Hi, very interesting and relevant point (also happy to take it to another thread if that is more appropriate). I have also had the experience of being personally very aligned to these principles, but find it difficult to bring them into the local context in which we operate as a CN. I relate to your sentence “in our experience the local cultures find them [the principles] alien.” It is not so much that people will reject them, but that they bring other priority values (eg, the dominance of elders). In contrast these kinds of principles are seen as “an outsider” set of rules that they will conform with because I propose them, and because my position has intrinsic power (skills, resources, language etc.). So instead of creating participation (my intention), I end up enforcing external rules (not my intention). I find it very important as a CN practitioner to keep exploring and navigating these power relations, so thanks for bringing this up.
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