> [ intro ] / Neotopia is a path towards the implementation in our society of nonviolent methodologies, centered on the human being with the aim of the construction of the nonviolent society, i. e. the Neotopia.
We are convinced that the structurally violent society is based on a violent cultural model; thus we believe that we need to propose a serious revolutionary cultural project to reach our goals.
To this work a daily practice must be joined in the footsteps of the Masters of nonviolence, from Gandhi to Lanza del Vasto, from Capitini to Dolci, from Vinoba to father Zeno Saltini.
Therefore the Neotopia Project in articulated in many streams. This is our civil engagement, remembering Socrate's words: THE GOOD WHO ARE INDIFFERENT TO PUBLIC INTEREST MUST ATONE BY BEING GOVERNED BY THE BAD"

> Research area [ intro ] / To do a serious cultural work means first of all researching and verifying data and information, so that proposals can be credible and effective.
in order to reach its goals Neotopia has started research groups on some specific issues, formed by competent researchers passionately keen on nonviolence.
Researchers and scholars who should be interested in these issues may wish to submit ideas, suggestions and their candidacy to join in by sendind an e-mail to the coordinator of the project.

> Research area/ Nonviolent education It’s time to consider which areas of study and intervention are critical to the education at Nonviolence and peace for the citizens of the future nonviolent society.
It must be remembered that any society’s structure - or social model - is created mainly through education and a profound reform of the educational system is of paramount importance to make a social reform effective and lasting.
We can also remember that Vinoba Bhave (see in Democratic values) provocatively - but very seriously - said that when India became independent the main thing to do should have been to change the education system radically, even at the cost of remaining one or two years without it in the transition, because the imperial schools where designed to produce slaves of the Empire and couldn’t be useful to the education of the free citizens of a free nation.
Unfortunately he wasn’t listened to and most unfortunately he was tremendously right.
Our educational system is structurally violent because it is designed to produce generation after generation of impotent citizens of a structurally violent society.
It need be changed radically.
The idea is to form a group of scholars and professionals who will first define violence in terms of education, then pinpoint the most critical aspects of violence in the educational system and suggest ways to introduce change, in both a short and a long term perspective as it is needed when working on a radical cultural and social reform.

> Research area / Human nature Time has come to think seriously about the definition of human nature in order to make some steps forward in fields regarding human dignity, quality of life, health and peace. It’s possible that we are walking in circles around paramount questions without making any practical progress right because we lack the courage to look to ourselves straight and ask who we are or better who we should be. It’s no mere philosophical question neither an intellectual amusement; it has to do with very practical questions as the current level of happiness (rapidly decreasing), physical health (steadily worsening), spirituality (leveled) material wealth (diminishing).
New and radical social proposals need a thorough understanding of human nature because social structures and institutions must serve humans and not vice-versa. We suggest to form a group of five to ten persons who will prepare the ground for a future larger consultation at a European level.
Its working methodology will be multidisciplinary, without prejudice and aimed at future practical implementation.

> Research area / Nonviolence in Medicine According to its goal of the application of nonviolent methodologies to all professions, Neotopia thinks that it is necessary to challenge the structurally violent paradigm that is presently dominant in medicine and care practice in general.
Care of the suffering and of the fragile should constitute a privileged field for the application of Nonviolence, in the form of compassion and service; instead a complex of knowledge, practices and operative techniques which has dehumanized the work of care has developed in these very fields.
This situation stems from the the structural violence affecting all society and which we intend to explore thoroughly.
But it’s not only patients who suffer from this situation: for instance the suicide rate among physicians is to some authors two to almost fourfold that of the general population. This is a classical consequence of the structural violence affecting our society, as defined by Johann Galtung.
Nonviolence in Medicine project sees a selected group of professionals (physicians, nurses, psychologists, philosophers, anthropologists and others) and friends of Nonviolence addressing the various problematic aspects of the current attitude to care.
The first step has been the definition of a methodology to assess the elements of structural violence afflicting the professional field; as we follow the tracks of modern peace studies and the definitions of Galtung, this has requested that we found which essential needs of the human beingsshould be satisfied by the practice.
Now (spring 2012) we are assessing the relevance of the violations of these basic needs, which will amount to assessing the elements of structural violence.
Then we will prepare a publication containing a critical reflexion on the cultural paradigm at the base of current official medicine and health care practices.
The publication will also contain the proposals of Neotopia and will be presented in every appropriate context.

The evaluation of how and where to best promote it could constitute a further field of discussion for the project team and between the team and external bodies (professional associations, institutions, universities).
As well as in the parallel “Nonviolent revolution in everyday life” solutions will be sought for both short and long term, meaning first the best immediate improvement of medical practice with a holistic and nonviolent perspective and second the general implementation of prevention oriented culture and life styles and of a reform of care systems and institutions in a nonviolent direction..

> Research area / Nonviolence in legal profession On the same lines of the other research groups of our Project one about nonviolence in legal profession has recently been started.
We have submitted it to the general public at the 2nd festival del Diritto in Piacenza, September 2009.
The scope of the research is at the moment narrow, focusing of the possibilities of a different professional approach to separation and divorce involving children; the approach we are proposing is multidisciplinary and nonviolence based.
The initial proposition is that if the professional takes its own responsibility as a citizen and behaves accordingly, all the process of separation and divorce will privilege the interests of, first, the weaker parties, the children, then, in the end, benefit the whole society; work of the tribunals and the social services will be minimized by lowering the level of conflict and every subject involved will have less suffering from the event.The research group is still small, but already multidisciplinary, and has rosy prospects!

> University level education / Master degree in applied nonviolence at Bergamo University - Scool of Management.
Up to now Master degrees in peace studies have mainly been structured in the negative peace perspective: acceptance of the inevitability of violence and focus on the possible containment of war caused damage and on how to help populations in war torn territories to rebuild their shattered social fabric.
Typical of this tendency are post graduate courses in Rome and Turin and what is offered in this field by the Ministry of Defense.
Neotopia’s project instead is born out of positive peace thinking: violence can be prevented and war is but an epiphenomenon which is generated and fostered by the widespread structural violence plaguing our society.
It is an original and ambitious project of multidisciplinary nature aimed at teachers and students willing to engage in a nonviolent, legal and slow revolution, with special regard to the main social issues of italian society.
Students graduated from this Master degree in applied nonviolence will belong to a cohort of social workers who will have new ideas and professional instruments to transform contemporary dehumanizing tendencies of our society by nonviolent means and methodologies.
These graduates will be hired or work as consultants by organizations such as parents’, consumers’, educators’ or by enlighted public institutions and bodies seriously willing to improve the level of happiness, health and prosperity of their citizens.
The multidisciplinary competence acquired in the Master course will also open up professional opportunities by those companies, firms and businesses which are more sensitive to the issues of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and keen on making the most of the human value available by their employees and in the wider community in which they operate.
The Master degree in applied nonviolence is starting in SEPTEMBER 2012.

> Operative Projects [ intro ] / For Neotopia, according to the vision of the Masters of nonviolence like Gandhi and Vinoba, it is essential to go from the individual struggle to perfection to the actions of civil responsibility in the common interest of all. Thus we have developed these projects which we offer to groups of organized citizens willing to impact upon their communities to substitute structural violence with nonviolence.

> Operative Projects / Nonviolent revolution in daily life Neotopia is a spiritually inspired political proposal, according to the fundamental teaching of Mahatma Gandhi. He said that it was right his deeply rooted spirituality to push him into politics, which was working in the interest of his fellow citizens, particularli of the poorest, than of mankind.
But true politics, as taught by Vinoba disciple of Gandhi in his “Democratic values”, is not that of power but instead that of service, daily responsibility, concrete solidarity that of the consciousness of everybody’s capacity to create his/her own prosperity and that of others.
Therefore Neotopia proposes to the general public a draft project for the nonviolent revolution in daily life applicable in small communities where individuals, families or collective subjects willing to engage are most likely to have a profound impact on society’s fabric.
The proposed document has been drafted by prof. Giorgi and it’s divided in two: the first part being the theoretical analysis of the problem, the second contains some practical issues to deal with in order to accomplish the nonviolent, legal, slow, profound and necessary revolution.
To us it’s the only possible way for the contemporary society to avoid the ever closer moment of selfdestruction.
The first document is an abstract of Piero Giorgi’s “The origins of violence by cultural evolution” (second edition) Brisbane, Minerva E&S, 2001” (download from www.pierogiorgi.org) which has the purpose to correct the wrong idea that humans are violent by nature. Only with this theoretical basis we can engage in the nonviolent transformation project which is outlined in the second document which, otherwise, would be just naive and impossible.
We hope that many groups of friends of nonviolence will engage in this revolution from bottom up..

> Operative Project / > / Groups at work on the project Currently (autumn 2011) two groups are working on this platform for a daily life nonviolent revolution: one emerged from some members of the Joint Peace Committee of S. Giovanni in Persiceto, Sant’Agata Bolognese and Crevalcore municipalities and the other was formed by the Thursday Group of the quartiere Avesa in Verona and has now been joined by people from other places of town. Neotopia is now contacting other Peace committees or associations to check their willingness to join the project; current phase is due to end soon in 2010 to start the studying and planning phase.

> The Projects today / Report not yet available