[OSList] Emergent Governance

Sun May 20 07:43:40 PDT 2012

Artur – thanks for the reference. My Italian is not too hot, so hopefully a translation is available for us deficient Americans. And more on the subject… Emergent Governance. 

I can’t tell you how many times people have asked/suggested that OST be utilized in government, or even as a replacement for government. It may be the traditionalist in me, but I never really thought that could work if only because I think there really is a place for the legislative process, or “government” by whatever means. But I think that is a limited place, and we get into trouble when governance and Government become synonymous. Or to use some different words, when politics is seen as the special or exclusive activity of Government.

“Politics” as you know comes from the Greek “polis” = city. And politics is (or should be) what the people of the city do to sustain and better their life. Some of this, of course, is done quite formally as in the executive and legislative process. But that is not the whole enchilada! 

I confess that it sometimes seems that we have laws for everything. We say that we are “governed” by law. And when things aren’t working just right the automatic response seems to be – Pass another Law. But I am not really sure that is true or useful. As a matter of fact I strongly suspect (though could never prove) that the vast majority of positive human behavior takes place with benefit of any law. It is just what we do – as a function of what I have been calling emergent governance. Laws and lawmaking are secondary, a ratification or rationalization of acceptable, life affirming human behavior. I have no doubt that on occasion a good law is very helpful (civil rights law for example). But I think where we go astray is when we assume that passing a law is the obvious 1st response to some perceived malfunction of the human community. On the contrary, I suggest that such action be a matter of last resort. Failing everything else – Pass a Law.

And what would the “everything else” be? The “everything else” is what I have been calling Emergent Governance, for lack of better words. And I do think that our 27 year sojourn with Open Space can provide some very useful information and experience. Shortly put, Emergent Governance is what well functioning self organizing systems do. And Open Space offers a useful approach to the initiation and/or restarting of self organization. We know how to do that. And we also have the opportunity and, I would say, obligation, to help others learn how to do it as well.

In a very real sense this is a “No News” observation. It is just that now is a particularly critical time when our knowledge and experience may be helpful. I say, No News because it has been apparent, if not obvious from the very beginning. In the 1st Edition of the User’s Guide I started out with a story to set the stage. It was all about an interesting Open Space involving some 250 federal bureaucrats, state and local officials, along with a large group of Native Americans. It happened almost 30 years ago. The focus was, “Building Roads on Tribal Lands.” As it happened, the US Government had allocated some 1.5 billion dollars for such work with the stipulation that all parties (Fed’s, State, and Native Americans) had to be in agreement regarding the nature and scope of the project. For two year, folks, argued, fumed, and postured with the net result that nothing had happened. The discussion time had just about ended and the $1.5 billion was just about to go back to the US Treasury unless… 

I guess it was desperation, but somehow, someway, somebody suggested Open Space and that is what we did. The details were wild and wonderful, but the net result was that, after two years of anger and frustration, agreement was achieved – not just “in general or principle” but with real plans and projects. Nobody laid down the law, mediated the controversies, or facilitated the discussion – but it was orderly and productive, not to mention exciting. They were blown away. I was blown away. But 30 years later I find myself thinking – well, that was just another day in Open Space. Which is true, but not significant. The significance was that a well functioning self organizing system was initiated/invited – and it did what it does – manifest Emergent Governance with very positive and productive results. 

I believe there are a lot of lessons here worthy of sharing – as well as a lot of lessons yet to be learned. Or something.

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)

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From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Artur Silva
Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2012 5:05 AM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] Emergent Governance

Harrison:

Your post resonates, in part, with things that I am working with right now but are not yet in writeable form...

Anyhow, The first thing that came to my mind is that you need to read the book from Francesco Alberoni (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Alberoni), "Genesis" (Genisi, in Italian), that describes in detail the processes of emergence (or metanoia) of movements that have transformed the governance of society, from the French or American revolutions, to the primitive Christians or the Reformation. 

Indeed this may apply to an individual (Paul's metanoia), to the creation of a "society of two" (as in love, treated in his book “Innamoramento e amore") or to the "collective metanoia" (emergence) of social forms of governance.  

I don't know if there are English versions; check it out. 

Abraços

Artur

  _____  

From: Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
To: 'World wide Open Space Technology email list' <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> 
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2012 4:46 PM
Subject: [OSList] Emergent Governance

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

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