"I’m much more interested in living in a good neighbourhood than a good commune": Richard Bartlett explains his "microsolidarities" movement
It may be obvious that Covid is opening up for people new ways, and new priorities, of coming together as communities and localities, who can act in unprecedented ways. But are there good methods to follow that can make this community power emotionally sustainable? And ones that feel natural to the moment, and usable by those involved?
Our friend Richard Barrlett - co-founder of Loomio, and expert in communities of purpose coming together - has been promoting his theory and practice of microsolidarities [main website] for about two years now.
The above video provides a short definition (if you want to go directly to the explanation on YouTube, click here). Below is their thumbnail definition, with a graphic on “a fractal view of belonging”:
Microsolidarity is a set of practices for mutual support between peers. These methods bring us out of individualism and into a more relational way of being.
Most of this support happens in a Crew: a small group up to about 8 people growing trust in each other through emotional & economic reciprocity. Crews are always designed for intimacy, and may also produce an output (e.g. a software product or an activist campaign).
The Congregation is a space for Crews to co-develop in the company of other Crews. Congregations have less than a few hundred people, so they can be primarily governed through trust and dialogue.
Many Congregations could form an Assembly.
For more context on these definitions, read the original proposal.
More here. The title of this blog comes from a section in the above YouTube video (here), where Richard - questioned by Rebel Wisdom about how poorly intentional or co-living communities can work in practice - says that he prefers “a good neighbourhood to a good commune”, because of how it allows privacy (your space and a front door), and a modular turn-over of neighbours.
There is a very fulsome Microsolidarities newsletter, the latest of which gives copious examples (posted below) of the kinds of experiment that this concept inspires:
Microsolidarity updates
The headline is: in the past few months many communities have started using the language and practices of microsolidarity. What these communities have in common is a desire to support each other emotionally and economically.
They’re all trying to steer the good ship Humanity towards a healthier future, starting with themselves. It feels like the network is starting to become self-aware: people from different communities are meeting each other, without me having to introduce them.
Last week, Michal Korzonek (cofounder of a new community in Pico Island) met Brandon Dubé (cofounder of a community in the US), and they published the recording of their conversation. It’s so gratifying for me to watch them exchange lessons and accelerate our collective learning process. They published part 2 of the conversation yesterday, this time including Stephanie Soussloff.
I was also recently interviewed by the Future Thinkers. We had an in-depth conversation about the governance of their ambitious new “smart village” project prototyping the settlements of the future.
I had a first conversation with one of the cofounders of Emerging Leaders, yet another new microsolidarity-ish community. They describe their project as “an experiential inquiry into the intersection of personal transformation, collaborative leadership, and social innovation.”
Nandini Nair is a designer doing a Masters thesis on mutual aid communities. She interviewed me about some of the philosophical and political dimensions of the microsolidarity project.
As much as possible I’m trying to record and publish these conversations in case it is useful for other community weaves. I’ve created a Youtube channel so you can subscribe for ongoing updates from the Microsolidarity network.
In the neighbourhood
My friend Hugi Ásgeirsson is another microsolidarity practitioner: he shared this excellent short video about Blivande, an incredible creative community centre they’ve built in Stockholm.
Squad Wealth is an epic artistic manifesto celebrating the emergence of informal peer-to-peer institutions amongst digital natives. I had an excellent time meeting the authors recently, though I unfortunately messed up the recording so I can’t share our conversation. 😢 [Ed: here’s a link to what looks like an essay on Squad Wealth]
Life Itself (formerly Art / Earth / Tech) is another cousin in the extended family of community projects trying to create social change by intentionally evolving culture. They’re currently creating a kind of “family tree” of these initiatives, so if you are working at the intersection of inner and outer transformation, please participate in their research project.
Hot links about interesting etceteras
I loved this 5-minute video demonstrating what “expanded awareness” looks like in practice. I’ve been using this approach to loosen up when I’m recording videos and playing guitar.
Speaking of guitar, my old creative obsession has woken up from a long slumber. I made this interactive website to explain the fundamentals of music theory in the simplest way I can. Also let me recommend JustinGuitar.com: it’s an astonishingly good online course for learning guitar, totally free.
Build A Community: a new open source database of community-building resources.
Jen Brick Murtazashvili flips the “tribalism is bad” narrative on its head in this brilliant article: The Problem Today Is Not Tribalism But Its Absence.
I’ve been impressed to discover there are multiple networks within the UN, functioning like an internal social movement for young people bringing new ways of working to that big sluggish bureaucracy. One of them, UN Youth, published this excellent report connecting the organisational objectives to their demands for more self-management and decentralised authority. *chef kiss*
Me and my homie Ronan Harrington hosted a rad gathering for the Alter Ego network in September. Here’s a sweet short video to show you the vibe, and here’s an article I wrote to explain WTF we were thinking hosting a gathering in the middle of a pandemic.
I also wrote this piece explaining how we do profit-sharing within our freelancers collective.
I’m happy to be advisor to World Citizens’ Assembly: a newly launched project growing a bottom-up global democracy. They’re currently looking for collaborators so get in touch with them if you’re curious.
More from the newsletter here. As you can see, an incredibly rich “community of practice”, with Richard’s fascinating and relentless curiosity weaving the links.