On the role of communications: Group discussion

To that end, the IEC’s communications team organised a round of group discussions held in Bern on 24 October 2016 at the las alps restaurant in the Swiss Alpine Museum. The purpose of that first «World Café» was to reflect upon the role of the IEC’s media and communications work. The suggestions and ideas that grew out of those discussions will be integrated into the IEC’s further media and communications efforts. Invited to participate were representatives of the IEC’s various target groups (the media, the general public, concerned individuals, academic and political circles, education professionals, etc.). The participants were either people whose daily professional activities are concerned with the issue of administrative detention or individuals who had themselves been held in administrative detention.

«World Café»: Informal discussions with a precision landing

At a World Café participants are seated in small groups at different tables.The freely formed groups discuss for a set amount of time a number of specific questions presented to them in advance.  At the end of the discussions, the most important keywords, suggestions and questions are collected and written down. The varied composition of the discussion groups is intended to allow different perspectives on the issues to come together, in order stimulate dialogue on individual points of view and new ideas.

Discussion rounds: Content of discussions

The IEC World Café was moderated by Katharina Kilchenmann, a long-time editor and moderator at Radio SRF, today an editor with the newspaper «reformiert».

Some 30 invited guests discussed the following subjects:

• For the first round, the participants were addressed in their capacity as experts. How can public interest in the IEC’s work on the history of administrative detention in Switzerland be stimulated over the short and long term? The purpose of this round was to obtain an overview of the different perspectives on that subject.

• The second round focused on the question of historical continuity, from the past to the present, and its significance in defining the mission of historical research.  Many of the subjects that arise in the study of modern history remain highly topical up to the present, even if the overall context may have changed. Today, for example, there is much political discussion on the role of the family in society, although notions of what a family is have changed radically over the past fifty years. How is it possible to communicate an historical subject in such a way as to stimulate awareness of this changed consciousness and attract interest in questions of current relevance? 

• In the third and final round of discussions, the subject was communications work where emotionally sensitive issues are involved. In its media and communications efforts, the IEC attempts to strike a balance between scientific objectivity and emotional sensitivity. The discussions focused on the criteria for successful facilitation of communication and on communication work with regard to such sensitive subjects as the treatment of gypsy children or the use of children as indentured labourers.

Summation of results: A guideline for media and communications efforts:

Each of the three rounds of discussions were conducted by seven groups sitting at different tables. At the end of each discussion, each group wrote down the five most important comments, suggestions and keywords on each of the three questions discussed. Presented in the form of a table they provide a kind of synopsis of the group discussions organised by the IEC. In the hope that these exchanges will be only the start of an ongoing dialogue, the synopsis of results represents an important fundament for the IEC’s future media and communications work. That work serves to illustrate that an historical subject can always be considered from different perspectives and act a catalyst for topical public debate.

The discussions that took place at the World Café make it clear that the subject of administrative detention must, to the extent possible, be considered from a number of different angles simultaneously. A point often mentioned was the desirability of making the highly complex subject matter accessible to a wide audience without oversimplifying the issues and the role of the actors involved.