Ardmore: Difference between revisions
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==Culture== | ==Culture== | ||
===Cooperatives=== | ===Cooperatives=== | ||
Cooperatives | {{main|Cooperatives and syndicates of Ardmore}} | ||
Cooperatives serve a major and defining role in the daily lives of Ardmori citizens as well as the cultural identity of Ardmore in general. As Ardmore's form of socialism is rooted in {{wp|syndicalism}}, the principles of solidarity, egalitarianism, {{wp|workers' self-management}}, and even community empowerment play a major role in the primary role of cooperatives, allowing it to shape many aspect of Ardmori society whether it be in the field of economics, social relations, and even cultural practices. There exists two types of cooperatives in Ardmore: [[workers' cooperatives]], and [[community cooperatives]]; both types are not merely economic or {{wp|localism (politics)|localist}} entities, but rather they play a predominant role in the daily lives of Ardmore's citizenry. Through the encouragement of active participation in their given cooperatives, individual citizens hold a direct stake in the {{wp|means of production}} and local governance, and are thus allowed to directly participate in the democratic process of Ardmore because of it. | |||
Workers' cooperatives serve as the economic backbone of the cooperative republic. They are primarily small, localized, workers' councils that are affiliated with a nationwide {{wp|trade union}}. Each workers' cooperative is a member of a [[Syndicate (Ardmore)|syndicate]], a self-managed and {{wp|social ownership|socially-owned}} business or enterprise that almost always consists of more than one workers' cooperative. Through workers' cooperatives, workers are not only employees of their given syndicates, but are also co-owners and executive decision-makers within their given syndicates. Thus, workers' cooperatives allow for the worker to innovate, collaborate, and to take collective responsibility alongside their fellow workers both within their cooperative and within their syndicate, which in turn allows for economic growth and prosperity to occur while at the same time fostering an "ethical economy" where all workers are fairly compensated for their labor. Although the general idea of syndicates may give the impression that it only applies to factories and manufacturing plants, that is not necessarily the only instance of syndicates in Ardmore; workers' cooperatives can be an agricultural cooperative, a retail cooperative, a credit union cooperative, or any other form of workers' cooperative for a given economic sector. | |||
Community cooperatives make up the lowest-tiered level of governance in Ardmore, serving as the mainstay for governance at the local level. Although community cooperatives are not considered to be an integral part of the principles of the primarily labor-focused ideology of syndicalism, they were established as part of the cooperative republic's commitment to revitalizing the long-neglected culture of the [[Garán people]] which was suppressed by the former monarchy for many years. The idea of establishing community cooperatives was based upon the ancient pre-feudal societal mainstay that was once common throughout the Ardmori Isles, that being the former clan system. Like the former clan system, the primary purpose of the community cooperatives is to promote communitarian kinsmenship and solidarity and to serve as vital hubs of community life where groups of people are brought together without any expectation or requirement that members of a given community must be of a certain background or have a specific interest. Individuals are expected to denounce and disavow any and all traditional hierarchies and divisions and form strong social ties with their fellow community members. Community cooperatives allow for community members to address common challenges in a collective manner where all are invited to come up with ways to solve these challenges, and they, through the effective use of community based arts-and-crafts initiatives and communitarian cultural centers, have served as the incubators for the cultural rebirth of the Garán people in ways that have astounded foreign observers that have thought that such a rebirth was an impossibility. In recent years, it has also served as a vehicle for Ardmen and Istroyan revivalist communities in certain areas of the country, complete with attempted linguistic and artistic revivals. | |||
Education is the primary responsibility of the community cooperatives, wherein students are taught through a curriculum that has been agreed upon by the people of the community through a {{wp|consensus decision-making|consensus vote}}; a given community curriculum is designed to provide students the knowledge and skills that are required in order to become an active member of a workers' cooperative. Such a curriculum may be taught in schools, training programs, and even educational initiatives; successful curriculums are able to teach not only schoolchildren, but also anyone else regardless of age or background. Indeed, a student should be able to acquire technical skills, critical thinking abilities, leadership qualities, and a deep understanding of the principles that make up the democratic processes of Ardmore and the ideals of social justice. To ensure that all citizens of Ardmore are able to effectively learn such qualities and abilities, the education system in Ardmore allows for formal instruction, experiential learning, peer mentorship, and even hands-on activities. | |||
===Religious status=== | ===Religious status=== | ||