Mission statement
We are today at a historical turning point. In many parts of the world, the industrial society is dissolving; the dawn of the 'Creative Age' pronouced. The social fractures of transformation are particularly well visible in old industrial regions where the "rough edges" of a life undergoing brutal change are a daily experience. To loose footing and orientation is a difficult situation for people in old industrial regions – but it also makes them important subjects when reflecting on the policies that we need to develop for a successful common future.
The question is: How can we smooth the rough edges of change and "make cubes roll"? In the old Industrial North and around the globe? To answer this, what we first of all need is a new holistic vision to reorientate our policies and set the conceptual stage for tomorrow's action. We need new theoretical approaches, new interpretations and new stories. rhondda participates in the creation and negotiation of this new social and cultural context by connecting different approaches and industrial regions around the globe.
rhondda takes a decidedly regional approach which is simultaneously international and intercultural. The Nation concept is considered when providing new insights, but no longer as a pre-given category. Today more than ever we have to think from the outside in, not only from the inside out. Our former as well as newly emerging industrial regions depend in a particular way on new ideas and perspectives from the outside. The outside view, however, is often to be found in the inside, too, lying still unrecognised on our doorsteps.
rhondda respects the simultaneity of different productive ideas and proposed solutions and defends plurality as a primary principle. rhondda aims to understand the different ways how regions try to catch up with global transformation processes and analyses the findings to provide others with new ideas. In doing this, rhondda closely works with regional stakeholders whose viewpoints have not yet received the attention they deserve because new networks and alliances do deliver new insights, ideas and perspectives.
rhondda is convinced: Based on this principle, we will find surprising solutions for supposedly unsolvable problems. Not only for old industrial regions but anywhere where formerly immovable certainties dissipate and people have to find new ways of living and making do together. That is: everywhere around the globe.
Please, do also visit the Rhondda Valleys !
