The Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller reminds us that humans are not just in the world but are crucially born somewhere in the world. We learn a language and acquire cultural habits, and the places we grow up are therefore extremely significant for our becoming as human beings (Heller, 2019, p. 11). The German philosopher J.G. Herder (2004[1774], p. 26) was concerned with the significance of place for human perfection, arguing that place should play a significant role in educational theory. However, theories of Bildung, addressing the process of becoming a subject in the encounter with a material, social and cultural world, have rarely dealt with the significance of place explicitly. Although places situate our experiences with the world, they are seldom at the center of our intellectual scrutiny.

With this background, the double symposium will explore the possibilities of a relationship between Bildung and place. The participants of the symposium are from Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and the educational tradition of NordicBildung will therefore be a point of departure for us. Accordingly, the symposium addresses educational features that are unique to the Nordic countries considering our similar languages, educational structures and culture, and shared pedagogical heritage (Solberg, 2021; Bostad & Solberg, 2022). We want to explore Nordic Bildung as an example of the inherent relationship between Bildung and place, not just in the formation of individuals, but also in the formation of theories.

While there are forces in the educational field that pushes towards globalization and standards decontextualized from time and place, we need educational thinking that enables us to reconsider the significance of place for Bildung-processes, without falling back into nationalistic nostalgia (Heller, 2019). Martha Nussbaum (2012) has pointed out how different constructs ofplace, such as common culture (history and values), blood ties, ethnicity, earth-boundedness, linguistic belonging, and religion, have all been central elements in building national sentiments in Europe. This way of manifesting national belonging has led to the fact that newcomers, regardless of their time of residence, are seldom considered as belonging to the nation. Place thus appears to be a concept presenting possibilities as well as dangers for educational thinking, and the symposium therefore intends to investigate the relationship between place and Bildung as essentially conflicted and paradoxical. We have organized the symposium in two parts, each addressing a particular tension in the relationship between Bildung and place:

1) Part 1 is described in another application (Id 1868)

2)      Nostalgia: possibilities and dangers: Barbara Cassin (2016) has investigated the ambiguous and sometimes dangerous feeling of nostalgia. What does it mean to feel at home and where does the feeling of nostalgia come from? As Cassin points out, the nostalgia for places of belonging can be both formative as well as degenerative and dangerous. It is for instance highly relevant what we long for when feeling nostalgic, if we find our belonging in territories or in languages. Cassin argues in favor of languages as “homes”, seeing as languages are not owned by people, but expressions of plurality that are accessible for translation. The symposium intends to discuss the dilemmas we are facing when connecting to the place of Nordic Bildung, a particular place with particular languages, which may be disappearing or is already no more. What does “place” even mean, and what does it entail to have “a home” in the Nordic countries? What do we conceive of when we speak of a Nordic nostalgia and is it possible to think of Nordic identity and belonging that is not detrimental to foreigners?

Bostad, I. & Solberg, M. (2022). Rooms of Togetherness. Nordic Ideals of Knowledge in Education. In Tröhler, D. et al.., (eds) The Nordic Education Model. In Studies in Curriculum Theory. Routledge Cassin, B. (2016). Nostalgia: When are we ever at home? Fordham University Press Gustavsson, B. (2003). Bildning i vår tid : Om bildningens möjligheter och villkor i det moderna samhället. Wahlström & Widstrand. Heller, A. (2019). Das Paradox des Europäischen Nationalstaates. In. Heller, A. Paradox Europa. Kanten. Edition Konturen. Herder, J.G. (2004 [1774]). Another Philosophy of History for the Education of Mankind. In Herder. J.G. Another Philosophy of History and Selected Political Writings. Hackett Nussbaum, M. (2012). The New Religious Intolerance. Harvard University Press. Solberg, M. (2021). Dannelse i nord. In Bostad, I (eds): Å høre hjemme i verden: Introduksjon til en pedagogisk hjemstedsfilosofi. Scandinavian Academic Press