At the conference World Time on 9 May, Ward Huetink (Socires) and Lia Hol (Friendly Netherlands) a workshop on the demand for community, meeting and meaning. The first was the presentation of the new book by Professor Laurens ten Kate: World time. Essay about the stranger's question.
Community and commonality
Together with the participants, it was investigated how new forms of collaboration in neighborhood farms, Repair Cafés or other social initiatives relate to the classical understanding of community. These contemporary encounters are often temporary and non-binding. Is this still a community or rather a common entity? And what does that mean for these places and those involved?
We followed Ten Kate's thoughts: In The Strange Freedom (2016), Ten Kate argues that two classic notions "the autonomous individual and the traditional community have lost their strength." Unbound freedom leads to loneliness; Traditional communities no longer offer self-evident bed. So the key question became: how do we today form worthy communities of strangers?
Transforming organisations
The Sociresprogramme Structures of Meaning is a collaboration with the philosophical organisation Vrijezinen Nederland. They also consider the question: What is today's philosophical and social need, and how can they be meaningful? Their search does not stand alone: other social associations, from political parties to trade unions, and even established institutions such as the media and the rule of law, have lost vitality and joint strength.
We looked at institutions that successfully reinvented themselves over time. The library was mentioned as an inspiring example: once in need, now again a thriving place of knowledge and meeting. She found a new role by considering her original social mission (b.Bildungs and the upliftment of the people). Libraries no longer only lend books but also organise debate evenings, film evenings, soup kitchens, philosophical cafés, Repair Cafés, concerts, language courses and computer lessons.
A new orthodoxy?
Can free-minded communities make a similar move to the one that is being held up in the past? Together with the participants we explored this possibility. Liberty was once created as a critical movement towards the dogmas of her time. Can that original charisma guide her role today? In other words: What is the new orthodoxy to which it should relate, and what does that mean for its social mission and the organisation itself?
Finally
The workshop brought together different perspectives around a shared search: how do we at this time shape community), meeting and meaningful life? The questions raised invite further reflection and conversation, inside and outside existing contexts.
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Ideas about what it is Sociresprogramme Structures of Meaning for you? Contact Ward Huetink (w.huetink@socires.nl) and Ellen Klaver (e.klaver@socires.nl).