Connecting Communities
In an increasingly individualistic and capitalist society, it is more important than ever to rebuild a sense of community. To resist the polarisation that our society faces today, we must reconnect and learn how to take care of each other.
In the African philosophy of Ubuntu, there is a saying “umuntu ngumuntu nga bantu” meaning “a person is a person through other people”: humanness depends on community and a person’s well-being is dependent on others. Caring for each other can be done in so many ways, think of bringing soup to your neighbor when they are sick, sharing tools with friends, celebrating together, or simply doing the things you love together. We can allow ourselves to open up and learn from each other; each person has valuable knowledge.
Connecting Communities invites us to value diverse sources of knowledge, especially those often ignored or marginalized – such as indigenous wisdom, intergenerational knowledge, and everyday lived experiences. Moving beyond the belief that academia produces the ‘highest’ form of knowledge, can allow us to acknowledge that there are so many good teachers all around us.
We can also rethink the spaces in which we learn. Learning in places like gardens, kitchens, and forests can make education more accessible to different people and allow for a wider range of teaching methods. We hope to make our learning spaces more accessible, intergenerational, and approachable for people from diverse backgrounds.
With this theme we want to explore how reconnecting with community - through care, shared knowledge and inclusive learning spaces - can help us to create a more compassionate world.