Some of the history and thinking behind the concept
Extract from the essay ‘Rising from the Mist’In April 2000, two leaders of the Scottish Council Foundation visited me in North Carolina and we began to talk about how to develop an idea that would link the work of the Foundation and our Communities of the Future effort in the USA.
We discussed the potential of developing an international dialogue group of thinkers as one idea for developing a 2nd Enlightenment conceptual framework. The director thought this could be a part of the work of the Scottish Council Foundation.
Due to my background in textiles, the three of us talked about how there could be three strands developed in parallel to one another as a part of a Tartan Twinning Project.
The first strand would be a dialogue among a group of world class thinkers, a second could be a strand to develop “capacities for transformation” in Scotland, and a third strand could be people with Scottish heritage in the US networked to spread the ideas of a 2nd Enlightenment.
Although this particular collaboration did not come together, I was always struck by the validity of the concept and looked for ways to use the ideas of a 2nd Enlightenment in conjunction with a parallel process three strand project.
In 2001, I began a dialogue with a colleague in South Carolina, Fred Monk, who is Director of the Columbia World Affairs Council. We talked about the Community of the Future ideas and how they might play a role in his organization’s work. My background in business and Fred’s interest in history and culture provided a natural garden for connecting ideas.
I mentioned the concept of the original Tartan Twinning Project that had been developed previously and we began to talk about how to build economic and cultural connections between South Carolina and Scotland that would benefit the Columbia World Affairs Council’s objective for increased trade with other countries.
As we talked about the potential of an increased economic relationship between Scotland and South Carolina, we began to explore the other ideas of the original project as well as the ongoing community transformation work of the Center for Communities of the Future.
As Fred Monk and I continued to talk over several months, we began to collaborate on an idea that we now call our Tartan Transformation Project. We decided that there would be an economic and cultural focus and that three separate strands would be developed over several years within the scope of the overall project.
The first strand would emphasize building tourist relationships between South Carolina and Scotland to include promotion of golf courses and historical attractions.
The second strand would focus on connecting people with Scottish heritage in South Carolina (and later other states in the US) with colleagues and relatives in Scotland.
The third strand, and the focus of this paper, is to establish a relationship between a university in the US (and possibly one in Scotland) and the Center of Communities of the Future that would utilize key COTF ideas in the creation of a Center for a Second (or New) Enlightenment.
The goal of such a concept would be to provide a unique opportunity for citizens in the US and other countries to be exposed to and study ideas, concepts & principles that are consistent with an emerging 21st Century society.
A university connection would have two objectives:
- to be the central focus for the cultural component of the Second Enlightenment Project (to include COTF concepts as well as other ideas appropriate to the development of a Second Enlightenment framework), and
- to work with other people and organizations in the US and other countries to build “21st Century” COTF capacities in support of community transformation for communities.
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