Intercultural Sustainability Workshop
Ljungskile, Sweden, June 18-19, 2011
Under the auspices of Intercultural Sustainability Network and Swedish Academy of Sustainability, a workshop was held in Ljungskile and University West, located in Ed, Western Sweden in June.
Dr. Marcus Bussey and Dr. Dada Shambhushivananda were among the international participants which included scholars and action researchers from Africa, Latin America and Sweden.
Dr. Bussey led the Futures exercises while Dada shared spiritual exercises with participants. There was social-sculpturing, reflections on the state of the world and nature walks to identify voices from nature.
The Intercultural Sustainability Network is based on commonly agreed five principles:
1. Willingness towards collaborative learning with a universal perspective and becoming sensitive to “global story”2. Engagement with “local stories”3. Readiness to translate enlightened consciousness into “action projects”4. Agreement to constantly reflect, learn from experiences and modify perspectives in order to align vision, actions and passions.5. Develop competencies to nurture inter-cultural sustainabilities through most conducive forums such as study circles, university courses etc., irrespective of country, place, settings.
This international network builds upon horizontal structures and gives legitimacy to grass roots initiatives of Ananda Marga Gurukula. It embraces both formal and non-formal programs of different countries.