Manifest

As YADA, we try to contribute to impact of civil society organizations on influencing the decisions of citizens, politics, governments, public administration, and private sector. We believe in the necessity of a negotiable understanding of civil society. We think, design and create for the construction of a public life in which social groups can communicate, negotiate, collaborate with others and /or their opponents. For this purpose; we consider the civil society  world as a research and an implementation area, produce information by conducting researches on civil society and CSOs, and make the information we produce useful for CSOs. While generating knowledge of social experience, we also design tools, models that make civil society more visible to citizens and decision-makers; and we are working to implement a new model of dialogue, negotiation and cooperation.

Polarization is one of the strongest obstacles to the relations of civil society organizations among themselves and with other stakeholders. Political polarization in Turkey, reproduces itself in the field of civil society. This relocates relations from negotiation to hostility. Even in common issues outside the axis of polarization, civil society organizations tend to establish their positions according to polarization. This is the main obstacle to the coming together of CSOs which associated around the same issue. Polarization strengthens hostility, hostility makes negotiations impossible.

However, Turkey is the basis for the evolution of the communication performance of the civil society world from polarization to negotiation, making dialogue possible and sustainable. Dialogue is functional when an interaction-based approach in which everyone demands, listens to each other’s accumulation & experience and also tries to understand; rather than a one-way communication that one teaches to another.

From this point of view, we believe in the necessity of a negotiable understanding of civil society and we think, design and produce for the construction of a more effective civil society ground where cooperation is dominant rather than power unity. We are working to implement a new dialogue, negotiation and cooperation model for Turkey and trying to reveal the possibilities if Turkey’s civil society can collaborate with the ones unlike Turkey itself.

In an atmosphere where dialogue, negotiation and cooperation are rejected, belittled or avoided, we submit that it is difficult to speak of a public life in which social groups can communicate, negotiate and collaborate with others and / or opponents. On the other hand, we know that a civil society world that can affect the opinion of citizens, public administration, politics and private sector decisions is only possible by developing democratic and negotiating collaborations. With this approach we think, research, write, draw and produce in order to strengthen the culture of negotiation.