Vision & Values
“Before this night is over and before the new dawn rises Maybe we can sit here in the shade and talk Not afraid to question the dent in the dream or the words missing from the story”
—Jackie Kay
Plurality, diversity and democracy have been the cornerstones around which SIEDS has evolved both its programmatic priorities and institutional culture.
Striving to reconcile the means with the ends and the personal with the political both in our work and vision, our attempts in the Collective, as SIEDS envisioned itself, have been to put into place those core institutional values and processes centred around:
Power
that is horizontal,
diffused and incorporates dissent and difference
Remuneration
that is not so much linked to professional qualifications as much as to needs and experience
Decision making
that is facilitated through consensus and not through imposing the will of the majority over the minority
Accountability
that is realised through balancing individual autonomy with collective responsibility
A holistic approach
to transformative politics which draws on activism, academia and aesthetics Over the past four decades of its journey the Collective has continued to be a work in progress. Never static – sometime falling and faltering, other times rising and sustaining, but most times, as Gandhi advocated, seeking to be the change it seeks to see in the world.