Shared values
From Internet: Knowledge and Community
The common ground we need to find is like a high, hidden valley which we know is there but which seems always to remain beyond our reach. This hidden valley may be called common ground because it is a place of shared values. The values are shared because they are objective;they are, in fact, public values. This is what makes this common ground valuable, but it is also what keeps it hidden from us. It is valuable because the reclaiming of a vital, effective form of public life can only happen if we can learn to say words like value in the same breath with words like public or objective. (Kemmis pg. 74-75)
"In any genuine community there are shared values: the members are united through the fact that they fix on some object as preeminently valuable. And there is a joint effort, involving all members of the community, by which they give overt expression to their mutual regard for that object." (Kemmis, pg 78; quote from Lawrence Haworth, The Good City, p. 86.)
