Real Creative Collectives: Enspiral + Enkel
Collectives are beautiful weirdos that don’t fit in to neat categories because they’re odd assemblages of the willing.
Those who believe sharing the work also means sharing the responsibility and the rewards as part of a fluid construct that brings people together and promotes community in an organised network.
In this article I wanted to very briefly highlight two: Enspiral (NZ) and Enkel (Aus). Of course, there are others I would like to write about in future, such as Agora Collective and Republikken in Europe.
Enspiral
The Enspiral Network is constituted by a layered organisation at the centre of which is the Enspiral Foundation Ltd that is collectively owned by the members. This company ‘stewards the culture’ of the network by inviting ‘ventures’, ‘contributors’ and new members to participate. Contributors form an extended network that is involved in decision-making, and which collaborates toward the execution of ventures (Enspiral, 2016).
From 2010 to now, Enspiral have grown to include 150 contributors, and are building up a repertoire of open source software that is designed to permit this communal processes to be capably operated by the collective. Like Loomio, which facilitates decision making online, and Cobudget for collaborative budgeting.
I have written a longer journal article about them here.
Enkel
A fascinating bunch based in Fremantle who set out to promote sustainability by creating a network of independent “changemakers” that operate as separate entities (businesses and individuals). Enkel is a registered co-operative that encourages an exotic mix of collaborants, which according to founder Adam Jorlen includes “teachers, artists, designers, builders, politicians, chefs, futurists, lawyers and students”.
I published an interview with founder Adam Jorlen you can read on the Headjam blog here in which he highlighted how driven Enkel is to generate real change, but how tough it can be to execute. He said “Sometimes I see us building new societal infrastructures / networks, which are lighter and more resilient than the systems in place today. Sometimes I just think we’re nuts”.
Final Thoughts
I look into media industry structures and practices, and at present I’m fascinated with the emergence of collectives that do battle with the precarious situation of media workers (you can hit links to some stuff here).
I have discovered that creative collectives sometimes ain’t creative collectives, they are run of the mill agencies that use the word collective in their branding to capture some of the good will that real collectives attract.
But the faux versions are reassuring because they show how attractive the idea is, and they’re doing a good job of promoting a concept that seems likely to spread.
I know there’s a lot more so please drop me a line and fill me in!
Works Cited
Enspiral. (2016). Our ventures. Retrieved October 3, 2016, from http://enspiral.com/about-enspiral/ventures/
Originally published at benjaminjamesmatthews.com.
