I was listening to a TED talk and remembered the 90s. The Baltic Way, Singing Revolution.

I listened to Mike O´Sullivan – The end of globalization (and the beginning of something new) and i was thinking about transitions.

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In this TED talk economist Mike O´Sullivan discusses the issue of globalization and – yes, our future. He says: “Globalization is on its deathbed” and describes the years to come as The End of An Era in History … The end of an era which started with the fall of communism …

“What´s next?”, he asks.

One of the main points in this talk is shared values – or a collaboration based on VALUES. The future will ask us to choose which way to go and who to collaborate with, transnationally. Not in terms of political or economic benefits, as we are used to, but in terms of values.

This made me think about how it all started. I was 17 years old when Soviet Union ended, and the new era started. For Latvia, it was a lot about the values. Many years later, together with Antra Carlsen, we analysed this transition from the adult educators’ point of view. I believe it could be relevant reading according to the future choices we are going to make. 

“Growing together”: a Latvian retrospective of learning opportunities created in the cooperation among Nordic and Baltic adult educators

This article tells the extraordinary story of the cooperation among adult educators in five Nordic and three Baltic countries (NB 8) which began in 1991 – the year when Latvia regained its independence. According to individuals who experienced the evolution of this cooperation from the beginning and were actively involved in the process of developing contemporary theories, policies and practices of adult education in Latvia, this cooperation resulted in the creation of a range of unique opportunities for learning and development. Latvian adult educators were engaged in many activities; they learned themselves, taught others, did research on adult education and developed a new system of adult education. What had started out as a “donorship” grew into a “partnership”. 

You can read more about the unique collaboration among Nordic and Baltic adult educators on this blog:

NORDIC BALTIC COOPERATION IN ADULT EDUCATION SINCE 1991