In light of the two upcoming events— a facilitated open gathering on May 3, 2025 in Bern, at Innovationsdorf Bern, in collaboration with Innovationsdorf Bern and 7Generations; and a facilitated discussion on May 15, 2025 in Geneva, at the Geneva Graduate Institute, in collaboration with “The Fab” and Peacebuilding Initiative, we would like to share with you some of the belief systems that are behind “Living Together” project.
We, the co-facilitators of these events, Magdalena and Yuliya, thought it is important to share them with you. Maybe they resonate with you or not, we would be happy to hear. These beliefs are the following:
1. Global challenges call for communities. After the full-scale war in Ukraine, I realized that one person, one organization, and one country cannot solve the global issues we face. We need communities with all our diversity to come together and work it out to find creative, sometimes non-linear solutions. Even more so, I often think that maybe solving challenges is not the point; the point is to connect, learn to relate across the divide, and build connections.
2. Human beings are powerful. Often, people project their own power onto other leaders, technology, or bigger forces, like conspiracy theories, and thus feel powerless in the face of life events. However, with all imperfections, mistakes, and social cracks, human beings and groups are very powerful in addressing the challenges and, by doing so, turn them into a learning and awareness project.
3. Facilitation is missing. In most conversations, panel discussions, debates, and meetings, the role of a facilitator is missing. By facilitation, I mean (and there are many views on what it is) processing information in the field, addressing escalation moments, finding and working on existing polarities, and engaging and interacting with different and opposing sides to deepen them and bring more flow in life, work situations, and relationships.
4. Information ecology is equally important. As we care for a sustainable world, it is important to address information ecology as well. We bring a lot of information into the air, which remains unprocessed in most cases. Information ecology and information cleaning are basically the jobs of a facilitator (see point above).
5. Splits and polarizations are natural. Moreover, they are not something that some countries bring with propaganda. Splits and conflicts exist and may be hidden, but when they are revealed (sometimes highlighted via falsity), they may be something to avoid, and they are a world culture; equally, with facilitation, they may turn into a source for individual learning and growth and for the community-building project.
6. Unity is not static. Unity (as well as freedom and security) is not set or given once and for all; it is not fixed. Once achieved, it is meant to be lost to find it again. Moreover, splits, cracks, mistakes, imperfections, polarizations, and challenges are there for people to come together to find moments of unity again and again (see the first point). It is like relationships: if one does not work on it, it naturally ends. So, it is not just a job of the United Nations but also all of us in different communities to address world challenges and work on unity.
7. Changes happen in communities. It is based on personal subjective experience: changes emerge in communities; changes are not something that is brought from above, by presidents or big organizations.
8. Finding life on other planets is good, yet finding ways to live together on Earth is even more exciting. It is a nerve-racking, adrenaline-like experience that requires knowledge and skills to go through tensions and conflicts, and it is usually avoided. But I believe that we as human beings are up for the challenge (see point 2 above).
So, how do we live together in this world?
Join this research-based community-building project to research this question together.
livingtogether.world 
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