Transforming Society - openDemocracy (Page 17)

Enlightenment values and the politics of transformation

Transformation implies renewing the core values of the enlightenment and placing them at the centre of political discourse.

By Matthew Taylor

/ 19 Aug 2013

Moral Mondays: the new face of protest?

"This is no momentary protest. This is a movement. We've been here before, and if slavery didn't kill us, if the oppression of women didn't kill us, surely no weak legislator with 86 votes gonna kill us...instead of defeating us, they've made us defiant."

By Mary Mountcastle

/ 14 Aug 2013

Protest politics and the ethical imagination

Protest, like marriage, means re-imagining relations to self and other. The Taksim Square Book Club - in which demonstrators in Istanbul stood silently and read books - used reflection as a riposte to state brutality. The ethical imagination is at the root of this.

By Henrietta L. Moore

/ 12 Aug 2013

Curing the poison of "rankism"

The cancer of “rankism” persists as a residue of our predatory past. But the urge to dominate others isn’t working any more. Using weapons of mass disruption, the disenfranchised can bring modern life to a stop. Humiliation is more dangerous than plutonium.

By Robert W. Fuller

/ 8 Aug 2013

The age of endings

Our myths of progress are killing us. Where can we find a new set of stories to inspire the work of the future? Only through the creative imagination of writers, artists, storytellers and musicians. Perhaps only poetry can save us now.

By Paul Kingsnorth

/ 7 Aug 2013

Organizing as whole people

There are no shortcuts to building the kind of power it takes to win meaningful change. As an organizer in a county with an acute housing crisis, simmering racial tension and little unionization, I learned that I had to help the community to take on the fight themselves. The final article in our "

By Jane McAlevey

/ 2 Aug 2013

Reclaiming nonviolent history

In conventional histories, violence is generally celebrated. National memorials glamorize death, bloodshed and warfare. This hides a global tradition of nonviolent struggle. This is the third article in our "Transformative Nonviolence" series with Waging Nonviolence.

By Mary Elizabeth King

/ 1 Aug 2013

Changing sides doesn't always make for transformation — just look at Egypt

What is the best kind of defection? During Egypt's recent turmoil there was too much collusion between nonviolent people power and security forces. Instead, civil resistance campaigns should focus on producing shifts within several different elite groupings. This is the second article in our "Tran

By Erica Chenoweth

/ 31 Jul 2013

Both perilous and wonderful? The global transformation of authority

These are exciting times, when authority is being challenged everywhere. But what will replace the old models that have dominated both societies and ourselves? Can our own "collective intelligence" take over?

By James O'Dea

/ 25 Jul 2013

What are white folks to do? Some thoughts on the Trayvon Martin case

Amid the outpuring of protest and opinion around the George Zimmerman case it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Here are some steps for white anti-racist allies to transform feelings into action.

By Claudia Horwitz

/ 23 Jul 2013

Welcome to America?

With immigration policy the hottest of hot button issues in America, is it possible to transform the debate? Only by engaging with each other at a much deeper level to create a collective vision of the future.

By Rachel Steinhardt

/ 22 Jul 2013

Practising mindfulness at the checkpoint

Is caring for ourselves an act of self-indulgence or social change? Alessandra Pigni tests the boundaries of "mindfulness" on the border between Israel and Palestine.

By Alessandra Pigni

/ 17 Jul 2013