spontaneous order, markets & open space

Michael Herman mherman at globalchicago.net
Thu Feb 26 15:01:12 PST 2004 

important, i think, as makers of openspace markets, to notice that it's
not the markets the do in the vulnerable... it's the big guys, who are
usually big because of some special privileges conferred by government
powers.  in meeting terms, it's not the keynote speaker who really
dominates the meeting, but the control structure that invites and
introduces him/her, for instance.

in open space we have two helpful dynamics at work.  first, nobody is
being granted special privileges or airtime in the meeting.  so nobody
is bigger than the 'vulnerable'.  i like to point out in conversations
about ost, that the circle does not make people equal.  people are all
different.  but it does give them equal access to the flow of info... to
announce, to post, to read and to publish in the proceedings... and the
second dynamic... everybody has an equal job:  learn and contribute as
much as you can.  so everyone is a leader and anyone nearby is charged
with helping someone who falls behind in some vulnerability.

as for whether the vulnerable are even present... in public ost
scenarios... it's up to conveners to make whatever invitation will make
it possible for poeple to attend.  here too, there can be limits imposed
by those in power... but we do what we can... and then we do a little
more... and more... always inviting as much and as many into the circle
as we can.

my two cents.

would love to hear john and fremy's two sense from haiti about now.  or
others.

m




Masud Sheikh wrote:

>I have been thinking of the philosophy of Open Space and 'markets'. In
>'markets', the 'vulnerable' get left out, unless community leaders
>(which could mean different levels of government, or informal leaders)
>play a part.
>As there seem to be no 'community leaders' in open space, what happens
>to the vulnerable, many of whom would stay out of the 'space'?
>
>Masud Sheikh
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
>Michael Herman
>Sent: February 26, 2004 4:45 PM
>To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>Subject: spontaneous order
>
>from my weblog today at http://www.globalchicago.net/weblog
>
>...been doing much thinking recently on open space as the possibility
>for corporate compassion... embodying responsible care in organization.
>here's my latest discovery.  a rock-solid business version of the
>biology/self-org story we've played with for so long.  self-org meet
>"spontaneous order"...
>
>michael h
>
>--
>
>Discovering Hayek
>
>On F. A. Hayek <http://www.mises.org/hayekbio.asp> (1899-1992) and
>knowledge, prices, and competition as a discovery procedure...
>
>    In "Economics and Knowledge" (1937) and "The Use of Knowledge in
>    Society" (1945) Nobel Laureate Hayek argued that the central
>    economic problem facing society is not, as is commonly expressed in
>    textbooks, the allocation of given resources among competing ends.
>    "It is rather a problem of how to secure the best use of resources
>    known to any of the members of society, for ends whose relative
>    importance only those individuals know. Or, to put it briefly, it is
>    a problem of the utilization of knowledge not given to anyone in its
>    totality."
>
>    Much of the knowledge necessary for running the economic system,
>    Hayek contended, is in the form not of "scientific" or technical
>    knowledge--the conscious awareness of the rules governing natural
>    and social phenomena--but of "" (unconscious? circumstantial? tacit?
>    latent?*) knowledge, the idiosyncratic, dispersed bits of
>    understanding of "circumstances of time and place." This tacit
>    knowledge is often not consciously known even to those who possess
>    it and can never be communicated to a central authority. The market
>    tends to use this tacit knowledge through a type of "discovery
>    procedure," by which this information is unknowingly transmitted
>    throughout the economy as an unintended consequence of individuals'
>    pursuing their own ends.
>
>    For Hayek, market competition generates a particular kind of
>    order--an order that is the product "of human action but not human
>    design" (a phrase Hayek borrowed from Adam Smith's mentor Adam
>    Ferguson). This "spontaneous order" is a system that comes about
>    through the independent actions of many individuals, and produces
>    overall benefits unintended and mostly unforeseen by those whose
>    actions bring it about.
>
>    To distinguish between this kind of order and that of a deliberate,
>    planned system, Hayek used the Greek terms cosmos for a spontaneous
>    order and taxis for a consciously planned one. Examples of a cosmos
>    include the market system as a whole, money, the common law, and
>    even language. A taxis, by contrast, is a designed or constructed
>    organization, like a firm or bureau; these are the "islands of
>    conscious power in [the] ocean of unconscious cooperation like lumps
>    of butter coagulating in a pail of buttermilk."
>
>    Most commentators view Hayek's work on knowledge, discovery, and
>    competition as an outgrowth of his participation in the socialist
>    calculation debate of the 1920s and 1930s. The socialists erred, in
>    Hayek's view, in failing to see that the economy as a whole is
>    necessarily a spontaneous order and can never be deliberately made
>    over in the way that the operators of a planned order can exercise
>    control over their organization. This is because planned orders can
>    handle only problems of strictly limited complexity. Spontaneous
>    orders, by contrast, tend to evolve through a process of natural
>    selection, and therefore do not need to be designed or even
>    understood by a single mind.
>
>Italic in this last paragraph are mine. This is the case for
>OpenSpaceTech
><http://www.globalchicago.net/wiki/wiki.cgi?OpenSpaceTech>. The planned
>orders of our organizations simply can not handle the levels of
>complexity and adaptation that most organizations are facing. The only
>compassionate thing to do is look carefully at the knowns and
>unknowns... and then to use planned orders for what we know and use
>OpenSpaceTech <http://www.globalchicago.net/wiki/wiki.cgi?OpenSpaceTech>
>to discover and invite spontaneous orders to address all of the real and
>uncertain complexities, diversities, urgencies and conflicts we face.
>
>The compassion (and the vision, wisdom and real power) comes in seeing
>the distinctions between the knowns and unknowns, plan-able and
>un-plan-able, without separating, discounting or attempting to dominate
>either one with the tools and temperment that work with the other. Give
>to Ceasar what is Ceasar's...
>
>--
>
>Michael Herman
>Michael Herman Associates
>300 West North Avenue #1105
>Chicago IL 60610 USA
>(312) 280-7838
>
>http://www.michaelherman.com - consulting & publications
>http://www.globalchicago.net - laboratory & playground
>http://www.openspaceworld.org - worldwide open space
>
>...inviting organization into movement
>
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--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
300 West North Avenue #1105
Chicago IL 60610 USA
(312) 280-7838

http://www.michaelherman.com - consulting & publications
http://www.globalchicago.net - laboratory & playground
http://www.openspaceworld.org - worldwide open space

...inviting organization into movement

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