Our Field of Work
Our interdisciplinary network covers a wide spectrum of specific areas of work, organizations and professions. They are connected by a shared set of goals:
- To contribute to the development of societies, in which all human beings can live a fulfilled life;
- To do so by working in situations where the possibility of a fulfilled life is at risk because of a disconnect between an individual biographical situation and the conditions of the human environment (as in the case of disabilities or fragile social, cultural and economic circumstances);
- And to always connect support for the development and growth of the individual human being at the center with support for the development and growth of the human and social environment.
The associations and organizations connected in the Anthroposophic Council for Inclusive Social Development work with persons in all phases of life. They facilitate access to education, health and social inclusion for children, youth and adults. They do so in dialogue with other organizations in the fields of disabilities, special and inclusive education, social pedagogy, social work, social therapy, social psychiatry and other related pedagogical, social and therapeutic professions.
Different names and definitions exist for many of these professional disciplines in the various countries and regions around the world. The Council’s member organizations adapt their work to the systems, conditions and terminology in place in their respective contexts, but also try to introduce new impulses that go beyond the existing approaches, understandings of professionalism and established ways of working.
The member organizations of the Council recognize anthroposophic spiritual science as a shared foundation of their work. Anthroposophic spiritual science was founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) and has since been developed further in various practical fields. It offers a transdisciplinary and contemplatively extended view of the human being and the world. In Rudolf Steiner’s ‘Curative Education Course’ in particular, this perspective continues to be a source of inspiration for the Council’s member organizations, and they continue to carry together the worldwide movement for anthroposophic curative education and social therapy that has grown out of this course.
Through their connection in the Council, the member organizations are able to engage in a worldwide collegial collaboration in affiliation with the School of Spiritual Science, its center at the Goetheanum in Dornach (Switzerland) and in cooperation with its other sections and fields of work.
Charter Inclusive Social Development on an Anthroposophic Basis: German | English