. In the longer run, companies that can figure out the ‘next right thing’ and prepare well in advance to ride the next wave will be more effective in the longer run. However, it goes without saying that ‘doing the thing right’ also matters once you have figured out what the next cash cow will be.

            One central measure of organisational effectiveness is the creation and continuance of a measurable competitive advantage. Many broad initiatives such as efficiency, core competency advancement, actualisation of customer-centric products and services, and limitation of the fixed costs of doing business can help to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage within the marketplace. Thus, the effective management of knowledge understandably has the capacity to deeply impact the way a firm does business from the minor details of daily operations to the broadest strategic decision-making processes. 

Organisational Learning/Learning Organisation

            Argyris (1977) defines organisational learning (OL) as the process of “detection and correction of errors.” In his view organisations learn through individuals acting as agents for them: “The individuals’ learning activities, in turn, are facilitated or inhibited by an ecological system of factors that may be called an organisational learning system”.

            Huber (1991) considers four constructs as integrally linked to OL: knowledge acquisition, information distribution, information interpretation, and organisational memory. He clarifies that learning need not be conscious or intentional. Further, learning does not always increase the learner’s effectiveness, or even potential effectiveness. Moreover, learning need not result in observable changes in behaviour.

            Moreover, by taking the view of the organisation as a learning system, Senge contributed meaningful new insights. In his highly cited publication ‘The Fifth Discipline’ (1990) he argues that the organisations that will truly excel in the future will be the ones that discover how to tap people’s commitment and capacity to learn at all levels within an organisation. Senge believes that the ‘five component technologies’ are converging to create learning organisations: Personal Master – Shared Vision – Team Learning – Mental Models – Systems Thinking

            In his work ‘Disciplines of Organisational Learning: Contributions and Critiques’, Easterby-Smith (1997) argues against most scholars’ attempts to create a single framework for understanding and explaining the management of OL. By reviewing the most meaningful literature in the field he identified the following six disciplinary perspectives: psychology and organisational development, sociology, management science, strategy, production management, as well as cultural anthropology.

            Ang & Joseph (1996) contrast Organisational Learning and Learning Organisation in terms of process versus structure. They define OL as the ability of an organisation to gain insight and understanding from experience through experimentation, observation, analysis, and a willingness to examine both successes and failures. However, the managers’ role in the Learning Organisation, Senge (1990) argues, is that of a designer, teacher, and steward who can build shared vision and challenge prevailing mental models. He/she is responsible for building organisations where people are continually expanding their capabilities to shape their future — that is, leaders are responsible for learning.

Implementation of KM: The Xerox Case

            Xerox was set out to be as educated as possible about knowledge management (KM). The organisation has spent considerable financial resources and time to codify the collective knowledge through its research, consortium work, and sponsorship of research.

            During a study on its representative’s behaviour, Xerox noticed that most of the causes of breakdowns in the machines they sold couldn’t be found in any of the firm’s record of cases.
However representatives, thanks to their own knowledge and the knowledge they shared among each other during lunch breaks, were able to solve those problems.

            The solution, called Eureka project, was the creation of: An electronic database, in which they stored best practices, ideas and solutions; an intranet for representatives to make knowledge accessible to the whole company and facilitate the information sharing.

            The validity of the KM Eureka project’s implementation is strictly linked to the economic resources that it succeeds in recovering and saving up. In that perspective, the project Eureka made the Xerox Corporation save about the 5-10% on the job developed from the representatives and about million on the cost of pieces or replaced machines.

Poor Knowledge Management can kill

            On September 30, 1999, a nuclear criticality accident occurred at a uranium processing plant operated by JCO Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as JCO) in Tokai village, Ibaraki Prefecture. A solution of enriched uranium in an amount several times more than the specified mass limit had been poured directly into a precipitation tank bypassing a dissolution tank and buffer column intended to avoid criticality. This action was in contravention of the legally approved criticality control measures. Three JCO plant workers were exposed to high levels of radiation in the accident. This has resulted in the death of two of the workers making this an unprecedented nuclear accident in Japan which has developed nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

            Except for what are sometimes called ‘Act of God’, any problems arising at a nuclear plant originate in some way in human error. However, unless there is a sufficient set of vulnerability causal factors and one or more triggering causal factors, neither an instance of human error nor a consequential event occurs. Based on the systemic analysis of the criticality accident, it was proved that its root cause was inappropriate knowledge management – combination of (1) inadequate risk awareness by the top management and (2) “kaizen” (production improvement) drives.

Conclusion

            Today’s more balanced view of KM is therefore a combination of managing explicit information resources as well as managing the working environment and people so that tacit knowledge is more readily developed, shared and exploited. KM is well beyond the “fad” stage – from previous surveys that showed two thirds of senior managers regarded KM as a fad, today it is recognised as fundamental and a contributor of value. It does add value to an organisation’s bottom line, and though difficult to prove directly, new measuring instruments have helped stakeholders identify the sources of value more clearly.

            KM becomes more pervasive, a knowledge ‘lens’ and KM perspective are being applied to wide range of management and business processes. Total quality management, customer relationship management and risk management are examples of where such approaches have given stakeholders new insights and methods improves through the fusion of existing methods with good KM practice.

            KM was very much a practitioner led discipline and only belatedly has the academic community caught up. However, there are now several business schools with active programmes of research. We are constantly learning more about KM in different contexts. KM is also considered a side-show until it is fully integrated into the strategic planning and decision processes of an organisation, which means the explicit recognition of knowledge, and KM in the corporate strategy and a clear articulation of its contribution to the business bottom line (including non-financial objectives).

            Both the literature on organisational learning and knowledge management has been growing over the past years. While OL primarily aims to identify the underlying processes of learning by clarifying critical issues like the content, agents and levels of learning, KM takes a proactive role of explicitly providing guidelines for active intervention into the organisation’s knowledge base. Both perspectives have their merits. OL provides a theoretical framework for analysing changes in the organisational knowledge base. This framework can be used to hypothesise and explain cognitive and behavioural changes within organisations over time. KM serves as a manager’s framework for improving the OL’s potential. By guiding managerial intervention into the organisation’s knowledge base, KM serves as a management tool of one of the most critical resources of organisational success.

Copiapo Chile, 2010

ETHNOGENESIS AND CULTU RAL IDENTITY AMONG THE COLLA GROUPS OF THE ATACAMA RANGE

Daniel Quiroz[1] and Yuri Jeria[2]

The law 19253 [so-called Indigenous Law], created by the CONADI (National Corporation of Indigenous Development), recognizes in its first article, nine ethnic groups in Chiles: mapuche, aimara, rapanui, atacameña, quechua, colla, diaguita, kawashkar y yamana.

The presence of the colla as an ethnic group turned into a big surprise, not only for the ordinary people, but also for the experts, historians and anthropologists. In the Larraìn erudite work [1987] the colla group is not mentioned at all. It neither appears in the different study text made for the elementary and secondary school.

The first anthropology data about the “Chilean colla” come from a text that is going to be made up from a point of departure and based on a source of backgrounds: “Título para Profesor de Estado en Castellano” (a degree exam to Spanish Teacher) developed by C. Rojas [1976] concerning to the “magic colla world”, mainly based on interviews had with Mrs. Damiana Jerónimo. The information provided by Rojas is the first systematic rapprochement to the knowledge about the named regionally collas. This text provides, undoubtedly, an exotic vision of customs and strange ceremonies which provoke comprehension and liking.

Between 1993 and 1995 the DIBAM (Direction of Libraries, Files and Museums) funded an investigation project whose goal was to get some data about the adaptation of the populations who inhabited scattered in the valleys gullies, and watering places in the range of Atacama [Castillo, Cervellino & Quiroz 1994, Cervellino, Castillo & Quiroz 1995, Cervellino & Castillo 1996].In the course of this project we get a variety of data about the ethnic construction processes that colla groups were experiencing in the beginning of the nineties.

There are, among the material we got, three interviews carried out between September 29 and October 1º, 1992 in the Copiapo ranges with Esteban Ramos in Montandón, Zoilo Jerónimo in Potrerillos and with Pedro Jerónimo in the El Jardín  gully.

In this investigation we want to carry out, employing those interviews and  making use of other kind of information [newspapers cuttings and some "colla texts"],  a  reflection about the colla ethnic construction processes and table an idea of the named “colla identity”, considering that we were, maybe in different ways,  privileged witness of this process.

¿WHO ARE THE COLLA?

The CONADI web page establishes that the colla “make up an ethic group emerged by a mixing of peoples from Bolivia that took up the northwest provinces of Argentina and then move through the Range hillside between the XV and XVI centuries” [Conadi 2001]. According to the data we have there are not accurate numbers, nevertheless there are about 1000 colla people living in different locations, mainly urban but also rural places of the Atacama region. [Conadi 2001].

The “official” definition of colla gathers the investigations carried out in our country until nowadays. The most of the published texts agree that the current so-called colla are descendent of families that emigrated from the argentine northwest at the end of the XIX century or at the beginning of the XX century: “a group of families from Argentina [areas of Belén, Tinogasta, others] and the south of Bolivia, settle in the El Jardín gully, between the Potrerillos and El Salvador mining centers. They are the auto named, that nowadays are more than 60 families”. [Cervellino, 2001;  cf. Castillo, Cervellino & Quiroz 1994, Cassssigoli & Rodríguez 1995, Manríquez & Martínez 1995, Molina & Correa 1996, 1997, Gahona 2000].

In the web page www.serindigena.cl, developed by the Area of Native Cultures of the Division of Cultures belonging to the Ministry of Education, appears a “clear” definition of “being colla”:

The colla people inhabits in the north area of Chile, in watering places and gullies of the range of the province of Chañaral [Atacama Region], between the cities of Potrerillos, El Salvador, Diego de Almagro and Copiapó. The kolla arrived to Chile in two periods: first, in the last stage of the Tiwanaku Empire, in the X century; a second emigration is produced from the Argentinean northwest   and coincide with the Pacific War, at the end of the XIX century. The most part of the kolla arrived from Tinogasta and Fiambala, with a high migratory rate between 1880 and 1890.

Currently, the territory inhabited by this people comprises the Andean foothills and the Andes Range and some part of the high Andean plateau of the Chañaral and Copiapó provinces in the third region. Their most important demarcations are: the Quebrada de la Encantada in the north and the Copiapó River in the south, an area with a nomadic environment that is located at an altitude of 2.000 and 4.000 meters.

The celebrations and rituals are carried out inside the culture but the marriages only occur between them. The kolla spiritual world is similar to the aymaras. Their main ancestral believes are related with the Pachamama, the Mother Earth, which produces life and organize the human life. She knows when, how and why things must happen. The ceremonies are carried out by a yatiri, a learned person who has been chosen by the spiritual powers, the yatiri knows this election in a dream, to heal diseases, carry out begs and ceremonies. The rituals are carried out mainly in the hills, in the higher places. The yatiri begs for the support and the welfare of the community. The kolla commemoration dates are related with the agropastoral cycles, as the indigenous New Year at the end of June. [Mineduc 2001].

This text constitutes a synthesis which represents the result of a decade of colla ethnic construction.

The first paragraph is constitutes a bridge between the current populations that live in the Atacama ranges, and which are descendents of trans-Andean emigrates who have lived more than one hundred year in the area, with archeological populations that arrived one thousand years ago. This bond can not be archeologically proved, but in this process it does not have any worth.

In the second paragraph, a continuous territory is defined, with clear established frontiers, an elemental matter in the contemporary recognition of the ethnic entities that allows developing a process of claim of territories in an effective way.

In the third paragraph a world vision is developed, connected with something knower: the aimara spiritual world, unknowing the contributions of the European mixed race “the marriages only occur between them” allows connect the colla communities with relationship groups and with this the circle can be closed

We can compare this definition with one developed for the Argentinean Collas If we can talk like this]

The special process occurred in the northwest of Argentina make this colla culture not be a purely indigenous race but a mixing one that allows located it in the native camp, not only for their cultural history but for their insertion in the national and regional context. Like this the colla begins to differ themselves from the rest of the northwest mixed race, settling mainly in scattered settlements in the Puna zone, the Humahuaca gully and some part of the Calchaquìes Valleys.

Nonetheless, the collas are the true bearier of the traditional Andean lifestyle, through the maintenance of many cultural patterns such as the height shepherdess and the potato and maize agricultural economy; the harvest of carob and salt; the construction of housings: the traditional medicine and the prophecy techniques; the musical instruments erques, quenas, pinkullo, sikus and cajas; the worship to the Earth Mother and countless beliefs, rituals and social practices; the ancestral piety, in short, beyond of being designated by the new official religion, has coexisted with it, in a new way that has been redefined as popular piety. [Rumbojujuy 2001].

The investigations carried out in Argentina are related to different ways to see the existence of the colla group, to different styles of interpretation of the data. According to ENDEPA (National Group of Indigenous Pastoral) [2000], the collas that inhabits in Argentina, “puneños and their descendants, some quebraderos and all the other population of quechua-aymara origin” would be about 170,000 people.

In one hand we have those investigations which “see” the collas as a new ethnic group, “synthesis of diaguitas and omaguacas diluted definitely, of apatamas and groups of quechua and aimara origin from Bolivia”, are then, “the inheritor ethnic group of the native inhabitants of the northwest, consolidated throughout the XIX century [Frites, 1971][3]. It is curious how the European contribution is disown in this mixed race: the collas are, in conclusion, “part of the no integrated mixed race mass in the urban centers”, those who inhabit in the hills [Frites 1971].

In the other hand we have those investigations which question the continuity of the colla culture joint to the quechua and aimara cultures and the Andean nature of their culture, underling their European indigenous mixed race profile. [Isla 1992, Lozano, 2000].

COLLA ETHNOGENESIS

The ethnogenesis word, as many others used in the anthropology and other disciplines, is a Greek term that combines tennos, which means “the other populations”, with genesis, which means “development”. The term ethnogenesis is used, therefore, to talk about the origin of populations, mainly those that are different from us [4].

The ethnogenesis can be understood as the slow formation of an independent community, different from others, but related with them Roosens 1989].The formation in the population of a sense of self-recognition is considered, mostly, the base of this process. This ethnogenesis processes involve obligatory an “ethnic reaffirmation by means of the cultural reappropiation and reinvention.”

The ethnicity, this sense of self-recognition, is the product of the intercultural contact which at the same time, make up the interaction of the mentioned contact, by means of the selection of certain “contrast emblems” in front of others [Dietz 1999]. As Bourdieu [1991: 231], the typical thing of the symbolic logic is to transform in absolute differences of “all or nothing”, the infinitesimals differences”. The ethnicity is an aspect of the social relationships between leaders who consider themselves as culturally different from other groups and with them, they have minimal irregular interactions” [Eriksen 1993: 12]

This absolute and routined differences agree in an identity source in order to delimit a “we” and “others” and promote an ethnogenesis process: “the matter that before had been monotonous praxis, now is converted to give an explicit politic of identity” [Dietz 1999]. This way a cultural identity is made up through a complex process of etnogénesis.

FROM THE POTRERILLOS HUASOS CLUB TO THE COLLA CULTURAL CENTER

As has been shown, the colla “problem”, from an ethnic dimension, was no a problem in the eighties: “the aymaras, atacameños and collas constitution, as ethnic actors with a consciousness of ethnic identity and requires that question to the society and the government, represent […] a historic innovation” [Gundermann 2000]. In the Atacama region, the word colla is used to name the people who inhabited in “the hills”, using the existing resources and manage to survive, the knowledge they had about the flora, fauna and paths that went through the Atacama ranges.

Zoilo Jerónimo, one of the leaders of the movement for the recognition of the colla as an ethnic group in the nineties, refers about one of their remembers: “He is colla, of course, his mother, with all her resources, lived like one in the hill, there you go the bases [Zoilo Jerónimo 1993].

Even the term “live like one” refers to an unspecific way of life: remembers us that it is more important to live as a colla that being a colla [We can not avoid to mention that the word colla was also used to designate to the Potrerillos inhabitants in a regional context].

At the end of September 1993, at his home in the Montandón Railway Station, Mr. Esteban Ramos told us about Potrerillos:

You know, I do not understand the colla word, where it comes from. In this place, the old people were Chilean, Bolivian, and Argentinean; they were a set of families that were from those places. I always talk like this with people but none tell me why.  The people in the south name them huasos, “the huasos of the south”, and the people in the north, the northern people, called them “collas. I always name the people of this place, the people of Potrerillos “colla”, if they have born here, although the family is from the south, [Esteban Ramos, 1993]

Mr. Esteban Ramos states that the colla means in the north the same the huasos are in the south. This statement has more than one sense. The Potrerillos Huasos Club is, unquestionably, one of the main organization example subsequent colla communities. The brothers Salomón and Zoilo Jerónimo had an important participation in that club:

Salomón has the documents of the “collita” legal entity, that and the huasos club are the same thing, but we do not have the legal entity documents of the club, but in both there are the same people. Salomón and I are involve in the club, for this Independence Day I invited my relatives since we need signatures to get the document for the “collita” [Esteban Ramos, 1993]

Mr. Esteban thinks the homonym colla/huaso matches with a similarity in the life style, since they share “a life in the countryside”. The colla were breeder: “all the old people were only breeder; they had donkeys, coats, mules, horses, lambs and even llamas as the Jerónimo family as I told you, all kind of animals except bovine. Muleteer “my father was pioneering, he worked with a wagon and my mother worked preparing the meal for the people who worked with the wagons”. Miners “then he started working in the Inés Chiica mine in the gold peak and some were farmers: “they sowed maize, gourd, and all were crushed” [Esteban Ramos, 1993, Pedro Jerónimo, 1993]. They also hunted foxes, chinchillas, guanacos and vicunas. Later we will discuss some aspects of the colla life style.

When Zoilo Jerónimo [1993] defines “being a colla” he can not avoid saying “the colla has a large worth, the colla is “huaso”, he is a horses and mules trainer; he can do anything”.

The creation of the CEPI (Special Committee of Indigenous Peoples), under the government of Patricio Aylwin [1990-1994] provoked the reappearing of the indigenous topics and a discussion about their appropriateness in the Atacama Region. Like this, at the end of the eighties, in the bosom of the Potrerillos Huasos Club, begins to appear a concern between the Jerónimo brothers, so they decided to participate in the National Meetings of Indigenous Cultures, organized by the CEPI.

This concern was promoted and caused through the lend support by many people and institutions interested in emphasize the colla indigenous nature and like this, include them in the Indigenous Law, which was going to be enacted, the actions of some politics in the area, such as the Senator Ricardo Nuñez were highlighted . In the interviews of 1993, always appears the name of the senator’s wife as an “instigator” of the colla movement, even she supported the financing to carry out some ceremonies.

This mutual interesting, between the collas and the Chilean State, end in the incorporation of the “colla” in the Indigenous Law.

For the El Salvador people, Mrs. Damiana Jerónimo was an important personage, known by everyone. Her piety will be the threads that will allow match some cultural pieces, which would be hardly connected in other way [Rojas 1976]. The conversations with Mam Damiana allows glimpse the simultaneous existence of ceremonies connected to the Andine world, such was said and the “vilancha” (a colla common party) [Cervellino 1993, Gahona 2000], and the catholic religious celebrations, as the “Virgen de la Candelaria” [Rojas 1976].

From the conversations we had with Pedro Jerónimo, brother of Mam Damiana, we got some data that allow contextualize the validity of this ceremonies. For Mr. Pedro Jerónimo, Mrs. Damiana knew the ceremonies, about the candelaria blossom “because she was devote of the saints, we have never been evangelical people, we have just believed in the saints, in Our Lord and in the Virgin. When we had a lot of herd, we flowered; we put flowers in their ears. I do not know the pachamama ceremony, but the vilancha I do, but it was before us, who knows how the old people made it” [Pedro Jerónimo 1993]. To Mr. Pedro the Andean ceremonies “were matter of the older people”, they were devotes of the saints”.

Zoilo Jerónimo tells us that his interest rose twelve years ago, when the elementary school of Potrerillos “make up a work, to compete in the region, related to the race values.  The kids were looking for people to support them and they interview me, they asked me who I was, how I was born, how I had been bring up, which were my food, which were my natural resources, how my family got money, all that appears in this investigation, they got the first place”. [Zoilo Jerónimo, 1993]. To help to carry out this investigation allowed him to order his knowledge, “his resources”. The same he told the kids, he told in the indigenous population meetings organized by the CEPI.

The second step was the creation of the Colla Cultural Center and its legal authentication: in Copiapó we are processing the legal entity, we are 40 people older than 18 years old, but as a race we have more than 100. We have good values, good visions, for these reasons we have to join and organize, and like this we can say many things, to say what we feel” [Zoilo Jerónimo 1993].

We organized a blossom and a branding to the herd in 1992, with the support of regional people and some organizations. Zoilo Jerónimo was organizer of the ceremonies “there are totally sacred acts, in the blossom the things given by the nature and God are valued, is the time to give tribute, the offering is very common, it is in the sacred Holy Scripture, in all the religious laws there is the tribute.  In the tithe, the best animal is offered, the moist meat; the other pieces are given to the workers. These are, more or less, the things we try to search” [Zoilo Jerónimo 1993]

During 1995 the Potrerillos Colla Indigenous Community is recognized, mainly composed by the Jerónimo-Escalante family, whose goal was “carry out a job of collective recovering of the colla sociocultural practices [Paño 1997]. The same year the Paipote Colla Community is constituted and in 1996 the Río Jonquera Colla Community is constituted too. These were the first colla registered communities in the Law 19.253.

THE COLLA: HUASOS OR GAUCHOS

One of the most interesting matters that always appear around the colla ethnic description is related to the relationships with the groups which inhabits in Argentina which are larger.

The colla, especially in the area of Potrerillos, come mainly from the Argentinean northeast: the name of my grandmother was Eudosia Berazay, but I do not remember the name of my grandfather, only his last name, it was Ramos, so the name of my father is Jesús Ramos. All they came from the other side of the range, from Fiambalá, near Tinogasta, of Palo Blanco. They came riding [Esteban Ramos, 1993]. The Jerónimo family was “from the north of Argentina, particularly from the Salta Valleys and from Potrero Grande. They came with their animals and even with llamas and with  them came the little Mrs. Damiana Jerónimo” [Esteban Ramos 1993]. To Zoilo Jerónimo [1993], “the remarkable values we have are from Argentinean legacy.

Although Zoilo Jerónimo recognizes that many of the colla values are “from “Argentinean heritage” and his grandparents came from Argentina, he can make a distinction between the “colla” and the “cuyano”.

I have many friends for example Aróstica and Del Río Jorquera who have the same history from our, they come from Argentina, but they are not of the “coya” race, but of cuyanas races They are huasos, breeders of animals and miners, there are resourceful people, handcraft people, and even I was told to make some ponchos, they are beautiful [Zoilo Jerónimo 1993]

He does not consider them of the same “race”, but they do the same things as them, even some things such as the ponchos are better.

Mr. Pedro Jerónimo talks about the constant journeys to Argentina, his relatives in Saujil, Tinogasta, Fiambalá, and Palo Blanco; and about the goods they exchanged:

You leave here in the morning and in the midday you arrive to Fiambalá. We carried the coat leather, shovels, ointments, menthol; the people bought many of those. They also bought Chilean shovels because the Argentinean shovels were so bad, they were used. Those things we sold, and with the money we bought the supplies, they were cheap, the sugar, flour, everything to cook, we also bought clothes, the money was enough. [Pedro Jerónimo, 1993].

The Trans Andean bonds are a current matter in the talks about the colla world.

THE COLLA COMMUNITIES

After the inscription of the Potrerillos and Paipote communities in 1995, also were registered Río Jonquera y sus Afluentes in 1996, Pastos Grandes and Sinchi Wayra in 1998 [González 2000]. In December 2001 there were five communities legally registered: Diego de Almagro, Sinchi Wayra, Pastos Grandes, Comuna de Copiapó y Río Jorquera y sus Afluentes. These communities came from three different geographic areas with collas: Tierra Amarilla, Diego de Almagro and Copiapó, all of them were dominated by settlements in the urban areas[5]. In 2002 a division in the Río Jonquera Community was produced and two new communities rose: Wayra Manta Tujsi and Pacha Churicay.

These communities main goal is, undoubtedly, “the recovering of lands and water” [Paño 1997], although, their histories are different [Paño 1997, González 1997, 2002].

THE TEXTS AND BEING A COLLA

The main of the authors concerned about the ethnicity phenomenon, highlight the worth of the written texts in the ethnogenesis of the human groups who try to differ themselves in a cultural way   [Eriksen 1993, Dietz 1999].

When we talked with Zoilo Jerónimo in 1993, and we asked him about some written texts he showed in the Indigenous Cultures National Meetings, organized by the CEPI, he answered that “he did not carry written documents; he carried crafts, sample board, marai (in mining, a big stone where the mineral is grinded), iron things, but they were in small size, I left the real ones [Zoilo Jerónimo, 1993].

In this four pages text, González first raises the problem of the cultural continuity. He traces the kolla population origin to “the final stage of the Bolivia Tiwanaku Empire, a great Andean Inca civilization” [2000: 1] and describes a series of stages that reveal that the current colla of Copiapo are the descendants of the colla manor between 1000 and 1100 A.D. [2000, 1-2]. In addition, he gives to the existence of the colla in the region, a historical depth and locates it in the XVIII[6] (although all the data we have, locate it at the end of the XIX century and at the beginning the XX century.

Second, he is concerned to demonstrate his relevance to the colla world, point that an ancestor, was president of the Muleteer Labor Union in 1912 which is considered the first colla organization. This was Santos Gonzalez Vallón[7]. He also created the Sinchi Wayra Community which is made up by the “ayllu” of the González Vallón-Quispe.

Third, he puts the kolla as an object of the Military Government of Chile from 1973 and like this “they were cornered where they lived […] often the military men went around the range, abusing the woman such as the Quispe sisters who sacrificed themselves, offering up their lives to the Pacha” [González 2000: 3].

In fourth place, he point these communities “have live historically in their Andean habitat and owning to socioeconomic pressure, the majority descend to the cities o settlements […] nowadays our population has recovered gradually the practice of our culture. The ceremonies, carnivals, rituals, the tributes, “dulce mesa” (a table served on the floor as a tribute to the Pachamama) and the new years are being slowly consecrated in some communities” [González 2000: 4]

According to González [2002: 1], the native colla of the third region are not in extinction, they have just kept their traditions privately, even they avoid their own children inherit this culture”.  González names this idea his “general hypothesis” as part of the text he signs as Oscar Pacho-Kolla González, ethnographer [sic]. Oscar Pacho-Kolla González named himself not just as “ethnographer”, but also as “hill spirit”, [2000], “the amauta” (person who taught the nobility children).

THE COLLA ETHNICS MARKERS

The collas have chosen a set of ceremonies that act as ethnics markers:  the branding, the blossom, and the vilancha among others. For instance, in the daily “La Cuarta” of june 28, 2002, appears the following sentence: “due to the celebration of the Indigenous

Peoples Nacional Day the colla carried out brandings and blossom:

COPIAPO. – With branding and blossom of herd, a ritual where the animals are decorated with multicolor wools and marked in the ears, the members of the colla group, that inhabits in the Andean foothills area, celebrated in the park El Pretil the Indigenous Populations National Day.

It was a beautiful traditional celebration, full of colors. It was carried out by the colla managing director of the Río Jorquera town, Zoilo Jerónimo. First, the leader thanked to the Pachamama (mother earth) and begged for a best year not only in the abundance of the harvest or the increase of the animals, but also in the joining of all the indigenous populations, including the diaguita that nowadays does not appear as a recognized ethnic group in the Indigenous Law.

Later, the colla women with the Atacama governor Yasna Provoste Campillay who has diaguita ancestry, and the SEREMI (Ministerial Regional Secretary) of Planning and Coordination, Claudio López Klocker, got in a coat farmyard able in the place and began the ceremony.

The first ritual consists of brand the animals in the ears to distinguish who is the owner. Whereas the blossom is related to the animals’ life cycle, for this, multicolor wool ornaments are made up, and are put in the animals ears.

This a collective celebration carried out in the countryside where the young collas can felt in love and find couple.

There was also a tasting of traditional food, such as embers bread, mate, churrascas (bread fast made in a grill) roasted coat, nuts, dried figs and raisins. Also a handcraft trade fair was presented to the public, there the presence of the diaguitas that came from the Alto del Carmen town was show off. Some multiethnic organizations that take in pascuenses, aymaras and mapuches, descendants were joined too. There were canticles and dances which were celebrated by the public that was in the place.

The intendant use the opportunity to confirm the next handing of 8,900 hectares of lands to the colla ethnic group in the Atacama Region, this allows them to solve the goats fodder problem during the winter which have food difficulties. Claudio López added that this land handing to the Copiapó, Pastos Grandes and Sichi-Wayra towns is the recognition to the colla culture and to the concrete actions of integration that the regional government is carrying out.

In an occasion, when the colla community of Copiapo [Estación Paipote], gained a Fondart project, they celebrated the vilancha or pay inka[8] and also the branding and the blossom:

The colla carried out worship to the Earth Mother in a town chosen by the ancestors, with food and typical dresses.

In the Bolo area, in the Quebrada de Paipote, the Colla Community carried out the Pay Inka ceremony or Inca Carnaval whose goal is to keep their rituals and traditions in pursuit of the welfare of the population, town, animals and land.

The “Ceremonial Table” was constituted during the celebration that began at 00:00 hrs. There the animal chosen by the community was  consecrated and then sacrificed with the arrival of the “New Sun” and whose heart was given alive to the pacha mama or mother earth. Later the “Blossom Carnival” and the “branding of the new animals”, these rituals allow, according their traditions, increase the number of animals and strengthen them.

On that occasion, Juan Pérez Bordones, the head of the community said that “as a colla population we feel very proud to have gained a Fondart project since it helps us to keep the traditions, unify the different colla communities and turn us into a population” also he insisted in the joining that must exist between the different colla communities of the region and likewise he highlighted the work carried out by the Education Ministry of Atacama and of the Culture department of this organization and for the concern and support to the native peoples . [Mineduc 2002]

These ceremonies are the media through the colla show themselves to the rest of the regional society as a different body.

THE COLLA AND THE RECOVERING OF THE LANDS

Since 1994 a process of fiscal lands transfer to the colla communities has been developed.  In 1997 the Investigation Group TEPU was commissioned by the Conadi to do an investigation where appears the first territorial legal action for about 50,000 hectares to three indigenous communities: Potrerillos, Paipote and Río Jorquera [Molina and Correa 1995, 1996]. Then a geodesic study was also commissioned to the INAS Ltda in 1996. This study establishes an available surface of 45,000 hectares.

The 2002 the transfer of about 9,000 hectares was determined, these were split into 1,279 hectares for the Diego de Almagro Community, 1,608 for the Sinchi-Wayra, Pastos Grandes communities and the Copiapo Municipality, and 6,108 for the Río Jorquera Community.

In the pages of the daily “La Cuarta” of Santiago, on June 18, 2002 it is emphasized the handing of about 6,000 hectares to the Rio Jorquera Community.

COPIAPO. – A meeting was carried out in the head office of the colla ethnic group of the Río Jorquera area. In this meeting the community was informed about the general arrangements contained in the transfer decree of fiscal lands, the conditions of the handing of 6,108 hectares, and also the prohibitions and protections that the Indigenous Law grants.

A lot of leaders of institutions related to the matter were preset in the meeting, leaded by the Regional Ministry of National Goods, Rodrigo Rojas together with thirty members of the colla ethnic group of Río Jonquera, an area where inhabit about130 families.

It was informed that the lands transfer is by way of community for all the cases and they will constitute hereditary lands with all the rights, uses, customs, and active and passive easement, free of mortgages, prohibitions, interdictions and litigation.

Accoring to the Direction of Frontiers and Boundaries, the properties are attached to the legal regulations currently in force of the frontier areas: the community must allow the SAG (Agricultural and Cattle Service) order sanitary measures to animals and fields in risk due to the Argentinean frontier. Likewise, the benefit community, owning to the dry ecosystem fragility and the vulnerability of the agro forestry resources, must allow the concerning institutions implement and use the necessary measures for the resources.

The handing prohibits cutting down the trees and native shrubs, also they must protect the fauna wild species such as the vicuna, guanaco, chinchilla, viscacha and piuquén, among others.

The indigenous lands can not be alienated, seized, taxed or acquired by legal principle, except among community or indigenous people of the same ethnic group. Neither can be let, handed over in commodate nor transferred to third people in use, possession or administration.

The corresponding folders were handing, these contain all the records, which are explained, about the transfer of fiscal lands. And also some questions about water and hunt asked.

The managing director of the Río Jorquera colla community thanked for the meeting and said that they are not  interested with any action against the regional authorities since they think the good conversations they have had until now, have resulted more advantageous that an aggressive attitude.

The last sentence said by Zoilo Jerónimo, now in the Río Jonquera Community, is quite significant, since is the reflection of a division that is being producing now among the colla communities

For instance, Pablo Segundo Escobar, also a “representative of the colla indigenous community of the Rìo jonquera y sus Afluentes” said even though they have had advances the last years as a result of the leader’s effort, the government “anti-indigenism” problem persists [Bravo 2001]:

The Indigenous Law arrangement which indicate that when a matter about us is discussed, must be present at least “one brother of the community”, is not observed- he reported. Moreover, we face a constant discrimination from the government servants […] but from the thousand hectares that exist, they just want to give us 600, and that is inadequate to suckle our livestock mass which is the biggest in the III Region with forty thousand heads. We will be obligated to put a coat over other one and in short time, they will die by hungry. And the collas too”,

As a way to protest they tried to take the head office of the Copiapo Regional Manager’s office with the support of other indigenous organizations. This attitude is shared by other leaders, such as Oscar Pacho González, chosen as Coordinator of the Indigenous Matters of the Kolla Native Communities Council, who in a press conference on April 26, 2002 indicates:

I am colla; I am not Chilean, since we have different thoughts, actions, ceremonies, and religiosity and until the government does not give back our lands, I will never consider myself as a Chilean […] this is a gibe because we will have to teach the coats to walk in line […] we are willing to take extreme measurements, since we know we are able to stop the regional economic development and to carry out this we will block roads and more. [El Chañarcillo, 27 de abril del 2002], we will rebel against the State and everyone who damages the ancestral rights we have in this country. El Atacama, 27 de abril del 2002].

Both feelings represent alignments in favour or against some government departments:  Pacho González against the Conadi and favored by the Health and Education Ministry and Zoilo Jerónimo favored by the Conadi. These two men have provoked a breaking between the communities, but Pérez Bordones wants to play it down:

I appreciate the steps carried out by the education and health sector in the support to the resurgence of the colla people. We have worked well with them and they have encourage us to go ahead y achieve certain goals. There are not discords among the diverse communities but there are discussions. With the good participation of the communities we demonstrate the joining, reliability that exists among the communities to work, carry out things, handcraft, etc. [Mineduc 2000]

THE COLLA PEOPLE BETWEEN ETHNIC AND ESTHETIC:

About fifteen years ago, the Colla People focused their ritual life around the devotion of La Virgen (de la Candelaria and others whose pictures were placed in certain gullies, such as in Paipote). Some people can affirm behind this activity is hidden the ancient Pachamama worship (equivalence Pachamama/Virgen). Probably something like this existed. Nowadays, the Colla People can just see in the Aymara world a door for “returning again” to the past and from that point, their “returned” identity will take shape. The Pachamama worship was considered the best beginning. And perhaps, because of this, it has been left the Virgen worship aside in discursive terms, although not in practical terms.

In front the dark outlook that blocks their native condition, the Colla People realize they must be different in an extreme and evident way. Some of them travel the way back, looking at the past, looking at the ancients, such as Jerónimo, and transform the Virgen worship into the Pachamama worship. This can be considered a main piece that we could call the “Colla new age” and which is present from nine or ten years ago keeping a more “conservative” profile, well, if that word can represent it exactly. This generates a direction that clearly we would describe as ethic, that inside of it, we looking for contents and ritual able to bring us closer to the Earth and developing a new relationship philosophy in harmony with it.

Others choose for “parody”, aiming at an esthetic orientation. Thus, the first thing is highlighted is the emerging Colla’s dances and the searching for new “traditional” clothing, different from what Colla people wear at present. Some of them wear blankets and feathers and dance such as “rain dance”, a clearly reminiscence of the North American “far west”. The women of Jorquera River wear long tight black dresses, with a headscarf. This new “ethnic livery” is in disagreement with what ethnic orientation sector has kept, whose look for the differentiation trying keeping and increasing the value of the “traditional clothing”, the flowered dress (from China), with headscarf and straw hat. This was publicly pointed out by Leonidas Jerónimo (Sister’s Zoilo): the genuine Colla clothing is this, and any other is just an invention of some people. [9]“

Later of the esthetic differentiation, a new ritual ethos it was assumed from the arriving of a Bolivian Inca elder and the “priestly ordination” of three Inca elder in Cuestecilla in 2002. From that moment, we can talk about a progressive aymarización in the Colla rituals and adopting new forms, with names inspirited in Quechua and Aymara. Since 2003, characters identified as Spiritual Guides in some communities, were called “Yatiris”, as the case of Mrs. Jesús Cardozo, of the Comunidad Comuna de Copiapó, where it already has included the figure of Inti, mixing it with emblems that use iconography of the natives from the west of North America as main pieces. Most of the Colla communities have been added gradually to this current. Here it rise the interest and necessity of exploring in detail the diverse ways, and esthetic and ethic alternatives in the ethnogenesis process (or re-ethnification) of Colla people.

EPILOGUE

Undoubtedly this topic is not ended. There are discussions, not only among the Colla People, but also among the experts, about the past, present, and future of the Colla Communities. It makes sense, thinking about the “history true” of the Colla People, just as it was defined in a document that points out “this belongs to the official version of the Final Inform of the Subgrupo de Trabajo Pueblo Colla, of the Grupo de Trabajo Pueblos Indígenas del Norte” of the Comisión de Verdad Histórica y Nuevo Trato (2002):

1. OUR DEFINITION

We define us as the people from the heights, the snow, the cold and the puna. We are the native Colla people from the third region in Chile.

2. OUR ORIGIN

The Colla people are native from this territory, which frontier zones were not invaded by Spanish empire or during the creation of the Republics. We have always been an Andean people.

3. OUR EARLY TIMES

Throughout our early times we had our own language, which is unknown to us at present. In the religious-spiritual matter, the Pachamama play a role of integration of all energy. We believe in Spirits Guides such as Sun Dad and Moon Mum. In our territory we built oratories and cairns. We believe in souls and spirits. Before any activity we take, such as trip or harvest, offerings are presented lighting “oil lamps”, which use animal fat as fuel. Every November 1st we celebrate “The Spirits and Souls Day”. Today is June 21th and we celebrate the “Renewal of the Year”. We have religious men and women who cure diseases and deliver babies. There is a close communication with the nature and its forces: stars, animals, water.

With regard to family, the marriage agreed by parents in advance, it is carried out by people belonging to various family groups.

One of the principles that determined our behavior and which our ancestors taught us, is this that prohibit children seeing an animal sacrifice since they were delayed in the learning process of how to speak. The same was prohibited to pregnant women. When children were born, during the baptism, some members of the family (parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts) give a present that usually is an animal for cultural, economic, and educative purposes. The baptism consisted of taking a bath of water and herbs. In addition, our ancestors had their own games or entertainments such as La Taba which is maintained at present.

The Colla people economy in early times was based in cattle raising, agriculture, mining and international trade. The cattle rising consisted of breeding animals (llamas, alpacas) and which included the use of health policies. Because of the environmental features of our land, we had to move with the animals during winter and summer, as well as currently, and even though was seized big part of ancient land. Also there was sustainable exploitation of free animals (guanaco, vicuna and chinchilla for instance).

The complete use of animals (besides meat, milk, wool, and leather) allowed the development of saddlery and textile products. The agriculture was the process of grain cultivation in stone terrace. Mining consisted of the exploitation of copper, silver, and sulphur mines on a small scale allowing the Colla goldsmith. In the international trade, the trading of products were made with different Andean peoples what meant going towards the North of Chile, the North-east of Argentina, and the lands that belong to Peru and Bolivia at present.

Or perhaps, it can be useful some words of Oscar Pacho González, and they were written in his memory about La Comunidad Colla de Paipote:

Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, the kolla of this community try revaluating his cultural context, and this way, this native community has slowly marked the beginning of what we could call Utopia, returning to its original environment carrying a different culture which does not belong to them as if it was a heavy load, however, it is the only one they have known [González 1997].

Or perhaps, we must consider a testimony, even though if it has been manipulated too much, of a four year child, from Los Loros, commune of Tierra Amarilla, located in Copiapó Valley. This testimony it could be used as an unfinished conclusion of this work:

Those who live in the town are Collas and play the guitar and bass drums. We dance Cueca: somebody plays the guitar and we dance. The Colla people play bass drum but it is played by children only. The girls cannot use it. Also we play with stones. This game is throwing stones, but they are not really stones but animal bones, such as dinosaur ones. The Colla people make weave; in the kindergarten the teacher teach us how to weave. For weaving we use wool to make cloths. It is easier weaving with the weaving machine because knots are made. It is easier than tie a shoe. The weaves can be put over there as little piece of cloth in the cooker. I did it one for my mum [Cuevas 2001].

Or perhaps … because it is not has been said the last word of this ethnogenesis complex process.

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2001        Ser Kolla. Santiago: Area de Culturas Originarias de la División de Cultura del Ministerio de Educación [http://www.serindigena.cl/pueblos/pko_01.htm].

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1995        Informe sobre la ocupación territorial de las comunidades colla del Río Jorquera, Quebrada de Paipote y Potrerillos. Santiago: Grupo de Investigación TEPU. Manuscrito.

1996        Informe de solicitudes de tierras de fondo de valles [vegas, aguadas, campos de pastoreo) para las comunidades collas del Río Jorquera, Quebrada Paipote y Poterillos. Santiago: Grupo de Investigación TEPU. Manuscrito.

NARDI, R. L. J

1979.   El kakán, lengua de los diaguitas. Sapiens (Chivilcoy, Argentina) 3: 1-33.

ROJAS, C.

1976    El mundo mágico de los collas. Memoria para optar al Título de Profesor de Estado en Castellano. La Serena, Universidad de Chile.

ROOSENS, E.

1989    Creating ethnicity: the process of ethnogenesis. Newbury Park: Sage.

RUMBOJUJUY

2001        Los collas [http://www.rumbojujuy.com.ar/aborigenes.htm].

SERPLAC-ATACAMA

2003        Caracterización de Grupos Prioritario en la Región de Atacamas: Pueblos Indígenas.   [http://www.serplacatacama.cl/paginas_secundarias/grupos_prioritarios_indigenas.htm]

WILLIAMS, R.

1976    Keywords. Londres: Flamingo

[1] Social Anthropology, Master in Archeology and Doctor of History. Documentation Center of Patrimonial Goods, DIBAM.

[2] Social Anthropology, Master of Pedagogy. Atacama Regional Museum, Copiapó, DIBAM.

[3] E. Frites, an Argentinean colla men, say his ancestors inhabited in a vast territory in the northwest of Argentina which before, in the XVI century, was inhabited by the apatama, omaguaca and diaguitas, who when mixed between themselves the colla people raised [1971: 375-376].

[4] R. Williams [1976: 19] say that ethnos originally means “pagan” in Greek, and was used to refer to the no Greek people.

[5] In the Diego de Almagro county the collas are located in the Diego de Almagro, Potrerillos [currently in a eradication process], Inca de Oro towns and in the neighbouring gullies; in the Tierra Amarilla county there are urban population in the Tierra Amarilla and Los Loros towns  and rural population in Río Jorquera, Río Pulido and neighbouring gullies; in the Copiapó county there are  urban population in Paipote and Copiapó and rural population in the Hacienda La Puerta, Quebrada de San Miguel,  Bolo area and Pastos Grandes [Conadi 2001].

[6] Oscar Pacho González support that the first records about the collas in Chile date from 1750, in Taltal, and they had a own languague named kakán, which existed until the arrival of a American mining company http://www.soc.uu.se/mapuche/news/merc020114.html. The kakán language corresponds, in fact, to the language spoken by the diaguita (Nardi 1979).

[7] González say  that “the kollas who inhabits in the Potrerillos surroundings establish a labor union of muleteers” [2000: 2]

[8] Juan Pérez Bordones support “This Inca Carnival occurs in other places, it is called pachacuti. The breeder carry out a ceremony where the animals are branding and at the same time, as a tradition, and one of them is scarified. The New Year is celebrated with a lamb or coat; the aymarás prepared them with a llamo. In this carnival we hand over that strength to the person who donates the animal. Also during the ceremony the name of the next breeder is known. The blessing is for the animal, to it grows stronger, to more animals exist and over all to the owner of the animal. In this carnival we wanted to join with all the others populations. As colla population we feel very proud to  have gained this Fondart Project since it help us to keep our traditions and to unify the different colla communities and turn us into a only one population” [Mineduc 2002].

[9] One year ago, a leader of the Diaguita Cultural Center in Copiapó asked for information to A. Gahona and Y. Jeria about the Diaguitas, since “we have to make up some typical Diaguitas” (Jaime Campillay).

If you look French through ages, you will quick understand that that knowledge is obviously connected to the conditions that are culturally ours. Well, we should be aware that it is what we recently said: “In the Middle Ages, there were French texts which were worth. There was, for example, the Roland’s song, etc.” Medieval university has completely ignored these French texts, even those produced by Rutebeuf or Villon. And, why did the Middle Age deliberately put aside these texts? Because this was not made to know, but, as Nietzsche very nicely said: it was the “gay science,” or the anti-science, the science used to protest, not recognized by the university: the science of that time, and until the XVI century, was Latin, French and these sciences were not more than a gay science.

When was the first displacement, which led the birth of “French literature,” effectuated? In the Renaissance, when the “Modern Times” were appearing with Rabelais. If Rabelais is ludicrous, “Gallic,” a pig and everything you want, it is because he was just rehabilitating the medieval gay science, but in French. It was a very great revolution: before, French texts had any status, from now on, they have one. Of course, there were a few years that it was being prepared. There was a pre literature, a “protohistory” literature, if I can say, represented by those that has been called the major Rhetoric men, which rhyme in French and who began to try to place their productions into the refined society. But Renaissance is a breath of oxygen; it is the French all fronts, the gay science carefully promoted.

But what has done this gay science promotion? At the beginning, it was liberation, with all the excesses that all liberation has: a real passion! However, little by little, the passion had decreased, and this was the birth of what we have called “literature,” which consisted to express even the most serious things in French, things of that time, the science of that time. But this was not the science of the university, which continued to be expressed in Latin, but, in some way, a science for university, which was passed in French. In these circumstances, you understand that texts such as those of Madam de La Fayette, the tragedies of Racine, or the comedies of Moliere were literature, as well as the speech of the Descartes’ method, the thoughts of Pascal or the spirit of the laws of Montesquieu. When we see Descartes’ writings included in the XVII° manuals of literature, we can see this: “What can the speech of the method do for literature?” Well, the answer is that because Descartes expressed his method in French. It was the same, with Pascal. There are certainly many illegible things on his writings, but it was the theology in French. Do you understand now that what makes good a tragedy of Racine, Descartes, Pascal or Montesquieu, was that these authors expressed in French a science that, since the middle age to the XVIII° siècle, would not interest anybody, because the science was written in Latin. We must see the “French literature,” as a phenomenon in the margin of university, and almost in conflict with it. If you want to see like this, university was the science of the “right,” and literature, the science of the “left””: this literature consisted to speak like a “decent man,” and not like an old grimoire reader, and this was not a science the same as the one of the university. You understand, in these circumstances, why the ancestors of our current “human sciences” are the psychological novelists, the classical theater, the moralists’ writers, etc. We see these texts as works of art. They had certainly this character-here too, but they had mainly this particular nature of represent a science in separation with the University of that time, and not only one that was worth as a university science but one that had hoped too well exceeds it.

When was the second displacement, which superintended the birth of our “human sciences,” effectuated? In the XIX°, that was the époque of Balzac and the realism. From the realistic movement, things are starting to evolve. Literature becomes a “literature of message.” From that time, who has worked with sociology for example? Zola. It is the thesis message, if I dare to say: novel to thesis, theater to thesis, written by philosophers (at university, at this time there was a long time that we haven’t think!)

And we are in the third displacement, this means: the culmination of thoughts (this means the end of literature), like Sartre: read what he tells in Situations of the “committed literature.” From the moment where literature has been committed, this is no more than a war weapon, this is no more than a gay science (it is even terribly sadder!) and this is no more literature, it became another thing (it belongs to you to name this as you want). “And after Sartre, you will ask me, what remains of the French literature?” The answer is: nothing. It is Byzantine; I mean the “new novel”, the “absurd theater,” the “new criticism.” Nothing! One day, someone asked me what is left of the French literature since the end of the second war (1945) to now. My first reaction was, precisely, to answer “nothing!” And then, after a carefully thought, I replied: “perhaps the words of Sartre, and the memories of Hadrian of Marguerite Yourcenar.” You must admit that this is not very much! You must conceive that French literature is dead, when the Science of men born.

This does not mean that it does not present any interest. Because, who spoke of the man, until the middle of the last century? Well, literature did. For the reason that since Bacon, it was born what he called the naturalist philosophy by the time of the Renaissance, and from this philosophy it comes the issues of our “nature sciences.” And to make a science of Man (with a capital letter!) this creature quasi divine, was excluded. Consequently, literature (history and philosophy included), has filled the historic role of conservatory of the man (“pre human sciences,” or, the gay science of Modern Times). People sometimes ask me this question: “How is it that, after having done your humanities studies, then you devoted to linguistics, and then to anthropology?” You understand that the only thing that I was interested in life was the answer to this question: What is a man (with a tiny letter)? Literature gave me the first answers, then I started to be engaged to what are the highest antiquities and the first real science of Man (thinking that language was natural in men), to be exact it is grammar, called “linguistic” when I was teaching, linguistics took me, logically, to anthropology. You see that there is, in my route, an intellectual and a perfect consistency. I close parenthesis here and I return to my business.

You understand that when somebody says to you, “I teach French literature” (from Rabelais to Sartre!) It became completely clichéd (it is good to be on museum) and, above all, how would you like to put all of these works in the same cart? This is ridiculous!

In the other hand, we must see that the texts we continue to call “literary” are a mass of determinisms. That is what I blame to my childhood teachers because instead of deconstruct the text, they took it globally (it was the famous “text explanation”), but it should have different specialists who would have treated those texts with different methods: there is, indeed, in the literary text the sociologist works, the psychoanalyst, the historian, the psychologist, the linguist, etc. In a single literary text there is a lot for what to devote a full year, the year which would be more informative as the exam, more or less intuitive of a series of “chosen pieces.” But it is true that such as education would require, of the professor in French Literature, a series of knowledge and a synthesis gift which is quite unusual! You can believe me, this is what I have tried to practice while I was a student (a superior student, it is true). But, believe me, I do not regret this: I am proud to believe, I am proud of passionate my students of License while explaining them… “The rabbit and the turtle”! I have never stopped to teach them to read, but wearing another glasses (already!) This is why I have always thought, and continue to believe that the question of programs and schedules have no interest (this is the kitchen ones.) The content, in a general way, have too little to do with the spirit formation. What really counts are the glasses, this means what some people call the method. That is why I think that literary texts cannot be successfully used in higher education.

Is it necessarily to remove the teaching of French Literature in our secondary education like some people, not without reason, want? I will answer: “no”, for the simple reason that, nobody (only a barbarian) is going to burn files. But if we do, we should also burn all our museums! But a museum, we can range that, we can range a few stops before to select certain oeuvres. I could take another example: the metropolitan. You go in the train and you browse the line, with the intention to stop in a few stations. Take again, these small tourist trains you make the “historic” tour of a city marking the time of stops before that or that monument. You all are going to laugh, but when I arrive in a city that I do not know; I borrow these small tourist trains and then I return to visit that or that monument which interested me the most. In other words, what French Literature teachers should propose in the end of secondary school, it is a perspective tour. But this perspective tour could be proposed by both the gym coach, why not, if he has good taste and if he knows how to read the Michelin Guide of literature and can catch the interest of his students!

That says, I have quite quickly understood, that at the same time that “human sciences” were taught in our “Faculties of Letters and human sciences” (it is the “and”, here, that is significant here), were always and only just literature, although they were parts, shortly after my studies of Philosophy License. It seems that these “human sciences,” taught in our Faculties of letters have an objective: the man with a small first letter, and no longer a capital letter, as it was the case in humanism which never ends to die. Then, some of these literary specialists of “human sciences” derive in decorating a man to try to make an object that looks scientific. They have taken from science, not its formalization requirement, but its language and its appearance, no more or less. Thus, some psychologists, baptized “Neuropsychologists,” put up with white blouses, have their laboratories, measure, online, etc. However, in those “labs,” it is certain that they are attempting to check “data”, but of the data which is never defined! Sociologists they make statistics! And they do not have a model underlying the phenomena that they describe, they cannot do anything but describe them (and not to explain). But how can they describe them? With numbers (all the same it makes them more intelligent). But statistics are like computers. If the data that we trust to computers is silly, it is certain that the computer will deal with this silliness (computers are ready to work with anything). It is the same in statistics: you will have silly answer in respond of a silly question.

Finally, haven’t taken anything from science but the appearance, I mean computing, statistics or laboratory, the object “man” (with a small m) is there and it is as virgin as it entered. It is true that these “human sciences” have nothing to do with science but outside the flattering of a simply testify to the claim of literary that have not been able to build scientifically their object.

It remained the sniper, Edgar Morin, who made good used of his concept of complexity. I do not say that he is silly, far from that, but I say that he thinks that we must forget everything from the past and start all over again: “The lost paradigm is definitively lost, but I will invent it all!” The result: it says nothing! For that reason, he refuges, like all the literary men, behind the complexity of men. “Study the phosphorus, ok! Analyze calves, it is already easier, but, compared to a man, a calf is all the same simple. A man, he is much more complicated, subtler, he has more ends!”

I was there, on my career when I had, like twenty years ago, the chance to meet Jean Gagnepain, and to be part of his disciples. When I met him I have quickly understood, that to preach a truly scientific knowledge of the man, meant that we have to shoot down the main obstacles to the advent of this new knowledge, beginning with these famous “Faculties of Letters and human sciences.” Indeed, if, for example, you refer to the Renaissance, you can see that humanism has not been able to prevail only when, under the blows of Rabelais and company, Sorbonne’s lock has jumped. But at the time, the old “Sorbonicoles”, exactly as those of today, wanted to reform themselves to adapt. But there were others, more realistic who understood that any reform was already condemned: there had to do something else. That is exactly what Jean Gagnepain understood.

In the age, which is no more the age of humanism, but the age of  the anti-humanism, I mean, the treatment of the man by man who presides over the emergence of a true man’ Science, it is time to become to be aware of what is the main obstacle to the beginning of this new era. The problem of training, not only for tomorrow, but also for today, was through the kill of literature. Certainly, if the current literature had become the enemies, it is after having been the most beautiful fleuron of the humanism of the university. But, as Marx said while speaking of bourgeois, they have been a necessary evil; they have played their historic role, the one of being the pre human sciences. From this point of view, the sciences called “soft” (psychology, sociology, political science) extend the historic role of literature (philosophy, beautiful letters, and history included). This historic role has consisted to put men inside the fridge for better study them, while waiting for science called “nature.”

I want to say that these “soft” sciences are being yield before the “hard” Sciences of the man, since the work of this genius still too poorly known, Jean Gagnepain, which is the real founder of the experimental Science of the man. Let me explain that.

It is Freud which gave to Jean Gagnepain the idea of an explanatory clinic, in other words, a type of clinic that allowed him to perpetually submit in question the theoretical model of the man that he has developed during almost half century. That is absolutely fundamental. The one, who really won, in the psychoanalytic treatment, was Freud, which recognized that he had never healed anyone! Freud, basically, became more and more intelligent and, in theory, more and more evil as he submitted his patients to his cure. That is what has given to Jean Gagnepain the idea of a clinic that he wanted to be squarely experimental. He said that it was not because we change of “object,” I mean, to “pass” from nature to man (constructing this “object” man, it is obvious) that we change scientifically: science must have, first of all a coherent model, and also, a place of verification. It must be experimented somewhere, where the idea that the clinic had, in the man, was the only place of verification. To talk about this clinic, Jean Gagnepain referred often the work of a mechanic. In a car, it is rare that everything is wrong at the same time: once, it is the ignition, then the carburetion, etc. It is why he always compared himself to a mechanic who had learned the mechanical in repairing the failure of a car. Because, as in a car, it is rare among the man that everything is wrong at the same time. Nothing breaks down at one stroke: we never lose lucidity, but the reason could become an object of experimental science.

Talking about that, the theory of mediation is what we can indeed call a clinical anthropology. And the mediators (grouped together under the name of School of Rennes), of the same time, are the first in the world to bet in the need to establish a scientific approach to the man who gives himself, of course, a theoretical model, and, at the same time, a place of experimentation. In other words, the link between theory and clinic is so fundamental, that cannot be separated one from the other…except, as I will do, most often, by convenience of exposure (and then we cannot do everything!)

I have spoken about Freud, but this does not mean that Jean Gagnepain unconditionally adheres himself to the psychoanalysis. It corrects the excesses. Excesses of verbosity, firstly because Freud had discovered the unconscious of the conscience representative, while there is also a technical “unconscious,” a social “unconscious” and a ethic “unconscious,” and this is why Jean Gagnepain replaces the concept of unconscious that is implied.

The second corrective is the service that he brings to the historicism in which Freud locked himself, the “stages,” the “regression”, historicism, etc. If you want to know, Jean Gagnepain is not for the Urszene (“primitive scene”,) but for the Grundszene (“fundamental scene”.)

The second precursor that Jean Gagnepain recognizes is Ferdinand de Saussure and his structural design of the verbal sign (in fact it is an anachronism: Ferdinand de Saussure has never used the word “structure,” he speaks of “system”.) The discovery of Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) has been for Jean Gagnepain as for a lot of French intellectuals, a real revelation, and a revelation that came late (toward the end of the 40s), while the famous general linguistics course date…from 1916! (It is to tell you how it works in French University!) Well, the famous linguist Genovese is the first to have shown that, in the language anything was obvious, but that, under the phenomenon, there was another thing, that Jean Gagnepain baptized as “grammar,” for the object to the “rhetoric” which only, as we will see, is manifested in the phrase.

But it must be clear that the idea of “system” implementation of Saussure, and which was then called “structure” has been completely perverted by the successors of Saussure, those that are called “structuralists,” then “semiologists” and others “semiotics.” All of these people have given to sign an abusive importance: for them everything is a sign! This is the full recovery! Jean Gagnepain gives to the sign a considerable importance too, but not at all in the same way that the structuralists do. He uses it as analogue, this means that the principle of explanatory sign, is worth, analogue, for the tool, the person and the standard. That is, very quickly what Jean Gagnepain owe to Saussure.

Finally, it is the Marxist praxis which led Jean Gagnepain to the theory of an incorporated rationality. In other words, this idea of praxis, borrowed from Marx, has led him to ask the reality of the explanatory principle that is the reason, not from outside of the man, but in the man. And it is even the difference between the sciences called “of man” and the sciences called “of nature.” All of two belong to the same rationality, but it is found that, in nature, there is no reason anywhere: it is the man who explains it; in the other hand, the man has reason, it is even one of the characteristics of the “object” (the man) to be study scientifically. So if the sciences called “the man” cannot be that science in double (talking about mathematics), since the rationality is, at once, at the thinker and in the object that he studied. At the same time, it is important to make this incorporation of the rationality in the object even (the man) if that is the one who we want to study scientifically.

Among those who have preceded Jean Gagnepain, which has pushed this reality all alone, it is Marx which, as you know, history was not the fact of the “professional” historian (if he is historian of France, art, literature, etc. ) but of the historian that we all are. What had Marx envisaged, consciously? A theory of a man and as the man was defined by history, it was necessary to deal as scientifically as possible, by developing a historical materialism. Only again, as well as the semiology and the semiotics have played a tour to enjoy Saussure and have made ridicules the structuralism (including the one of Levi-Strauss) which became a new idealism, of the same Engels and Feuerbach have played the same turn to enjoy the historical materialism of Marx by pulling, as long as they were able, to what has been called. Then materialism generalized, this means that the “materialism dialectic” (which Marx, aged and tired, has finished by subscribing), and which was for the whole evolution of the cosmos! In other words, the “materialism dialectic,” in making dialectic a process for culture (this means for the man), and for the nature, it comes to a full materialism. In short words, “materialism dialectic” drowned Marx, exactly as structuralism drowned Saussure.

That said, and to conclude, I would like you to say a word to describe my relationship with Jean Gagnepain. In a general way, I would say that the Master is neither one we respect, nor the one with which we break: we live from him. In other words, the Master, we do respect ever, because the respect is a sign of death. When I speak to you about Jean Gagnepain, I do exist. But where am I myself? But, it is not important. This does not say that the memory of Jean Gagnepain is not, in itself, worthy of respect that we owe to human genius, but it cannot serve us, to me personally, and to you, through an intermediary, in the extent that we digested, where we are doing our case. Not a question we cannot stop a Master in history: this would be, beautiful and well the “destroy” to go after Sartre.

I would like to add that the Master, if he is a Master in thinking (which no longer exists in France for a long time) is not a teacher, on the contrary! Take Maître Albert, in the Middle Age: when Master Albert was confusing with the Sorbonne, he took his cliques and his claques and he did secession, I mean, that he took his neighborhoods on the place to which, in Paris, he gave his name: the Maubert plaza. He was installed there and he gave his cathedra outside, and everyone followed him. He had the charisma, he drew crowds, he thought, and he was free.

Well, Jean Gagnepain, if you want, is the Master Albert of the man’ Science. You understand, in these conditions, that his thoughts can disturb, or even indignant, especially for the academia.

So much better, if this thinking, that I will try to transmit to you (if you “us” made the honor to “us” follow) I invite you to reflection.

www.theory-mediation.com

How I passed Praxis.
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After World War II, Western nations (United States, England, Germany and France) embarked on a mission to create institutions based on multilateral agreements in an effort to manage their historical conflicts and rebuild their worn torn nations. The West’s ability to successfully incorporate multilateralism into its economic, political and security institutions have allowed these actors to manage conflict between each other and live in peace with each other for half a century. While historical examples indicate that multilateralism has been practiced as early as 19th century, post-world war institutionalization of multilateralism indicates that multilateralism can facilitate conflict resolution and peace building.

Theory

According to the Multilateralism Group of the Institute of International Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, multilateralism “is a particular way of bringing together international actors to support cooperation, incorporate principles of non-discrimination, diffuse reciprocity, and generalize institutional structures” (MacArthur Online).  Bealey, Evans and Newnham agree that, in general, multilateralism is a “policy of acting in concert with others” to achieve mutual goals (Bealey 217, Evans & Newnham 256). Acting in concert, allows the actors to plan together; to settle or adjust by conference, agreement, or consultation; to act in harmony or conjunction; to form combined plans with others.

Concerts are generally the preliminary step to engaging in multilateralism because according to Charles and Clifford Kupchan, the concert is utilized by great powers as a decision making mechanism involving “informal negotiations and consensus” while posing no threat to state sovereignty (Ruggie, 18). According to Ruggie, a concert is “predicated on the notion of all against one” which binds concert members to a collective action.  In fact, the Concert of Europe is heralded as an ongoing example of a security regime that employed multilateralism.  The Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) and the Congress of Berlin (1878) are two additional historical examples of concerts and the application of multilateralism.  Respectively these concerts led to the formulation of the rules of diplomacy that are still in effect and significantly changed the existing political situation in Eastern Europe.  The value of these examples of multilateralism for conflict resolution and peace building is in their indication of actor’s preference for establishing an orderly and peaceful procedure by which to engage in establishing and maintaining relations.  This actor preference indicates a behavioral change of these actors from their pre-World War dispositions.

Evans and Newnham, with concurrence from Stanojevic, also point out that multilateralism is currently the “dominant pattern of activity in most issue areas” (i.e., trade, global warming, sea bed).  Multilateralism is dominant, compared to unilateralism and bilateralism, because of the increased interdependence driven by globalization.  Because of its dominance, the United Nations and its predecessor, League of Nations, were permanently established as multilateral diplomatic organizations to facilitate multilateralism and conflict resolution.

Theoretically, according to Ruggie, generic multilaterailism has been a part of nation state development primarily in “institutional arrangements [that] define and stabilize the international property rights of states” (Ruggie, 8).  More recently generic multilateralism has been used to define the multilateral institutional form because it refers to “coordinating relations among three or more states in accordance with certain principles” of conduct (Ruggie, 10).  In its institutional form, generic multilateralism adds substance to the realist self-help factor taking it to a higher level in which it is considered within a collective framework which in turn affects individual actor security.  According to Ruggie’s generic definition of multilateralism, this theory is expected to inject a collective pattern of behavior into an institutional form that incorporates the concept of multilateralism into its agreements.  Once the pattern of behavior has been established, the parties develop a collective reputation, “an indivisibility among the members of a collectivity with respect to the range of behavior in question” which socializes the institution (Ruggie, 11).  Additionally, when multilateralism is successfully implemented actors are expected to behave in a reciprocal manner towards each other.  In turn their reciprocity will generate cohesiveness among the members which will allow the actors to focus on long-term gains based on an aggregate over time (Ruggie, 11).

Theoretically and conceptually, multilateralism is the behavioral element of a multilateral regime. While a multilateral agreement creates regimes, multilateralism encourages the modification of aggressive actor behavior and cooperation among actors, while providing mechanisms for proactive management of disputes and resolution of conflicts between actors who wish to participate in a given international system.  Conceptually, multilateralism is defined by its historical application to institutional formation during the postwar era. It coordinated national policies on the basis of established principles for managing property rights, which in turn ordered the relations of party actors prior to World War II. The concept of multilateralism has created norms, rules and principles that are increasingly utilized to stabilize international relations in an effort to decrease the overall influence of prewar anarchical international forces and maintain a cohesive stability to ensure continued economic prosperity.  This concept has been applied regionally to manage economics, politics, and security relations.  The European Community (EC) is the most successful example of an economic and political regional multilateral regime. The EC has allowed Europe to move beyond balance of power politics and demonstrates the European actor’s commitment to the multilateral agreements that have enabled the EC to become an economic power of the 21st century.

History

Robert Keohane and John Gerard Ruggie agree that multilateralism began after WWII.  Ruggie, in his book entitled Multilateralism Affairs:  The Theory and Praxis of An Institutional Form, states that “the earliest institutional form of multilateralism” in the modern era began with the management of property rights (Ruggie, 14).  According to Ruggie, these multilateral arrangements “were designed to cope with the international consequences of the novel principle of state sovereignty in an effort to”possess territory and exclude others from it (Ruggie, 15). In fact, the issues of state sovereignty by these newly created nations reinforced the need to engage in multilateralism because without multilateralism property rights were not recognized as valid by the relevant other actors in the given international system (Ruggie, 15). According to Ruggie’s definition of multilateralism, multilateral agreements are distinguished by the “kind of relations” they produce and not the “number of parties” to a particular agreement. “What is distinctive about multilateralism is” that it coordinates national policies on the basis of certain principles that order the relations of the party actors (Ruggie, 6-7). Therefore, the test of whether or not a multilateral institution truly exists is the principle on which the agreement is based and the state behavior that it encourages.

According to Keohane, in his book entitled After Hegemony, multilateralism was utilized by the United States in an effort to create and control an international trade and finance regime. Specifically, the United States’ international trade and finance regime was developed to rebuild the European economy, contain communism and build a world economy.  Keohane used this regime and its subinstitutions [International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Payments Union (EPU) and the North American Treaty Organization (NATO)] to illustrate the dynamics of post-war multilateralism.  Keohane believes that multilateralism was the ultimate goal of United States economic policy in 1947/48.

By the end of the 1950s United States economic policy had successfully implemented economic multilateralism (Keohane, 147).  The dynamics of multilateralism, and specifically the behavioral element of multilateralism, is evidenced in the extent to which the United States was willing to go to ensure that its postwar trade and finance international regime was established.  Because the United States established trade and financemultilateralism, it was forced to inject dollars into Europe’s economy to balance the global dollar shortage.  This too is an example of the behavioral element of  multilateralism because it prompted the United States to coordinate national policies (i.e. legislation — Marshall Plan) on the basis of its hegemonic principles, which in turn ordered the relations of the party actors to this postwar economic regime (Keohane, 142). The United States maintained this multilateralism by controlling the “rule-making process” by balancing intervention and negotiation with both Europe and the United States Congress (Keohane, 143).

Keohane also used one of the trade and finance regime’s subinstitutions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as an example of the postwar’s ecopolitical regime incorporating the concept of multilateralism into its institutional structure.  According to Keohane, the IMFwas created “to help regulate international monetary relations and trade in manufacturing goods”. United States multilateral partners, Europe and Japan, entered into this relationship with the United States because these governments wanted to “achieve rapid economic growth with democratic political institutions and capitalist economies” (Keohane, 182).  These complementarities of interest were encouraged by American leaders engaging in covert activities to “ensure that the ruling coalitions in power in Europe and Japan sympathized with the principles that the United States espoused for the world political economy”.  In turn, both Europe and Japan relied on United States military protection” and realized that economically, “they had to reach accommodation with the United States if they were to recover from wartime destruction” (Keohane, 182).  The IMF was an institution based on multilateralism because its party actors were willing to coordinate national policies on the basis of IMF principles, which in turn ordered the relations of the party actors. Based on the willingness of these actors to adjust their behaviors and national policies to accommodate the IMF regime, the IMF was an institution that embraced the concept of multilateralism both generically and formally.

The European Payments Union was an additional multilateralism effort between the United States and its European alliances.The EPU was basically a financial arrangement that was seen by the United States as an efficient and economically superior arrangement as well as “a way of promoting intra-European trade as a step toward eventual European participation in a liberal world economy”.  It was the key element to gradually shift Europe to a full multilateral economic disposition which would liberalize both trade and payments (Keohane, 145).  Both the IMF and the EPU allowed the United States to have “leverage over the evolution of European policies” (Keohane, 146) and the long-term attainment of its ultimate goal of multilateralism”.  Although the IMF and EPU do not meet the definition of a formal multilateral regime” (Keohane, 150), the United States chose to engage in multilateralism because by doing so it could have power over the coordination of both Europe’s and Japan’s national policies on the basis of IMF principles, which in turn ordered the relations of the party actors creating a stable ecopolitical international system.

Keohane offers NATO as an example of the security dynamics necessary for conceptualization of multilateralism.  According to Keohane, the United States used its military strength to “constructed a liberal-capitalist world political economy based on multilateral principles and embodying rules that the United States approved” (Keohane, 136-137) to build a world political economy. The United States’ relationship with NATO created a security influence for the north Atlantic area and Japan to agree to a multilateral relationship with the United States for the purpose of benefiting from a stable international monetary system, open markets for goods and access to oil at stable prices (Keohane, 139).  The examples offered by Keohane indicate that multilateralism’s conceptualization has, so far, been based on trade and money.

According to the above examples of the United States’ utilization of multilateralism, multilateral institutions that incorporate multilateralism into their structures modify aggressive actor behavior and encourage cooperation among actors.  Based on these examples, multilateralism would appear to regulate anarchy by creating a community that encourages self-management of party actors.  Specifically, it encourages cooperation in the coordination of national policies, reduces mistrust between parties and increases focus on long-term cumulative gains (Lebow; Risse-Kappen).  While multilateralism can be incorporated into international orders, regimes or institutions, it is not a given simply because an international order, regime or institution is based on a multilateral agreement.

But, can we create future multilateral regimes capable of both effectively and collectively managing international relations by conceptualizing multilateralism?  According to Clemens and Cook in their article entitled Politics and Institutionalism: Explaining Durability and Change, institutions endure!  Specifically, they endure “as a reaction against methodological individualism, technological determinism, and behavioralist models that highlight the flux of individual action or choice” (March & Olsen 1989 as quoted by Clemens and Cook, Online).  Theoretically, the patterning of social life is produced by institutions that structure action.  As we have seen from both Keohane and generic examples, multilateralism structured human relations in general and the postwar international system by effecting national policies.  Therefore, it is logical to conclude that multilateralism can continue to promote external coordination of national policies which will in turn facilitate conflict resolution and peace building.

In recent history, multilateralism has been employed as a foreign policy tool. The Clinton Administration was strongly influenced by academic theories which held that in the post-war era, military power would be less important than economic power and that the end of the Cold War would finally permit the United Nations to provide a workable system of global collective security (Britannica Online).  The concept of assertive multilateralism was unveiled by then Governor Bill Clinton in 1991.  Mr. Clinton delivered the details of this concept at Georgetown University in a speech entitled “A New Covenant for American Security”.  At that time, Bill Clinton advocated “shift[ing] the burden of maintaining peace to a wider coalition of nations of which America will be a part and exploring the possibility of establishing a United Nations Rapid Deployment Force that could be used for purposes beyond traditional peacekeeping, such as standing guard at the borders of countries threatened by aggression; preventing attacks on civilians; providing humanitarian relief; and combating terrorism and drug trafficking” (Snyder Online).

Soon after the Clinton Administration came to power, Madeleine Albright, Clinton’s Secretary of State, defined American foreign policy as “assertive multilateralism”.  Assertive multilateralism as a foreign policy was utilized at the beginning of Clinton’s administration.  In an attempt to have a successful outcome to America’s involvement in Somalia’s internal affairs, the Clinton administration “supported a U.N. resolution of March 26, 1993, that expanded the mission to include ‘the rehabilitation of the political institutions and economy of Somalia’” (Britannica Online). Based on Secretary of State Albright’s comments on this effort as “an unprecedented enterprise aimed at nothing less than the restoration of an entire country,” it appears that aggressive multilateralism is a state-building foreign policy tool.  The specific principles of assertive multilateralism according to Anthony Lake are: “enlargement” of the community of free nations; mutual moral, financial, and political benefits; and the expansion of democracy and economic progress.  To date, this state-building foreign policy has proved to be unsuccessful both in its debut as a foreign policy tool in the Somali Affair and subsequent international relations issues involving Haiti, Bosnia and Hercegovina.

As a result of the failure of assertive multilateralism, the Clinton administration revised its foreign policy and dubbed the revised policy “deliberative multilateralism”.  Deliberative multilateralism is applied on a case-by-case basis and “includes the stipulations that a given crisis be susceptible to a military solution with a clearly defined goal; that sufficient force be employed; that a clear end point be identifiable; and that United States forces go into combat only under United States command” (Britannica Online).

Because of the increasing inability of U.N. peacekeepers to effect safe areas in conflict zones, President Clinton signed Presidential Decision Directive 25 (PDD-25) in May 1994.  PDD-25 is “a policy directive outlining the administration’s position on reforming multilateral peace operations” (Snyder Online).  This directive not only outlined the conditions under which the United States would participate in future international peacekeeping operations but offered suggestions on how the United Nations could improve management of its peacekeeping operations.

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT & PEACE BUILDING

Ethnic conflict is a product of the traditional world.  It was encouraged by colonialism and “exacerbated by [ ] modernization”.  While colonialism is the root of the current intensity of ethnic conflict, modernization is driving its intensity by creating increasing stresses on societies torn from their traditional structures by colonialism (Miall et al, 78). Transition from traditional societal structures toward modernization has resulted in ethnic conflict that was encouraged when the imperial powers drew borders within and between domains of homogenous people to deliberately breakdown the societal makeup of various regions.  Ethnic conflict, in turn, has undermined both modernization and development and created a level of global insecurity that threatens the world’s economic and political stability. Ethnic conflict is “rooted in clashes or invasions that occurred many years ago” (i.e., Serbia v. Kosovo); “erosion or even disappearance of central state authority in poor 3rd world countries experiencing economic, political and environmental stress”;  and the “spread of mass communications and other instruments of popular mobilization” which has enabled the average citizen to assess their position in “international affairs and how their behavior can be aggregated into significant collective outcomes” (Klare, 134-154).

Theory

Classic modernization is a development theory that assumes states are backward if they do not conform to a Western style of development.  In turn the West seeks to “enlighten” ethnic groups by imposing their style of development.The problem with classical modernization theory is that it inherently assumes that non-West states are incapable of developing policies that address their ethnic values and traditional way of life within a modernization plan.  By making such an ethnocentric assumption western style development continuously and systematically destroys the peoplehood of ethnic groups and creates a conflict environment.

The theory of international relations depicts ethnic conflict as a consequence of the lack of central global authority.  It is this lack of central authority that further contributes to international anarchy and the continuation of the security dilemma.  The security dilemma perpetuates the ethnonational dispositions of states as they attempt to safeguard their interests against their neighbors’ perceived hostile intentions.

Nation Building

Prior to the current state structure people lived in groups based on shared customs, traditions and racial features.  This kinship method of organized society created a system of cooperation that extended to neighboring communities.  “Once consolidated, ethnic [ ] identities became part of the group’s culture and were passed on from one generation to the next” (Palmer, 144).  These ethnic identities were central to increased protection from invasion and offered new opportunities for increased economic activities as well as serving as the foundation for traditional societies.  According to Klare, “humans characteristically seek to secure…their physical survival, health, [ ] material possessions” and way of life.  Way of life can be defined as value systems, language, art forms and religious views about a group’s place in the universe.  Collectively these elements of a group’s way of life depict their common bond or peoplehood.  Weber, Francis, Gordon and Schermerhorn all agree that this sense of people is essential to a group’s ethnicity.  It creates a social psychology within each member of the group that solidifies a spiritual attachment described as we-ness.  Marger further points out that the three elements essential to properly defining ethnic groups are ethnocentrism, territoriality and ascribed membership.

Ethnicity often translates into national communities that are focused on a particular way of life. These national communities are usually located within a specifically defined boundary that ensures a group’s way of life.  Klare points out that world stability depends on groups living in their own states.  However, over the years states have proved to be inefficient and the instigators of conflict within their borders.  Increasing dysfunctionalism of states have led its citizens to shift loyalties away from the state and toward national identifications. Ethnic conflicts are born out of ethnonational movements which threaten the stability of existing states.  Disintegration of these states results from national ethnocentrism.  This type of ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s nationality is special and superior to other nationalities.  It is this disposition that breeds ethnic conflict.

Since 1517, when religious reform was ignited by Martin Luther’s 95 theses, “sovereign states have assumed primary responsibility for controlling affairs within their territorial borders and managing foreign relations with other similarly empowered secular state actors” (Holsti, 319-339).  Under the state system people obeyed authority which  maintained authority structures for centuries.  However, people are not as cooperative with authority as they used to be and states are finding it increasingly difficulty to manage both their internal and external affairs.  Anarchy within states has risen and according to former “United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, today’s wars occur mainly within…state borders” and “the forces of fragmentation are causing states to fail, leaving its people without a government to protect them from chaos” (Kegley, 523).

Nation building occurred simultaneously with the development of commercialization, industrialization, literacy, communications, population increase and urbanization.  Collectively, these developments characterized the advent of modernization.  Nations, nation-states and nationalism are typical phenomena of modernization.  “Citizens of the newly-formed nation-states were forced to speak the same language”.  Ruling nationalist elites, conspiring with imperial powers, utilized the education-system and mass media to launch social engineering projects to metamorphose the heterogeneous populations of their countries.  These social engineering projects were expected to unify the “community to have the same historical symbols, derive from the same ancestors and, irrespective of social inequalities and class differences, pursue the same national interests” in an attempt to build nation-states (Yagcioglu, 3).

In general, building nation-states was an invention of colonial powers and involved restructuring the world economically, socially and politically. Economically, colonial regimes “replaced existing barter economies with a standardized monetary system”.  The introduction of a monetary system fostered social displacement by forcing migration to cities built by the imperial powers as bureaucratic bases of exploitation.  Once natives established themselves in the cities they became politicized.  While some more easily assimilated to city life, many were “unable to find entry into the modern sector of society”.  These transitional individuals were also “ignored by ineffective bureaucracies” which caused them to “seek emotional and material support by associating with compatible ethnic groups” (Palmer, 146).

During this period of nation building, government policies, facilitated by industrialization and capitalism, encouraged most nations to create a homogenous society within their boundaries.  However, breaking the peoplehood bond of ethnic groups was resistant to the needs and logic of industrial capitalism.  Instead societies and specific ethnic groups suffered under urban horrors generated by industrialization.  This misery forced ethnic groups to become more tightly bonded and develop an ethnonational disposition.

Assimilation was the homogenization strategy that was used to integrate ethnocultural minorities into the nation-state and was either voluntary or forced.  “Minorities [that] were viewed as non-integrable” were dealt with cruelly (i.e., forced migration, segregation, oppression, ethnic cleansing, massacres and genocide) (Yagcioglu, 4).  Unfortunately, assimilability changes overtime primarily due to change in government. This factor continuously reinforces ethnocentricity and exacerbates the potential for ethnic conflict.  “Relationships between the non-assimilable minority and the majority or the nation-state government became even more strained if that minority is linked to a state or nation that in the past inflicted a deep trauma upon the majority group” as in the case of the Hutus and Tutsis (Yagcioglu, 5).  In these cases, after the balance of power changes in favor of the majority, the minority may be eliminated because it is viewed as posing too much of a threat.

Global Security

Interethnic competition dates to biblical times and has become the plague of the post-WWII era.  The borders drawn after WWII separated homogenous societies.  These heterogeneous borders, together with the collapse of the Cold War, gave rise to global instability that has resulted in increased ethnic conflict.  Additionally, ethnopolitical cleavages have produced an increase in ethnic conflict especially since 1945 and further accelerated since the 1960s. 18 of the 23 wars in 1994 were based on ethnonationalism.  Additionally, ethnic conflicts have caused approximately 75% of the world’s refugees.

The level of global insecurity that ethnic conflict has produced, threatens the world’s political and economic stability by producing refugees and negatively affecting development.  In the past 50 years, ethnic conflict has resulted in human suffering beyond calculation.  The majority of ethnic conflict victims struggle to survive in makeshift accommodation where they reside for too many years.  The Palestinians are an example of an ethnic group that has resided in refugee camps since 1948.  The vast majority of the world’s refugees continue to reside in countries that lack the economic or institutional resources to care for them.  Perhaps, the most tragic, is the inability of the United Nations to affect political conditions that drive ethnic conflict and non-governmental organizations’ inadequate resources to meet the demand of such enormous numbers of displaced persons.  These conditions shatter families and nurture feelings of ethnic hatred that deepen with every generation perpetuating the cycle of ethnic conflict.  Politically, ethnic conflict undermines progress toward human rights and democracy and the refugees produced are subjected to political harassment by their host countries.  Economically, a country’s development is negatively affected primarily because of the brain drain that is caused by the migration of technicians and entrepreneurs in search of more stable economies in which to invest.

The destabilizing influence of ethnic conflict “often extends beyond the boundaries of the countries in which they occur” which negatively affects the global community and draws the entire world into the conflict.  Perhaps the most horrific historical examples of the destabilization of ethnic conflict are the Hindus and Muslims, Hutus and Tutsis and the crisis in Yugoslavia.  “The most recent casualty of ethnic conflict has been the peacekeeping role of the United Nations” whose safe areas have been overrun at will.  As a result “member countries of the U.N. are [ ] increasingly reluctant to place their troops in jeopardy by sending them to risk-prone areas” (Palmer, 150).

According to Nietschmann ethnocentric values threaten to engulf the globe in unprecedented violence.   He believes that this level of violence will overwhelm governments to the extent that ethnic conflict will become the primary axis on which 21st century world politics will revolve.  The power and independence of the state is expected to decline and the vacuum created will likely lead to extreme forms of authoritarian political environments in an attempt to decrease global instability.

Conflict Management and Peace Building

The current post-modern era presents new challenges in managing the potential for ethnic conflict because of the focus on information.  “As a result the whole world is experiencing two…mutually reinforcing trends: globalization and fragmentation” (Isaacs, 215).  Fragmentation is the primary factor driving ethnic conflict because ethnocultural groups are asserting their identities and forcing their independence within states.  Both elements are forcing governments to reexamine their public policies and how these policies have negatively impacted minorities and driven them to extreme assertive behaviors.

Future efforts to address ethnic conflict should be proactive and focus on increasing the strength of civil society.  Increasing “the capacity of the political system to regulate competing interests without state repression and civil violence” will decrease the likelihood of ethnic conflict and regulate any conflicts that breakout.  Based on recent history, “profound social and political change does not have to be violent (e.g., South Korea and Poland).  Ethnic conflict can be reduced by increasing the effectiveness of state bureaucracies through the incorporation of multilateralism principles.  This will allow state bureaucracies to address social issues and decrease elite and bureaucrat insecurities which often lead to the instigation of ethnic conflicts (Bond).

Efforts are underway to “manage, settle and resolve ethnic conflicts” based on the principles of accommodation without assimilation, consociationalism, federalism and secession” (Yagcioglu, 8).  While each of these options can be applied as needed based on the needs of a particular nation-state, Margaret Gibson believes that accommodation without assimilation is the best option.  According to Gibson, “if one rules out the option of assimilation as a state policy, as well as other brutal and coercive techniques to be implemented toward the minorities, and considering that there must be some kind of peaceful coexistence between the nation-state governments and ethnocultural groups, perhaps the best option…is accommodation without assimilation” because it offers progressive-conservation which will “improve the social economic and political condition of minorities and the preservation of their culture”.  Preserving ethnic culture will reduce the likelihood of conflict.  Additionally, this option is likely to establish a standard for the state to cease engaging in practices that are the core of the ethnic conflicts.

According to the Multilateralism Group, states, nongovernment organizations, firms, and other transnational actors are attempting to respond to an array of both new and old problems.  Because they are finding it increasingly difficult to apply traditional methods, “important forms of multilateral regulation, management, and political lobbying” are increasingly being used to address global issues.   Further, because multilateralism is “a particular way of bringing together international actors to support cooperation,…diffuse reciprocity, and generalized institutional structures” it is expected to be the primary avenue utilized by actors (MacArthur Online).

According to Lepgold and Weiss in their book entitled Collective Conflict Management and World Politics, Conflict management can be facilitated by elements of multilateralism arrangements based on a Collective Conflict Management (CCM) system.  This system, when properly designed, is an internationalized response to threats and use of force and offers preventive deployment, selective enforcement and peace (Lepgold/Weiss 109, 113).   The CCM system is an effective cooperative effort based on international community norms.  It is “a pattern of group action…in anticipation of or in response to the outbreak of intra- or interstate armed conflict”.  This conflict management method is used to “prevent, suppress or reverse breaches of the peace” (Lepgold/Weiss, 5).  Because CCM employs a variety of multilateral efforts it is especially effective in restoring and maintaining peace when the perpetrators have not been identified (i.e., non-intrusive monitoring of potential situations).  This type of multilateralism, provides mechanisms for proactive, decentralized management of disputes and resolution of conflicts between internal actors.  Adapting the Lepgold/Weiss model of a CCM system is more appropriate to deal with current conflicts.

A regionalized CCM system will enable the Lepgold/Weiss model to be more effective.  This type of scaled down CCM system uses the strength of regional actors to engage in historically supported mediation and other activities that have a greater proactive ability to manage and diffuse the conflict (Miall et al, 34).  “Regional actors [ ] understand the dynamics of strife and culture more intimately than outsiders” [i.e., the international community at large] (Lepgold/Weiss, 21).

Summary

In light of historical lessons, designing a global structure to manage conflict and effect peace based on Great Power values, policies and institutions with the goal of imposing these solutions on Lesser Powers will be ineffective in the 21st century and beyond.  Great Power arrogance has created the conflicts that cast a global shadow on every societies’ ability to survive, including their own. Perhaps the nations currently recognized as Great Powers will decide to act in concert with less developed countries.  Act in concert to avoid conflicts of democracies against Islam and/or China.  Act in concert to avoid the spread of chaos caused by increasing refugee populations. Act in concert to avoid the invasion of wealthy Northern societies by failed societies in the South.  Act in concert to avoid the ecological and demographic disasters originating in the less developed world because of the spread of industry and disease.  Perhaps the nations currently recognized as Great Powers will decide to act in concert to avoid the spread of nuclear and missile technology from disintegrating states into the hands of terrorists. Or, will 20th century Great Powers continue on their historical path of dictating solutions based on privileged thinking?  Thinking and attitudes that have created the escalating economic, political, and social disasters that depict the Western international system.  (Miall et al, 80)

Both assertive and deliberative multilateralism have failed and will continue to do so as long as Great Powers fail to act in concert with Lesser Powers.  The United Nations has proven itself incapable and ill-equipped to manage conflict and ensure security within conflict zones. Only Lesser Powers can address the internal conflicts created by the historical manipulation of Great Powers.  Only regional powers have an immediate vested interest to resolve neighboring conflicts.  Only Great Powers can agree to stop manipulating and start engaging in supportive measures to “assist” nations in practicing self-determination and encourage regions to manage their neighbors’ disputes.  Only acting in concert with each other in cooperative multilateralism efforts can both Greater and Lesser Powers decrease the likelihood of global violence and engage in behaviors that ensure current societies have a chance at productive and peaceful futures.

Multilateralism encourages the modification of aggressive actor behavior and cooperation among actors.  Multilateralism provides mechanisms for proactive management of disputes, resolution of conflicts and peace building.  Multilateralism can be proactively applied and structurally incorporated on a systemic level to modify aggressive actor behavior thereby ensuring cooperative international relations between Greater and Lesser Powers.  Multilateralism will effect actor behavior to deliberately decrease the likelihood of global violence while encouraging actors to engage in behaviors that ensure current societies have a “chance” at productive and peaceful futures.

WORKS CITED

Albright, Madeleine Dr., (then United States Ambassador to the United Nations) Remarks. Available Online January 21, 2000.

Bealey, Frank (1999).  The Blackwell Dictionary Of Political Science: A User’s Guide To Its Terms. Oxford ; Malden, Mass. : Blackwell Publishers.

Bond, Doug (August 1997).  Mapping Mass Political Conflict and Civil Society: Issues and Prospects for the Automated Development of Event Data Harvard University.  Article published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution.

Clemens, Elisabeth S; Cook, James M. Politics and Institutionalism: Explaining Durability and Change. Annual Review of Sociology (p. 441-466, 1999). Available Online January 17, 2000.

Encylopedia Brittanica.  Available Online March 29, 2000.

Eriksen, Thomas Hylland (1993).  Ethnicity & Nationalism:  Anthropological Perspectives. Pluto Press : London, UK.

Evans, Graham; Newnham, Jeffrey (1990). The Dictionary Of World Politics: A Reference Guide To Concepts, Ideas, And Institutions. Simon & Schuster : New York.

Fisher, Roger; Kopelman, Elizabeth; Schneider, Andrea Kupfer (1994).  Beyond Machiavelli:  Tools for Coping with Conflict. Harvard University Press : Cambridge, MA.

Brown, Michael E. (editor) (1993).  Ethnic Conflict and International Security. Princeton University Press : Princeton, NJ.

Gellner, Ernest (1983).  Nations and Nationalism. Cornell University Press:  Ithaca, NY.

Gibson, Margaret A. (1998).  Accommodation Without Assimilation:  Sikh Immigrants in an American High School.  Cornell University Press : Ithaca, NY.

Gurr, Ted Robert (1994).  “Peoples Against States:  Ethnopolitical Conflict and the Changing World System”. International Studies Quarterly 38 (September) : 347-377.

Gurr, Ted Robert (1995).  “Communal Conflicts and Global Security”. Current History.  1994 May : 212-217.

Holsti, Kalevi J. (1995).  “War, Peace, and the State of the State”, International Political Science Review 16 (October) :  319-339.

Institute of International Studies.  MacArthur Program.  Online.  Available: http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/macarthur/macartmu.html.  March 29, 2000.

Isaacs, Harold R. (1975).  Idols of the Tribe:  Group Identity and Political Change. Harvard University Press : Cambridge, MA.

Jaret, Charles (1995). Contemporary Racial and Ethnic Relations. Harper Collins College Publishers : New York.

Kegley, Charles W. Jr. and Wittkopf, Eugene R. (1997).  World Politics: Trend and Transformation. 6th edition.  St. Martin’s Press : New York.

Keohane, Robert O. (1984).   After Hegemony.  Princeton : New Jersey.

Klare, Michael T. and Chandrani, Yogesh (1998).  World Security:  Challenges for a New Century. 3rd edition.  St Martin’s Press : New York.

Lebow, Richard Ned and Risse-Kappen, Thomas (1995).  International Relations Theory and the End of the Cold War. Columbia University Press : New York.

Lepgold, Joseph; Weiss, Thomas (editors, 1998).  Creative Collective Management and Changing World Politics. State University of New York Press : New York.

Mial, Hugh; Ramsbotham, Oliver; Woodhouse, Tom (1999). Contemporary Conflict Resolution:  The Prevention, Management and Transformation of Deadly Conflicts. Blackwell Publishers Inc. : Malden, MA

Nietschmann, Bernard (1991).  “Third World War: The Global Conflict Over the Rights of Indigenous Nations” pp. 172-176 in Robert M. Jackson (editor), Global Issues 91/92. Dushkin : Guilford, CT.

Palmer, Monte (1997) Political Development: Dilemmas and Challenges. Florida State University. F.E. Peacock Publishers, Inc. : Itasca, IL.

Ruggie, John Gerard (editor) 1993.  Multilateralism Matters: The Theory and Praxis of an Institutional Form. Columbia University Press :  New York.

Snyder, J. William, Jr. (1995). “Command” versus “Operational Control”: A Critical Review of PDD-25. Available Online. March 29, 2000.  (Permission granted to copy and use for private study and other non-commercial and academic purposes.)

Stanojevic, Zoran Prof. Dr. (1998).  Mediterranean Security and the Balkans. Montenegro Journal Of Foreign Policy.  Association of the Study of Foreign Policy, Kotor Montenegro.  Available Online.  April 19, 2000.

Yagcioglu, Dimostenis. Nation-States Vis-à-vis Ethnocultural Minorities: Oppression and Assimilation Versus Integration and Accommodation” Available Online March 30, 1999.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES

Covell, Charles (1998).  Kant and the Law Of Peace: A Study in the Philosophy of International Law and International Relations. MacMillan Press : Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; St.  Martin’s Press : New York.

Cox, Robert W. An Alternative Approach to Multilateralism for the Twenty-first Century.  Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations, Jan-April 1997. Available Online.  March 29, 2000.

Kushi, Michio; Jack, Alex (1987).  One Peaceful World. St. Martin’s Press : New York.

McCoy, Jennifer L., PhD.  Mediating Democracy:  A New Role for International Actors. Prepared for presentation at the Symposium on the New World Order, October 14-16, 1991.

Muldoon, James P. Jr., Senior Policy Analyst, United Nations Association of the USA.    The Challenges of Multilateral Diplomacy in 1999. Available Online  January 21, 2000.

Nicotera, Anne Maydan (editor, 1995).  Conflict and Organizations: Communicative. State University of New York Press : Albany, NY

Ruddick, Sara (1989).  Maternal Thinking: Toward A Politics of Peace. Beacon Press. : Boston

Sandole, Dennis J.D.; Sandole-Staroste, Ingrid (editors, 1987).  Conflict Management and Problem Solving: Interpersonal to International Applications. New York University Press : Washington Square, NY.

Stulberg, Joseph B. (1987).  Taking Charge/Managing Conflict. Lexington, Mass. : Lexington Books.

Whittaker, David J. (1999).  Conflict and Reconciliation in the Contemporary World. London; Routledge : New York.

United States Government State Department. United States Commitment To The Treaty On The Non-Proliferation Of Nuclear Weapons (May 3, 1999). Available Online  January 26, 2000.

Volkan, Vamik D., Julius, Demetrios A., and Montville, Joseph V. (editors, 1990).  The Psychodynamics of International Relationships (Volumes 1 & II).  Lexington Books :  Massachusetts.

Weiss, Edith Brown; Jacobson, Harold K. Getting Countries To Comply With International Agreements. Environment July 1999 (p. 16-20+).  Available Online February 21, 2000.

Learn how to pass the FTCE exam today with FTCE sample tests, coaching and more. TeachingSolutions.org helps you relax and easily pass your FTCE exam the first time. Our FTCE exam preparation and study guides get you to where you want to be.

One of the most important things that a test taker can do is to find out what information will be covered on the test. Once this information is found it makes studying easier and time is not wasted spent on studying subjects that will not be covered on the exam.

• The subareas of the test can be used to determine how much importance is stressed on that subject. The more subareas there are, the more stress is implied on that subject. By doing this, the test taker can set priorities for what he or she needs to study for and set up a study plan accordingly.
• The test taker should also remember to study on subject areas that are already familiar as well as those areas that are not so familiar. To help with studying, a variety of resources can be utilized such as course books and any notes, textbooks that are currently being used in the classroom and any publications that may be available for studying for this test.
• Another important thing to remember is to study the way that is most comfortable – do not change study habits that have worked just because this is a major exam; use what works and stick to the study plan and schedule.

After studying the test taker should answer practice questions. These practice questions will allow the test taker to review the general test directions and get a feel for what the exam will be like. When taking the practice test there are several things that the test taker can do to help get in the mindset for taking the actual test:
• Simulate the testing environment as much as possible
• Time how long it takes to complete the questions; this will help to determine if more or less time can be spent on difficult questions

The practice questions typify the question formats that may be on the actual AEPA. The important thing to remember about the practice questions is that they are not designed to identify individual strengths and weaknesses or show what the overall performance on the AEPA will be. When taking the practice questions it is also a good idea to familiarize oneself with the answer sheet and the written response booklet, this way the test taker is not overwhelmed when he or she arrives at the test site.

On the day of the AEPA, there are a host of things that you can do to make yourself as comfortable as possible:
• Get a good night’s sleep and wake up early in order to eat a good breakfast
• Leave plenty of time to get to the test site early
• Dress in comfortable clothes and in layers so that you can adjust according to the temperature of the test room.
• It is also a considerate thought to wear soft-soled shoes so that you do not interrupt other test takers if you finish early and leave the room.
• If you are staying for both the morning and afternoon test sessions, bring a sack lunch that you can consume while waiting for the second session.

Once you enter the test room pay close attention to and adhere to any directions that are given both by the test administrator and those that are on the test. It is also a good idea to pace yourself and read each question carefully so that you understand all aspects of the question and what is required in the answer. Marking answers carefully is also important – especially if you skip a question that you are unsure of and want to come back to. If you are unable to answer a question, it is a good rule of thumb to try and eliminate as many answers as possible and guess from the remaining ones. The AEPA test score is based on the number of questions that have been answered correctly and there is no penalty for wrong answers; meaning that it is best to guess than to leave an answer blank. If any time is remaining when you have completed the test, it is a good idea to go back and check any answers that you were unsure of.

This video will help you prepare for your teacher certification examination. Includes studying and test-taking tips. XAMonline published over 300 titles for the PRAXIS and all state-specific examinations such as MTEL, NYSTCE and CST, AEPA, CSET and CBEST, CST, ICTS, MTTC, GACE, AEPA, MTTC, NMTA, ORELA, CEOE, VCLA and VRA, WEST E & B, TExES, and PLACE.

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Given the importance of PRAXIS II, it is but proper for the test takers to know more about it. Here are some frequently asked questions regarding PRAXIS II.

- What are the subjects I have to study for a Teaching Foundation type of exam?

The Teaching Foundation Examination consists of five areas that the examinee has to study: Mathematics, Language Arts, Science, English, and Social Science. The question comes in multiple choice and constructed response.

- What are the options of taking PRAXIS II exam?

Examinees have two options of taking it: computer-based and paper-based examination

- How do I register for PRAXIS II examination?

Those who intend to take the examination can register via mail by downloading and printing the registration form from the PRAXIS website and mailing it together with the other requirements stated in the form.

Examinees can also register by logging on at the official PRAXIS website and filling up the necessary information.

- How can I pay for the PRAXIS II examination?

Payments can be made thru credit cards (in the case of online registration) or by checks and money order (if you registered thru mail).

- How will I find out about the things that I need to study?

There are “Test at a Glance” sections that you can refer to. This section includes an outline of the things that will be covered as well as guide questions. You may also find this section helpful because of the tips that it gives in choosing and finding the right answers for the questions.

- How can I prepare for PRAXIS II?

Basically, the things that you discussed during your training will cover the things you need to know. It only takes a few reading and scanning of old notes for you to recall all the information.

It also helps to answer sample test questions and mock exams to see how much you recalled and forgot.

- What are the things that I need to bring for the PRAXIS II test?

These things should be brought on the day of the examination:

- The admission ticket
- Forms of identification
- Soft-lead pencils (mechanical pens are not allowed), eraser and black pen

These things must be brought at the testing centers because these will not be supplied to you. Other personal belongings will be left at the designated lockers and cannot be accessed while the examination is going on. Please avoid bringing excess stuffs since the locker space is limited.

There is no easy way to pass the standards for educators than to become a teacher credible and qualified enough to handle the job. Hard work is needed, but it sure will lessen the load up a bit by knowing the things that need to be prepared and done for the PRAXIS II test. Good luck!

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Let’s face it – this exam will be one of the most important tests you’ll ever take in your life. Passing the test doesn’t just mean that you’ll finally achieve the teaching career that you’ve always dreamed about. It means that you’ll finally be in the position to change the lives of hundreds of students!

Acing a Praxis practice test doesn’t always come down to sheer knowledge; in fact, many exam experts agree that if you have these ultimate strategies and secrets under your belt, you’ll be that much closer to your dream career as a teacher. So get ready to learn the ultimate test preparation tips from the Praxis guide experts – and get ready to finally have a classroom of your own!

Get To Know How The Praxis Exam Is Scored. Many test takers are under the impression that a wrong answer will suck away valuable points from their test scores. Contrary to popular belief, you’re not penalized for guessing on the Praxis practice test.

However, that doesn’t mean you should take a wild guess on questions when you don’t know the answer. Instead, eliminate the answers that you know to be wrong and only then take an educated guess. Don’t ever leave an answer blank, as a few well-strategized guesses could net you valuable Praxis test points.

Get A Schedule Prepared Based On Test Dates. Test takers who are well-prepared will pick one of the many test dates that give them plenty of time to prepare for the exam. Find out if a potential job requires you to take the Praxis exam by a certain date; if it doesn’t, go for test dates that give you a few months to prepare. It might be tempting to get the test over with as soon as possible, but you’ll risk delaying your teaching career – and that lucrative salary – by another year!

Understand The Importance Of Reading Comprehension. Learning how to quickly and effectively read and comprehend test passages will not only earn you plenty of valuable testing time; it can even help your overall test score by netting you more correct answers.

Devote plenty of time your Praxis guide, but don’t forget to read as much as possible. Pick up a few novels that you’ve been meaning to read, or simply read the paper every morning before heading to work. The practice will improve your reading comprehension – and it will certainly show on your Praxis practice test score!

Use these strategies to pass the following exams:

Praxis Middle School Mathematics
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Staying Focused Begins Before You Receive Your Praxis II Test

Don’t wait until those Praxis II tests are handed out before you start those all-important breathing techniques.  Instead, close your eyes and slowly breathe in and out as soon as you settle into your chair.  Remaining calm and collected will help you to stay focused as soon as you open that first page. 

Don’t Let Your Anxiety Distract You

If you start to feel anxiety bubble up during the Praxis II test, use the power of visualization to get your nerves to settle back down.  Close your eyes, focus on your breathing and picture a peaceful scenario.  Your nerves should soon settle down after a few moments of visualization. 

Remember That It’s Not A Competition

Staying focused means concentrating on your Praxis II test – and not on your fellow test takers!  Even if you’re the last person in the exam room, take all of the time you need to complete your test.  Don’t let other test takers make you feel as though you should finish first, as this will seriously undermine your focus and determination. 

Stay focused during your exam by using these expert Praxis II test tips and you’ll be on your way towards a lucrative teaching career in no time!

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