Felix Meritis - Agenda - Our pride, part 3

Wednesday April 16 2008 / Citizenship

Our pride, part 3

When our national anthem will be sung in Beijing, the Olympic medals will be not just for the athletes but also a little bit for us. And if the Dutch soccer team wins the European championship, then we, and not just the soccer players, are the winners. The oranje-gevoel (Dutch feeling of national pride during sports events) is clearly a feeling of belonging.

A feeling of belonging is often very close to a feeling of pride: to be proud of your country, proud of your language, proud of your religion and culture. For everybody the feeling of belonging refers to different feelings of pride. People are proud of God or Allah, or of traditional costume, or of wearing a headscarf, or of the Frisian language. Does the feeling of pride increase when people from a large variety of cultures live side by side?

Between the 1st and the 23rd of April a diversity of reactions to feelings of pride will be addressed in a series of eight evening programmes in Amsterdam and Zwolle. How can sport, costume, religion and language bring us together and how can they divide us? Two speakers are invited for each of the evening programmes. The first speaker will address one of the feelings of being proud of language, religion, sport or clothing. The second speaker will focus on new forms of pride that emerge when a large diversity of cultural groups live side by side in society.

On 16 April Marten van der Meulen (Sociologist of Religion, VU University) and Ruard Ganzevoort (Professor of Practical Theology, VU University) will discuss the issue of religion. Moderator: Jan van der Stoep (postdoctoral researcher in philosophy, VU University)

Print