Imagining the Common Ground: Utopian Thinking and the Overcoming of Resentment and Distrust

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This programme of leadership activities and research will address the over-arching Global Uncertainties strategic aim of 'security for all in a changing world' primarily through engagement with the Ideas and Beliefs core area. The working hypothesis of the proposed programme is that 'security for all in a changing world' is dependent on the capacity to imagine a common ground and a common humanity, which is in turn dependent on the ability to overcome resentment and distrust, and on the ability to deploy a certain utopian form of thinking. What will be explored is the role of prospective and projective thinking in advancing social justice and social cohesion, as well as its potential for impeding such. A key aim of the programme is to provide opportunities for synergies under the Global Uncertainties scheme in areas of existing and emergent research, and to identify the mutual concerns of this work, especially with respect to the question of understanding how human capabilities may be drawn on to enhance security. In particular, research activities will serve to focus attention on the following topics of enquiry: cross-cultural understandings of extremism, especially from the perspective of youth culture and with respect to its potential common ground; the potential loss of faith in humanity occasioned by violent sectarian conflict and forms of post-conflict rehabilitation that aim to rebuild trust and strengthen social resilience; perceived forms of political negligence in relation to social autonomy and welcome and unwelcome forms of state intervention; the role that popular culture and community arts initiatives are able to play in transforming the disadvantaged sectors of developing societies and new democracies through drawing on local resources and advancing social and economic inclusiveness, together with the role played by community leaders in this regard; the destructive and constructive aspects of utopian thinking with respect to questions of idealism, social expectations and aspirations, and the grounds for consensual action. The proposed programme of research will be carried out through a series of Global Uncertainties events (a conference and workshops) entailing public sector involvement, together with practice-based research in the form of creative projects, fieldwork and the setting up of networks. The first of the two creative projects consists of the making of a documentary film on post-conflict rehabilitation in Beirut that will be of wider significance to the MENA region. The second of the two creative projects concerns the scripting and mounting of a UK-based hip hop performance offering youth perspectives on questions of extremism, political distrust and pathways to justice. The fieldwork entails studies of community arts-based social initiatives, together with filmed portraits of inspiring role models, in the locations of Cape Town, Cairo and Delhi, in order to facilitate opportunities for knowledge exchange. Related to this, the project will serve to set up a network of experts on popular culture in the Middle East and Africa in the form of a cultural academy comprised of UK academics and their international counterparts, together with practitioners in the areas of the arts and new media. It is envisaged that this network will serve as a resource base for cultural organizations, NGOs and charities interested in the role of the popular imagination in instigating forms of social mobilization and receptive to new forms of cultural diplomacy. This project will also serve to foster collaborations between universities in the UK, the MENA region and Southern Africa through pilot workshops that will serve to activate the network. The PI will be assisted by an early career Research Associate for the first two years of the project and the programme will further lead to edited collections of essays and a monograph on literary attempts to establish the common ground of cultures in the Middle East.