Well said, Chris! Thanks for the reminder that it's emergent all the way. And as governance evolves, it seems to take on increasingly complex forms in which a greater number of diverse perspectives show up in the forms that hang around for a while.
Peggy On May 21, 2012, at 12:02 PM, Chris Corrigan wrote: > The new forms appear all around us all the time. They bubble in and out of > existence, and once in a while something takes hold and gets more and more > concrete. There is nothing particularly destined about something like > democracy - it just became the experiment that got a significant boost from > power and mass at the right times. And of course it is practiced in many > forms, none of which should ever be thought of as permanent. > > Open Space (by which I mean the unbounded field of self organizing potential > that is always around us) is the primordial ooze that provides the conditions > for the birth of new structures. The methodology we all love so much is a > formal expression of this ooze, deployed for useful strategic purposes. But > it is only in the Open Space of everyday living that the real organizational > forms arise and take shape. And for every single one that becomes standard > practice, there are millions that die as unrealized ideas. Sometimes these > ideas return as the time becomes right, sometimes they are lost to human > memory. > > All governance is and will continue to be emergent. We can be fooled by the > planning that goes into what it takes to concretize a over nance system, but > we should never forget - with great hope - the kind of dynamics that allows > such systems o emerge in the first place. > > Yay! > Chris > > > > --- > CHRIS CORRIGAN > http://www.chriscorrigan.com > +1 604 947 9236 > > On 2012-05-19, at 8:46 AM, Harrison Owen <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Several days ago I had the unique pleasure of joining our friends and >> colleagues (by Skype) in the Ukraine for their OSONOS. Given the state of >> the Ukraine, to say nothing of the state of the world, the conversation >> eventually got around to the subject of Leadership and Governance – and how >> could all that work. That conversation seemed to meld seamlessly with one I >> had had with a new friend here in the USA… Leadership and Governance. And >> mixed in was a new thought (for me) all about Emergent Governance. As I said >> to my US friend… >> >> You started me thinking – which ordinarily is a dangerous thing. I can’t >> quite pin down the logical trail, but that is not surprising because I >> usually find myself thinking in circles. But one point along the way was a >> conversation I was engaged in yesterday. There is an interest group which >> has monthly luncheons at my club with the vaporous name of “The Human Values >> Group.” In truth we talk about whatever pleases and may or may not have >> value. Anyhow the conversation yesterday drifted to a consideration of >> various political forms. It seems that some of our members had just returned >> from Cuba, so that was the start. Then we got on to dictatorships of various >> sorts ranging from China to Singapore… and shortly we were arguing about the >> “goods and the bads” – which quickly morphed into ideologies/political >> systems, and you know where that one could go. >> >> As the folks headed into the stratosphere of abstraction – I found myself >> thinking, wondering might be better – Has anybody ever done a natural >> history of governance? Rousseau pops to mind, but he always seemed to me >> pretty idealistic, and just as doctrinaire as anybody. For sure we have >> certainly done histories of governance, tracing our way back from the >> present to whenever. But how about the reverse? Two folks get together, Adam >> and Eve for example. Relationships form and certain modes of behavior seem >> to work, others don’t. It is not a function of laws, and certainly not >> legislation or “idealized models.” Just very practical – and more to the >> point a natural expression of that fundamental relationship which to the >> extent that it is ever verbalized might be something like --- the way we do >> things around here. Well that might be the beginning of a story, but before >> I got too far with that one, my mind jumped. >> >> To Open Space. Funny thing. We have opened space 100,000’s of times in >> multiple cultures, and the behaviors are almost identical (except for >> superficials like language, dress, etc). And nobody ever specified the >> rules. The Principles don’t count, and yes we do announce the Law of Two >> Feet – but all of that is simply to acknowledge what will happen anyhow. So >> could we be looking at emergent governance? We are definitely looking at the >> process of self organization (I think). Could that be the root of governance? >> >> Big jump – here’s a thought. Rather than thinking about (working on, >> creating) models of governance (autocratic, democratic, plutocratic, >> sociocratic…whatever) which are then promulgated (you wrote a book, so did >> Karl M.), and if implemented are almost inevitably laid on from the top >> (wherever the top isJ)… how about starting at the bottom/beginning and see >> what grows naturally? Emergent Governance! >> >> It would perhaps become necessary to clean things up a bit, regularize it, >> so to speak – but that should be done, I suggest, all under the rubric of >> finding the minimal level of structure necessary to sustain life. But all >> that could only be done after the fact…of emergence. >> >> Just Thinking… >> >> Harrison >> >> >> >> Harrison Owen >> 7808 River Falls Dr. >> Potomac, MD 20854 >> USA >> >> 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer) >> Camden, Maine 20854 >> >> Phone 301-365-2093 >> (summer) 207-763-3261 >> >> www.openspaceworld.com >> www.ho-image.com (Personal Website) >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST >> Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org >> >> _______________________________________________ >> OSList mailing list >> To post send emails to [email protected] >> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] >> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: >> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
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