3.3 Adopting hybrid pedagogical methods that promote a great convergence

To establish a new civilizational order, we need a New Spirit of the Times, such as the one that came about over the course of several centuries within the cultural framework of the Modern period and, more specifically, the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, a pivotal and catalytic period. A shift from a modern mindset to the “spirit of Awakening” cannot be ordered through an injunction. This will need to be built from within, or within the gaps of existing social orders.

Such a creative and transformative process has come about in the past and over the long term through heterogeneous approaches that are often in competition with each other. For its part, the current global and planetary crisis will require us to quickly come up with a well thought out and lucid answer. It will mean accelerating the processes and dynamics needed to define a new dependance on one – and many – pathway(s)¹. However, this speed will require increased vigilance in order to accelerate the transformations without giving in to deviations founded in or based upon compromise and recomposition of previous orders.

In order to act with prudence, forethought and speed, the proposed approach will depend on established knowledge, achievements and exercises.

The key elements for engaging in the Spirit of Awakening already exist in the form of ideations, propositions and reflections. However, they are dispersed and scattered in a multitude of places and are evolving in parallel with each other.
Many experiments, initiatives and achievements have taken place in Quebec and elsewhere in the world, which demonstrates that it is possible to do things differently here and now. Linking up these initiatives and discussing them would be a source of deep and plentiful learning that could galvanize their roll-out.

History has shown us that a unification of transition efforts is indeed possible. For this to happen, strong, inclusive leadership, ‘distributed and shared’ among networks, is required. The challenge this leadership would face would be in transforming centripetal actions into a single centrifugal movement, one that would promote convergence between existing alternatives. A true reflection of the natural process of evolution by which life emerged and expanded, the challenge will be to achieve convergence without sanitizing identities, both mobilizing and mobilizable, as well as emerging ones.

Coming to terms with the fact that it is necessary to renew the objective material bases of communal living will depend on two interdependent actions (praxeology), the first being cognitive in nature. This action will allow us to define the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of the new spirit of the Awakening. The second, being pragmatic, will promote the development of insertive, integrative and respectful societies.

Facilitating the dissemination of the Awakening will require a pedagogical approach that mobilizes various means of democratic expression : from representative to direct, including deliberative democracy. This must be done in order to :

collectively build the foundations of a new emancipatory order ; and,
mobilize the affected and active public in terms of social and ecological transition in order to create “a path of many voices,” a path of convergence where the voices of social movements, of civil society organizations, of independent movements, of formal or informal groups, of representatives working at the heart of small, medium and large businesses, of organizations or institutions or of populations all intersect, just to name a few examples.

This endeavour will require initiating a mobilization procedure for reflection and development with a nucleus of people from several different organizations in order to generate “starter cells” whose reach will then be extended by federating or affiliating with larger networks and then becoming social movements. This process would promote the development of “conventions” to be established at the appropriate territorial scales (Neighbourhoods/Urban districts/Cities/Quebec/Canada/Continents…)

This kind of strategy, one that rests as much on the interests of small, medium and large networks as on the broad mobilization of the population (John Dewey’s publics) for the purpose of implementing these conventions, would allow us :

to create broad consensus about a great narrative ;
to reflect on, apply and document new applied ideas ;
to foresee – to construct the “ecocentric” meta-institutional framework required to house the great narrative and invite practices ; and,
to more widely mobilize for the constitution of a Community for Humanity at the heart of a Community of Naturality.

A percolative pedagogy of mobilization, increased interests and convergence will require foundations upon which to stand. These foundations will be the elements of an initial work proposal in that it will be important to create :

an initial narrative² that can be modified and improved upon ;
an initial map³ of practices that require validation or innovation ;
prolegomena for an institutional matrix to be enacted :
- a judicial order of communal values founded on ecocentrism : a new relationship with the environment that is respectful of the extensionism of Nature principle ; this at least requires us to move from an individual rights approach to a relational one⁴;
- commercial and financial communal logic^[5]⁵ where ‘moral incentives’ will take precedence over ‘economic incentives’;
- an approach that links filial and contractual logic to generate organizations and institutions fundamentally embedded in the diversity of society, in the Polanyian sense of the term, and subject to socio-ecological regulation modalities ;
- a strong resurgence of the ‘value’ of usage and the prioritization of ecological value (a healthy and balanced ecosystem between the alterity of beings or substances and their inevitable relational dependency);
- a definition of work as it relates to human activity as a whole and not solely to economic activity ;
- a dissolution of social interests into social relationships⁶;
a ‘social percolation’ strategy founded on inclusive and democratic pedagogy that aims to build a new political action scene.

Notes

1
The presence of both the single and the plural testifies to a new relationship with Nature, and thus to a common pathway, which could only occur through a diversity of pathways in the way that multiple affluents feed into a river and many roots nourish a single tree. This is unity through diversity.
2
For example, see Solon’s approach : https://solon-collectif.org/.
3
An approach of this kind has been adopted by TIESS : https://www.passerelles.quebec/cartographie#/carte/@48.05,-68.01,6z?cat=all.
4
A relational approach to rights leads us to find a compromise in a social and environmental context. We must account as much for all human needs as those of the ecosystem. Human freedom is not negated. Rather, it is contextualized in its relationship to the natural world. (Petel, op. cit., p. 231)
5
We now have the choice between integrating environmental criticism into the capitalist framework through the lens of market value or redefining our relationship with the natural world in terms other than those relating to the market. By recognizing the rights of nature, in our opinion it would be possible to sketch out a human to nature rapport that does not reduce everything to economic rationality. (Ibid., p. 219)
6
The underlying idea here is to attenuate social and territorial disparities of social interests.