DisCO Principle 2: Whole-Community Governance: Difference between revisions
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'''DisCOs build whole-community governance:''' DisCO decision making and ownership extends beyond DisCONauts to include all affected by the DisCO's economic activity. This can include local communities, clients, suppliers and contributors, as well as the non-human world and its palpable needs. | '''DisCOs build whole-community governance:''' DisCO decision making and ownership extends beyond DisCONauts to include all affected by the DisCO's economic activity. This can include local communities, clients, suppliers and contributors, as well as the non-human world and its palpable needs. | ||
In short: DisCO governance involves persons, communities and environments beyond the (permeable) boundaries of the DisCO itself. | |||
'''In short:''' DisCO governance involves persons, communities and environments beyond the (permeable) boundaries of the DisCO itself. | |||
=Overview= | =Overview= | ||
DisCOs extend decision making and ownership to all contributors whether present in all value chains or affected by the DisCO’s actions. | |||
Cooperatives are traditionally geared towards bringing democracy to the workplace. But their economic activity has knock-on effects throughout broader chains of production and consumption. Rather than restricting democratic principles to one organization, DisCOs extend rights of ownership and decision making powers to all those affected by a DisCO’s activities. Inspired by the multi-constituent social care co-ops in Quebec, Canada and Emilia Romagna, Italy, DisCOs place measurable value on the distinctive contributions of a defined community that can include workers, neighboring communities, suppliers, clients, those who perform reproductive and affective labor, financial backers, etc. | |||
< | |||
"Governance" is a trick term, as David Bollier and Silke Helfrich explain in [https://freefairandalive.org/ ''Free, Fair and Alive: the Insurgent Power of the Commons'']'':'' | |||
<blockquote>'''Governance''' refers to multiple arrangements of guiding and controlling human behavior. Like the term government, it derives ultimately from the Greek ''kubernaein [κυβερνάω]'', which literally means to steer. The question is: Who steers whom and by which techniques? The term, as re-minted by economists and political scientists since the early 1990s, implies that a separate class, power group, or institutional apparatus stands over others and governs them — in other words, that the government and governed are separate. The term governance in its standard usage does not encompass the idea of collective coordination and control by people themselves. Our provisional alternative to the term governance is [https://ball.disco.coop/DisCO_Glossary#Peer_Governance Peer Governance].</blockquote> | |||
Governance in this sense has to be undertaken at various levels of community. How do we encourage Peer Governance in a DisCO then? We suggest taking a leaf out of the [https://permacultureprinciples.com/permaculture-principles/ Permaculture Design Principles], in particular [https://permacultureprinciples.com/permaculture-principles/_1/ Principle 1: Observe and Interact]: Observe your community, the people you interact with, map out how your DisCO's activity affects others and map it out. Through this process you will be [https://basics.disco.coop/7-how-do-i-get-involved.html#find-the-others finding the others]. | |||
How much to involve these extended communities in actual decision making depends on each DisCO but let's be clear: decision making has to be [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_economics#Decision-making_principle proportional to how much these decisions affect individuals]. Committed DisCOnauts will most usually be the most affected, so their decisions should have more weight. In the case of care or service oriented DisCOs, those receiving the care should have a strong say. There's no one size fits all solution which is why Principle 2 is very much concerned with observation and dialogue. | |||
Where and how these dialogues take place is also up for discussion. Online we're big fans and users of [https://www.loomio.org/ Loomio], the Open Source discussion and decision making platform built by [https://enspiral.com/ Enspiral], which is one of many DisCO inspirations and precursors. Loomio had its origins in [https://theconversation.com/anarchy-in-the-usa-five-years-on-the-legacy-of-occupy-wall-street-and-what-it-can-teach-us-in-the-age-of-trump-68452 Occupy's Assembly culture], which was in turn informed by anarchist general assemblies. Individual DisCOs may choose to base their decision making on [https://circleforward.us/consent-vs-consensus-whats-the-difference/ consensus or consent]. The former is slower but can bring about great discoveries in the princess. Consent is more expedient and allows people to dissent or offer contrasting opinions without censoring processes. Ultimately you may want to choose one or the other depending on the type of decision being made. In Guerrilla Media Collective, consent is used for most day to day and work-oriented decisions, while consensus is reserved for large-scale structural changes. All of these processes (and tools such as Loomio) are being factored in the design of the [https://basics.disco.coop/6-disco-project.html#_2-disco-deck-governance-modeling-and-value-tracking-platform DisCO DECK], our value tracking and decision making software. | |||
For practicalities' sake, we encourage DisCO's to look at each other's governance models and approaches to Principle 2. The bulk of your decisions may be internal, but you may do regular check-ins with representatives of the larger community, hold an open house or set up a call to gather feedback. You can also make it as simple as veto power. You can invite the extended community to vote, but only DisCONauts may be able to veto decisions. The exception here would be when an external community member may be carrying out the actions implicit in the decision. In that case their opinion should have more weight. | |||
If you have social media channels, do involve the community. This can be invaluable when you get stuck, but it's good practice to do routinely, even when things are running smoothly. If your DisCO operates in a physical space, do an open house. Get together with people, share food and introduce some of these ideas in conversation to see what the community thinks. | |||
We've mentioned the non-human world as a part of this intended community. We obviously can't engage in direct verbal communication with it, but this engagement can be as simple as asking ourselves how our actions affect the environment, positively or negatively and strive always for the former. | |||
Ultimately Whole-Community Governance is a process of discovery, experimentation and dialogue. It visibilises how our decisions affect each other and the environment. It's through the process that we can design better methods and tools for doing right by each other and the planet that sustains us. | |||
=Examples= | =Examples= | ||
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. | Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. | ||
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= Image Credits = | = Image Credits = | ||
* [ | * [https://unsplash.com/photos/Ype9sdOPdYc Lead Image] by [https://unsplash.com/@hharritt Hunter Harritt] | ||
[[category: Principles]] | [[category: Principles]] | ||
Revision as of 12:46, 28 September 2023
DisCOs build whole-community governance: DisCO decision making and ownership extends beyond DisCONauts to include all affected by the DisCO's economic activity. This can include local communities, clients, suppliers and contributors, as well as the non-human world and its palpable needs.
In short: DisCO governance involves persons, communities and environments beyond the (permeable) boundaries of the DisCO itself.
Overview
DisCOs extend decision making and ownership to all contributors whether present in all value chains or affected by the DisCO’s actions.
Cooperatives are traditionally geared towards bringing democracy to the workplace. But their economic activity has knock-on effects throughout broader chains of production and consumption. Rather than restricting democratic principles to one organization, DisCOs extend rights of ownership and decision making powers to all those affected by a DisCO’s activities. Inspired by the multi-constituent social care co-ops in Quebec, Canada and Emilia Romagna, Italy, DisCOs place measurable value on the distinctive contributions of a defined community that can include workers, neighboring communities, suppliers, clients, those who perform reproductive and affective labor, financial backers, etc.
"Governance" is a trick term, as David Bollier and Silke Helfrich explain in Free, Fair and Alive: the Insurgent Power of the Commons:
Governance refers to multiple arrangements of guiding and controlling human behavior. Like the term government, it derives ultimately from the Greek kubernaein [κυβερνάω], which literally means to steer. The question is: Who steers whom and by which techniques? The term, as re-minted by economists and political scientists since the early 1990s, implies that a separate class, power group, or institutional apparatus stands over others and governs them — in other words, that the government and governed are separate. The term governance in its standard usage does not encompass the idea of collective coordination and control by people themselves. Our provisional alternative to the term governance is Peer Governance.
Governance in this sense has to be undertaken at various levels of community. How do we encourage Peer Governance in a DisCO then? We suggest taking a leaf out of the Permaculture Design Principles, in particular Principle 1: Observe and Interact: Observe your community, the people you interact with, map out how your DisCO's activity affects others and map it out. Through this process you will be finding the others.
How much to involve these extended communities in actual decision making depends on each DisCO but let's be clear: decision making has to be proportional to how much these decisions affect individuals. Committed DisCOnauts will most usually be the most affected, so their decisions should have more weight. In the case of care or service oriented DisCOs, those receiving the care should have a strong say. There's no one size fits all solution which is why Principle 2 is very much concerned with observation and dialogue.
Where and how these dialogues take place is also up for discussion. Online we're big fans and users of Loomio, the Open Source discussion and decision making platform built by Enspiral, which is one of many DisCO inspirations and precursors. Loomio had its origins in Occupy's Assembly culture, which was in turn informed by anarchist general assemblies. Individual DisCOs may choose to base their decision making on consensus or consent. The former is slower but can bring about great discoveries in the princess. Consent is more expedient and allows people to dissent or offer contrasting opinions without censoring processes. Ultimately you may want to choose one or the other depending on the type of decision being made. In Guerrilla Media Collective, consent is used for most day to day and work-oriented decisions, while consensus is reserved for large-scale structural changes. All of these processes (and tools such as Loomio) are being factored in the design of the DisCO DECK, our value tracking and decision making software.
For practicalities' sake, we encourage DisCO's to look at each other's governance models and approaches to Principle 2. The bulk of your decisions may be internal, but you may do regular check-ins with representatives of the larger community, hold an open house or set up a call to gather feedback. You can also make it as simple as veto power. You can invite the extended community to vote, but only DisCONauts may be able to veto decisions. The exception here would be when an external community member may be carrying out the actions implicit in the decision. In that case their opinion should have more weight.
If you have social media channels, do involve the community. This can be invaluable when you get stuck, but it's good practice to do routinely, even when things are running smoothly. If your DisCO operates in a physical space, do an open house. Get together with people, share food and introduce some of these ideas in conversation to see what the community thinks.
We've mentioned the non-human world as a part of this intended community. We obviously can't engage in direct verbal communication with it, but this engagement can be as simple as asking ourselves how our actions affect the environment, positively or negatively and strive always for the former.
Ultimately Whole-Community Governance is a process of discovery, experimentation and dialogue. It visibilises how our decisions affect each other and the environment. It's through the process that we can design better methods and tools for doing right by each other and the planet that sustains us.
Examples
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Why this is important
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Tensions
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Interactions with other principles
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Related Elements
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More Resources
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TLDR
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