Thinking Outside the Boss: Inquiries and Lessons from Community Organizing and Cooperative Development
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Topic
Thinking Outside the Boss: Inquiries and Lessons from Community Organizing and Cooperative Development
Description
Explaining the usefulness and practicality of cooperative governance within the context of this current political moment, highlighting its usefulness as a tool for historically marginalized communities in building some semblance of collective autonomy, sustainability, and how it has the capacity to act as a tool of resistance against enclosure.
This workshop will also utilize welcoming cards that we've dispersed throughout the camp which are indicators that help to ground one in spaces and foster trust. (Please refer to Session Rundown section for a list of these questions)
Hopes & dreams
My hope is that this workshop about cooperative governance opens space to discuss DWEB within a context of a decentralized ecosystem(s) of peers who share values.
Core facilitators
brandon king Tony Lai
Main contact (email)
Space Requirements
- [] Electricity
- [] Monitor
-
Whiteboard or pad - [] Table and chairs
-
Seating in circle -
Open space outdoors - [] Either indoors or outdoors is fine
- [] Other (Specify)
Time Requirements
-
1 hour - [] 2 hours
- [] Multiple sessions across 1 day
- [] Multiple sessions across 2 days
- [] Multiple sessions across 3 days
- [] Pre breakfast session
- [] Evening session
- [] Other (Specify)
Who should participate
- [] Coders
- [] Creatives
- [] Policymakers
- [] Children under 12
- [] Teens 12 - 18
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Anyone and everyone - [] Other (Specify)
What will participants take away?
A basic understanding of cooperative structure and decision making processes. How these tools have been used by historically marginalized communities as a way to gain more autonomy and control over our/their lives.
A chance to reflect on decision making models they’ve used before, have an idea of the challenges/benefits of making decisions in a cooperative way, and see if any of these concepts may be transferable to whatever work processes they’re currently engaged in.
Keywords
Cooperative Governance Deep Democracy Horizontal
Session rundown (tell us a rough outline of your plan)
Workshop with Q & A and Group Discussion Introduce cooperatives, share coop governance structure. Also share about the step that comes before deciding to work together (questions about trust, accountability, vulnerability, commitment) (15-20 min) Workshop: people will answer questions individually and then break into small groups of 3-4 people to work together to discuss and answer questions within group. Each group will report back (20 min) Q & A w/ open discussion towards the end (15 min)
Questions for Cards (ROUGH)_(Questions adopted from Akeema Zane's Presentation on - Methods Towards Consensual Collaboration)* What are the roles we fulfill in our lives?
- What role do you feel important for you to occupy within this group?
- What role do you feel you occupy right now?
- Think of a recent collaboration -- what role would you say you played/used in this collaboration? What was your experience?
- What role(s) do you feel you occupy/play/use within broader societal structures?
- On social media?
- In economic structures - locally, regionally, nationally, globally?
- What role are you occupying/using/playing in relation to other living beings/entities? The land we occupy?
- What is your role in relation to your family lineage?
- What are the/an ideal role(s) you would like to occupy in your life?
- What am I protecting?
- What, of the self-hoods that I may possess, necessitate preservation?
- What is the role of opacity in my life and how /when do I use/need it?
- BART http://www.jameslconsulting.com/documents/bart.pdf
Additional Questions regarding consent connecting Identities and Ideologies.
- Describe your political sympathies. Which ideologies resonate with you? What is your orientation toward the state? Does your identity feel politically charged? What of your political sympathies/identity in relation to notions of public space?
- What, if anything, could feel personally taboo or off limits in DWEB Camp ?
- Which kinds of interactions, if any, may require your express consent?
- What are your expectations for addressing conflicts?
- What is your level of commitment? What kind of work/life balance do you prefer to maintain?
- When do you feel overextended? What kind of reciprocity do you expect from everyone?
- Do you want to be pushed or challenged in this process? How much and in what?
- Is there a potential role/responsibility in this process that is unacceptable for you? Is there a potential role/responsibility that feels essential for you?
- What are your primary goals and expectations for immersive collaboration? Is there anything that feels non-negotiable?
- What will you expect if one of us decides not to continue? On what basis will consent be needed for the established working configurations to continue?
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION:
- What are the obsessions/inspiration/references would we like to extend to each other in process? How may we see about bringing them to the fore?
- How have we/How do we make sense of the cultural and power dynamics that (may) emerge in dealing in concepts of immersion and “world building”?
- In the wake of Covid and it’s realities, how do we (re)shape notions of immersion and world building ? What are our observations thus far? How does this inform how we relate to these concepts?
- How do we foster working to not implore violent histories of oppression in our efforts of cultural production?
Relevant links
Relevant links about your project (optional)
Four Pillars of Cooperative Governance https://www.citymarket.coop/sites/default/files/2022-06/Four%20Pillars%20of%20Cooperative%20Governance.pdf
Intro to Cooperative Governance and Management https://geo.coop/articles/intro-cooperative-governance-and-management
Relevant Experience -- share why you'll be great!
i have years of experience and insight as a cultural creative (dj, multimedia, visual and sound artist), community organizer and cooperative developer. i’m also a founding member of Cooperation Jackson, a cooperative network in Jackson Mississippi, as well as a Peer Advisor with the US Federation of Worker Coops. i was also recently elected to serve as the Executive for Resonate Coop, an international, open-source, music streaming platform cooperative that’s co-owned and democratically managed by the artists, developers, listeners and workers who build and use the platform.
Graphic or video link
Optional graphic or video to pitch your exciting project!