Looking back at the last century with its devastating wars, genocides, environmental disasters, more often than not caused by humans, an urgent need for a paradigmatic shift in human relationships suggests itself. Other factors point in the same direction, such as movement towards globalization, reflected in greater fragmentation of society, of growing migration of persons across state boundaries, resulting in ethnic clashes of culture and competing claims over territories. This means that greater social cohesion is needed while at the same time a heightened awareness of difference and mutual respect has to be fostered.
It is widely accepted that education is a crucial agency in developing a new awareness of "the self" and "the other" - education at the formal, informal and non-formal level. The essays in this collection reflect on the possibilities of a "common future" and on educational programs and projects that are aimed at transforming the vision of a more humane world into reality.