COMMONING TOGETHER
Education for meaningful sustainability and regeneration
'Building a new more sustainable future is surely best done by creating inspiring alternatives rather than criticising the old. DANIEL CHRISTIAN WAHL celebrates the work of Gaia Education — an educational NGO that is at the forefront of locally focused sustainability education on six continents.'
'Those of us alive today are the cast for an epic of civilizational transformation. Something the environmental activist and author, Joanna Macy, describes as “The Great Turning.”
As this story unfolds we will see humanity collaborating in the conscious re-design of its collective impact on Earth. This is already happening and this much-needed Regeneration is on the rise. The biophysical reality of a planet in crisis dictates our design brief: We have to shift from the current degenerative, exploitative and competitive practices to regenerative, productive and collaborative practices.
If we want to co-create a future worth living, all of humanity will have to learn to collaborate. We need to come together in all our wonderful diversity as one Regeneration facing our common challenge: to re-design our human presence on Earth in accordance with our place in the family of things.'
Can we truly own anything?
We need to move to a society where we value people because they “are” much, not because they “have” much. A society where “being” matters more than “having”. We need to get beyond conflictual and possessive relations and the endless haggling over the terms of on which exploitation – of earth, of others, of ourselves - take place.
In the words of Stephen Hawking – we need to rethink our attitude toward wealth. ‘We will now have to learn to collaborate and to share.’
‘People are starting to question the value of pure wealth. Is knowledge or experience more important than money? Can possessions stand in the way of fulfilment? Can we truly own anything, or are we just transient custodians?
These questions are leading to a shift in behaviour which, in turn, is inspiring some groundbreaking new enterprises and ideas. These are termed “cathedral projects”, the modern equivalent of the grand church buildings, constructed as part of humanity’s attempt to bridge heaven and Earth. These ideas are started by one generation with the hope a future generation will take up these challenges.’
Hawking underlines collaboration and cooperation within a shared vision.
‘Such pressing issues will require us to collaborate, all of us, with a shared vision and cooperative endeavour to ensure that humanity can survive. We will need to adapt, rethink, refocus and change some of our fundamental assumptions about what we mean by wealth, by possessions, by mine and yours.’
We need to rethink our attitude towards wealth. Says Stephen Hawking
Indeed. I'd just say it matters a great deal with whom we collaborate and to what ends - and that's a matter of social relations. Neither collaboration nor cooperation as such are virtues in themselves. At present, our cooperative instincts have been hi-jacked by free-riders and diverted to the ends of private gain. We need to devise mechanisms which marginalise or exclude free-riders, or, best of all, which encourage them into cooperation for ends of the social good. A circular economy in all respects, with no incentives or opportunities for free-riding, a productive, regenerative society based on the unity of each and all.
The world needs integrated solutions. And these integrated solutions require a collaborative approach drawing together a range of actors working at a number of levels. The word ‘collaboration’ comes from the Latin laborare, meaning ‘to labour’, and co-, com-, or col-, meaning ‘with’ or ‘together’. To collaborate, then, is to work together with others. We labour together to reclaim our natural, ethical and political commons so as to constitute the relations and practices required to enable us to act for the common good.
In a sense, we are all complicit with the system that is driving economic inequality, social dislocation and ecological degradation, locked into destructive patterns of behaviour that are socially structured beyond individual will and agency. We come back to Jared Diamond’s pointed and poignant question in his book “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed”, what was the person who cut down the last tree on Easter Island thinking when performing that act? I’d say much the same as we are thinking now as we witness the loss of habitats and extinction of species on a planet mired in ecological degradation and destruction. We now see clearly the consequences of the unintentional and the imperceptible, and therefore act in full awareness of the environmental damage caused by our actions. But my point is that there is no ‘we’ and no ‘our’ in the prevailing social and political world to deliver the concerted and comprehensive action for the long-term common good that is needed. Instead of collective mechanisms enabling choice, control and responsibility in an institutional, social, moral and psychological sense, there is a systemic force that embraces all agents, from global finance, the corporations, governments and the individuals composing the citizen body. The damage is ‘perversely wrought’ (Diamond) in full awareness of the consequences, systematically wrong in terms of the long-term consequences for all, but so individually right with respect to the options available to the particular agents in the short-run. Without new social relations bringing an identity that connects the individual and the social good, without an appropriate institutional infrastructure closing the gaps between knowledge, policy, will and action, without appropriate character-construction fostering responsiveness and creating the dispositions and capabilities to act, ‘we’ will cut down the last tree too, and ‘we’ will do so systematically, in full knowledge of the damaging, eco-suicidal consequences.
To be genuinely holistic, we need to address the possession of the Earth as such, not just the terms on which the Earth is possessed and its resources distributed. And that takes more than collaboration and cooperation as such, more than changing the title deeds on property. Uprooting the whole social metabolic order of control points to a much deeper transformation. Diamond is correct to call this damage ‘perverse’, but it is a perversion that is inherent in the system, not in human nature. That system compels actors in the short-run to make the wrong choices for long-term health. For better choices, we need a new system. And, at some point in that transformation, the question of enclosure and expropriation of the global commons as such, and not just of the creative labour of human beings creating the social world, comes to be addressed. We place the human world in respectful, reverential relation to the other beings and bodies of the More-than-Human World that enfolds and nourishes us. Isn’t that wealth enough? Enoughness and sufficiency – (ecologically) virtuous action within right relationships and a sufficiency of material goods.
And the cooperative solidarity commonwealth, the real circular economy, the commons as a frame beyond growth, exploitation and extraction, regenerative cultures, platform coops, not-for-profit companies producing for social need and use are the way to develop informational and material commons, recovering the common ground on which we can attain the common good, commoning as central to the transition to a collaborative, regenerative, solidarity economy of sustainable living, recovering the meaning of the word "company" a solidarity economics involving a society of friends or "companions" - - joining "cum" (with) and "panis" (bread) to bake and break bread together - to be companions in company, a society of friends. "Loving our global neighbours" is something that Katharine Hayhoe has emphasised in her work on climate change. Globalisation has brought us closer together, but we need a cosmo-localisation so that we are not just neighbours, we become brothers and sisters.
How can we come to share the benefits of collectively produced value equitably and justly? Through economic models and modes of production that prioritise purpose over profit, arranging production according social purpose, need and use - producing goods and services that are truly good in serving a true purpose
POST GROWTH, CIRCULAR BUSINESS MODELS AND NOT-FOR-PROFIT BUSINESS
'A healthy economy thrives on circulation. If our economy has circulation built into its very DNA, we can ensure a fair distribution of our common wealth without dominating each other and nature. The difference between for-profit and not-for-profit business could be the difference between having a linear, extractive economy and having a circular, generative economy.' (Donnie Maclurcan and Jennifer Hinton, Post Growth Institute).
'This Commons Transition Special Report was written by Sharon Ede, a sustainability ideas transmitter, writer and activist working in Adelaide, Australia. Ede is also a co-founder of the Post-Growth Institute, one of Commons Transition’s most esteemed Partner Projects. We feel that the Post-Growth Institute’s work, specially their exploration of not-for profit business models, aligns with our own work on Open Cooperativism. These projects forge resilient livelihood strategies for commoners, a trend which is explored in this report. Going beyond issues of labor organisation, “The Real Circular Economy” also explores how and why we produce, paying special attention to prosperity, societal resilience, and the possibilities offered by relocalized production and desktop/benchtop manufacturing. This parallels the P2P Foundation and P2P Lab’s work on “Building the Open Source Circular Economy”, where we research and build upon global, open-access design repositories working in conjunction with on-demand, locally grounded and community-oriented micro-factories. This approach, known as “Design Global, Manufacture Local” is also explored in this report, making it one of the most complete, accessible overviews of P2P and Post-Growth economics.'
'The not-for-profit model meets the needs of those who want a market economy, individual choice and reward for effort; those who want a more equitable society, where people’s needs are met; those who champion innovation and technology; and it satisfies those who understand that our wellbeing and safety depend on the health of our environment.
It is not a panacea, but it is a practical approach and realistic bridge from the old economy to the new economy, and most importantly, it is already emerging in the world we live in right now.'
'It’s going to take the serious work of finding and re-finding ways of sharing and negotiating this world so that each of us have enough, and it needs practical and tangible ways to demonstrate and enact this. It’ll take compassion and patience and love and openness and solidarity.'
~ Dan Musil
Learning from nature and designing as nature: Regenerative cultures create conditions conducive to life.
'We need to collaborate globally, regionally, and locally at an unprecedented scale to create “elegant solutions carefully adapted the the uniqueness of place” (John Todd). To do so, we need to do more than just learn from nature, we need to design as nature, and that means changing the human impact on Earth from being predominantly degenerative to being regenerative.'
https://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/blog/learning-from-nature
“Here is the good news: It is not extracting more and more raw materials and energy from the environment that makes us happy. It is the quality of our relationships. Our sense of continuity between past and future generations. Our connection with our community – the people around us. That is what makes life worthwhile.
We can have more of those things without degrading the planet that we live upon. Every community already has the elements of a new post-carbon economy. Whether it is the farmers’ market. Or community credit unions that invest locally.”
Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute
Collaborate, for the right ends within right relationships, when we get together and constitute ourselves as a "we", something more than a self-interested congeries of competing individuals and groups, we can work together and achieve some amazing things. Our being lies in community, in the respectful unity of each and all, including the other beings and bodies of the More-than-Human Community with whom we share this planet.
Definitions.
Collaboration is working together to create something new in support of a shared vision. The key points are that it is not through individual effort, something new is created, and that the glue is the shared vision.
Coordination is sharing information and resources so that each party can accomplish their part in support of a mutual objective. It is about teamwork in implementation. Not creating something new.
Cooperation is important in networks where individuals exchange relevant information and resources in support of each other’s goals, rather than a shared goal. Something new may be achieved as a result, but it arises from the individual, not from a collective team effort.
All three of these are important. All three are aspects of teamwork. But they are not the same!
http://seapointcenter.com/cooperation-teamwork-and-collaboration/
https://medium.com/@designforsustainability/education-for-meaningful-sustainability-and-regeneration-418941dd4c25#.8gq1xw61m
There are some pertinent words on guilt and responsibility here - some are much more responsible than others, and there has been a failure of leadership - they should be held accountable for their action/inaction. 'We are not up against some global climate disruption or ‘nature’ going out of control on us, we are up against a small group of our fellow human beings who profit economically from polluting our atmosphere.
We might see a moment of justice one day. We might not. Right now, it doesn’t really matter, because trying to limit greed and stupidity is something we should be doing in any case.'
The New Story
“Here we might observe that the basic mood of the future might well be one of confidence in the continuing revelation that takes place in and through the Earth. If the dynamics of the universe from the beginning shaped the course of the heavens, lighted the sun, and formed the Earth, if this same dynamism brought forth the continents and seas and atmosphere, if it awakened life in the primordial cell and then brought into being the unnumbered variety of living beings, and finally brought us into being and guided us safely through the turbulent centuries, there is reason to believe that this same guiding process is precisely what has awakened in us our present understanding of ourselves and our relation to this stupendous process. Sensitized to such guidance from the very structure and functioning of the universe, we can have confidence in the future that awaits the human venture.”
Thomas Berry, “The New Story,” in The Dream of the Earth, p.137.
“The human is neither an addendum nor an intrusion into the universe. We are quintessentially integral with the universe.”
Thomas Berry, “The Earth Story,” in The Great Work, p. 32
“We are not lacking in the dynamic forces needed to create the future. We live immersed in a sea of energy beyond all comprehension. But this energy, in an ultimate sense, is ours not by domination but by invocation.”
Thomas Berry, “The Dynamics of the Future” in The Great Work, p. 175
W.B. Yeats’ closing stanza in his poem ‘Among School Children’ expresses what it means to be in harmonious relationship to oneself, to others, including the other beings and bodies of the more-than-human world, and to the world itself.
Labour is blossoming or dancing where
The body is not bruised to pleasure soul.
Nor beauty born out of its own despair,
Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil.
O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?
Everything is part of a re-generative system, a whole that is inter-connected, inter-dependent, inter-active and inter-communicative. We are co-creators in a ceaselessly creative universe, a universe of co-production and co-intelligence. In a world of emergent properties, we are evolving the capacity to be aware that we are part of the whole and that the whole is a part of us, that we may learn from and respond to the feedback patterns of this whole, that we live in a participatory universe that communicates with us and invites us to participate in the dance, and puts before us the question: what shall I do, with whom and with what, to what end?
In the process of answering, we foster our capacities to practise the resilience, (co)responsiveness, and (co)responsibility required to play our full part in interaction with the whole. And that entails unfolding and developing our abilities to experience the richness of life lived within ecological relationships and to communicate understanding and appreciation of that interrelation, express systemic intelligence in the process of cultivating self-direction and intelligent communal leadership, heightening receptivity and responsiveness and reflective capability, strengthening resilience and fostering creativity in the face of the increasingly apocalyptic experience of social and environmental crisis, deepening our experience and understanding of the psycho-spiritual dimensions of the world, enriching our relation to and practice in the world, engaging with others in cultivating forms of sustainable living so as to put knowledge and eco-consciousness and sensibility into action, embedding understanding in real world experience.