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| | My attention is now focused instead on the exploration of Internet as a tool. As a friend observed recently, I've beeb diverted from my project of making reparable washing machines to a project of making easily reparable machines for the processing of information flows. | | My attention is now focused instead on the exploration of Internet as a tool. As a friend observed recently, I've beeb diverted from my project of making reparable washing machines to a project of making easily reparable machines for the processing of information flows. |
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| | + | ==The Convivial Internet== |
| | + | :''Main article:'' [[Convivial Internet]] |
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| | ==[[Convivial Internet Tools]]== | | ==[[Convivial Internet Tools]]== |
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| | ==[[The Alterweb]]== | | ==[[The Alterweb]]== |
| | (To be written - in the meantime see [http://www.cyberpotato.net/?p=158 this post]) | | (To be written - in the meantime see [http://www.cyberpotato.net/?p=158 this post]) |
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| − | ==[[Inclusion Culture]]==
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| − | The dominant world culture functions on a principle of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_exclusion social exclusion]. This latter term generally refers to the alienation or disenfranchisement of certain groups within a society, such as people belonging to a specific class, race, gender, sexual orientation or age group (elderly and youth), or people with disabilities. But underlying the disenfranchisement of any specific group is a general tendancy of contemporary society to generate exclusion spontaneously on all levels.
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| − | There is a basic human tendancy to form groups, and to perceive the world as divided into those who belong to one's own group and those who are outsiders. During the neolithic this group was the tribe. With the invention of agriculture human society fragmented into a system of classes and castes, each defending its own interests. Modern representative democracy was formed in reaction against such systems of hereditary priviledge, introducing a notion of citizenship based on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equality equality]. Thus the [http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr Universal Declaration of Human Rights] refers to the "recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family."
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| − | But despite the general acceptation of the principle [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equality_before_the_law equality before the law], contemporary society is characterized by a high degree of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_inequality social inequality] coupled with an obsessive regard for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_status social status]. Its fundamental ideology is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_darwinism Social Darwinism] which sees competition as the main driver of social evolution. This ideal of relentless competition is promoted both in corporate culture and on reality TV (the latter being the reflection of the former).
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| − | The culture of exclusion is reinforced by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elitism elitism], the belief that a select group of people with outstanding personal abilities and specialized training are more apt to understand situations and should therefore make decisions for others. The formation of social elites is to some extent both inevitable and necessary, and can be particularly beneficial when social influence is based on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meritocracy meritocracy]. But elitism tends to reinforce social exclusion, particularly when combined with a philosophy of social darwinism.
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| − | As mentioned above, Ivan Illich wanted to counter elitism by strengthening the aptitudes of ordinary citizens, which would be a constructive way to counter exclusion. But it is also necessary to take deliberate steps to develop a culture of inclusion, as opposed to the dominant culture of exclusion. The first (and critical) step is simply to raise the issue of exclusion, to point out, as the present text tries to do, that this cultural issue constitutes an enormous problem. Once there is an awareness that exclusion is in fact a problem, one can begin to work on developing an [[Inclusion Culture]]. This would involve going beyond trying to give the disenfranchised tools for building conviviality, and trying to develop new more supportive cultural attitudes and behaviour. It is well known however that such cultural habits are what is by far the most difficult to change.
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| | ==[[Agent-Based Social Learning]]== | | ==[[Agent-Based Social Learning]]== |
