AIA & Community

The vision for the creation of AKMA and the way it has operated since its founding to the present day is rooted in collective academic collaboration. It is based on the processes of co-creation, co-production, and co-evolution among AIA’s partners, trainees, organizations with related interests, and society at large.

In all its activities (professional training, personal development, community intervention, etc.), AIA utilizes the Dialectical-Systemic Approach, according to which the concept of “Human” is understood as an open, bio-psycho-social, living system capable of processing information, making decisions, engaging in transactions, and evolving.

In this approach, the “whole” emerges through the interconnection of processes at many different levels: the individual, the family, the group, the community, society, and the global context. It is a multi-level and multi-focal intervention model that makes use of on-site research within specific cultural frameworks.

Core principle in AIA’s philosophy is maintaining independence in scientific thought and action. Guided by this principle, it follows an international and intercultural orientation and remains an independent entity, economically and socially, promoting communication, dialogue, and collaboration between the sciences.

In the constantly changing economic and social conditions, changes in all our lives are a reality. Individuals, relationships, groups, and organizations are being challenged and destabilized. From its founding to today, AKMA has strived to listen to social needs and respond to requests for cooperation and support, whether from organizations or institutions, or from AKMA’s own community members working in the field. Thus, AKMA designs and implements interventions across a range of organizations and settings, including programs related to refugees, migrants, or families with limited economic sustainability, as well as schools, welfare institutions, and mental health facilities that need to host members of these populations, along with initiatives for NGOs, therapeutic centers, cooperatives, worker groups, scientific associations, and universities. The goal is to help manage organizational and personal challenges and to promote collaboration as a pillar of creativity and development.

A new processing of approaches and techniques is necessary to handle emerging roles, such as cultural mediators and the vital cooperation among multiple institutions (governmental/non-governmental/private, local/international) that work with refugees, each with different methods and approaches.

Experienced graduates, extended community members, and collaborators of AKMA participate in these interventions, under the supervision of the Scientific Advisory Committee.