Community for A Wiser World

Community for A Wiser World is for people who want to make the world a better place by seeking a deeper understanding of the world and of themselves. The goal of A Wiser World is to improve our lives and societies by building a shared understanding of the world that looks for fundamental principles and facts across different topics. Community for A Wiser World is the place where we try to achieve this goal together.

As participants in the community we accept the fact that we all have things to learn and things we can do better. When there is disagreement, we look for underlying assumptions and experiences that can explain our differences so that we can take the discussion to a deeper level. This way, disagreements are not seen as failures or obstacles. Instead they are seen as opportunities to explore new ideas and understand the deeper reasons behind our differences. We also listen to criticism when we receive it, and try to understand the other person’s perspectives to broaden our understanding of how we can act better. In this way, we create both the best conditions for deepening our collective knowledge and for creating a social environment where we feel safe and respected. By working together to make sense of our different perspectives, we can uncover important truths that can guide us in our lives. Gradually we can create a shared understanding of how the world works and how we can make our lives and societies better, together.

Guidelines

In Community for A Wiser World we follow a set of guidelines:

  1. We share our thoughts and experiences
  2. We express our views with humility and curiosity
  3. We make space for others to contribute
  4. We listen actively
  5. We make an effort to stay on topic
  6. We value reliable information
  7. We make sure everyone understands the ideas expressed 
  8. We treat all participants and their views with respect and curiosity
  9. We speak up when disrespect occurs
  10. We listen openly when criticized for disrespect
  11. We re-evaluate our beliefs when presented with new ideas

These guidelines help us create constructive conversations that take us forward, and in this way allows us to reach our goal of making our lives and societies better.

To read more about the guidelines and what they entail, see the following page: Guidelines for Community for A Wiser World.

Pilot testing the community

A pilot test of this community is now beginning and takes place in Sweden. We meet once a week, each time discussing a central theme within the area of communication and social interaction, for example:

“How do we give criticism in a constructive way?”
“What does it mean to be a good and supportive listener?”
“In what ways is it acceptable to talk about other people when they’re not present?”
“When and how can we offer advice to others?”

The meetings always follow the same structure, which is presented below:

• Check-in pulse – How are the participants doing right now?
• Review of the framework/guidelines for the meeting
• Presentation of the day’s theme, consisting of different perspectives and questions to discuss during the session
• Discussion in small groups
• Discussion in the full group
• Summary and planning ahead
• Reflection on our own and others’ behavior
• Check-out pulse – How are the participants doing at the end of the meeting?

The conclusions we reach during the meetings are documented and published on A Wiser World’s website, thereby building a knowledge base on these issues. We can return to this ourselves to remind us or continue the discussion, and it is also made available to others who can share their own thoughts on the topic. Step by step, we can thus support each other in deepening our understanding of these questions.

Read the Swedish version of this page.

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This page is version 1.0. It has not yet been reviewed by the global community. Do you want to help improve it? Please leave a comment in the google document for this page, or join the email group to be part of the discussion.  You can always share your thoughts via email directly to mail@awiserworld.net. Read more about how you can support A Wiser World.

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