An Evolving Framework for Collective Learning
Endeavors of social and economic development play a distinct function in the life of the Bahá’í community. They represent the efforts of individuals, groups, and institutions to apply spiritual principles, together with the contents and methods of science, to the achievement of material and social progress. They are intended not to serve Bahá’ís alone but people of all backgrounds and beliefs. The practice of dividing the world into dichotomous groups of “the developed” and “the underdeveloped” is foreign to Bahá’í efforts in the field of development. Indeed, social change, as a matter of principle, is not a project that one group carries out for the benefit of another. Rather, it is recognized that no nation or people has achieved a state of true peace and prosperity that can serve as a model for others to follow; what is required instead is a long-term, worldwide, and collective process of learning in diverse contexts about the meaning and implications of development in all its dimensions—physical, intellectual, and spiritual.
In this light, the central theme of all Bahá’í development endeavors is learning. Over the decades, a broad framework for collective learning has emerged that informs the efforts of Bahá’ís in the field of development and evolves as experience accumulates. A number of the elements of this framework can be explored below.
