[P2P-F] Fwd: Mid-Year Newsletter: Reading Small Signals

Sun Jul 20 10:12:49 CEST 2014

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Doors of Perception <mailing at list.doorsofperception.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 5:04 PM
Subject: Mid-Year Newsletter: Reading Small Signals
To: michelsub2004 at gmail.com

  [image: logo]

Reading Small Signals

By John Thackara
<http://www.doorsofperception.com/most-read/mid-year-newsletter-reading-small-signals>

CONTENTS

*Reading Small Signals*
*Talks and Xskools *
*Forthcoming Events*

READING SMALL SIGNALS

We’ve invested huge resources, over the ages, to keep the man-made world,
and nature, separate - but there are signs that those those priorities are
changing. Working through the consequences of that is a challenge for us
all.

Many signals of change are small on their own but, taken together, tell a
new story. There’s the new scheme in England, called Hummingtree, that connects
office-bound workers with living systems
<http://www.doorsofperception.com/sustainability-design/a-wild-mirror-for-desk-bound-workers/>
by means of a ‘wild mirror’; each workspace is twinned with an equivalent
patch of forest that's being regenerated. In gritty Oakland
<http://adaptoakland.org/>, I learned that urban forests, living walls, and
green roofs are being used to filter air, water and soil in and around its
ports. I also saw the ad for a 'wildflower farm apprentice'
<http://nwc.org.uk/news&post=404> to help a social enterprise trade
wildflower seeds; that kind of work didn’t exist a few years ago. Neither
did de-paving, food co-ops, river restoration, edible forestry, or
pollinator pathways - but examples like these are cropping up all over. At
multiple scales, this combination of social and ecolgical innovation adds
up to living concepts of infrastructure.
<http://www.doorsofperception.com/locality-place/the-ecozoic-city/>
The how, in these srories, is as important as the why. Back in England
there’s the small farm that has 8000 landowners.
<http://www.fordhallfarm.com/news.php> Shares in the farm cannot be traded
on the open market, but this shared ownership model enables the community
to share responsibility - with the farmer - for growing food. This approach
would be a great addition to a project I visited in California called *The
Food Commons*
<http://www.doorsofperception.com/infrastructure-design/food-as-a-commons/>
*.* Launched at the epicentre of global agribusiness, this inspiring
prototype combines social, political and technical innovation.

Other signals of change are so scattered that they can go unnoticed. In
China, so-called ‘battery-bikes’ are outselling cars by four-to-one - but
this story is missing from Western media. In *The Two-Wheeled City, *
<http://www.doorsofperception.com/notopic/caloryville-the-two-wheeled-city/>I
argue that a system-wide phase-shift in transportation is gathering pace.
In Belgium, a project called Mobilotoop, about cloud commuting
<http://www.doorsofperception.com/locality-place/cloud-commuting/>, is
further evidence of an *asset-light mobility* ecosystem in which networks
are used to share equipment and infrastructure. (I describe other
ingredients to help a cycle commerce ecosystem flourish in *Cycle Commerce:
The Red Blood Cells of a Smart City*
<http://www.doorsofperception.com/mobility-design/cycle-commerce-the-red-blood-cells-of-a-smart-city/#sthash.1ZMwYFoH.dpuf>
*).*

Some signals of change point in contradictory directions. In Ethiopia, an
inspiring social enterprise called Sole Rebels - the world’s first Fair
Trade shoe brand - employs and trains highly marginalized people; uses
organic and bio-based materials; and obtains its leather from free-range
cattle herders. But Sole Rebels must compete with a vast new project
called *Shoe
City*,
<http://www.doorsofperception.com/development-design/shoe-city-vs-sole-rebels-2/>
also in Ethiopia, whose 200,000 guest workers are paid* ten times less*
than workers on China. Two recent texts of mine - *A Whole New Cloth:
Politics and the Fashion System*
<http://www.doorsofperception.com/most-read/a-whole-new-cloth-politics-and-the-fashion-system/>,
and *Keep Your Stuff Alive*
<http://www.doorsofperception.com/sustainability-design/keep-your-stuff-alive/%E2%80%A8>
- explore this core dilemma for fashion: despite more than 400 eco labels,
an incremental ‘do less harm’ approach has addressed the symptoms, but not
the principal cause, of our difficulties - the perpetual growth economy.

Some brightly flashing signals divert our attention from more important
developments. Last December’s G8 Dementia Summit, for example, trumpeted
the fact that one hundred million pounds will be spent in a race to
identify a cure for dementia. In *The Dementia Care Economy, *
<http://www.doorsofperception.com/social-innovation/the-dementia-care-economy/>I
argue that the likely outcome will be the creation of a Dementia Industrial
Complex – and the mass production of un-met expectations. Recent personal
experience
<http://www.doorsofperception.com/social-innovation/when-tech-in-care-is-evil/>
has reinforced my strong belief: far more resources should be allocated to
the presence of human beings than to labour-saving technology; the latter
benefits Big Research at the expense of sufferers and carers.
The most promising innovations in the ways we care for each other – from
child care, to dementia support – involve *collaborative service networks
<http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/the-emergence-of-social-coops-for-social-care-italy-and-beyond/2013/07/30>.*
These empower family members and volunteers to work in equal and reciprocal
relationship with professionals. In a conversation with Michel Bauwens
<http://www.doorsofperception.com/notopic/ecuador-open-knowledge-and-buen-vivir-interview-with-michel-bauwens/>,
founder of the P2P network, I learned that the rise of social co-operatives
represents a new frontier in the shifting boundaries of public, private,
and commercial spheres. In global law and governance, too, the concept of *Buen
Vivir or *"good living" manifests a political concept of citizenship that
includes all life, not just human life.

Although, taken together, these signals tell a new story about where we’re
headed, the story itself remains stubbornly obscure. In *The Desert Of The
Real * <http://www.doorsofperception.com/art-perception/desert-of-the-real/>-
my contribution to the Puma Sustainable Design Lecture series - I argue
that we need to cultivate greater perceptual diversity, and new ways of
knowing, if we’re to meet our ecological responsibility towards future
generations.

 DOORS OF PERCEPTION TALKS AND XSKOOLS

My talks and Xskool workshops - which you can read more about here
<http://www.doorsofperception.com/talks/> and here
<http://www.doorsofperception.com/xskool/> - explore the above questions in
unique contexts: What are the key social-ecological systems in this place?
how night one design in them? and, how does one get started?

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Among forthcoming highlights are the Doors of Perception Summer Xskool in
Sweden
<http://www.doorsofperception.com/locality-place/summer-xskool-in-sweden/>
(14-18 August) on how to design a leave-things-better food system; the Future
Perfect Festival itself <http://futureperfect.se> (14-18 August); the Shambala
Festival <http://www.shambalafestival.org> in England (21-24 August); my
keynote about social innovation and housing for the Nordic Housing
Association <http://www.nbo.nu/bdh_filearea/Bo_och_forvalta_i_Norden.pdf>
in Reykjavik (September 11); and a talk about design that connects living
systems and human systems at the System Oriented Design
<http://www.systemsorienteddesign.net> conference in Oslo, on 15 October.

Whenever possible, especially on longer trips, I do more than a single talk
or workshop. With that in mind, I'll be in Buenos Aires
<http://www.fidbsas.com/programacion2012> on 30 October for their
International Design Festival, and in Delhi <http://www.unboxfestival.com>
(28-30 November) for the UnBox Festival. Please contact me if you'd like to
propose an event for your group around those dates.

CONTACT

Contact me (John Thackara, Doors of Perception) by Email
john at doorsofperception.com
*Blog* *doorsofperception.com* <http://www.doorsofperception.com/>
*Twitter* *@johnthackara* <https://twitter.com/johnthackara>
*LinkedIn* *www.linkedin.com*
<http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=139933&trk=tab_pro>

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-- 
*Please note an intrusion wiped out my inbox on February 8; I have no
record of previous communication, proposals, etc ..*

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