Report - Salto

Bridges for Recognition | Terms and Concepts - What do we mean when we say…
39
Concepts
There were two inputs
on the subject of
terminology and
language in the field
we say…
of recognition: On
the opening morning,
Lynne Chisholm, of the
University of Innsbruck
Institute of Education, intro-duced delegates to the differences between terms and concepts
and between social and codified (formal) recognition. On Saturday morning, prior to the Hot
Topics debates, Bryony Hoskins from the Partnership on Youth Research between the Council of
European and the European Commission reminded delegates that language is dynamic and that
it can both unite and divide communities of interest.
Lynne Chisholm defined a term as something we use when we name something and a concept as
how we think about something. We cannot have terms without concepts but can have concepts
without terms. To confuse terms means to confuse meanings and this is where confusion in
recognition can begin.
The purpose for which we use a term and the culture in which we use it can make for different
meanings. The reality that when we use terms there will always be “conceptual approximations”;
we think we understand and have been understood but we are not always certain. This is not
necessarily a bad thing and the trick is to know how much approximation is acceptable. Bryony
Hoskins also talked about levels of specificity in the use of language and both mentioned that
language is not fixed, that concepts don’t stand still.
Bryony Hoskins talked about the power of language as a framework for understanding the world
around us and a construct for our identity – including which community we fit into. She also
talked about the difficulties of language: The barriers it can create, the complexities that can
be lost and the risk of following conversations in the wrong direction on the assumption that
everyone understands in the same way. More positively, delegates were encouraged to think of
language and terminology as a tool for building bridges to new communities.