Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Communitas Philosophy 6

Principles and methods of community building

In recognising organisations as communities, we can then draw from systemic and ecological theories on the one hand, and from established principles of innovative community work on the other. Over the last few decades, such principles have been developed, quite disconnected from each other, in projects and approaches such as:

  • co-operative enquiry (Heron, Reason, Rowan)
  • Open Space technology
  • social laboratories and group experiments
  • self-directed learning communities (e.g. South West London College, City University)
  • Future Workshops (Zukunftswerkstaetten after the futurologist Robert Jungk)
  • Conflict Resolution models
  • the tradition of community building workshops
  • World Café structures
  • Paulo Freire’s Forum Theatre and associated community consciousness raising techniques
  • Deep Ecology group work (Joanna Macy)
  • group work with multi-cultural diversity and polarisations around gender, race and other cultural identities

All of these traditions have something to contribute in exploring the question: What makes for a thriving community ?

Posted by Michael Soth in • Introduction to Communitas • Communitas Philosophy
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Communitas Blog

This blog contains two kinds of entries:

1. blog entries which address in depth and in detail some of the background to the Communitas Project - the theories and concepts, the philosophies and approaches we draw from. They are designed to deepen and give substance to the various descriptions across the website. The first 15 or so were written consecutively as an introduction and it makes sense to read them in sequence. If you come across jargon terms or sections that don't make sense, please comment or post a request for clarification on our forum.

2. more typical blog entries which address current themes and news in a brief, topical statement.

Introductory blog posts

  1. What’s unique about Communitas events ?
  2. Key advantages of large group self-organising learning communities in comparison with other training
  3. Communitas Philosophy 2
  4. Communitas Philosophy 3
  5. Communitas Philosophy 5
  6. Communitas Philosophy 6
  7. Communitas Philosophy 7
  8. What’s our philosophy at Communitas ?
  9. Why a new kind of training in organisational and group leadership is needed
  10. 21st-century psychology and the future of human organisation
  11. How the brain-bodymind revolution will affect your business - by Michael Soth
  12. What is the best and most effective training format for leadership development ?
  13. Communitas: A comprehensive and integrative spectrum of approaches
  14. Our aims and goals as Communitas tutors
  15. What is the best and most effective way of developing leadership skills ?
  16. As a starting point .... some basic assumptions
  17. How do you want to develop as a leader ? What are your aims and goals for yourself?
  18. What’s the difference between ‘being clear about your philosophy’ and ‘being dogmatic’ ?
  19. Communitas Philosophy 1
  20. Communitas Philosophy 4
  21. Diverse, experiential, self-organising - is a large group learning community for you ?
  22. Key questions that participants bring to Communitas

Communitas blog archive

Here you find an overview of all blog posts, with their titles and summaries.

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