How can we, as citizens, reclaim our nations and move toward a long-term vision of prosperity, health, safety and sustainability?

Here are some of the most popular and enduring stories we've published in our first six years, stories we think offer a window into the Worldchanging archives. In these pages you'll find a treasury: more than 10,000 articles on cutting-edge solutions dating back as far as October 2003. This work pushes the boundaries of the global conversation on sustainability, social innovation and planetary thinking. Many of these writers are leaders in their respective industries.

To help get you started, we've compiled a primer in each of our seven meta-categories. We hope you'll use these guides as an entryway. Find the ideas you're most passionate about here, then explore our site for much, much more. Stay as long as you like, and please spread the word.

Understanding Politics: Definitive Principles

Transparency
Whether in government, business, science, technology or media, transparency is one of the key factors in demonstrating authenticity, establishing trust, and proving there's truth to claims of responsibility and sustainability.

Human Rights
Human rights are an essential tool for creating a bright green future. Inequality breeds instability, creating problems such as war, greed and poverty. By giving all people equal rights we also help to create a more sustainable world.

Nonviolence
Nonviolence is one of the most important political ideas of the 20th century, leading directly to the independence of India, influencing the American Civil Rights Movement, the Czech leaders of the Velvet Revolution, and a new generation of nonviolent revolutionaries who are now at work everywhere in the world.

Collaborative Innovation
A significant number of the innovations we've highlighted on Worldchanging have been designed and developed through collaboration. Whether in hands-on settings or through web-based tools, engaging a wider community almost inevitably yields a product which is more appropriate for its intended context and better suited to the end-user.

Citizen Media
In order to think in new ways about a wide array of interconnected and emerging problem, we need a wide array of perspectives on those problems. That's why diverse, citizen-generated media is important. From podcasts to SMS campaigns, we find ourselves with more tools and methods for creating media than ever before.

10 Landmark Posts on Politics:

1. The Politics of Optimism
By Alex Steffen
Published 25 March 2008

2. Bright Green, Light Green, Dark Green, Gray: The New Environmental Spectrum
By Alex Steffen
Published 27 February 2009

3. The Empire of Crime
By Alex Steffen
Published 7 June 2007

4. Earth Phone Speech
By Jamais Cascio
Published 25 February 2006

5. New Orleans: Everything Has Changed
By Alex Steffen
Published 5 September 2005

6. Geoengineering and the New Climate Denialism
By Alex Steffen
Published 29 April 2009

7. Special Innovation Zone: Imagination Without Regulation
By Alex Steffen
Published 24 June 2009

8. The Worldchanging Interview: Clay Shirky
By Jon Lebkowsky
Published 31 March 2008

9. FarmSubsidy.org
By Alex Steffen and Sarah Rich
Published 12 March 07

10. Can Rwanda's Vision 2020 National Leapfrogging Plan Succeed?
By Alex Steffen
Published 19 August 06

Image credit: Franck Prevel, CC License