Creating Future Peace Knowledge

The Global Campus Initiative has at its core the premise that knowledge is empowerment. It is by creating, receiving and acting with a knowledge of peace that we, as human beings, will be able to direct the present global transformation into a positive transition. As peace workers it must now be our urgent task to create that knowledge base in its most concrete forms.

In conjunction with our cooperation partners in Israel/Palestine, India and Colombia a global education curriculum is being designed that is driven by the following elements:

Community

Designing and implementing non-violent methods of social living between and with people is a vital element towards an effective and durable culture of peace. Therefore, training and research in social dynamics and community building will play a pivotal role in the Global Campus initiative.

Theory into Practice

The curriculum of the Global Campus Initiative would draw on a comprehensive synergy of modern science, history, sociology, and technology in order to establish a solid and knowledgeable theoretical base for all political actions. The Global Campus would thrive from a theoretical study that is fully embedded within a global context that in turn would result in informed action.

All-Encompassing, Concrete models

The Global Campus holds, as its greater vision, the practical realization of constructed living models that would act as research and training centres called Peace Research Villages. The designed social models must be as all-encompassing and complex as possible. Therefore focus will be given to the social, technological, and ecological elements and how they work effectively together.

Study Sites

Each of the cooperation partners would provide a group of students who will then travel to each site and receive a comprehensive education in community building and social dynamics, sustainable technology and ecology. The education received at each site would be locally sensitive and globally effective.

The Global Campus presently comprises of 4 study locations, each with a particular focus:

Tamera Peace Research Centre, Portugal

www.tamera.org

Tamera is a research centre and prototype model for the synergy between the social, ecological and technological elements of the Global Campus curriculum. With over 30 years of experience, particularly in social dynamics and community building, students will learn here how to build up a social infrastructure based on truth, trust and spiritual/political consciousness. The SolarVillage project currently being developed in Tamera will also offer students an opportunity to concretely realize the synergy between technology, ecology, architecture and the social.

The Barefoot College, India

www.barefootcollege.org

The Barefoot College began in 1972 with the conviction that solutions to rural problems lie within the community. It now serves over 125,000 people within the local vicinity with numerous and invaluable training programs. As a pioneering project that acts locally within a global context, students of the Global Campus will learn solar technology at the Barefoot College and the skills needed to develop community projects in poor and rural areas.

The HolyLand Trust, Palestine

www.holylandtrust.org

Holy Land Trust (HLT) is a Palestinian not-for-profit organization established in Bethlehem in 1998 to promote and support the Palestinian community in developing nonviolent approaches to resisting the Occupation. With an innovative program in non-violent action and communication led by Sami Awad, students of the Global Campus will gain knowledge and training in transforming conflict resolution into peaceful solution. It is envisaged that Palestine will be the first location for a Peace Research Village resulting from the Global Campus Initiative.

San José de Apartadó, Colombia

www.sos-sanjose.org

Located in one of the most violent areas of the world, the village of San José de Apartadó radically took a stand for peace in its commitment to being a village of non-violence. The students of the Global Campus will live amongst its 450 inhabitants and have a direct opportunity to support the village by actively putting into practice the experiences and knowledge they have collected from the education sites.

The infrastructure of the Global Campus is currently being built up in order to offer the possibility for more partners and study locations to be integrated.