“Constructing Open Learning Communities to Inspire a Changing World” Towards Open Learning Communities: One Vision Under Construction

“As development becomes imperative, as we approach the turn of this century, we are faced with the necessity of giving new meaning to the word. Reflecting on <<development>> is thus the most important intellectual challenge in the coming years.” Boutros-Boutros Ghali, Our Creative Diversity, 1995 At the dawn of the 21st century, we find ourselves “living in the midst of one of the most fundamental and certainly the most rapid transformations in history ” (Laszlo, 1989, p. 25). The world is changing at a scale and pace (both in terms of speed and degree of turnover) and with a level of interdependency to which we are previously unaccustomed. Derm Barret (quoted in Burnett, 1995, p. 288) describes this phenomenon as ‘hyperchange ’ i.e., a combination of linear, exponential, discontinuous and chaotic change. Several forces, including the proliferation of information and communication technologies, the overwhelming glut of (mis)information, the globalization of fragile financial markets coupled with the parallel growth of informal local economies, the decentralization of governments and bureaucracies, the intense marketing of certain cultural fantasies and lifestyle preferences, and the rise of new political actors, are contributing to the intensifying, complexifying and churning of thes