Dans le cadre du récent Festival des sciences sociales organisé au Collège Vanier du 17 au 21 octobre 2011, le LABRRI a organisé un atelier au sujet de la ségrégation et la sociabilité dans les espaces partagés du milieu cégépien.
Voici un résumé de l’atelier, animé par Danielle Gratton et Bob White:
Cliques and Cafeterias : A Workshop About Commensality and the Discovery of Difference
Cafeterias are not only places that people go to in order to eat, but places where they go in order to be together. In today’s world of increased contact between people of different cultural and racial backgrounds, public spaces such as cafeterias are charged with symbolic and social tension, especially where different types of cliques coalesce around common interests or shared identities. Is it normal for people to form cliques based on linguistic, ethnic or racial identity? Is the formation of cliques a form of exclusion, or worse yet, racism ? Commensality—the practice of sharing food—is universal but varies from one culture to another and this commonality may serve as a means of discovering difference on its own terms. This interactive workshop will use the idea of commensality and space of the cafeteria to explore how difference functions and why it matters.