The Pocket Project’s Post

An exciting paper on collective trauma and politics. How CTIP can contribute to maintain democracy. Must read!

Can understanding and dealing more consciously with collective trauma dynamics help strengthen our democracy and overcome polarization? 📣United Nations University - CRIS 📣 this latest research and policy brief shines light on the complex interplay of trauma, societal polarization, multiple ongoing crises, and democracy. While strengthening the confidence in democratic practice and providing recommendations for decision makers. I encourage you to read remarkable key findings derived from the trauma-informed large group process presented in this brief: https://lnkd.in/etzp5_dP If you would like to learn more about the links between collective trauma and democracy as well as #OvercomingPolarisation in Crises, visit our Pocket Project research page here: https://lnkd.in/du29zydt Share your thoughts in the comments below hashtag #traumainformed #democracy #polarization #crisis #pocketproject

📣 New Policy Brief! 📣 Check out our new policy brief “Co-creating Resonant Societies in Times of Crises: Trauma, Polarization and Democracy” This policy brief shines light on the complex interplay of trauma, societal polarization, multiple ongoing crises, and democracy. It highlights the need for a comprehensive sensemaking approach in times of crises and offers a new perspective on understanding collective trauma in the context of democracy. Read the full brief to discover the findings of the trauma-informed large-group process carried out. 🔗: https://lnkd.in/etaX-2Mz

As the presenter of the How to Fix Democracy show, which will be going into its seventh series next year, Andrew Keen has given much thought to the health of American democracy. In this KEEN ON episode, Jonathan Rauch, the Brookings Institute senior fellow, turns the tables on Andrew and interviews him about the state of American democracy. What is the risk of the incoming Trump administration to the Republic, Jon asks Andrew? Is Trump just one more turbulent chapter in the colorful history of American democracy or does the MAGA movement represent an existential threat to the world’s oldest representative democratic system?

ICYMI - REPOST GUIDES FOR AMERICAN BUSINESSES AND CORPORATIONS ON COUNTERING ANTISEMITISM Implement the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism  Help all sectors of society utilize the U.S. Action Plan. American Jewish Committee (AJC) has developed multiple guides to help government officials, civil society leaders, educators, and more integrate recommendations from the National Strategy into practice. View and download a Task Force Guide below. 

On May 23, the Carolinian Political Science Society filmed its last Diskurso episode with the theme, “Kambalingan (Dignified Return): Amplifying the Call of the Marawi Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)”, which features the Justice for Marawi, Justice for All Movement. This episode encourages solidarity and participation among concerned institutions, organizations, and individuals and develop a movement against all proxy wars, occupation, and wars of aggression for the sake of business and profit but at the expense of the oppressed people. Watch the episode here: https://lnkd.in/gb8UzVFx

You can’t hide from the truth “The fact that harm reduction programs explicitly benefit the worst off is the clearest clue that their ultimate impetus is not utilitarian. They don’t simply ‘reduce harms’ on a population basis, they address the suffering of specific kinds of people. Indeed, if harm reduction programs were subject to a rigorous cost–benefit assessment—say, by comparing them to other interventions that would cost the same amount of money—they would likely fare poorly. This is not a bug of harm reduction programs, it is a feature, because what these interventions do that distinguishes them from other interventions is to address the suffering of the worst-off. Harm reduction is driven by compassion and a de facto prioritarian sense of justice, not a utilitarian calculus”(King, 2020, PMC Pub Med).

Why is the public losing faith in our justice system and what can we do to restore their confidence? This report culminates a two-year project where we have conducted national polling and numerous focus groups to answer these two critical questions. In exploring this complex issue, the Trust in Justice Project probed into the cultural and systemic challenges that we face as a society in understanding and improving our justice system. This report discusses the experiences of real people in their encounters with our system as well as the influence of the media, rhetoric, and propaganda on our national psyche. The report also provides a series of improvements that will serve to restore the public’s trust in this important system in our democracy. https://lnkd.in/gf3fCQ4Y

We are at a really exciting point in the dignity agenda: tackling the big question of WHAT WORKS to affirm dignity in aid programs. For all the frameworks and tools and thoughtful description we can produce, *this* is what really matters. Look out very soon for research from Paul Perrin, Boswell Munthali and me on this topic, and the announcement of an opportunity to collaborate on a major new study on this question.

Part 4 (final) The oft-blamed scourge of social media has contributed to this disease. It is far easier to be abusive on social media, particularly if ones identity be can hidden , than to do so face to face. This then exacerbates the trend to disrespectful, divisive, uncivilised behaviour rather than civil, reasoned debate. Appropriate policing to eradicate abusive commentary on social media must be part of the approach adopted to combat the current malaise. A tragic cause of the slide to primitivism has been the attitude and approach of many educational and cultural organisations. They should be at the forefront of civil discourse, promoting discussion on all issues, even when it is painful and not reflective of the current views of many of their stakeholders. Even more than some of the issues that are raised as being so vital, even existential issues, the greatest challenge that modern Western societies face is to recapture the preeminent position of civil discourse throughout all our communities. If this can be attained, all the other issues, no matter how complex, can be more readily addressed.