{"id":736,"date":"2017-02-02T10:51:30","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T09:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/?p=65584\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:05","slug":"henk-oosterling-quite-a-forceful-personality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2017\/02\/02\/henk-oosterling-quite-a-forceful-personality\/","title":{"rendered":"Henk Oosterling: Quite a forceful personality"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Henk Oosterling in Shofukan in Charlois.\n<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRonald van den Heerik<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Philosopher Henk Oosterling isn\u2019t a celebrity in the academic world, but outside the gates of the ivory towers, his name is on everyone\u2019s lips.\u00a0Just another Saturday afternoon at the Albert Heijn on the Nieuwe Binnenweg. A middle-aged woman with hair dyed a fiery red is hurrying after her husband between the coffee aisle, the latest offers, and the checkouts. \u201cYou know\u201d, and she quickens her pace, \u201cthat new Henk Oosterling book is really fantastic\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Accomplishments <\/h3>

Last year on Erasmus\u2019 birthday, 28 October, Oosterling was presented with the Lof der Zotheid (In Praise of Folly) honorary pin in recognition of his service to the city. The publication of his book Waar geen wil is, is een weg. Doendenken tussen Europa en Japan garnered extensive media exposure.<\/p>\n

For many years, Oosterling has been much in demand as a speaker for audiences of all persuasions, ranging from consultants and government ministries to housing associations and library directors. This year, he turns 65 and retirement is inevitable after 32 years as a university lecturer. Even though he has published extensively \u2013 \u2018there are 30 books to my name\u2019 \u2013 most of his accomplishments can be found outside of the university<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Equip pupils with the skills they\u2019ll need as citizens of a new century\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Rotterdam Skillcity is his greatest achievement. Twelve years ago, this started with the idea of teaching skills and craftsmanship to children of migrants. With the departure of the port from the city, the rise of ICT and social media, and the issue of climate change \u2013 something Oosterling refers to as \u2018ecological urgency\u2019 \u2013, different skills are needed for citizens of the 21st century. At Rotterdam Skillcity\u2019s launch Oosterling advocated rapidly equipping pupils with the skills they\u2019ll need as citizens of a new century. In August, he stepped down as director.<\/p>\n

Communicate to participate<\/h3>

It all started at the De Bloemhof public primary school in Rotterdam Zuid. Starting in year one, pupils were given lessons in what was called \u2018Physical Integrity\u2019. The subject matter included judo, gardening, philosophising, technology, and cooking, in addition to their regular lessons. Or to put it in Oosterling\u2019s words: \u201cto participate in sport, you need to eat nourishing food. To eat nourishing food, you have to prepare it. To have food to prepare, you need to grow it. Participating in this cycle means you\u2019ll have food to eat so you remain active. Most important is that you need to talk to each other about it. Communicate to participate. This way, children are given a comprehensive experience of the world around them and they understand they are a link in a chain, or a hub in a network.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Henk Oosterling in Shofukan in Charlois.\n<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRonald van den Heerik<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

Key concepts in Oosterling\u2019s educational philosophy are media awareness and ecological awareness. \u201cMedia awareness encompasses more than just what we do with computers \u2013 it also includes how computers affect us. Ecological awareness isn\u2019t just about our relationship with nature. Nature can take care of itself and will be there long after we\u2019re gone. Ecology is about our relationship with technology within nature, about the sustainable use of technology. We need to learn to adopt another mind-set towards our technology\u201d, explains Oosterling. In the meantime, Skillcity has expanded to four primary schools, a pre-vocational secondary school, and a senior secondary vocational school. Oosterling\u2019s vision is also used as a model in the Social Work programme at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. And at Erasmus University, he teaches the honours class in \u2018Sustainability\u2019 together with Jan Rotmans.<\/p>\n

Would you call Skillcity a success?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAt our peak, 29% of pupils in one of the country\u2019s most socioeconomically deprived neighbourhoods went on to senior general secondary \/pre-university further education (the domestic percentage is around 45%, ed). This was unprecedented for this school. If you\u2019re a pupil\u00a0at a school in Zuid, your opportunities are already very limited. This made our intervention extremely vulnerable, but in spite of this, the programme was a boon for all the children who took part. We received a lot of media exposure: people came from abroad to look at our work, high-ranking ministry officials visited including a government minister and even the queen came \u2013 twice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018I don\u2019t care for long discussions or diplomatic manoeuvring.\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Did Skillcity meet your expectations?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a long way to go and we\u2019re not finished yet. We\u2019re now working at four primary schools and a pre-vocational secondary school. The intervention at the senior secondary vocational school has been completed and the school itself is now responsible for the process. We have a lot of interns from universities of applied sciences. As far as I\u2019m concerned, we should introduce it in all levels of education, up to universities. That\u2019s why I teach an honours class in sustainability with Jan (Rotmans, professor of Transition and Transition Management at EUR, ed.). Most of the students are aware of what sustainability is, but this is often the place where many of them are exposed to it for the first time in an educational setting. They are shocked to the core; they\u2019ve never thought about it in this way before. If they only become aware of these problems at such a late stage, then it has a very limited effect. Conscious awareness of their habitat and understanding they are a hub in a network needs to be nurtured starting in their first year of school. And if they then attend a lecture in eco-philosophy, these students will have a much more integrated level of development. It\u2019s not just a theory in their heads anymore, they will know what it means in practice too. These are our new directors and leaders. That\u2019s why I\u2019m pleased that we\u2019re teaching eco-philosophy in the first year of Philosophy for double degree students (students who combine the Philosophy programme with another EUR programme, ed.).\u201d<\/p>\n

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Henk Oosterling in Shofukan in Charlois.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRonald van den Heerik<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

How would you rate the university when\nit comes to sustainability?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSustainability is an important priority for the university, but then in a physical sense. We have a lovely campus, and you can finally get decent food there. I\u2019ve been here since the eighties and I\u2019ve seen a lot of rubbish come and go. \u201cBut students need more integrated education to ensure they are not limited by monodisciplinary learning by the time they graduate. They have to learn to think beyond the walls. Tunnel vision and a blinkered attitude must be avoided at all costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSkillcity has developed a much broader concept of sustainability: ECO3. Its three elements are physical sustainability, which encompasses more than just the environment and the climate. It\u2019s also about your body: what are you putting in it and where did it come from? Then there\u2019s social sustainability that teaches another sense of what care means. Care in the sense of relational management. And then there\u2019s mental sustainability: continue nurturing your consciousness. To put it another way, engage in lifelong learning and cultivate your interests. All three of these separate elements exist, but not in a state in which all three are unified to form a cohesive concept. That concept is what we call ECO3. Here\u2019s an example: when we proposed Meat Free Mondays here, it was met with a lot of resistance. Very interesting: why was there so much resistance to the idea? It was about something more than eating fewer or more hamburgers. It was about a sustainable, circular economy and another kind of corporate ethics. A debate like this is more interesting when you can bring that up for discussion at Economics and RSM. But all faculties, including ours, are busy with the business of survival, not with building a new kind of society.<\/p>\n

\u201cStill, something tangible has been created, such as the sustainability hub. And this generation of students are much more perceptive and aware of media than my generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do you explain that despite all the\npraise you\u2019ve received in the world at\nlarge, your Skillcity ideas have made little\nheadway at the university\u2026\n [here Oosterling interrupts me]<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a lot of interest in management. Because it\u2026let\u2019s just say it\u2019s not something that suits my personality [laughs]. I don\u2019t care for long discussions\u00a0or diplomatic manoeuvring. I\u2019m capable of it and I did it quite intensively as director of Skillcity, but it has to be related to something where I can see the effects. This organisation is too big and cumbersome for that. I have colleagues who are much better at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did you want to become a full professor?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly? No. I enjoy supervising the process of obtaining a doctorate, but I can do that as an associate professor. Administration and management is not something I want. Getting published in top academic journals takes so long that in the meantime I\u2019ve already moved on to something new. I have published extensively: more than 30 books and more than a hundred articles, but I always did it on my own terms rather than according to procedures imposed by others.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I have quite a forceful personality. I\u2019m not an easygoing guy. I understand that a professorial bearing requires certain things. Twice I\u2019ve missed out on an endowed chair professorship that was created specifically for me. I created an impossible situation for myself in the philosophers\u2019 community and that meant there was always someone on a committee who would oppose my appointment if it suited his own agenda. That\u2019s an unfortunate consequence of my way of working.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Henk Oosterling in Shofukan in Charlois.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRonald van den Heerik<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

But your approach was successful with\nSkillcity<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI ended up there because of my own ideas. I\u2019ve always operated in society and I feel there should be a closer, more organic relationship between the city and the university. \u201cI do feel valued in my work though, and I\u2019ve grown from someone who was often misunderstood in the beginning to someone who now has ideas that are both ingenious and feasible. It\u2019s often just a question of time.\u201d<\/p>\n\t

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Book: Where there\u2019s no will, there\u2019s a way<\/h3>\n

Henk Oosterling\u2019s book Waar geen wil is, is een weg (Where there\u2019s no will, there\u2019s a way) combines scientific study in Western and Eastern enlightenment with a biographical storyline covering Oosterling\u2019s working visits to Japan. He spent time there in the eighties to learn kendo, the Japanese martial art of sword fighting. He later became Dutch kendo champion and captain of the Dutch team.
\n\u201cI spent 20 years compiling material on French philosophers and how they were strongly influenced by Japanese philosophy and Zen Buddhism. This was the subject of my dissertation and it\u2019s also a subject I teach. At the same time, I was interested in intercultural philosophy and I was obsessed with Japan due to the martial arts. I decided to combine them both. This remarkable interaction between the inscrutable Japanese and the unreadable French philosophers has never been described. I wrote it in a more accessible style because my previous books had proved to be difficult reading for a lot of people. I wrote it taking the reader into consideration, but it\u2019s still definitely a scientific publication. Am I mellowing? Probably [laughs]. It was also a journey of exploration for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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