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Utopista Final Document
Author: MISTICA VC Writing: Senaida Jansen	Publication date: 11/2003	Contents
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4. THE PARADIGMS

"Imagine a world where conflicts are resolved by collective arbitration.
Imagine a world based on the worship of differences.
Imagine a world where the end is the process.
Imagine your children in this world.
Do you believe they are going to need us to leave them something more?" (DP)

It is evident that to conceive, design, think or dream of the society we would like to live in and pass on to our offspring we must visualize the paradigms that, we feel we should sustain it. Since the paradigms, as theoretical models of thought, allow us to get closer to reality and nourish the system in which we live in and want to influence from other perspectives more humane for its transformation.

For this reason, despite not having been directly visualized or identified as such, they were very present, both the current as well as the projected paradigms, during the whole oneiric reflection of Utopista.

Two fundamental questions rise when identifying that "one of the difficulties in dreaming in these times is closely related to an ethical and epistemological position, in the sense of deciding for a certain place from where to observe and reflect upon social changes.

Which are the epistemological tendencies where we can build the so called Wisdom Sharing Societies?
Which place will Education take in this context? (GC., 4.22.03)

Scrutinizing our dreams we found the epistemological tendencies where we can build the WSSs are the following:
- "Freedom and solidarity are the path to a fairer society without exclusions based on religion, racism, gender or social classes, or any other type of discrimination.
- Respect for diversity is an essential requirement. And it is intimately related to the proliferation of the feeling of universality.
- Sharing and collaborating are privileged in the process of building the WSSs
- The change of the concept of truth and communication when there is asynchronous communication. In the construction of a new culture of asynchronous dialogue the subject has the possibility to reflect more upon what he/she receives. The message becomes long-lasting in time and space (distances are shorter and times extend).
- Humanization of electronic communication. A world where the receiver of the message is able to put himself in the sender's shoes, where we can realize that behind a message there are hands and a human being writing. A world where we are able to connect globally and generate all kinds of positive feelings, where family relationships become closer despite distances". (Dragones Synthesis)
- The assessment, spreading and utilization of ancestral and informal wisdom.
- Wisdom must be shared. The produced and/or created material goods are part of the social inheritance and consequently the community will always be the final recipient.

It is important to explain that in the construction of new social relationships and particularly in the decentralization of representation and participation in reflection, decision-making and action, the conciliation of synchronous local time-space with asynchronous virtual time-space is an essential element in the construction of WSSs.

Imagine a world where values and cultures, wisdom and knowing-how are the true inheritance. Imagine a world where wisdom is shared and assets are returned to the community for a new social process from life to death. Capital and assets play the role of kinetic energy, knowledge the role of potential energy. Making potentials grow, without limits, as a common heritage; negotiating the kinetics which will suit the capacity of the ecosystem resetting to zero the counter, to the natural rhythm of life and death and so leaving the future open).

Starting from the premise that while collective behaviors aren't the sum of individualities, they are impregnated with the individualities implied, and therefore it is suggested the consideration of the individual development from the critical perspective of social reality as a basis of collective development.

"Societies will be more harmonious in their development as long as most of the people included accomplish certain levels of harmony in the personal aspect, which will be evident when building relationships.

If we consider evolution is related to our ability to handle, both in individual and collective terms, the contradictions, the conflicts, our incoherencies... To handle in the sense of identifying, recognizing and then working with them for the necessary transformations or changes... To live harmoniously doesn't imply that people have no conflicts nor contradictions (on their personal plane and with their external environment). It implies that they can deal with them individually (their own) and collectively (related to their environment)" (Senaida, 4.20.03)

This doesn't mean that those who support this position have been able to harmonize. Far from there, there is concern and every person will deal with it; however, we can be really incoherent when it is time to prove it (Girasoles Synthesis).

Supporting this idea, "the personal transformation is regarded as a basic premise for a positive social transformation. Taking for granted that (human) Personal Development is a task necessary for the construction of self-esteem, self-confidence, self-certainties, etc. at an individual and personal level"²⁵.

"Stimulating individual development with the premise of solidarity and respect is a form of liberalism" (LGR, 4.22.03).

Since this new society will have to be composed of new human beings (we will have to re-build ourselves and teach our descendants), education is perceived and proposed as the central theme in order to construct the aforementioned society. That is why the paradigms related to education and the role of educators are profoundly in discussion and they require a re-insertion of new perspectives according to the present and future.

We understand there are six conditions, which are indispensable for the internalization of new paradigms:

The only way to govern is educating, this is what gives legitimacy to the system, since it produces a transparent and constant information flux, and those who govern are relieved from their duties.
The information must be available and transparent for everyone.
The individual development oriented to social responsibility leads to collective development and vice versa.
Knowledge is a public legacy, open, plural, and diverse of humanity, hence it is neither property nor an exclusive instrument of the educators.
That is why the role of the educator is to facilitate learning possible, together with the process of building knowledge and learning". (Dragones Synthesis)
Quality, in terms of methodology, contents, socialization of knowledge (through educators, ICTs or other kinds of transmission), must be prioritized and privileged in the development of strategies, programs and plans.

"The year 2030: Two generations have passed, the time necessary for the pedagogical paradigm changes can be progressively and persistently installed in schools and universities, and then make its own way naturally in children's and teenagers' minds. The concept of learning community has been turned into actual reality, teachers have become facilitators, the culture of democratic debate of the group as a generator of shared knowledge and collective decisions. A new form of shared knowledge is at its peak announcing very deep changes in societies based on the culture of daily life process. (DP, 4.22.03).

From the Yin²⁶ viewpoint of the MISTICA VC, the WSSs must be societies truly inclusive, plural and participative where our whole feminine side, from both women and men, nourishes and nurses society. May men and women nourish and be nourished, be social mothers and fathers... as Holland says love through information (...) rivers of milk (...) seas of life...

"To love through the information is like breastfeeding, we wish milky rivers and, of course, we wish we could be mothers in this era, in this space" (HC, 4.23.03).

The Yin of the Yin²⁷ visualizes Wisdom Sharing Societies as societies:

Able to overcome the present socioeconomic, political and cultural paradigms based on exclusion; especially those that divide the world between literate and illiterate. We must specify that a new paradigm must aim, in a pluralistic and democratic fashion, to the generalized alphabetization, to promote openness and participation in the process of building new cognitive challenges. That with the purpose of designing one of the ways to inclusion, which is the main feature of wisdom sharing societies. It is about promoting a new paradigm of the knowledge building process through the promotion of a technological development with a more humane determination - taking into account the heart and the perspective (interpreting HC, 4.23.03)
Generating sustainable and equitable development, thus contributing to the effective and real implementation of opportunity equality for all the disfavored minorities. (BA and SF, 4.22.03)
Assessing the ancestral wisdom of women and the contributions we have made, keep making and manage to make through this wisdom (SF, 4.22.03).
Of peace, having eradicated violence in any of its forms and manifestations (BA, 4.22.03)
Pluralistic and willing to exchange, where opposites can coexist dancing enthusiastically. (JP, 4.24.03)

[25] This is one of the central aspects spoken of in the II Encuentro Regional de Telecentros de ALC: "Caminando juntos: tejiendo consensos" ["2nd Regional Meeting of LAC Telecenters: "Walking together: coming to an agreement"], organized by the Chasquinet Foundation, held in Quito, Ecuador, from April 9 to 11, 2003. Quoted by Valeria Betancourt, 4.22.03
[26] According to the participation of Senaida Jansen in the "Taller de reflexi�n sobre la Sociedad de la Informaci�n y las Mujeres" ["Reflection Workshop on the Information Society and Women"] (held in Bordeaux, France, by the Francophone Institute of the New IT and Formation (INTIF), as part of its agenda for the contribution to the WSIS) we launch a small survey to identify the desires we have in our feminine side, under the title: "What does our Yin want from the IS?" The article was intended for women of the VC and men who consciously or unconsciously admit their feminine side.
[27] It refers to the feminine side of women.

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Utopista Final Document