Alter Natives: on a road-trip round his New Zealand homeland, Rich Bartlett says “microsolidarities” could answer our unsettledness
Richard Bartlett, from Rich Decibels
The founder of Insprial and Loomio, Richard Bartlett, has written this brief account (original text here) of his road trip across the land of his birth, New Zealand (Richard has been well featured here).
It struck us as a classic for our Alter Natives category, where individuals reflect on the motivations and emotions that drive their search for alternatives to “business as usual”. Richard’s been long-term interested in “microsolidarities”, groups of people that can deeply rely on each other - and there’s a list of his new essays on the topic, at the end of his reflection.
From Richard’s NZ road trip
Richard Bartlett: Where’s the place you stand most strongly?
I’m writing to you from a campervan, taking a break as I drive down the length of Aotearoa New Zealand. It’s my first time home in 3 years… only I’ve been away long enough that it doesn’t really feel like home.
It’s a weird unsettled feeling. The landscape is the same, the people are the same, but everything has moved around a bit and I don’t know where my place is anymore. Without a firm place to stand, my voice falters; I hesitate to act; I’m a little less alive.
I wonder how many of you reading this feel that not-quite-at-home feeling right now?
It’s not just me right? I see this sense of unbelongingness in people everywhere. Sometimes I think that wobbly fragile sense of belonging is the deeper driver of all of the various various challenges and crises society faces. I’ll give you two quick examples:
Political polarisation: I’ve come back to Aotearoa to find my peer group has split in half, divided over covid. Sure, that’s partly about misinformation and a clash of values, but it’s also about belonging.
We’re having a debate about public health and vaccines and freedom but underneath it all is a persistent quest for belonging: are you my people? Do you have my back? Am I safe? Is this home?
Or another example: the social media narcissism my generation is known for… I reckon that’s about belonging too. There was a time where my name would have been Baker of Smith or Fisher: my name would tell you what I do, my identity defined by my contribution to the community.
Without orienting markers like this I keep forgetting who I am, so I’m frantically waving my arms on social media all day, looking for people to confirm that I exist, I matter, I have a contribution to make. Ping! I exist!
What happened to our community containers?
The social landscape has drastically changed over the past few decades. We used to have numerous social structures designed to create a place for you to belong. You’re born and live and die in a single town. Every week you go to the same church congregation and go through the same annual cycle of rituals.
Your career is just two or three chapters, working for a single firm for decades at a time. You all watch the same 6 o’clock news program and calibrate your perspective to a shared baseline, even when you disagree.
For most people these days, all of that is gone. The old structures have evaporated and the replacements haven’t crystallised yet.
So this my focal point: can we create new structures for belonging? This is what the microsolidarity project is all about. Can we create resilient communities adapted to our contemporary context, for people living in multicultural urban environments, working remotely in patchwork careers, and socialising extensively through digital connections?
I think we can design new social structures that fit the context we find ourselves in. Well, I know we can, because I’m part of a growing network of people who are doing it.
From Richard’s NZ road trip
New Microsolidarity Essays
Since my last newsletter there’s been huge progress in the microsolidarity network. I’ve overhauled the website & published 5 new essays:
Background & Introduction — introducing some of the communities who are using microsolidarity practices to create high trust networks of purposeful action.
Five Scales of Microsolidarity — the essential piece of theory, basically: groups of different sizes are good for different things.
Leadership as Hospitality — articulating a way of thinking about authority that’s non-coercive but not quite non-hierarchical.
A Developmental Pathway — a step-by-step guide to becoming the kind of person who can host a community of a couple hundred people.
From Domination to Partnership — a transformational approach to group power dynamics that’s constructive & non-oppositional.
I hope this new writing is inspiring and useful to you as a practical guide for weaving social fabric. It represents a couple months of work so I’m eager for your feedback!