“Utopian Entrepreneur” by Brenda Laurel

Work for peace.  Speak for peace.  Tell stories for peace.  Make music for peace.  Write books and make movies and build websites for peace.  Do culture work that corrodes extremism and intolerance.  Manifest peace.

Brenda Laurel describes in this book the concept of popular culture as the language used by cultural workers to interact with popular culture itself. Popular culture is the language used to discuss different topics such as politics, religion, ethics, and action. Cultural workers do culture work when they act or create because they believe in what they’re doing, because they think it’s a good think to do. To applicate knowledge or truth means to believe in humanity, to believe that humanity has the power of shaping its own destiny. Cultural worker has a strong social responsibility having the power to change people’s mind (or at least trying to do it) in the sense of helping people asking themselves simple questions as: What is the meaning of this?  Who am I? What are the world and I becoming?

Culture work is action and design using different tools: storytelling, persuasion, technology, and economics. Cultural worker is actually an activist and an artist as Brenda Laurel defines helself. What really strikes about her book is that she describes her very personal professional experience in a professional way. She is a utopian entrepreneur because she believed in something and fought for it. She was sure that even a professinal failure wouldn’t have meant a social one. Purple Moon, the company she launched had a project dedicated to create video games for girls. Even if even the website they created was socially a great success, the company had to be shut down. But the passion Brenda and her group put in the project of investigation what kind of video games would little girls be interested in playing with made their work a social success any way. Their goal was to do something socially positive in the business world. It is true that an artist works in the art world whether a cultural worker worls in the popular world, but when the artist creates for a positive social purpose the line between artisi and cultular worker becomes almost invisible. Brenda Laurel is an artist, a designer, a cultural worker and an activist. I wonder whether I could be able to work and create in such a perspective, at least this is what I would like to.

I was surpised by receiving this book 2 days ago……still no sign of the other one, but it’s a start! I was amazed by the design of Utopian Entrepreneur, very innovative and appealing.

Reading responses to Utopian Entrepreneur

Laurel writes, ‘we construct ourselves out of two deeply intermingled kinds of materials: our life experiences and our culture context.  We are the product of both the stories, we hear and the stories of our lives.’

1. How does your research project reflect your life experiences and your cultural context?
2. How would you apply Laurel’s thoughts to your experiences in Second Life?
3. As a Utopian Entrepreneur, how would do relate your finding and initial discoveries to this week’s readings?

Methodology

This week’s readings concentrate on methodology. It wouldn’t be useless to describe all different kind of methods. I’ll concentrate on the ones that might be useful to my research project.

Qualitative research would be the basis of my research as it provides human behavior and the reasons that govern human behavior. Qualitative research focuses on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of decision making based on the analysis of documents and materials.

Case studies is an important research method, especially during the beginning of my investigation process:

Determine and define the research questions

Select the cases and determine data gathering and analysis techniques

Prepare to collect the data

Collect data in the field

Evaluate and analyze the data

Prepare the report

Action research might be appropriate to my research project. This method associates research and practice. Working on an immediate problematic situation requires the constant combination of theory and practice. I need to try out my theory (that the use of video and audio resources can give people a better understanding of foreign cultures) in a real situation where practitioners are University students.

Critical ethnography is a method based on cultural relativism. Cultural relativism is the idea that any belief or action must be judged in relation to its place and in the unique structure of the culture in which it occurs and in terms of the particular value system of that culture. To fully understand a foreign culture and to study a foreign language easily we must consider the relationship between knowledge, culture, society and action.

My Research Question

Internet is a powerful learning tool. How can Internet be better integrated in education, in the language learning process? Learning a foreign language means also learning a foreign culture: How can Internet video and audio resources can be used as a cross-cultural tool? How should the online learning environment be designed in order to integrate those resources in a natural way?