In a complex and interconnected world it is hard to be an activist against things. One of the easiest ways that your opponents can neutralize your opposition to things like oil and slavery is to say “we” you depend on oil and slaves, so that makes you a hypocrite.”
So this is tricky – solving global problems of labour, energy, economics and justice are the very definition of complex problems. There is no simple solution, there is a frustrating degree of progress and even large shifts in public consciousness (think land mines or climate change) are met with initial enthusiasm but later are eroded by commercial or power interests that have a stake in the status quo and way more influence than activists.
So what to do?
Consider the slavery question. All of us in North America depend on slave labour to support our lifestyles. As with the issues of oil dependance, our very existence creates an impact that is measurable, real and negative against our social justice agenda. Affordability usually is usually the result of slave labour. Real slave labour.
So how does one deal with this?
First it’s important to remember that you are part of the problem. To quote Adam Kahane:
Bill Torbert of Boston College once said to me that the 1960s slogan “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem” actually misses the most important point about effecting change. The slogan should be, “If you’re not part of the problem, you can’t be part of the solution.” If we cannot see how what we are doing or not doing is contributing to things being the way that they are, then logically we have no basis at all, zero leverage, for change the way things are — except from the outside, by persuasion or force.
The good news and bad news is that it is impossible to influence change from outside the problem. Such self-righteousness is easily dismissed. In addition, it is very difficult to advocate an end to slavery while at the same time not being prepared to pay a lot more for your food and clothes. Change must be made from within the problem. And to do that you have to work with others who are part of the problem.
In general for large scale global neo-liberal problems, there are three players: governments, capital and markets. All three of these create the conditions for problems and leverage is needed on all three to create the conditions for solutions, especially at the level of transformative change. Consumers demand cheap products, capital creates the flow of materials to meet the need and governments regulate to ensure that things happen (usually for those who have the best ability to keep governments in office). The hardest of these to change is the market because market behaviour is completely emergent. Think of the last time you saw a damaging industry collapse because the market changed overnight. IN general shifts in demand are prompted by better products in the market – things that will help people do things in a better way, at a competitive price. There is no question that there is a demand to end slavery, but the demand for cheap clothes outweighs it.
Markets can be influenced by capital and government. Capital influences markets by controlling what is offered out there. If you have billions of dollars, you can do things like buy up your cometeitors patents for clean energy for example, or in the case of companies like Wal-Mart, use you economy of scale to provide loss leader products that bring people into your store to buy cheap things at the expense of local manufacturing. And if you are in government you can regulate to eliminate bad things in the market, such as slavery as a labour practice. But if you also sign international agreements that allow the free flow of capital, you box yourself in to accepting slavery as a practice because capital will always seek the lowest expense climate.
So to affect change requires an engagement of all three. It begins with a personal practice and commitment to a trajectory of social and economic justice. It requires that personally I commit to “better.” Will we ever have a world where slavery is abolished? No. Can I live my life without any dependance on slaves? Doubtful, and certainly if I was to live that life I would be far from the ability to influence power in anyway.
So it is commitment to a trajectory rather than a finish line. Complex problems are not “solvable.” You have to get good with living with this uncertainty and get good at accepting the gift and the curse of emergence.
Second, people have to affect change with powerful narratives. Governments have coercive power and large corporations have the power of manipulation using capital. All people have are narrative power – the power of a better story. Almost always this story “fails” against the coercive power of force and capital – think Occupy, Arab Spring, Idle No More and so on. But while they failed to achieve their specific goals, these kinds of movement are very important. It is important that citizens try and try again to advance the narrative of justice. Because from time to time these narrative movements succeed. Think gains like gay marriage and civil rights in North America. Think about what happened in places like Estonia, Czechoslovakia and India and South Africa. When the narrative wins, that one time in 1000, things transform.
And it would be nice to know that any intervention we choose will have the system changing effect that we want, but we can’t have that certainty. We need to work towards change from inside the place of the problem.
So, what is your experience in affecting change from inside the problem? How do you work towards justice while recognizing your complicity in the very problems you are addressing? How does a complexity-based world view and skill set enable good work to happen?
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I think there is probably nothing new under the sun. Engagement work has been tried, refined and improved all over the world in the last couple of decades that I wonder if there is anything new we can learn? It does seem to fall into “authentic engagement” and “engagement washing” – if I can coin a couple of phrases. But I haven’t seen radically new thinking or practice for a while.
What we are getting instead is some terrific collections of tools, handbooks and harvests of processes. This .pdf of a Handbook for Civic Engagement prepared for a community process in the United States is an excellent example of the kind of harvesting that is useful. It sums up lessons learned from engagement process, proceeds from practice to inform theory and provides some useful invitations for practice and application. This is an artifact which has emerged out of the space of engagement “praxis” – the gap between theory and practice. I’m interested in tis inquiry at the moment, and stumbling across things like this in my quest to understand what is useful in harvesting from initiatives that sustain the capacity and learning begun in real engagement.
“Engagement washing” initiatives don’t usually leave these kinds of documents in the places where the engagement took place. It should be a hall mark of good practice that process learnings are shared and tools are developed as well as results documented.
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You’ll see on the sidebar a bunch of different offerings for this year. Seems my Art of Hosting teaching practice is making a couple of shifts. First, there are lots of places around the world where you can go and do a basic introductory Art of Hosting. The schedule is getting pretty crowded actually if you are willing to travel! You can find the list of offerings here at the Art of Hosting website.
This represents something of the shift in the world of this practice. Over the past ten years the Art of Hosting community has grown widely and there are many many people out there now offering the basic workshop with different flavours. Most of these folks are known to me, so if you have questions about the various offerings and you don’t know who else to call, drop me a line.
As a result, those of us that have been at it for a number of years have begun to develop new offerings to support advanced practice. Hendrik Tiesinga, Simone Poutnik and Rowan Simonsen have pulled together a great group of teachers for the first online Art of Hosting – Advanced Practice, aimed at deepening and advancing one’s practice, and structured around design, hosting and implementation of a process to address specific challenges.
Tim Merry, Caitlin Frost, Tuesday Ryan-Hart and I have put together our Art of Hosting Beyond the Basics offering which is aimed at folks who are extending participatory leadership practice to broader and deeper contexts, including systems change, widespread community engagement and working with power. This course will be a deep dive into personal practice and systemic impact.
Jerry Nagel, Stephen Duns, Kathy Jourdain, Roshanda Cummings and Dave Ellis are offering Growing Hosting Artistry in Minnesota that is more focused on deepening personal hosting practice for those that have tasted that aspect at other Art of Hosting workshops.
For myself, I have been working closely with Amanda Fenton on creating a set of offerings for the Vancouver area Art of Hosting community of practice, so expect more news on that very soon. We are planning regular community of practice Pro-Action Cafes, year end Open Space events, deep dive workshops into specific methodologies and land based retreats and gatherings.
I am also in the early stages of creating a more specific offering for small teams and individuals to support leadership retreats here on Bowen Island. This offering will use the land and sea as a partner in designing, thinking, innovating and grounding new practices and approaches to complex challenges. I’ll be making further announcements about this in the next few months.
So there are lots of ways to dive into learning this year. And I’d welcome anyone who wants to co- create more specific offerings in the Vancouver area as well.
Workshops on tap for this year
March-June 2014
Art of Hosting Advanced Practice Online
with Simone Poutnik, Hendrick Tiesinga, Rowan Simonsen, and a bunch of special guests.
March 7-9, 2014
Art of Participatory Leadership: Building Resilient Communities and Organizations – Creating Change
Petaluma, California
with Teresa Posakony, Jeff Aitken, Dana Perlman, Sam Ruark and Carolyn Stanton.
May 7-9
Art of Social Innovation
Toronto, Ont.
with Jennifer Chan, Rachel Caroline Derrah, Sophia Horwitz,Violetta Ilkiw and Satsuko VanAntwerp.
Art of Hosting Beyond the Basics: Breadth, Depth, Friendship and Power
with Tuesday Ryan-Hart, Tim Merry and Caitlin Frost
Columbus OH, April 4-6
Mahone Bay NS, May 15-17
Bowen Island BC, Sept. 21-24
Pureto Vallarta MX, Jan. 29-31, 2015
And coming soon in 2014 and 2015…
Events and workshops in Vancouver BC, Toronto ON and on Bowen Island, BC Email me for more information at chris@chriscorrigan.com