Imagine living in a community with high civic engagement, high voter turn-out and a high degree of trust in public institutions. One where people value civil public discourse. Where people regularly read newspapers and print magazines. A society where election coverage consists of more than just reporting on poll numbers or assessing political candidates on their suitability for televised debates. We want a society, however fictional or unicorn-like this may sound these days, where people know how to argue with each other. Think live debates and having face-to-face conversations with fellow humans. A community where records kept in archives are regarded as the precious resources that they are: reminders of the past, which can be used to provide valuable context for the present and the future. A society where the word community actually rings true and where people feel a certain sense of connection to others. Where people know that if things are not paid attention to, renewed and kept up, like democracy or a free press for example, that they will then wither and fade away, like an untended garden.
That’s what we mean by SOCIETY:
We are not interested in getting caught up in partisan politics. With SOCIETY we mean all the ways people come together in the public sphere, how people form communities, and how they are part of something greater than themselves. We are talking about a kind of civil society where people are interested in solving problems together because they are more than individual citizens, consumers, clients or employees. SOCIETY covers aspects that are vital to a healthy democracy, such as civic engagement, public discourse, argumentation and rhetoric, (print) media and journalism, media literacy, history and archives, political science and philosophy, democratic renewal and the important questions of our time, for example how to deal with the climate crisis or how to reduce inequality.
We are building an arts & letters directory
We want to help you find places to get local news from. We want you to discover organizations and community groups who are working on solving important problems. We want to showcase archives and places that allow us to learn from the past. We want to give you ideas for events and workshops to attend and for inspiring writers and thinkers to read and listen to. And we want to help you find ways to get involved with your community.
While our directory is only just getting started, this is what we have planned for the theme of SOCIETY:
How to add your organization to the Young W directory
Are you an archive, a historian, a community organizer, a group whose work relates to journalism and media literacy or any other organization which fits into one of the categories above? Check out the Get Involved page for details about how to get your organization added to the directory.
We sell fiction that relates to important societal issues, non-fiction books about economics, history, philosophy and political science and items which support living a more analog lifestyle.
