Global Dialogue "Building Learning Societies"
On
the eve of the EXPO Global Dialogue N° 7, "Building Learning Societies", the
Youth delegation comprising some 30 international students started to prepare
themselves for the event. A series of country presentations, in which every
nation present was introduced by the participants, constituted an important
element apart from a general get to know among the young. In their own presentation,
the organisers from AIESEC gave an introduction to the programme of the upcoming
days by relating in to the overarching dimension of Sustainable Development
and the importance of learning, knowledge etc. for a global society.
The first day of the seminar bore the motto "Cultural Learning": At its core
was the simulation of a cultural confrontation. Participants were divided into
different groups in which they had to become confident with the certain characteristics,
habits and behaviour of their respective "culture". Then every culture sent
a delegation to the others in order to follow the task of organising a joint
project. The following confrontation of the extremely different group characteristics
pointed out to the participants the fundamental difficulties of cross-cultural
communication. In the ensuing discussion it became clear that, despite all the
technical simplicity of the global knowledge society, inter-human communication
and learning based on it pose in fact challenges that have not been paid enough
attention to in the general debate.
On the second day, the group was given the task to develop, on the basis of
the the concept of "Civic Responsibility", the characteristics of the 21st Century
Citizen. They discussed in small groups what features were to necessary within
each individual in order to assure that, on the way to knowledge society, sustainability
was not endangered by the well-known problems of a societal divide beteween
insiders and outsiders. Furthermore they attempted to specify concrete fields
of action in politics, economy and society in which Civic Responsibilty could
be promoted more intensively. Amoing the Propositions made were the inclusion
of related topics in the curricula of public education as well as the necessity
of a personl encounter with elements in society farther away from one's own:
Be it through a stay abroad or through contact with different layers in one's
own society. Generally, it became clear that a society's transition from one
stage to another very much depends on the element of Learning and that, therefore,
more action is needed in the sector of education.
The last day eventually tested the participants ability to learn itself through
a simulation: "Promises, Promises", developed by the Eagle's Flight Institute,
Canada, was facilitated by Change Works, a Germany-based company consulting
corporate change processes. Participants were divided into groups representing
the newly elected government of fictual countries. Given a particular geographic
background and history including a list of resources available (some scarce,
some abundant), and with clearly defined relations to the co-players ("right
ons", "all rights", "write offs"), they two assignment: First, to fulfill each
year (i.e. play round) the promises given to the electorate, second, to became,
all countries together, a truly United League of Nations. In the run of the
simulation, it became strikingly clear how predominantly the fulfilment of one's
own needs determined each groups strategies - despite all the discussion beforehand
about global co-operation and the necessity to share. Only on the brink of a
global war, the nations came together to follow the principles of co-operation
and, eventually, realised that both assignments in fact were reciprocally accomplishable
- and, in the end, even with excess resources.
With this simple enlightenment, participants started to evaluate the seminar.
Many different personal impressions and findings were voiced so my own list
cannot be seen as the final outcome. Yet, it shall be given in the following:
- The basis of any future development will not be knowledge (of which we have
enough) but learning. Only learning enable all humans to adequately use the
resource "knowledge".
- The knowledge society was not developed in an intercultural context. In order
to avoid any divide, "leaders" and "followers" have to approach each other in
order to enable every human to participate in the new society. Moreover, cultural
diversity in itself represents a vicissitude of learning that has to be taken
into account.
- Looking at the North-South relations in global development, the North's directive
should me to "take less" and not to "give more". Not satisfaction of one's own
needs but co-operation should be the result of the existing interdependence.
- The internet can only be a tool to solve global problems but not the solution
itself
- In the knowledge society, what is important is not the development of more
knowledge, but of wisdom, i.e. the ethically grounded application of knowledge.
- Nations and cultures have to co-operate both on knowledge infrastructure,
on the ability to store and disseminate knowledge (education) and on learning
itself. Likewise, an ethical consensus for the knowledge society has to be found
which would have to find, among others, an appropriate substitute for the principle
of private property (as in the industrial society) bearing in mind that knowledge
should NOT be a tradable resource.
All participants left the Dialogue with an eminently deepened understanding
of the current tendencies and problems of our societies. The active work on
the topic and the perspectives developed from it have lead to the motivation
to contribute oneself to a sustainable global development.
Fabian Scholtes
Member, AIESEC in Germany