The CosmoPolitical Cooperative provides you, as a Cooperator, a range of trainings and methodological tools to support your reflection and your democratic and friendly deliberation with fellow Cooperators in a pan-European context.
Our trainings supporting pan-European democratic deliberation
Fundamentals of democracy: public sphere and democratic decision-making
(CosmoPolitical Cooperative, all languages, collective course in 14 modules, free of charge - under development)
The objective of this training is for the learner to experience democracy in a concrete way, by taking part in role-playing games, in groups.
The course is structured around the etymology of two key words: "republic" and "democracy":
- The republic or "public thing", raises the question of the object of public action and of the exercise of power. Why should certain actions be decided on behalf of the collective, imposing themselves on all, instead of being undertaken privately, in an individual and uncoordinated manner? Which decisions are 'public'? Why is this so?
- Democracy or 'people power', raises the question of the means of involving, directly or indirectly, the largest possible fraction of the human and non-human entities concerned. How can we determine the political body or 'demos' of people entitled to participate in this definition? What concrete procedures and devices should be mobilised to ensure that everyone's voice is effectively heard and taken into account?
This group learning is essential to the pedagogy of the training. Indeed, democracy is about decisions taken by a collective on behalf of a collective. The questions it raises can be made tangible only in a group. Deciding alone for oneself does not present any particular difficulty.
Link to a detailed description of the course (the course itself is under development)
Separating science from fake news: science literacy
(University of Alberta, EN, 4 modules, 16 hours total, free of charge)
Fake news or good science? In a world where we have access to unlimited information, it is hard to sift through the echo chamber of opinions fueled by emotions and personal biases, rather than scientific evidence. Science Literacy will teach you about the process of science, how to think critically, how to differentiate science from pseudoscience, how indigenous wisdom can inform science, how to understand and design a scientific study, and how to critically evaluate scientific communication in the media. Every module will build your new skill-base with real life examples, and at the end of each module you will have to apply these skills to scientific questions, talking points and controversies in the world. Warning: this course requires an open mind and the ability to self-reflect.
Link to the course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/science-literacy#syllabus
Esperanto
(Lernu.net, all languages, course: 26 modules, free of charge)
An international communication language is a pre-requisite for pan-European democracy. It is necessary to engage in discussion, to exchange arguments and to reach agreement. English has developed into such an international communication language, and is thus one of the official languages of the CosmoPolitical Cooperative in its pan-European operations. However, like any natural language, English is long and difficult to learn. A specific difficulty of English lies in its irregular grammar, so that only practice in an English-speaking country enables full mastery by non-natives. This is socially unfair, as these on-site linguistic courses are notoriously expensive. Esperanto on the other hand has an extremely regular grammar, phonemes common to many languages and limits the memory effort on vocabulary. Consequently, it can be learnt ca. 10 times faster than a natural language. It creates greater social equality in discussions, debates and decision-making between people of different native languages. Esperanto is the other the official language of the CosmoPolitical Cooperative.
Link to the course: https://lernu.net/en/kurso/nakamura
English language
(British Council, EN, 25 hours per level, from A1 to C1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), GBP 5.99 / month)
In the lucrative market of English-language courses for foreigners, the on-line courses of the publicly-sponsored British Council stand out for their high quality and very moderate price.
Link to the course: https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/online-courses/self-access
Our methodological tools structure our reflection and discussion
The rigorous templates of our documents structure our reflection and discussion as Cooperators. They help us addressing the relevant questions, in an honest way.
Our document templates exist for describing and discussing: