Why a Global Alliance?
The overarching aim is to build a dynamic community of people across the globe who are interested in social pedagogy and social education. We want this movement to be as open and inclusive as possible, and we have therefore designed the Global Alliance’s structure in ways that enable each person to contribute in whichever form they wish to. This means we use liberating structures that are very different from more traditional formal associations. Our commitment to something leaner, fresher, non-hierarchical is based both on recognition that a lot of formal associations and federations are already in existence (and we’d like to engage with them rather than be in competition with them) and that we want to build on the current momentum to connect and realise ideas. Rather than structures being designed to limit and formalise this energy, we want to enable it. Being an organically growing Global Alliance does not necessarily preclude formal constitution at a later stage but rather suggests that what we want to focus on at this point is to build a movement, not an institution.
Our Principles, Values and Purpose
To guide each member’s engagement in the Global Alliance and help hold each other accountable, we commit to upholding the following principles to the greatest extent possible:
- Ambition to develop social pedagogy and social education both locally in our respective contexts and across the globe.
- Curiosity: Engaging with an interest in learning and connecting.
- Empathy and togetherness: By collaborating with each other, we can offer support for each other and the wider ambition of the Global Alliance.
- Inclusivity, equality and equity: Everyone should be given the same possibilities to join, be heard, to share information, to contribute and shape the work of the Global Alliance.
- Respect for different views and opinions based on regard for human rights: This requires recognition of our different understandings of social pedagogy and social education.
Our principles are brought to life in our Haltung and through our actions, and we all fall short at times of how we might want to live them – or have different understandings of how these principles are expressed. We rely on others to help us in this process. Where conflicts occur, we can rely on a conflict resolution process that is based on these principles too.
How we Collaborate
We see the Global Alliance as a movement, a community of people interested in social pedagogy and social education as perspectives supporting a more eco-socially just world. We therefore use a non-hierarchical structure centred around activities organised in small teams. Each team takes on shared responsibility for undertaking specific activities within the Global Alliance. Each team is self-organised and self-managed and thus free to do what it sees fit, provided it does so in the spirit of the Global Alliance principles. To communicate with others in the team, each team can decide to use whichever platform makes most sense – provided the platform allows free access to anyone. To ensure that there is some level of co-ordination and coherence across different teams, we suggest that each team offers the opportunity to its team members to nominate themselves to also be part of the central communications team. Others may also join the central communications team if they wish to. We suggest that we do not limit the number of team members in the central communications team at the start.
Global Alliance for Social Pedagogy and Social Education 