CED is implementing an ongoing information programme of documentation, analysis and prognosis of fifth generation civil society, mainly chara
cterised by entrepreneurship and innovation, and engagement with the market. As epilogued in “the Long & Winding Road from Structural Change to Structural Transformation” this avatar of social movements would build on the transformation paradigm to promote decentralization of economy, equity and environmental sustainability.
The Long & Winding Road -II is
a trans media logitudinal project
to capture through oral and news-byte narratives
the state of the art and confusion of NGOs, Peoples' Organisation and activists
in their journey towards Structural Change and Transformation.
The seventies social action generation is retiring. Or is it? Much has changed. In L & W Road I, we saw how NGOs have been structurally adjusted, even as social movements including the environment, gender, peace movements charted new terrains of engagement. Alongside were SHGs, Appropriate Technology and Organic production and marketing projects. Both streams of action have sought to re-define a new path for transformation of basic market institutions or so we hope. From a completely different stream came the Greenpeace, NAC, AAP phenomena, which seek to strike at the core of the dominant paradigm. Meanwhile there is the financial, social and environmental crisis Issues like Climate Change like Naomi Klein says "changes everything" and is an opportunity to dismantle the oppressive capitalistic structure.
With no Marx or overarching theory of Structural Transformation in the horizon, Long & Winding Road II seek to capture through a range of video, the reflections and stories of a wide range of actors and what they see as the sources for Structural Change and Transformation. Alongside, the project seeks to capture state of the art through a verite of the recent important happenings which mark the state of the mind of the current generation of activist.
Amidst the standard fare, is a new form of action brought in by the tech generation. Some recluse into farms, nature and organics, yet other seek to explore a new form of social entrepreneurship. Some swear by Gandhian simplicity, while others contend with the market, and the mainstream. And still others joined NAC and AAP.
The dominant issues raised in the video documentation, will under L & W R II, will be supplemented by other documentation to provide and analytic base for understanding the current situation. The Project will also try to glean out the various elements of action-reflection which could constitute the emerging struggle for structural Transformation.
The project is not a classical research or publication exercise. It is longitudinal trans-media exercise whichwill end up as an interactive e book by around November 2016. In the run-up to the e book, all inputs will be placed in the public domain using social media, mailing list, and curated/mediated blog, thus enabling concentric dialogue on its way. Each of the inputs can be transformed under this project or in partnership with others or even independently into other media - graphics, teaching materials, documentaries, essays, charts etc.
Finally, L & W R is part of CED effort to define a new generation documentation centre, as "post google indranet".