Supporting forces in shared living

A rich shared living and working environment allowing for a blend of collective spiritual practice, creative engagement, work and play, all within a larger shared context. -having many of the basic needs taken care of; for instance, having a shared dining area with core kitchen staff to provide for everyone’s food needs frees up a great deal of time and energy that would normally be spent shopping for and preparing their own food. -a highly structured daily and weekly schedule creates a container to manage collective movements with ease and alleviates the need for endless ongoing group decision-making around inconsequential issues, such as: “when should we meditate?” “when is dinner?” or even “what should we do tonight?”. The seeming loss of outer freedom such a rigid schedule predicates is far outweighed by the inner freedom of not having to be preoccupied with the endless meaningless choices of modern life. Included in such a schedule should also be predetermined periods of unstructured time to allow for individual expression and to counterbalance the structure. -creation of “group accounts” to cover all shared expenses again maximizes efficiency. Decisions regarding more discretionary costs can be vetted by a small “board” or committee with recommendations being circulated by email through the entire group, with an opportunity for anyone who objects to raise their voice. How dissenting voices are ultimately dealt with is a more complex issue, but if the spirit of the collective is truly aligned with a higher purpose and shared vision, the small things have a way of working themselves out, usually through a one-on-one conversation. -a combination of hierarchical and bottom-up elements seems essential. There needs to be a hierarchy of decision-making, where those with the most experience and expertise in a given area are allowed to hold the greatest influence over the conduct of that area of activity. At the same time, there needs to be a genuine invitation and forum for anyone at any level of the hierarchy in any area to provide input and make sure they are heard.

Thwarting forces in the ITS

 

Be aware of what various of the survey respondents comment on thwarting forces in the system:

• Structures that are either too rigid or too loose. What is most essential here is that structures continue to evolve to meet the evolving needs of the collective they are serving. -decision-making processes that are either too democratic (green) or too autocratic (blue/amber). Both polarities mire the emergence of true collective wisdom, which relies on a respect for both a natural hierarchy and a bottom-up self-organizing impulse.

• The routine (habits). Giving up the idea that things can be done. The expression ‘is impossible’.

• Building and maintaining true ecological systems to provide water, energy, food, shelter, and transport at an affordable cost is a great challenge to any community. Finding ways to keep the community financially sustainable, also in the face of potential economic crises is a problem that is very difficult to tackle.

• Living in a society hostile to community because it is structured around mutual distrust, competition, and legalities. Insufficient pre-solution of infrastructure systems. (Hell is living in your house while you’re remodeling.”) (Beginner’s idealism thwarts adequate planning.)

• What most thwarts us also presents us an opportunity to be creative, and it challenges us to be sure of the committments we make. Adversity can be a binding agent!

• Rigidity — the outer collective must serve both the need for shape, for fixed form that serves, but at the same time, maintain itself as an active, alive learning system.

• Fixed rules, that hand over responsibility to an institution and people awaiting initiative from there General, unreflected critics to suggestions and ideas Obligations and the feeling things HAVE to be done for the sake of doing it.

• Laws, policies and rigid structures can stifle the environment within which the community operates. If the community cannot impact the these external systems through activities, such as lobbying, then it could affect the life-span of the community. A lack of external resources, particularly those resources that the community depends on for sustaining itself affects success. Example: funding requirements of a sponsor could change, or funding could be re-directed to short-term emergencies.

Forces that support the outer aspect of collectives

We gather here several views of our respondents

• It is necessary a solid organization since the beginning, rules and laws, but motivated from a spiritual goal. All the things mentioned above are important, but between these, the need to establish since the beginning a relationship with the natural and social environment of the area, to be able to have a connection with the surrounding world without being a useless abnormal cell in the social tissue.

• One of the supporting contributors of community success is having shared experiences. When a group of people experience something together with all their senses, the learning and connection becomes internal – part of the DNA. A collective reference point supports the channeling of realizing the community vision. Participation also cultivates shared ownership and polarizes accountability for success.

• A clear sense of identity, of belonging, and of co-creation. A commitment to simplicity. Structures that, though they are evolving, grow out of the subjective experience. The outer must be grounded in the inner, and with awareness that it is one form of outer collective, not the only form. Also, periodic, deliberate review — in what way does this form serve well now? In what way could it be improved?

• Principles to allow and encourage action based on individuals initiative Joint vision or motivation Willingness to work on this Easy and affordable infrastructure (e.g. meeting rooms, web access, etc.)

What the ITS should now that may thwart community

• Thinking that we know the way people should act or think and imposing solutions to neighbors. Not creating social agreements.
  

• Not using a methodology for conflict resolution, decision making.
  

• Leadership of only one individual Hierarchical pyramidal social structures Isolating the community from “the outer world”

• Lack of using system thinking to help in the organizational structure of the community.

• Having to go out of the project or community to bring money to the projects of the community.
  

• Not making or keeping time tables
  

• Governmental policies or projects that can bring ecological and social unbalance to the bioregion.
  

• Social problems like youth gangs, drug addictions, alcoholism that affects the neighboring communities.
  

• The use of recreational drugs by members of the community.

Governance and more

It is difficult to answer this question, since most items in the Outer Collective are interlinked and are all important. So it is hard to say “the most”. However I must agree that a governance system that is solid yet flexible is key to the success of the community. A sustainable community must have a system that is secure and trustworthy, yet flexible enough to adapt to changing conditions. The community participants should be able to share responsibility and decision-making that affects the whole. The institutions such as schools and community centres are an essential part because through these, the community values can be instilled and preserved throughout all members of the society. These institutions should support young and old people alike and capitalise on what each individual has to offer throughout his life. For instance, there can be programs with activities that make old people useful and happier by sharing time with babies and children. Younger generations should learn that they have to “give back” to the planet and to the community in some way.

Resilience in community

I find myself in an aukward position trying to answer this questions, as this is what I am trying to learn, and i am currently doing research on this topic. It looks like a successful community must be a happy community, and a community with enough resilience to overcome disturbances that will happen over time. Therefore, it is important to maintain a healthy condition in the ecosystem elements and functions that provide the community with goods and services. This may not be obviuos in the short run, but can be crucial in the long term. But I think it is also important to reckon that however we apply our best science, we cannot control the environment in a perfectly engineered way, so we must recognise that some things have value in themselves, and are “sacred”. That respect for the outside world fulfills the spirit and at the same time is a safety buffer or net that protects us from our own power. Participation seems to be one of the most important elements for the success of comunities. I am still a bit scheptical about the decisions that a community can make, when they are not neccessaritly experts (a tiny bit of lack of confidence in democracy) but it looks like the only way to learn to participate I participating, and that freedom and ownership of the process provide much more good than evil, at the end of the day. Of course basic needs come first. First even to participation. Adequate housing, food and health conditions must be reasonably satisfied first. At the moment I am quite happy with Maslow’s hierarchical needs as a model to approach happiness and satisfaction. It is important to respect each other and each other’s freedom. Nobody can be forced to participate or to be social.

Incapacidad del sistema de gobierno

La incapacidad del sistema de gobierno para mantener un sistema igualitario y justo en el tiempo para todos los participantes, en el que el desarrollo personal y por tanto la libertad personal, sea salvaguardada siempre -pese a que esto implique la transformación constante del sistema de reglas y operación de la comunidad- Pequeñas comunidades con estructuras de gobierno más planas pueden ser más manejables -tipo democracias directas- sin embargo, cuando una comunidad crece y surgen diferentes niveles de participación -derechos y obligaciones- el sistema de gobierno y las estructuras operativas que se definan son clave para la sobrevivencia de la comunidad. Mi experiencia es que organizaciones comunitarias con una gran afinidad de valores (parte colectiva interna) tienden a formalizar -y mantener en el tiempo- una mayor disciplina hacia sus sistemas de gobierno. Así mismo el sistema operativo -estructuras, procesos de funcionalidad, sistemas de producción y desarrollo económico, etc. pueden convertirse en el peor enemigo de una comunidad si su definición no funciona de manera casi perfecta hacia los valores y relaciones intersubjetivas existentes en la comunidad.

Invisible arquitectures

Human systems: The existing invisible architectures may thwart the community in terms of the current human and society interaction in our world. We as a society are immersed in many behavioural patterns that we fall constantly into. It can go from greed, power, victimization, lack of confidence, protagonism, etc. We must also take into account that as a small community, friction may arise due to a constant daily interaction. We won’t have the same hobbies, attitudes on how to cope with daily life problems, ways to do things and that in the mid or long term may cause frictions. We can also fall in the routine and fall into a boring state endangering a healthy atmosphere for the community. For that I believe we need to be very careful on how we build of influence those invisible architectures. I envision a community culture that foster residents to live in a higher state of being where those threats can be overcome, also I envision a lot of movement around the community, people coming in and out for the different activities bringing new life and energies to the community and also the culture of being evolutionary co-creators. That will help to have a joyful and mindful culture in the community.

Two dangers for communities

In terms of thwarting the communities success I identify two main aspects that can be very dangerous for the success of the community.

1. The first is Power, people wanting to obtain it or use it in ways that will create imbalance and separation. The old paradigm is about gaining more and more of resources mainly money and power, if the way to make decisions is not strong enough and without loopholes people will seek to gain power and use it for their own interests even if they are noble ones.
   
2. The second issue to me that can really hurt the communities future or success is not being well organized, knowing who does what, when and what for, not having a good organizational structure will create chaos and uncertainty, two aspects that will lead to more of the same until the problems become so big that the community will be in danger.

Governance as ultimate success

The ultimate success of a community in my opinion starts with it´s governance systems and decision making structures, the first thing a community needs is to know how to make decisions, having that resolved will create clarity on how to proceed in action and being. Having this point settled then we can start making crucial decisions, the geographic location is very important for obvious reasons, Nature or natural environment to me is the one aspect that will always affect the communities future. Learning from Nature, knowing how to create efficient ecological systems that protect the environment and ( aprovechar) it´s resources is a must. The economic or wealth systems, the laws and policies and organizational systems will determine the future relationship environment between the community members. Adult education as well as the children´s way of learning will also be key in how the community will look like in the future. The way we teach people and give clarity to the way the community works and believes in will bring health to it´s way of life.