Destabilizing or stabilizing the identity of Slawek Magala?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that Slawek Magala and the author have a great deal in common and that the author is putting the differences to an interesting use in the Erasmus Honors Program designed for the top students of all faculties of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. The model of education gaining the upper hand in contemporary universities should be balanced with the more fundamental humanist upbringing of students-citizens. Design/methodology/approach – The paper has been written as an empirical report based on five years of participative observation, regular analysis and group discussion of student essays, and on the on-going application of qualitative techniques in designing a curriculum, running the program and joint evaluation of its intended effects with the main protagonist of the paper, namely the colleague Slawek Magala. The labels “traditionalist” and “postmodernist” have been codified according to the most frequent academic usage. Findings – If Slawek manifests himself as a typical post-modernist who does not believe in stable identities, the author will be then the neo-traditionalist, who tries to connect identities to value choices and value choices to stable philosophies of virtue and moral choices. Both of them have multiple identities. Slawek is a Pole who has adapted the Dutch nationality. The author is a born Dutch who also carries an American passport. What brings them together intellectually, the author thinks, is a conviction that they have to bring culture into the scientific pursuits. Originality/value – Very few academic studies pointed out that cultural repertoire of value qchoices involves an on-going cultural negotiation. The author has succeeded in legitimizing the concept of culture in the teaching and research. Other researchers may employ the notions of culture and value to develop a value-based approach to the economy. The paper helps to show that identities get stabilized, that people are in need of stabilizing their values, and with those their identities.