Institutional Reproduction & Reconstruction

Symbolic systems that organizationally arrange meaningful information and activity in a society can be considered to be implicitly or explicitly formalized or codified symbolic systems that define the periodicity and dialectical organization of work within a particular area of society.

The challenge of all societies is the problem of institutional reproduction from generation to generation. A society that fails to effectively reproduce itself would end in chaos and anarchy. A greater part of the function of education is to ensure that this intergenerational reproduction of conventional institutions in society is assured. This lends a great stability to conventional styled educational institutions, because they tend to be inherently conservative from a functional perspective.

For alternative human development to be effective, the challenge of effectively and adaptively altering the basic and conventional institutional patterns and frameworks is important to creating the basis for greater flexibility and change in a society from generation to generation. This does not necessarily entail a deliberate devaluation of traditional or conventional social institutions, but it also does not entail holding these institutions up as sacrosanct and mono-typical.

The Bridge hopes to provide within its own framework and in its structured relationship with its host societies, the possibility for institutional alternation and reconstruction that would promote adaptive social changes in the world.