Me (Andre Ling)
Collaborative Explorer-Activist Working for Intersubjective Improvement in the Quality of Life on Planet Earth
A more composite picture of me can probably be found by browsing through the blog. But let it be said that I am something of a nomad, something of an explorer, something of an activist, and something of a philosopher (perhaps a taoist, if such a name has meaning). I’m also an intersubjectivist – I believe that self emerges only in relation to other and that social reality is inter-subjectively co-constructed. I believe in collaborating with the people I meet during my life in a process of questioning and transforming the reality with which we are presented through our own simple actions and decisions. I believe that we humans have the potential to emancipate ourselves from the messes that we are in, that we can learn or unlearn our way out dysfunctional patterns of being and inter-being in the world. I believe that there is no greater calling than this for me in the world at this time. And hence this blog, my journey of learning and change, serves as a way of singing my journey into existence and signing the winding route that is perpetually emerging into being from the imminent unknown.
I also suppose that I ought to add something about love. It’s not really an afterthought though. In fact, love is so central to my understanding of who I am, what I am doing and why I am doing it that it almost seems odd stating it. But, I suppose, it needs to be said: I’m involved in love-driven change processes
This blog
After 5 years of working with Seva Mandir, an Indian NGO, I decided to go back to university with the hope that the experience and the exposure there would help me to find more effective ways of contributing to positive change in the world. I enrolled in the MA in Participation Power and Social Change at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex. As part of this course I have just spent one more year back in India, working with Seva Mandir, and doing participatory action research into my work. This blog combines my reflections on the process with broader ramblings, ponderings and stories on personal, organisational, community and societal change.