Biljana Jordanovska from CIVIL at the conference “Greens are coming 2020” referred to the results obtained by CIVIL from the focus groups organized by the organization and their results, on the topic of green values, social justice and anti-nationalism.
The first focus group on green values and social justice covered the categories of environment, urbanism and sustainable development, green values, social justice, connectivity-unity of concepts. The results of this focus group showed that there is insufficient education and awareness of green values in our society, that there should be freedom from the constraints of partisanship, solidarity, loudness, action, participation in policy making, awareness of care and protection of nature and life environment, starting from itself, through the influence of the collective.
The second focus group on nationalism covered the categories: manifestations, sources and influence of nationalism, response and solutions – anti-nationalism, and its findings were: involvement of all stakeholders (and those who use nationalist rhetoric), influence through education and information about the true value and political will and liberation of the state from party constraints.
“Both focus groups showed that the topics of green values, social justice and anti-nationalism, as well as their connection, depend on several factors, primarily on the role of the state, ie an idyllic image that it represents, which in reality means and implies and how experiences, and then from society in the broadest sense, to CSOs and the individual, as the end or starting point. The results of the research show that in the field of green values we should work on education and promotion. “Education should find mechanisms that will successfully act on the awareness of students for nurturing and developing in the direction of green perspectives,” said Jordanovska.
Jordanovska added that from the aspect of social justice, institutional strengthening is needed in order to implement the laws and legal acts, but also loudness and cohesion in the area of workers’ rights.
“The fight against nationalism means the involvement of all stakeholders and those who are victims, but also those who use such narratives. “As can be concluded from the answers of the participants, it is not enough just to involve the institutions, the state, ie to change the rhetoric of the political parties, but to change and act on the consciousness of those citizens who are part of that nationalist machinery,” he added. Jordanovska.
