About Us
From CommonFuture
What is the purpose of Common Future?
The status quo of how the world currently works is being criticized from numerous directions and concerning countless single aspects. Also there is an equally high number of proposals how each issue should be tackled and each problem could be solved. But there is a lack of communication between those who put forward these ideas.
People working on the same issues need to discuss their ideas
If people who are thinking and writing on the same topics and NGOs who are working on the same issues would share and discuss their ideas this would save us a lot of work and lead to more sophistically thought-out alternatives.
Different issues need to be incorporated into a broader, more coherent approach
But not only people who work on similar issues, also people working on apparently different topics benefit from sharing information and ideas. Take as an example the case that some Southern NGO’s demand independence from international organizations in order to decide upon their own development paths and Northern NGO’s ask for the reduction of economic growth (e.g. due to negative societal and environmental consequences). Without sufficient communication it is likely that the two groups develop very different and even contradicting views on how our global economic and political system should be organized. If instead the actors of these two groups discuss their needs, goals and ideas, they can jointly develop a vision that incorporates both standpoints.
In a few words: We facilitate the discussion of thinkers and NGO’s about the problems they see and the solutions they propose, in order to come up with more coherent alternatives. This
- is desirable in itself because a coherent set of solutions presents a real alternative to the current system, and can bring about a paradigm change.
- helps to persuade other politicians, activists, academics and the broader public simply because the solutions are more convincing,
- enables the NGO and critical sector to push forward stronger actions and initiatives with combined forces.
How do we try to achieve this goal?
We facilitate the communication of people from different countries, cultures, disciplines, topics and organizations, in order to share their ideas, discuss their approaches and develop integrated alternatives.
We use several tools in order to achieve this goal:
- Our website enables people to discuss their ideas. The wiki-software uses a decentralized approach to enable people to work on the same articles from different places and at different times. In this way numerous persons communicate on the same issue.
- At our videoconferences we use a different method for the same purpose. Here one can not only read and write but also listen/ give presentations on the topics one has worked on. It additionally supports direct, more interactive and spontaneous debates.
- In our regional groups and our journal weekends we incorporated the experience that sometimes personally communicating the other people adds a great portion of fun. Topic-wise, the journal weekends are focused on the work on articles for the journal.
- Our journal uses the results of the discussion on the website, the meetings and the videoconferences. It firstly guides the process to produce tangible results. Secondly it serves for communication to other people about what alternatives we propose.
