“The world we have inherited is no longer working.
“The good news is …. commoners are building a new world of possibilities right now, through land trusts and relocalized food, collaborative finance and artist collectives, gift economies and open-source everything: essential tools for the transitions ahead.“
David Bollier
SoFA’s June 9th webinar with David Bollier introducing “the commons” has triggered considerable interest in exploring the intersections between sociocracy and the global “commons “movement.
David presented a concise overview of “commoning”, highlighting many of the intersections between it and sociocracy - watch the video Contemporary Commons and Changemaking - David’s presentation is from 5:10 - 38:16 - it’s preceded by Jerry’s introduction, and followed by a Q & A session
This raises some interesting questions. For example:
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What intersections might there be between sociocracy and commoning
- What might trigger us to evolve sociocracy’s purpose, values, patterns, practices, tools and terminology? (because, sociocracy is not frozen, right?)
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Is SoFA a commons?
- How might we evolve SoFA based on exploring this question?
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How might sociocracy become the preferred peer governance choice for the commons’ self-organizations?
- Should it become the preferred method? ~ What else is out there?
- If so, what needs to happen? If not, why not?
New to the Commons?
- See David’s “The commons is …”
Resources: on-line versions of David’s books:
- "Free, Fair, and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the Commons” with Silke Helfrich
- Note the discussion of Language and the Creation of Commons - how language can both enable and constrain our thinking, - how creating a “commons world view” requires a rethinking of language and terminology
- Note “The Triad of Commoning” and its 28 “patterns” and the distinction made between the concepts of “patterns” vs “principles”
- "The Commoner’s Catalog for Changemaking” explores the Commonsverse, a loosely connected world of different types of commons, which can be seen as a federated pluriverse of commons. Here are some of the more active zones of the Commonsverse today:
We (Ted, Jerry and Rodger) are considering forming a Commoning Exploration Circle (as a sub-circle of the Training Circle).
Questions? Reactions?