FEDE ACADEMIC CONFERENCE 2023

Theme: Education, citizenship skills and the workplace

Date: Monday 20 November 2023

Time: 14:00 to 16:00 (Paris time)

Location: Online – https://bit.ly/3RTlkZE

With the experts:

Mr Patrick VIEU: Graduate of “ENA” (“Léon Gambetta” class), Doctor of Philosophy, graduate of the “Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris”. Appointed Director of Rail and Public Transport, then Director of Transport Services at the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing, he became (2011) Project Director to the Vice-President of the General Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development (CGEDD). In May 2012, he was appointed ‘Environment and Territories’ adviser in charge of transport and sustainable development issues at the Office of the President of the Republic, a position he held until June 2014. Appointed by decree of the President of the Republic (2020), he joins the High Authority for Transport Regulation as Vice-Chairman.

Topics covered:

– Conceptual framing of the notion of citizenship skills

– Function of citizenship education

– Knowledge of local, national, and international institutions

– Raising awareness of the ethical values of living together

– Getting involved in social life and democracy

Mr Stéphane HUGON: Doctor in sociology from the University of Paris V, founder, and director of the trend consultancy Eranos, Stéphane Hugon is a researcher at the “Centre de l’actuel et du contemporain” and head of the research group on technology and everyday life. A member of the FEDE College of Experts, he teaches at the “Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle (ENSCI – les ateliers)” and is a visiting professor at the School of Communication and the Arts in Sao Paulo (Brazil). His courses focus on issues of social innovation and technology. He has published numerous articles in scientific journals such as “Les cahiers de l’imaginaire”. The author of several books, he is an expert in consumer behaviour.

Topics covered:

– How to define a corporate citizenship?

– The transition from an ego culture to a team culture (examples from companies)

– Examination of the S of CSR (reflection on the social utility of the company)

– Imaginary of work and citizenship

– Play, respect for rules and managerial culture

Mr Salvador SALA: Doctor of Philosophy and Education Sciences, Associate Professor at the University of Andorra, Salvador Sala is an expert in democratic skills within the Council of Europe. He has directed programmes in the Ministry of Education of the Principality of Andorra and conducted a mission over two years working for the Ministry of Education of Serbia. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the Observatory for History Teaching in Europe. An expert in the democratic culture of human rights and human dignity, he puts his knowledge to work in the service of a lively transmission aimed at outlining the contours of effective and contemporary citizenship skills.

Topics covered:

– Passing on a heritage to help people get to know each other and open to others

– Learning about rights and duties

 – Building citizenship through equal rights and dignity

 – History teaching and citizenship education

 – Citizenship skills and lifelong learning

Ms Hillgje van’t LAND: With a doctorate in comparative francophone literature, Hilligje van’t Land speaks six languages and has published on higher education issues. She serves the global higher education community as Secretary General of the International Association of Universities (IAU). Over the past two decades, she has worked to strengthen the key role that higher education plays in the transformation of society. She oversees all IAU programme activities and develops the Association’s strategic plans. She has positioned IAU as a partner in UNESCO’s work on Education for Sustainable Development and in UNESCO’s Futures of Education initiative, and higher education as a key stakeholder in the UN Agenda 2030 – Transforming our World. As an international expert, Hilligje van’t Land alerts on the importance of international cooperation and intercultural understanding and develops multilateral projects.

Topics covered:

– Civic skills and transformation of society

– Cultural level and sense of otherness

– Innovation and teaching

– Innovation in teaching and innovation teaching

At its 2023 Academic Conference, the FEDE will bring together citizenship skills and the workplace. Skills can be defined as practical and functional forms of knowledge but also as ways of adjusting, or re-adjusting, to diverse opportunities and situations.

The concept of ‘skills’ has an evident application in the workplace. But can it also be applied to citizenship? Is the notion of ‘citizenship skills’ readily understood? Citizenship skills can facilitate interaction within a family, village, town, region, country or group of countries, as well as between individuals and their environment. They cover everything (and more) from a greater awareness of a society’s ethical values, to involvement in democratic life (for example, voting in elections or volunteering) and critical thinking, self-awareness, openness to others, and knowledge of one’s rights and duties as a human being.

Can such skills be taught? And how can workplace citizenship promote citizenship skills more generally? What linkages are there between citizenship in the workplace and citizenship skills across the board? These are just some of the questions that will be discussed this coming Monday 20 November by the international experts invited to the FEDE’s Academic Conference on the topic ‘Why are professional skills inseparable from citizenship skills?’.

  • Does a commitment to democratic processes extend to the workplace?
  • What role should citizenship skills play in training the professionals of the future?
  • Citizenship skills or team culture?

A look back at previous editions

Theme: Education and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Use of artificial intelligence in education and artificial intelligence literacy

According to the 2021 Unesco report “Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Education: A Guide for Policy Makers“, AI will be worth an estimated $6 billion in education by 2024.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is having an increasing impact on education, generating opportunities but also many challenges. But education in AI is not only about teaching and learning with AI, but also about teaching and learning about AI (AI literacy), addressing both the technological and the often-forgotten human dimension of AI.

Ahmet-Murat KILIC, Council of Europe.

Wayne HOLMES, University College London.

Jean-Noël VALLEE, Paris-Saclay University, UVSQ and American Institute of Mathematical Sciences.

Janice RICHARDSON, SnapChat, Meta (Facebook & Instagram), Twitter

Ross CREELMAN, European Telecommunication Network Operators

Emmanuel FERREIRA & Abdelhalim RAFRAFI, NEXTECH – FEDE’s member

Please listen to the podcast featuring the highlights of this webinar:

Theme: New job roles in the world after Covid-19

Date: November 10, 2020

Time: 9.30am to 12am

Location: Webinar format

The aim of the FEDE’s full- and half-day academic conferences? To show that economic ambitions and public concerns can – and must – coexist. Having previously discussed religion in the workplace (2017), 21st-century management (2018), and respect in the workplace (2019), in 2020 the FEDE has decided, in the context of the current pandemic, to focus on new job roles in the world after COVID-19.

If you want to know whether a job is ’useful’ or not, just imagine the effect on society if it were to disappear. David Graeber, who died on 2 September 2020 at age 59, had already sounded the alarm in his book Bullshit Jobs. In 2020 we have seen the truth with our own eyes: ‘Live in lockdown and see what happens to different types of jobs.’

The point is clear: many of those that have been under intense pressure to keep our society functioning belong to professions that are all too often despised; meanwhile, many more prestigious, better-paid job roles are far from essential.

How, then, can we define the usefulness of a job? Does the smooth running of society depend on our ability to live together harmoniously? What criteria should be used? Is the usefulness of a job the same in developed and less developed countries? Has the current situation bolstered certain professions in the short or long terms? Is public opinion changing, or is society changing?

These questions will be fuel for debate at the upcoming FEDE Conference entitled New Job Roles in a Post-COVID World. The conference will take place next Tuesday 10 November from 9.30 a.m. to 12.00 a.m. (GMT, Paris time) in webinar format.

Online Study Day 2020: Why is it imperative to think about work in a new and contemporary way?

Why do we need to adopt a new, contemporary approach to the workplace? This was the question posed by Jean-Louis Bischoff, Director of the FEDE Doctoral School, during the half-day FEDE conference held last 10 November. It is a key aspect of the research on future job roles that Professor Bischoff is carrying out at the FEDE. He is now preparing to publish the proceedings of the conference, which was greatly appreciated by our members. 

The event took place via videoconferencing with simultaneous French-English interpretation. It enjoyed a large turnout, with the debates taking place live and via a chat function that allowed the participants to build on the discussions. 

Benoit Rico (a FEDE doctoral student) asked a number of questions, in particular concerning the impact of the loss of a part of non-verbal communication and the notion of ‘environment’, which might distort communication between the emitter of a message and its recipient. Afterwards he said that ‘the quality of the speakers and their discussion meant that I garnered lots of relevant information for my research’. 

The talented sociologists (Stéphane Hugon and Antony Mahe), psychoanalyst (Fréderic Vincent) and ‘men of action’ (Thierry Lassalle, Directeur of Human Resources at Artelia, and François Venutolo, anaesthetist at Gonesse Hospital) exchanged a number of innovative ideas concerning remote working, useful and collaborative work, and digitalisation. 

 Feedbacks from speakers : 

Antony Mahé: ‘One of the rare conferences that aren’t at all boring; the format is very constructive.’ 

Thierry Lassalle: ‘Very interesting indeed. The online format did not impact on the quality of our discussion. Hold another one soon!’ 

Stéphane Hugon: ‘I enjoyed it very much.’ 

Patrick Roux, President of the FNEP: ‘A great conference. Well done.’ 

The 2019 academic conference on the theme of respect in the workplace

Almost 200 students attended the FEDE Academic Conference held on 19 November 2019 at the City Hall of Paris’s ninth arrondissement. Sponsored by Thierry Jadot, CEO of the international communications group Dentsu Aegis, the event was just as exciting as anticipated. This year it was attended not only by members of Paris-based FEDE institutions (COGEFI, ICOGES , ITIC, ESMOD, HEJO and others) but also representatives from institutions from the South of France (ESTC Marseille), the Hauts-de-France region (Maison Familiale Rurale de Rollancourt) or Perigueux (Perigueux Business School). At the end of the conference, both audience and speakers were full of enthusiasm. Thierry Jadot said he was ‘delighted to have participated in such a fruitful discussion’, while Marie Florence Robert from Nervet Consulting wrote that ‘[t]he high-profile speakers gave me much food for thought on recognition and trust in the workplace. Thank you for organising this event! I also very much appreciated your students’ thoughtful attitude.’ Marie-Thérèse Camus (Director of Education at ITIC) wrote that: ‘Our students and their teacher Eric Déru very much appreciated the quality of the speakers and the programme of events.’ Finally, Alex, a student at HEJO, described the day in simple but eloquent terms: ‘It was very, very interesting.’ 

Feedback from students of the ESTC (Marseille, France) who attended the Academic Conference 

It was a real opportunity to take part in the seminar on the theme of the respect in the workplace. I appreciated the diversity of the speakers and the opportunity to exchange with them on the different topics’ Audrey Portelli  

This seminar was very informative and the statements made by the various speakers at the round table were very interesting. All participants were able to take part in the discussion and that contributed to a captivating exchange, especially since respect in the workplace is a relevant topic’. Léa Cieplik 

A look back at the 2018 edition : Management in the 21st century: which faces for which managers?

Generation Z has brought to the workplace a new set of social codes and professional aspirations that have forced businesses to rethink their approach to management.

How can we meet the demand of 15- to 20-year-olds for transparency and flexibility? How can we adapt to their appetite for new technology?

Managers are at the forefront of the rapid changes taking place, and their role is, consequently, also undergoing radical transformations.

Attended by Clarisse Angelier, General Delegate of France’s National Association of Research and Technology (ANRT), Antony Mahe, sociologist and Research Director at Eranos, a research and consulting firm, and Daniel Peyron, former Director of Groupe Sup de Co La Rochelle, the conference on 6 November will provide an opportunity to debate future management challenges and explore  the skills needed to address them.

The conference will take place in the morning and will last three hours. There will be two roundtable discussions focussing on the following themes:

  • How is Generation Z influencing management styles?
  • What new management profiles might emerge?

Claude Vivier Le Got
introduced
the Academic Conference
presenting
the FEDE DNA

Emilie Coutant, Anthony Mahe (sociologists), Jean-Louis Bischoff (FEDE research director) & Dominique Carlac’h, 2018 conference sponsor, spoke in the 1rst table

A most
listening
room

People
in the public
took the opportunity
to ask questions:
here Farhang Ghassemi
animated the debates.

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