[Scpg] Cultivating a Sustainable Community: The Cycle of Collaboration

[Barbara Wishingrad]

New article by Brad Smith and Barbara Wishingrad
http://www.shareable.net/blog/cultivating-a-sustainable-community-the-cycle-of-collaboration


Cultivating a Sustainable Community: The Cycle of Collaboration 


In order to survive peak oil, climate change, economic failure, and 
ecological collapse we must make fundamental shifts in our collective 
way of life. Individual change is necessary but not enough because our 
means of survival are embedded in complex social and economic systems. 
On the other hand, direct change of the massive business and government 
institutions we now depend upon is unrealistic because the nature of all large institutions is self-perpetuation, not transformation. The 
practical domain in which we can effectively create a sustainable way of life is our local community.

We can understand the social process of cultivating a sustainable 
community as a collaborative cycle that emerges through four phases. The first encompasses how we connect with one another. The second, how we 
communicate with each another. Third, how we co-create our community 
together. And lastly, how we coordinate our on-going social, economic, 
and political relationships. All four phases, connection, communication, co-creation, and coordination are essential for healthy community, and 
build one upon the other. 


Connection

In our present cultural milieu, independence and self-sufficiency are valued far above cooperation and collaboration. We pass our time in 
separate homes, cars, jobs, and mindsets, severely limiting how often we meet and interrelate with one another. This, in turn, limits the mutual understanding necessary to create and maintain a healthy, sustainable 
society. Our very first order of business, therefore, is to structure 
ways in which community members can connect on an ongoing basis. We need permanent commons spaces in which we may come together freely and 
often. 


Occupy Wall Street was able to sustain its occupation for an extended time partly because its people had the opportunity to get to know one 
another and build real solidarity. By being together over long periods 
of time they were able to find common ground and develop organizational 
processes that made them collectively strong in the face of official 
opposition. And they made real progress on the long road toward a more 
just and sustainable society.

If we now establish more permanent commons spaces in our communities, we can come together and cultivate the meaningful relationships 
necessary for sustainable social change. As we learn more about who we 
are as a community, we can collaboratively evolve practical new social, 
economic, and political systems. One way is to create Community Coops 
where we together cultivate a just, cooperative local society

Communication

How we perceive and what we believe about who we are governs our 
behavior in all its dimensions. Our understanding of ourselves and each 
other, therefore, is a major determinant of the kind of society we will 
organize or accept. That is why conditioning and coercion have commonly 
been used by hierarchical institutions to try to induce people to adopt 
various belief systems.

If, instead of being passively conditioned by existing institutions, 
we get to truly know one another and discover who we are as people, we 
can begin to sustainably reorganize our social, economic, and political 
relationships and create just, cooperative communities. Our second order of business, then, is to develop effective processes through which we 
can communicate clearly and get to know and understand ourselves and one another.

Occupy again provides an inspiring example. It has not only offered 
opportunities for people to informally get to know one another, but has 
also experimented with processes within its assemblies, committees, and 
task forces through which people can communicate in more pragmatic ways. Myriad methods for facilitating group communication have been developed that can improve the effectiveness of all of our social systems. Some 
of these include Dynamic Facilitation, Art of Hosting, Sociocracy, and 
Open Space Technology.

Purposeful group processes are key to freeing ourselves from the 
tyranny of hierarchical institutions. Arranging our relationships and 
organizational structures around these will provide the engine for real 
social transformation. Seeking out and learning from those proficient in these skills and developing them ourselves will provide the heart and 
soul of a Community Coop. 


Co-creation

Our social, economic, and political systems are expressions of our 
relationships, but they also condition and limit those same 
relationships and our understanding of them. This is why the struggle 
for power is routinely directed toward the organizational dimension of 
society. Our next order of business, then, is to collaboratively 
co-create new forms of social, economic, and political organization that reflect the understanding we gain when we connect and communicate 
effectively. Occupy has only just begun this process, but what they did 
provides a good start.

In a Community Coop we can choose from among a multitude of models 
other than institutional top-down command and control. We can learn from what others are doing as we synthesize and experiment. The idea of a 
Community Coop is to create a context and place where all kinds of 
people can come together in various cooperative forms to collectively 
meet their social and economic needs. It embodies sustainable economic 
and ecological principles and is based on love and caring rather than 
self-interest and competition. It revolves around a physical hub where 
conditions are cultivated for the emergence of a new culture. But it 
more broadly encompasses a whole community network of cooperation.

photo by Cindy Seigle

Only by working together can we create a coherently sustainable 
community out of the fragmented entropy we have inherited. Not the 
greatest genius among us is competent to concoct a grand scheme that 
will solve all our problems and meet all our needs. Top-down plans have 
always suffered from the law of unintended consequences. But with 
everyone connecting, communicating, and co-creating together we can, 
over time, develop new ways of living that will work for generations to 
come. When we experiment a little bit at a time and learn as we go, we 
can adjust and change course based upon our experience. 


Coordination

Simply creating new organizational structures is not enough, however. Over time we must evolve the processes and functions through which we 
can sustain healthy relationships between individuals, families, groups, localities, regions, and nations. Our fourth order of business, 
therefore, is to foster effective coordination of the various forms of 
organization that we co-create amongst ourselves.

Occupy has realized only the barest beginnings of this phase, but 
again, it represents a significant start. The Occupy movement burst onto the scene through the power of internet communication and social media 
faster, perhaps, than any other movement in American history. And it is 
still evolving rapidly. People hear about and learn from what others are doing elsewhere and share what they are doing in their own occupations. The meaning, strategies, and tactics of Occupy are evolving daily, even moment by moment, as new ideas hatch, then are tried and shared. This 
article is an example of that process, as the Occupy movement consists 
of all who are participating in and learning from the emergence of these new ways.

Throughout most of history, massive-scale social constructs such as 
religions, governments, corporations, and entire economies have been 
coordinated through top-down bureaucratic structures and processes that 
tend over time toward inefficiency, inequality, and environmental 
degradation. Natural systems, however, are coordinated through network 
structures and processes, which are more efficient and, of course, 
environmentally sustainable. The power of the internet now makes such 
networks available for social, economic, and political coordination. We 
have entered a new age where we can emulate resilient and robust natural systems in how we live together healthily and sustainably on this 
finite planet. 


We are now participating in the rapid evolution of ways to circumvent the systems of force that have been exploiting people and destroying 
our planet from time immemorial. We are making an evolutionary leap to a new age characterized by the horizontal, sustainable coordination of 
all our ways of living. 


Conclusion

A Community Coop is a context that facilitates connection, 
communication, co-creation, and coordination. Cultivating a healthy 
community and sustainable global society is a cyclical process where 
each phase builds upon the one before and each cycle builds upon those 
previous. In reality, however, these phases are not truly separate and 
distinct. They unfold in sequence but also operate simultaneously, 
forming a coherent whole. 


Thus, connection provides a foundation that underlies the other three phases. Communication supplies a necessary framework that supports the 
others. Co-creation develops functional processes that make the entire 
cycle operative. And coordination sustains the relationships that 
develop along the way. All four functions work together to comprise one 
lively process.

It all starts with connection, however. A dedicated place, attractive experiences to bring people together, and resilient network systems to 
support the entire process are integral components of a successful 
Community Coop. How and in what spirit we come together are the most 
important first steps in the process. If we start by connecting just a 
small group of wise, caring, capable people we already have the seed of a healthy and sustainable new society. Nourish it with communication, 
co-creation, coordination, and more connection, and watch it grow.

##
This article is under a Creative Commons Attribution, Noncommercial 
license 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.permaculture-guilds.org/pipermail/southern-california-permaculture/attachments/20120217/676a697a/attachment.html>