story and question

[Harrison Owen]

At 03:04 AM 7/28/2003 +0200, Avner Haramati wrote:
>
>And the question:
>We (with Tova) are in a process of using OS in the context of inhabitants
>participation in building a "Master- Plan" for a small city.  We would be
>very thankful to hear and learn about your experience in this kind of
>work, especially on the allignment with the city planners and the planning
>stages, and how coming elections effects it?

I think Romy Shovelton has done some work in this area -- she is sometime
lurker on the list -- but just to get her attention, I will forward this to
her. As far as your question goes -- You have surely asked the tough one. I
find that both city planners and politicians are (in general) adverse to
Open Space. The bottom line is control. They think they should have it
(control), Open Space makes it clear that nobody really does -- and so the
problem. While there are undoubtedly ways to integrate Open Space events
into the whole process (At the beginning to set the stage, in the middle
for course corrections and working the "clear as mud issues", and at the
end -- or continuing -- for implementation) I find that the critical thing
it to seek the active, continuing, participatory involvement of planners
and politicians.  Things go badly astray when planners and pols consider
the Open Space to be an exercise of the people which they may observe, and
from which they may receive recommendations -- the old "senior management"
model. Pulling this one off is a major task, and usually involves something
like a "soul change" for the P & Ps. Indeed for some of them it requires
that the world as they have seen it be turned upside down. All of a sudden
the people are "in charge" and the task of the planners and politicians
becomes one of working out the technical details -- a most important task
-- but definitely secondary. This is called democracy. From the sounds of
things (your story) you are off to a good start. My suggestion would be to
spend a lot of time with the P & P in mentoring relationship, helping them
to understand to genuine power of aligning their efforts with the desires
of the people. As Gandhi was purported to have said -- help them to find
out which way the parade is going and clear the route and manage the
traffic. Actually, Gandhi didn't say that exactly, but I think he could have.

Harrison


Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
phone 301-365-2093
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm

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