vTaiwan (Part 5) – Lessons for Government-Engaged Popular Deliberation
How could we generate vTaiwan-like citizen- and stakeholder-engaged government elsewhere? In this post I explore the nature of government engagement with participatory …
vTaiwan (Part 2) – Notes on Aspects of the vTaiwan Phenomenon
To expand on my introduction to vTaiwan in Part 1, I offer here some descriptions of its roots, its dynamics, and some …
Self-managed villages of tiny houses => many solutions!
Self-managed villages of tiny houses can address many of the ills of homelessness, middle class struggles, civic belt-tightening, sustainability, quality of life …
Strategic Climate Activism: Resist – and build a cooperative, democratic economy
The climate crisis is far more than an environmental issue. Adequately ramping up efforts to address it will require prioritizing a climate-justice …
A tremendously insightful “Eulogy to Occupy”
Over the last 15 months I posted many reflections on the Occupy movement. That movement is clearly not over, morphing into new shapes even as its most potent meme – “We are the 99%” – continues to reverberate. Yet there was something about the ori…
Occupy 11/2012: New forms of creative “direct action”
During the last 6-9 months most Occupy groups have been relatively invisible in the mass media. But just because something is invisible, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Think radiation… or back room deals… or the vast webs of fungi and ant civili…
Occupy Year One and the Movement Action Plan
Today’s article by Rebecca Solnit about Occupy Wall Street is fabulous, but she erred on an important fact. She ascribes the following quote abut the state of mind of anti-nuclear activists in the 1978 Clamshell Alliance to journalist Bill Moyers:…
Transforming Occupy’s challenge into transformation and innovative self-organization
Two weeks ago I had an intense conversation with a colleague working with a local Occupy community. A small faction had recently done a protest that – although physically nonviolent – was not verbally, spiritually, or strategically nonviolent. The…
Rebecca Solnit on Occupy and differences
Rebecca Solnit has written a great article on Occupy, relationships, differences, violence, and a lot more. A potent, passionate framing for our times, worth a full, reflective read. Coheartedly, Tom ======== http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/…
Exploring OWS’s collective thinking process – and Michael Moore’s
Below are four documents that provide interesting insight into the kinds of energies and proposals that get born through Occupy Wall Street’s collective thinking process of working groups and General Assembly deliberations. The first document is a…