ECUMENICAL INSTITUTE: CHICAGO
Thousands across the globe are now engaged in coordinated planning to implement 77 major proposals for the tactical reformulation of the economic, political, and cultural structures of society.



THE NEW SOCIAL VEHICLE


REVOLUTIONARY

TIMES

Radical change, upheaval, and uncertainty are the hallmarks of our revolutionary times. Civilized life itself is being overturned. In the midst of the present crisis, a deepening concern is emerging across the globe: to create a new global society upon the bedrock of what it means to be human; to utilize all the wisdom of the past; to build a realistic vision that offers every man avenues of participation into all the dimensions of human existence.





CULTURAL

CURRICULUM

The Ecumenical Institute's New Social Vehicle (NSV) research project is directed toward the realization of this practical vision by men from every social stratum and every cultural heritage. During the past ten years, courses in the Institute's cultural curriculum have been offered around the world to awaken men to their possibility of creating the new social vehicle. The theoretical courses-Psychology and Art, Sociology and History, Natural Science and Philosophy-explore the human implications of 20th century cultural wisdom. The reformulation courses-Individual and Family, Community and Polis, Nation and World-offer the practical vision and model­building skills necessary for creating new social structures. These courses equip men to give form to the urban, secular, and scientific revolutions of our age.




SOCIAL

REFORMULATION

The practical experimentation underlying the NSV research project has been conducted during the past ten years in Fifth City, a reformulation project in a sixteen­block area on Chicago's West Side, which has received nation­wide press coverage and governmental recognition. Working closely with the Fifth City Board of Managers-a body of full­time, self­supported, indigenous leaders-the Institute has developed tactical means for motivating and equipping residents to embrace the future of their neighborhood as their destinal responsibility. Fifth City's twenty basic social structures, linking the resources and services of greater Chicago, the state and the nation to the particular needs of the community, form the basis of a reformulation model reduplicable around the world.







SEVENTY­SEVEN

PROPOSALS

The NSV project has a six­year time plan. Phase I, the basic research, was completed in the summer of 1971. A thousand people met in Chicago for a research assembly to analyze human sociality, to examine the emerging trends of our times, and to forge tools which will enable them to shape those trends. The final results are held in the 77 Proposals Document which set the strategic context within which future tactics will be designed. The most significant result of the summer, however, was the human happening. A thousand people corporately produced a major work of disciplined research. They were housewives and lawyers, students and businessmen, clergy and mechanics, from suburbs, farms, and urban centers. They became the revolutionary human sign that any man can decide to change history and devise practical methods to shape his own destiny. They shared the emerging vision of our times: that all the earth belongs to all the people.





RESEARCH

NETWORK

Phase II of the New Social Vehicle project is the examination and implementation of the research assembly. During the fall quarter of 1971, a network of research units was set up across the globe. Every weekend, small groups of people met in think­tanks to clarify the seventy­seven proposals. At the same time, the social process model was being used to analyze each of the nine geo­social continents of the globe, as a test of its universal applicability. This continuing study is a first step towards weaving the coordinating structures which will enable every man to participate fully in the wealth, destiny, and consciousness of a global community.






TACTICAL

IMPLEMENTATION

The next step of the New Social Vehicle project will begin in the summer of 1972 with the building of the tactical system for the implementation of the research. This tactical system will include particular tactics for renewing the social process as well as for continuing the social research and the training of a growing number of people. This requires the development of new courses to introduce the methodologies which will allow the new society to be created. As trained leaders become available at the local level, experimental projects based on the tactical system will be launched. The initial projects will be on the North American continent, but as soon as the project has been adequately tested and demonstrated, it will be made available to community leaders throughout the world. Consultations with governmental officials, national organizations, and social institutions are planned to obtain expert counsel and to share the methods being used. Local people will meet in guilds to plan for the reformulation of their occupational, political, and cultural structures.

Finally, a global council with representatives from all areas of the world will provide a dramatic opportunity for setting the priorities and planning the tactical steps necessary for the twentieth century to realize the vision of a common earth.

GLOBAL

RENEWAL

The emergence of the New Social Vehicle rests upon the creation of a new man, a new world, and a new church. The new man embodies a life style of sociological engagement in the crises of the day, embraces all the mysterious complexity of human life, and participates in researching and reconstructing the institutions and communities of the emerging social vehicle. The new world is global, offering to every human the goods, decisions, and cultural gifts of the entire earth, and claiming from every man the expenditure of his wisdom and skill in the civilizing adventure. The new church is the catalytic interchange between the new man and the new world, safeguarding the spirit deeps of authentic humanness and calling them into being in every social invention. It is local-consisting of parishes which take responsibility for particular communities. It is historical-holding itself in fellowship with the traditions of various denominations. It is corporate-creating practical plans for tomorrow which can be implemented today in any community in the world.
HUMAN

ADVENTURE

The New Social Vehicle is the promise to future generations of social structures which will engage their full participation in the human adventure and release them to set out afresh on the journey of man.

REGIONAL AND METROPOLITAN CENTERS
Amarillo

Apia

Atlanta

Billings

Bombay

Boston

Brisbane

Caracas

Champaign­Urbana

Chicago

Cincinnati

Cleveland

Denver

Derby

Detroit

Hong Kong

Houston

Indianapolis

Kansas City

Kuala Lumpur

London

Los Angeles

Madison

Majuro

Manchester

Manila

Melbourne

Miami

Milwaukee

Minneapolis

Montreal

New Orleans

New York City

Oklahoma City

Osaka

Peoria

Perth

Philadelphia

Pittsburgh

Portland

Rapid City

Rochester

Rockford

San Francisco

Seattle

Sendai

Singapore

Sydney

Taiwan

Tokyo

Toronto

Tulsa

Washington

Winnipeg

A Publication of
THE ECUMENICAL INSTITUTE

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Chicago, Illinois 60624