Readings & Resources

Ruth Howard, with assistance from Eli Howard, has compiled an assortment of excerpts and links centred around the theme of ‘social goodness’: historical instances when social groups came to the aid of those outside their groups, with little or no direct benefit to themselves. A link to the full resource is available below.

The first reading, from Saving Bulgaria's Jews, examines how Bulgarians saved their Jewish population from extermination by the Nazis, using group theory from the field of Social Psychology to explain why this happened in Bulgaria but in few other nations. The author (Stephen Reicher) proposes three interlinked causes: ‘group inclusion’, ‘group norms’ and ‘group interests’. He concludes, in a shift from theory to action, by hoping that his findings might provide “tools” for “architects of rescue” to construct “more inclusive and humane communities”. His paradigm can be kept in mind while engaging with the subsequent excerpts and links.

The next reading is a 2020 newspaper article recounting the pandemic-time story of a Nashville community’s show of solidarity in response to a black resident’s feelings of insecurity in his neighbourhood. Following this is an article by Yvonne Mokgoro, former South African supreme court justice, in which she advocates for the integration of the humanistic philosophy of Ubuntu into the legal and social framework of post-apartheid South Africa. Friendship Through Famine: A Letter of Gratitude to the Choctaw Nation tells the story of the Choctaw people’s donation across the world to the Irish people in the midst of the potato famine of the 1840’s, and the Choctaw and Ireland History page tracks how the relationship between these two colonized peoples has borne fruit up until our present time as a result of this initial act of kindness. The final reading, excerpted from Bo Lidegaard’s book Countrymen, recounts the actions of the residents of one Danish fishing village, Gilleleje, who worked tirelessly and at personal risk in 1943 to ferry hundreds of Jews to nearby Sweden under the noses of the occupying Gestapo.

A short excerpt from a Terry Pratchett novel, provides a comedic counterbalance.

And at the end you’ll find a list of books that informed the Grounds for Goodness research and creative process.

Enjoy!

Click here to read the full resource.

If you are looking for further readings, there is a bibliography available at the bottom of the document.