Summercamp Strasbourg, France
Sunday 6th to Thursday 10th July 2014
Shaping the Future
Contact: Cathie.fanton@gmail.com
1. Background – The Summercamp Movement & its Principles
The first Summercamp took place in Versailles in July 2000, with 60 change leaders from 13 countries. Since then many Summercamps have taken place, gathering over the years more than 1000 persons from 50 countries.
The original purpose of the first Summercamp was to provide an opportunity for World Change Leaders to exchange experiences and to create a collective sense of responsibility for positive breakthrough changes in organisations. Since then, Summercampers have developed the principles and explored many opportunities to experience this ‘knowledge ecology’ around the issue of change management among practitioner leaders, but also going deeper into their own personal essence.
Summercamps have been organised in many different countries with many members of the Summercamp community facilitating parts of the programme. Typically a Summercamp lasts three to five days and is a mixture of organised programme and interaction.
Emphasis is placed on a number of key principles, which include:
1) Connectivity
Connection heart to heart. Each Summercamp starts by revitalizing this connection. It is only when you are truly connected that you can respect the diversity of the different persons attending the Summercamp.
2) Searching
There is no truth but searching of truths
3) Joint creation
The Summercamp is a joint creation of all the participants. It is a live event and the actions of participants will lead to unpredictable results. Active involvement is key. Participants are prepared to share their ideas and feelings in creating new knowledge.
4) Creativity
Creativity is key to building new concepts and approaches, so creativity tools are used throughout the camp. They help find new breakthrough solutions.
5) Diversity of experience
Everyone lives in their own world, determined by country, profession, hobby etc. but this participation of people from different fields – business, art, healthcare, policy or even students will help us all learn something new.
6) Outcome orientation
The overall focus of a Summercamp is to arrive at creating new knowledge and insights. The task is not only to create new knowledge for participants, but also to make it available to everyone.
2. Topics of the Summercamp in Strasbourg
In July 2014, it will be 100 years since the First World War started – a devastating and suicidal war. For many centuries countries had been shifting borders, simply by attacking or occupying the other country or region. After the second of the two World Wars, Europe was inspired to relativize borders, in order to maintain peace. Today, after fifty years of Europe, we now see that Europe is peaceful, but also that an almost singular, blind attention to money and economy has arisen. Moreover, we again see new forms of nationalism, questioning the essence of Europe. Indeed, the deeper values and meaning of the EU seem to be undermined or forgotten.
Many historians say that before the First World War, nations were complacent; economic policies were dominant; economies were growing; and many believed that war was a remote possibility. In a sense, the eve of the First World War, is not so different from our own time today. It doesn’t mean that war will come (though in Ukraine the situation is very tense), but it at least means that we have to rethink or ‘re-root’ how we, as individuals, members of organizations or as communities and neighbors, relate to the structures we are in, with their own borders and frontiers. How do you give meaning to these structures?
In this Summercamp, we will explore the notions of borders & frontiers of all types. Many existing models of politics, organizations and public spheres are difficult to imagine without borders, or even without ‘fluid’ borders.
On the other hand, modern ICT (Information and Communications Technology), social media and the intensive/widespread travelling of ‘cosmopolitans’ challenge the (classical) meaning of borders. At a grass roots level, moreover, many local initiatives, that reject both ‘economic egoism’ and abstract government, are emerging with new forms of togetherness. Solid borders seem to play a diminishing role. How do we interpret these developments, and what can we do with our interpretation in our own contexts?
We will identify the various paradoxes and tensions which arise, for example:
- public v individual
- transactional connections (social media) v appreciation & awareness of self
- insiders v outsiders
- local v global
- individual liberty v solidarity
- fast v slow
- dialogue v confrontation
- science v arts
- …
We will also draw inspiration from the richness of Strasbourg, the region of Alsace and insights from the dramatic events of 1914 and after. Alsace has been governed alternatively (and at various times) by France and Germany – with profound impact. Today, its people are adopting a multi-cultural (often bilingual) approach and innovative models of local governance.
Strasbourg is now the seat of several major European Institutions and becoming known for daring initiatives in many domains, which are open to be explored by Summercampers.
Our overall objective for this Summercamp is to explore the creation of the society of tomorrow, from the above perspective and to map out how we can individually assist in the transformation.
3. Themes and Participants
We are inviting a broad range of age groups with a particular emphasis on engaging with young people as they will be the key actors for future transformation. We have set ourselves a target of having two thirds of Young Active Europeans (between approximately 25 and 40 years of age) from at least 15 countries.
We therefore suggest that each of our “older” Summercampers takes the challenge and responsibility of inviting and supporting at least two new younger participants