Community Philosophy Project


The New Earswick Community Philosophy Project was a three-year demonstration project funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), designed to promote intergenerational understanding.

Community Philosophy is a way of mutual learning which emphasises the importance of questioning and enquirey in the development of understanding.

The study explored Community Philosophy in an intergenerational and residential environment, rather than the more usual context of schools and young people only. It:

  • introduced Community Philosophy and demonstrated how it can develop over time;
  • explored the activities and levels of participation of local residents, the team of philosophers, the project's advisory group and the project management;
  • examined emerging themes and the extent to which philosophy could be an appropriate tool for developing relationships in the community;
  • discussed, through project workers' stories, issues for supporting Community Philosophy practitioners and engaging and developing trust within the community

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Key points:

  • The project has succeeded in developing relationships and dialogue across generations, although it remains to be seen whether these relationships will continue when the project is no longer in place to support them. It has been able to initiate and support conversations that otherwise would not have happened, both within and between generational groups.
  • The project was working to numerous objectives, which could be difficult to reconcile. These included: How does philosophy of this nature work in communities? How can it address issues of the perception of nuisance? How does it engage people inter-generationally?
  • The Community Philosophy approach drew on the tradition of Philosophy for Children (P4U) in schools. However, facilitating community-based philosophy differed in some significant ways from school-based work. In particular, it needed to be less directive and more flexible.
  • Because Community Philosophy required non-directive content, it was important to respond to a range of participants' interests, beyond the 'nuisance/tolerance' agenda.
  • In the course of its work, the project tried many different approaches and has effectively developed a bank of experience from which similar projects could draw.

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