One World Week goes back to basics

As preparations for the 16th annual One World Week get underway, support for the event appears to be mixed following last year’s controversy surrounding the event’s sponsorship and management.

Last year Chris Rossdale created a Facebook group entitled ‘Warwick students fed up with One World Week’, which attracted more than 300 members. Rossdale was prompted to create the group due to the revelation that one of the major sponsors, Barclays, holds £7 billion of shares in the arms trade. Rossdale felt such sponsorship indicated how the event “has moved far from its original aims” of, according to the One World Week mission statement, inspiring a ‘view based on acceptance and appreciation of the world’s mosaic of cultures.’ He added that the “corporatism of the event overshadows much of what members want to achieve.”

Conor Rooney, one of the co-ordinators of this year’s event acknowledged that the sponsorship from Barclays induced “negative criticism”, and maintained they “won’t be sponsoring us this year”. “We want to encourage debate and one of our forum talks is on the topic of corporate social responsibility”, he added. Chris Sury, fellow co-ordinator, commented that “it’s a lot harder to highlight arts and events without a corporate sponsor; events in the Copper Rooms wouldn’t happen at all. We don’t receive money from the Union. It allows us to maintain scale and provide access to a wide range of students.”

Rossdale also emphasised how the escalation of protest was induced by the “top-down culture” of last year’s event. “The response of the leadership confirmed our initial disappointment”, he commented, arguing that ordinary members of One World Week should have been “more involved in decision-making.” Rooney stated that “this year we have shrunk One World Week, and are actually a lot smaller than several years ago.

“We are hoping to be a bit more sensible in how we communicate with students; thankfully the megaphone has been banned this year,” he added.

A further source of contention was the allegedly stereotypical, excessive and glamorised representation of cultures. This year’s co-ordinators stressed a particular emphasis on the collaboration with different cultural societies, maintaining a desire for “different society members to depict their own cultures” and a “focus on quality rather than quantity.” One World Week will host a launch party in association with Oxfam in which all profits will go to charity, as well as a weeklong festival in the Atrium, focusing on cultural issues from around the world. Rooney expressed that this year’s event aimed to stimulate personal development and showcase the talents of Warwick’s cultural and performance societies, adding that “they make One World Week – not just the exec.”

Despite such intentions, Rossdale expressed the opinion that if the “hierarchical mentality of its organisation” continues, One World Week may become a “cruel parody of itself.”