We are witnessing the decomposition of social forms organization which is largely fruit of the conflict between accelerated technological innovation and society's inability to adapt to its impacts. In a system based on the predominance of profit and short-term consumption, this disorder also implies an increase in social, economic, political, cultural and environmental inequalities, which in turn could threaten the survival of the human race in a matter of decades.

Let's rethink society. This is the invitation we are making to the Catalan society, and espe cially to those people from all the associations and sectors in ail fields, who are seeking new solutions to old and new problems, both locally and globally.

During the year 1998 we have celebrated the Catalan Forum to Rethink Society. We'd like this year to be a theme for reflection, a time to rethink everything we don't see clearly, beyond the hurries and urgencies of the present, a time to expand horizons, unimpeded by current crises, and to acquire an historical perspective. We'd like this to be an alternative to the status-quo mentality, an exercise of thinking and acting in complexity, without being afraid of listening and trying to understand experiences and positions quite different from one's own, an opportunity to participate in a permanent and systematic "brainstorming" session which attempts to see beyond the known certainties to discover a new window of options.

With this initiative, we hope to collaborate in the process of forging paths that allow us to free ourselves from powerlessness and build a more socially and ecolo~cally responsible country and world.

This book is an attempt to make the project of Forum Catala per Repensar al Societat' (Catalan Forum for the Re-thinking of Society) known, and it also includes the assessment of the process so far. The format is somewhat special, as it uses the Forum's proposal cards and establishes relationships among them through different links. In fact this is a book which was originally written to be read in computer format and has now been printed onto paper.
We hope the experience of this Forum may contribute to the improvement of participative dialoguing processes, especially among those groups keen to re-think society and suggest socially innovative alternatives.

Visit the Web page of the Catalan Forum: