Partners
C.E.R.P.A. Italia (Italy)
"Centro Europeo di Ricerca e Promozione dell'Accessibilità ITALIA" (European Centre of Research and Promotion of Accessibility) has the main purpose to contribute to the promotion of a better quality of life, a higher degree of urban-building accessibility and usability for all individuals of all social categories, paying particular attention to those categories considered to be weaker. C.E.R.P.A. ‘s members are interested in exploring the theme of aversive discrimination and to pursue this aim decided a year ago to contact other organisations which could be interested in the same topic from different perspectives. This led to the Learning Partnership UAV. The first project meeting has been important to start knowing the partners and to establish a common perspective through which analyse aversive, and later on also intersectional, discrimination.
Arcilesbica (Italy)
During the learning partnership the purpose of Arcilesbica - as a political and cultural national wide lesbian association involved in the promotion of the rights and of the affirmative actions for lgbt people in Italy - is to analyse thoroughly the forms assumed by the aversive discrimination and the modern heterosexism in the different social aspects; with a particular concern to the adult education, in order to provide all the awareness elements helping to overcome the individual and collective discriminatory acts. We have started the learning process discussing the paper "Toward a Multidimensional Understanding of Heterosexism: The Changing Nature of Prejudice", written by N. Eugene Walls, PhD Assistant Professor at the University of Denver. He extends the theoretical understanding of modern prejudice into the realm of heterosexism and writes about modern heterosexism conceptually and empirical distinct from the more traditional hostile heterosexism. He argues that group inequalities in social, political, and economic outcomes have existed in all societies and that the inequalities in the social structure and its institutions are maintained by attitudes and ideologies that justify the stratification. Some of the more recent work on prejudice and stereotypes has examined the ways in which they have actually changed over time. What has historically been a predominately hostile cluster of attitudes toward lower status groups has evolved, in some cases, into a set of attitudes with more ambivalent and/or positively valenced components.
Internet Rights Bulgaria Foundation (Bulgaria)
Internet Rights Bulgaria Foundation (IRBF) aims to promote initiatives in the social and human rights sectors in Bulgaria. We encourage not-for-profit organisations and social movements working in these sectors to use the Internet for publicising their activities and for networking with others who share their aims, both within Bulgaria and abroad. We also work to defend and extend their communication rights. Historical facts indicate that Bulgarian people are tolerant towards ethnic origin, religion, sex, social status, disabilities, age, etc. Current Bulgarian legislation ranks the country among the most advanced in Europe in terms of constitutional and legislative definition of discrimination and the fights against its manifestation. In this field the role of media is considerable as creators and disseminator of stereotypes concerning different minority groups. In spite of all, discrimination in Bulgaria still exists, even if it is not always shown in a open and manifested way. The real problem is the aversive discrimination which is more invisible and often unconscious. Knowledge of the Aversive Discrimination phenomenon enables IRBF to educate the people as electronic media from small children to adults, to detect signs of it and to overcome them. This is how we see our role in this project as an Internet media of social NGOs throughout Bulgaria by providing a specialized website Social Rights Bulgaria, which informs about new developments and analysis in the social field and helps to learn about European practices and to disseminate knowledge on aversive discrimination. It is especially important to define the manifestation of the aversive discrimination, the ways to recognise it, to distinguish it and the ways to fight against it.
bfi Steiermark (Austria)
As a practical approach of what can be done against discrimination in the sense of creating an environment of inclusion, bfi Steiermark has presented detailed aspects of its intercultural competence and its expertise in active integration of unemployed and disabled people especially through its commitment in labour market projects, EU projects, and projects run by the Austrian Federal Social Office. As a vocational training institute with 20 locations situated all over Styria, bfi Steiermark offers various kinds of courses (apprenticeship training, vocational preparation courses, advanced training courses, seminars and workshop as well as individual coaching) in a wide range of sectors (office and management, metal and electrical technologies, health and well-being services, wood and construction, IT, personality and management training, tourism and catering, logistics, transport, and traffic etc.) while focusing on vocational training in the field of corporate training and on measures of active labour market policy with the aim to develop equal opportunities for unemployed women and men, migrants of all ages, disabled people, young people as well as women and men who are older than 50.
bfi Steiermark focuses on visualizing and developing the competences of migrants - in labour market projects as well as in projects run by the Austrian Federal Social Office. In these projects, the emphasis is on supporting women in coping with their everyday life in Graz and its surroundings and in getting access to the Styrian labour market. bfi Steiermark tries to prevent migrants from ghettoizing by offering seminars in various fields (German language courses, social competence courses, soft skill and ICT-seminars, etc.). In this context bfi Steiermark understands its contribution to the EU-project UAV: It tries to uncover aversive discrimination especially against disabled people, migrants, and unemployed women and men whose knowledge and experience or whose impairments and psychic problems might not be obvious on first sight.
KomBi – Communication and Education (Germany)
KomBi is a non-governmental educational institution based in Berlin offering training and counselling on the issues of diversity, gender and sexual identity. The main target groups are educational practitioners and children and youth attending schools. KomBi has been engaged in anti-discrimination and lesbian-gay emancipation since 1981 in the educational sector. The aims of KomBi's work are fostering respect, acceptance and democratic consciousness, acknowledgement of social diversity and prevention of hate crimes.KomBi applies a diversity approach with reference to the generic non-discrimination clause (Article 13) of the European Community Treaty and Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The focus of the trainings lies on raising awareness of social diversity related to skin colour, ethnic background, age, (dis)ability, religion, sexual identity and gender, using the examples of gender equality and acceptance of LGBT (lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender) ways of life. Based on its pedagogical approach of Lebensfomenpdagogik (Pedagogy of Ways of Life) KomBi developed educational concepts and tools to address sexual diversity and to challenge homophobia at schools and in youth work.
Within the Learning Partnership "UAV" KomBi will share its experience and expertise in anti-discrimination with a focus on challenging gender-based discrimination and homophobia in the field of adult education. On the other hand KomBi will enlarge its knowledge in the field of aversive discrimination, especially on the grounds of disability, gender and sexual orientation and from an international perspective.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This website reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
(C) 2009 Unveiling Aversive Discrimination