Since the beginning of Think OutWord we have talked about the need and value of more focused research into social issues from a threefold, anthroposophical perspective. Being young, bold and naïve, it didn’t really matter to us that we didn’t have PhD’s or hadn’t been steeped in proper scientific research methodology. The biggest obstacle for most of us was lack of time and money. Well, in 2011, the desire and inner necessity outweighed the obstacles, and a group of Think OutWorders, in some form and fashion, completed more in-depth research projects. We would like to share the results with you at this point:
Jordan Walker’s 2011 research project is entitled “New Forms of Adult Education and the Seeding of an Expanded Wisdom Culture.” The first six months of the year were spent at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland with a research grant through the Youth Section of the School of Spiritual Science. His research into life-long learning resulted in twelve weekly “Open Studio Sessions,” preliminary work towards a model for educational transformation based on the Threefold human being and the four elements, and a final public presentation documented at http://www.life-as-laboratory.org.
Here’s a snapshot:
The world is facing an unparalled rate of change. In a cultural landscape where vast information can be acquired by moving one’s pointer finger – asking the question of what is the difference between Wisdom and Knowledge becomes all that much more important.
Peter Buckbee’s 2011 independent research project is entitled Social Finance: Circulating Capital in Community. The research was done in collaboration with Hilary Corsun and Marc Clifton. The aim of this research was to provide a brief overview of social finance and give some examples that hopefully will inspire people to try something in their own communities. The essay will eventually be posted on the Hawthorne Valley Association website and will be made available in print for those who are interested.
Here’s a snapshot:
Together, the three spheres [of society] make a whole. In any society, organization, or group founded by human individuals, regardless of whether the primary function is cultural, economic, or political, all three spheres find expression. An economic organization without culture or rights obligations would be soulless and inhumane. When business interests control politics and education it is democracy and human development that suffer. Yet, knowledge and skill developed through education in the cultural sphere can only find useful application in the spheres of economy and politics.
Read the full essay here.
Nathaniel William’s 2011 independent research project is called Imagining Cultural Freedom. In it he attempted to fight through to a feeling for what truly free culture might signify for human society. He approached it from a hybrid of philosophy and social activism. Nathaniel is one of the core faculty of Free Columbia – a full time painting course dedicated to and working out of free culture, in Harlemville, NY. He is also working on various other projects that could support cultural freedom.
Here’s a snapshot:
Today people think human values, human inspirations, humane culture will simply come from setting up conditions correctly, or getting someone elected who will change social structures and laws… Since the human being is a result of socio/economic and historical processes, we need to set up laws to influence us. The state will regulate us and produce social harmony. If we want to effect change we need to reach into the real causes at the root of the tree of reality, that’s right, the pocketbook, and through that into the courtrooms and legal measures. Surely we can learn this from the American civil rights movement, where the activists did not rely on the goodness of their story to win people over, but instead engaged in boycotting and store picketing, with astounding success. Indeed, no one can doubt that using economic relations as a tool for changing society is extremely effective, and this is exactly what we like to hear today. We are mistaken, however, if we think that this feeling was the enduring hope of the civil rights movement.
Read the full essay here.
If you have further questions about our individual or group process or the research content itself please don’t hesitate to shoot us an email.