Places inspiring action for a more just and sustainable world
FAQ
Why “hope”?
A strong word is needed to encompass what is required to move the world toward greater justice and sustainability. Dictionary definitions are less important than perceptions and impact.
"Hope" is such a word. We use a definition based on the one in the Cambridge Dictionary: Noun: A confident feeling about what will happen in the future. Verb: To want something to happen or to be true, and usually have a good reason to think that it might.
Here is a definition based on consensus in the field of positive psychology: “Hope, optimism, futuremindedness, and future orientation represent a cognitive, emotional, and motivational stance toward the future. Thinking about the future, expecting that desired events will occur, acting in ways believed to make them more likely, and feeling confident that these will ensue given appropriate efforts sustain good cheer in the here and now and galvanize goal-directed actions.”
Can't this just be added to existing heritage programs?
Usually the first question people ask about this initiative is whether it couldn’t just be added to existing official global designations of heritage sites. Unfortunately this isn’t possible.
The top tier of heritage designations is the World Heritage List, which now includes over a thousand sites in 167 countries. World Heritage is a highly successful program of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). To be listed, properties must meet certain stringent criteria; decisions are made by a committee composed of representatives of national governments. In order to protect the World Heritage List from “political and nationalistic uses,” the committee discourages nominations concerning “historical events or famous people [that] could be strongly influenced by nationalism or other particularisms.” Since governments can disagree about what constitutes nationalism or a “particularism,” the committee goes out of its way to avoid dealing with such issues. None of the six places described above, for example, is on the World Heritage List.
This will be explained in more detail in an online paper. The bottom line, however, is that for the purpose of choosing the places we are calling Global Beacons of Hope, a nongovernmental initiative is needed.
What about negatives?
Places that represent positive values can have negative aspects. Descriptions of them should include the downsides for purposes of intellectual honesty and because the contrast helps in understanding the positives. The political philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote: “We can no longer afford to take that which was good in the past and simply call it our heritage, to discard the bad and simply think of it as a dead load which by itself time will bury in oblivion.”
