Introduction to Promoting Pluralism

In many places around the world, people are faced with the growth of intolerance. In Western Europe for instance, we observe a resistance to migrant cultures. National identities and the openness of a country to non-Western foreigners are heavily debated. In several countries where Hivos works, partners in civil society signal a rise of fundamentalisms of various sorts.

Background & Objectives

The Knowledge Programme on Promoting Pluralism has been initiated after several years of Hivos’ partners voicing concern about various forms of fundamentalism inhibiting their work. They were experiencing decreasing space to raise and discuss sensitive issues, to claim rights for women or minorities. The restrictions could be based on fundamentalist belief systems, social structures, political ideas or other sets of ideas expressed by groups in society. Various forms of fundamentalism an...

Guiding Questions

The following main questions will guide the Promoting Pluralism Knowledge Programme: 1. How can we understand the appeal of fundamentalisms in the selected regions and what is their impact on civil society? 2. What are the conditions under which pluralism is most likely to develop and flourish? 3. How can civil society organisations successfully promote pluralism in practice? Each of these questions is further elaborated in a set of sub-questions.

Methodology

The general methodology in the Promoting Pluralism Knowledge Programme is grounded in a concept of critical co-operative inquiry. This method is based on a participative worldview that considers human beings as co-creating their reality through participation: through their experience, their imagination and intuition, their thinking and their action. This participatory worldview is at the heart of our inquiry methodologies that emphasize participation as core strategy and demands a (self)...