Adam Smith in the eighteenth century had a vision of a society that was continually learning without any one individual having to know all that much.
With the twenty first century internet can we now move towards that vision where we have a society that is innovative and continually moving forward through the intelligence and willing contribution of the everyday citizen?
In context of learning the need is to think beyond the learning of the individual, and onto the learning relative to the systems which characterise our society. A system is the parts plus the connections between the parts - the whole. In the past we have broken down complex problems into the parts and addressed the parts. System thinking is now telling us this approach is no longer sufficient and that by far the major contributor to outcomes is the design of the connections between the parts.
A typical societal system would be our Education system. It involves many participants - pupils/students, teachers/lecturers, parents, administrators, organisations that use skilled and qualified individuals, consultants/trainers, researchers, the media etc.
Who designed the present system? In truth it will have evolved from the values and perceptions of our society. Can we as a society take responsibility for its future design and its continual development? Can we establish a means though which it is continually improving without central direction? Can those working at the work face be the primary movers in advancing our education system in terms of the needs of its many and varied "customers?"
We build community out of crisis and we build community by accident,
but we do not know how to build community by design.
Scott Peck (Author of The Road Less Traveled)
Can we, collectively, each of us contributing in one way or other, be continually developing the design of the systems that define our society? Other societal systems would include - The Health System, The Law Enforcement System, our Public Administration system, the systems used to run our commercial organisations, our community enterprise systems, our voluntary networks, our political system etc. etc. - plus how all these systems interrelate.
The concept that we can design our society's systems turns on its head our traditional perspective that we can delegate this responsibility to "Leaders." So to realise this vision we will have to think differently. The file "Site Map" introduces the various files on this site, the challenges to be faced and our plans to effect change.
We either accept this challenge or allow our society to be moulded by others perusing their own short term interests. This is especially the case in the economic environment where the leaders of powerful multinationals make decisions relative to their needs rather than the communities they serve. The present banking crisis should be a warning to us all.
We also have to contend with the implications of impeding ecological collapse.
The basis of this initiative is to involve all forward thinking individuals and groups in Scotland. We aim to create a critical mass of those committed to moving our society forward.
The initiative was originated by the Deming Learning Network in Aberdeen.