Germs of change: how might the triad of commoning help us reimagine and begin practicing possible futures during the COVID-19 pandemic?
We’ve been thinking… about what our work might look and feel like over the coming weeks and months.
We’re sure you’ve been thinking too.
This is an invitation to think together.
CoLab Dudley is a platform with an as yet unused High Street space, a team of people with awesome creative and research skills, a Collective of even more people with all kinds of amazingly creative skills and connections, and a network of inspiring Fellow Travellers doing similar kinds of work.
We are wondering things like:
- How might our High Street space (with a lovely large window) and our planned programming flex and change in response to the pandemic in ways which maintain our commitment to nurturing culture change and focusing on kindness, creativity and connection? (Adding to and building on, rather than duplicating, all the great work that the local community and voluntary sector, social entrepreneurs and public sector organisations have planned and are developing.)
- How do we hold a long view and help cultivate nourishing practices which move us towards deeper mindset and culture shifts as Business As Usual is suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic?
- What tools and tactics might support this?
- What are you thinking and doing now and how might we share, support each other and learn together?
Commoning
We’d like to draw on ideas from commoning to help frame and hold different kinds of ideas, tools, tactics and strategies together.
What is commoning?*
The purpose of commoning is to create peer governance for our collective free, fair and sustainable lives. It’s all about relationships and the new ways of manifesting value that a relational worldview makes possible. Specifically, that means creating new, or maintaining existing relationships among communities & networks; between ourselves and nature; and between past, present and future generations.
The happy news is that commoning is happening all over the world in small and big ways, and in lots of very different context specific ways. Despite this diversity of examples and contexts there are patterns (think core DNA) that they share that we might use to ask ourselves what a commons informed response to a pandemic might look like, and how that might sow seeds for an alternative and more resilient future.
The Triad of Commoning
Patterns in commoning according to Bollier and Helfrich* is a take of three parts — 1. the social life of commoning; 2. the peer governance of commoning, and 3. provisioning in commoning. And of course they all relate. We have selected just 3 or 4 patterns from each part and developed a few questions/ provocations related to each to help frame our collective thinking. We didn’t want to overload us with the full list of patterns for now! We can always dig deeper later on (or see the link below to their free book.)
Some questions based on a few of the patterns of the social life of commoning
- How might we cultivate shared purpose & values? Rather than a story of ‘me’ — with all the panic buying and stockpiling that that triggers — there is a shared and fair narrative of ‘we’ — how do we nurture that culture shift at this time of crisis?
- How might we ritualize togetherness? In usual times this is often done through things like dinners and celebrations which are more tricky in times of self isolation and physical distancing — we need to get creative!!
- How are we modelling and inviting the practice of gentle reciprocity? Even small acts can inspire hope, and help reduce anxiety or fear that is so omnipresent at this time.
- How might our response invite a deeper communion with nature? So many of us are seeking respite in nature in all of the chaos — how might we encourage others, or deepen our own relationship with nature?
Some questions based on a few of the patterns of the peer governance of commoning. [This is the ‘how’ of sharing power AND responsibility for implementation of commons.]
- How do we honour transparency in a sphere of trust: Trust is a quality that seems to be eroding with each failure to respond meaningfully with honesty to each new crisis, be it the financial crash, the flooding, or now a pandemic. What structures AND social practices will build trust so that we feel transparency in a meaningful way?
- How are we bringing diversity into shared purpose: How might we bring diverse viewpoints together, and achieve shared action by drawing upon everyone’s experiences and motivations? Through shared action we often nurture shared purpose.
- How are we sharing knowledge generously? This is a key instrument and act of commoning — and finding ways to share all types of knowledge, from a diversity of contributors, in a range of forms has been shown to be generative in itself.
Some questions based on a few of the patterns of the provisioning in commoning.
- What and how do we make AND use together? How are we making together (co-creating) and sharing or pooling our resources to satisfy our shared needs at this time? This can be tools, infrastructure, work spaces, knowledge, money, meals, the list goes on. This involves thinking about the whole lifecycle of the thing produced and how it might be given a second, or more life cycle.
- How are we supporting care and decommodified work? Work in the commons is not commodified by unit of labour, or determined by market price, rather it is valued as an act of care, passion and commitment in a shared endeavour. This type of work creates care-wealth. For example, this can be family care, intergenerational support, local culture, or social activities. What care-weath in our communities might we shine a light on? How might we explicitly support and prioritise care-wealth during this time?
- How are we sharing the risks of provisioning? In the commons there is a blurring between consumers and producers therefore everybody who is involved shares the risks in production/ creation. What can we begin to do today to take co-responsibility for the risks of production in our commons future?
- What convivial tools might we create, share, or use to help support us right now? What creative adaptations to convivial tools might the crisis inspire? Convivial tools (after Ivan Illich) are open system tools, (or infrastructures, technologies or processes etc) that we can all use and crucially adapt to our own purpose or context. These tools are key to both our personal freedom and the quality of our interdependence. “Ultimately the tools we use shape the kind of society that is possible.” (Bollier and Helfrich, 2019, page 191)
*Drawing on the wisdom of Dave Bollier and Silke Helfrich generously shared in their new book Free, Fair and Alive — The Insurgent Power of the Commons which you can access for free here
If any of this has sparked anything for you, pop a reply below. Indeed, if your thoughts and ideas don’t link to any of these commons questions above, still pop them below — all things relate in this complex world and we love to join the dots!
Thanks for sharing.
Lorna Prescott, Adam Hall, Jo Orchard-Webb and the CoLab Dudley team.
