New Members Series: Exploring Fault Lines in our Movements and Building Bridges that Can Hold

Polarization is often understood as the divide between two acutely opposing points—liberal vs. conservative, atheist vs. believer, rich vs. poor. But the reality is that we live in a multipolar world, where schisms and breaks can be found in even the shortest bridges and most aligned coalitions. Indeed, by looking at only the widest chasms, we may be missing cracks forming on the bridges beneath our own feet, the very infrastructure that holds our movements together.

What to expect:

In this monthly series of conversations, the Forum community is invited to courageously gaze into the schisms and "breaking" happening in the movements, sectors, and issues in which we work and sensemake the implications of these fractures on democracy and belonging more broadly. From Palestine to the changing language of identity, we will seek to collectively make sense of how fast-changing social and political realities may be generating earthquakes out of barely-perceptible fault lines. How might we make space to merely “be” with these fractures and develop tools and infrastructure that can hold them in healthy and generative ways? How can we allow for a pluralism of approaches and analyses while staying true to our core values and ideals? And when can schisms be bridged, and when is bridging simply impossible? 

In this context, when we say "Schisms", we mean the tensions, fractures and rifts that can occur between people who are otherwise aligned in a seemingly significant way (e.g. folks who have a shared political outlook or vision for the world, solidarity for the same or similar struggle, mutual work or are in community together). We understand schisms as different from the polarised differences that occur between folks who have seemingly opposing worldviews, values or visions.

For more information, contact the Forum's Head of Community, Evan Yoshimoto.

If you’re not a Forum member yet and are interested in joining, apply to become a member here