Patterns

Title	Pattern Text
Civic Intelligence Douglas Schuler	The physical, social and knowledge environment is changing rapidly. Intelligence, more than anything else, describes the capacity to inﬂuence and to adapt to a changing environment. Is society smart enough to meet the vexing challenges it faces? Organizations with civic missions have the responsibility to keep their principles intact while interacting effectively with other organizations, both...
The Commons David Bollier	One of the biggest problems we face is the unchecked growth of market values. Resources that morally or legally belong to everyone are increasingly coming under the control of markets. This results in the privatization and commodification — or "enclosure" — of the commons. The commons gives us a language for talking about resources that should not be treated as market commodities alone, and...
The Good Life Gary Chapman	People who hope for a better world feel the need for a shared vision of the "good life" that is flexible enough for innumerable individual circumstances but comprehensive enough to unite people in optimistic, deliberate, progressive social change. This shared vision of The Good Life should promote and sustain conviviality and solidarity among people, as well as feelings of individual...
Social Dominance Attenuation Douglas Schuler	Social dominance is at the center of many — if not most — of humankind's most shameful enterprises. It is embodied in ideology, economics, policy, education, the media, social perception and interactions, culture, and, even, our technological artifacts. In general the less-dominant group will have fewer opportunities for advancement, have poorer health and shorter life-spans, smaller incomes,...
Health as a Universal Right Douglas Schuler	The crisis in health care worldwide has reached catastrophic proportions. Each day 9,000 people die from AIDS and 11,000 children die from malnutrition. Over one billion people have no access to clean water. and half the people in the world live on less than $2 (US) per day. The worsening conditions of the world's impoverished people provide almost ideal conditions for the cultivation of...
Global Citizenship Douglas Schuler	Citizenship is generally described as the formal relationship between a person (the citizen) and a country and often is described in terms of rights and responsibilities. Its site has shifted from the Greek city-state where the idea first took hold to the modern nation-state. Citizenship often determines access to health care, education, and other rights — rights that arguably should be...
Political Settings Jonathan Barker	Political action venues are changing dramatically with the proliferation of new kinds of nongovernmental organizations, the broadening reach of the Internet, and the actions of governments to redefine and often reduce the scope of their interventions. We need concepts to describe these changes and assess their implications for democratic participation. Political settings are the basic physical...
Social Responsibility Stewart Dutfield	Things don't get better by themselves. Without purposeful intervention, organizations of all kinds lose sight of their social responsibilities. Having social benefits as part of an organization's purpose, does not guarantee positive achievements. Any organization with a shared vision of Social Responsibility, whether a for-profit corporation or a not-for-profit group working for the public...
Matrifocal Orientation Lori Blewett	Because almost all contemporary societies are androcentric (male centered), women’s needs, interests, ideas, and perspectives on the world are often ignored or trivialized. Androcentrism perpetuates patriarchal systems that oppress women and severely constrain (and damage) men’s lives as well. Because gender oppression is ancient and ubiquitous, a conscious effort is needed to recognize the...
Collective Decision-Making Valerie Brown	Divided decision making is a major factor behind the disrupted personal relationships, fragmented communities, atomized specializations, and compartmentalized organizations that have become standard in Western society. In addition there is a tendency to belittle the power of the creative use of the imagination. Yet to resolve any serious issue in any community for the long term, the collective...
Memory and Responsibility Douglas Schuler	Although the evils of the past continue to haunt us in the present, society is often unable — or unwilling — to deal with historical injustice. Thus, although specific incidents of invasion, slavery, apartheid and genocide may appear to be receding into the irretrievable past, they are never altogether absent from humankind's collective memories. The function of collective Memory and...
Working Class Consciousness Steve Zeltzer	The need for a global consciousness, solidarity, and collaboration among working people in every country of the world is a critical task for confronting the economic, political, and social challenges that the working class faces. One important tool in this process of international working-class globalization in addition to joint collective action by workers throughout the world is the use of...
Back to the Roots Douglas Schuler	Humankind has developed incredibly complex intellectual, cultural, physical, and technological artifacts over the years. This has put a wide chasm between our present status and our "roots" — closer to nature, closer to the source and sustenance of our lives. In cities and in other areas around the world many of humankind’s “roots” are barely visible. In the U.S. only 2% of rural inhabitants...
Demystification and Reenchantment Kenneth Gillgren	For vast numbers of people, virtually every social, political, economic, and technological system has become mystifying in its complexity. On the other hand, some of humankind's most deep-seated mysteries have become disenchanted in the sense of no longer conveying profound meaning and connection with other people and the natural world. This reduces political discourse to a battle of special...
Translation Douglas Schuler	People who speak different languages cannot understand each other without benefit of translation. A related problem, which may be more insidious, arises when two or more people think they're speaking the same language when they're not. This pattern applies in any situation where two or more languages are employed. Here "language" is applied broadly. For example, with global climate change...
Linguistic Diversity Douglas Schuler	Over the last century, many of the world's languages have disappeared. When a language is lost, part of the world's knowledge and culture is also lost. Beyond the losses incurred thus far the trend is increasing as languages such as English, Spanish, and Swahili are displacing languages that are less prominent in the world media and language sphere. Losing humankind's Linguistic Diversity...
Education and Values John Thomas	Education promotes and replicates values. Even when not promoted deliberately, values are communicated. Yet, neither the explicit nor the implicit promulgation of values is typically designed with thought to the appropriateness of these values for the future. Values are involved in curriculum choices, how the material is presented, and the range of “correct” answers. Focusing on the history of...
Dematerialization Burl Humana	The production and consumption of products is destructive to the environment and is a contributing factor to poverty and hunger around the world. Dematerialization defines the reduction of material used per unit quality of life, that is, using fewer natural resources in products, using more recycled resources, and extending the life of products. Through industrial ecology we can determine best...
Transforming Institutions Brian Beaton	Most social institutions are positioned to deliver services from their operational center out to the regions and the masses. Often, these institutions, leaders and corporate models protect and maintain their existence without regard for those they were intended to serve. The exploitation and destruction of the environment, the people and rural communities is the long term result. Institutions...
Teaching to Transgress John Thomas	Students naturally identify with good teachers and value their knowledge highly. A possible side-effect, however, is that the student may become reluctant to “go against” the teaching of their mentor/hero/professor. This reluctance occurs with respect to individual teachers as well as to society as a whole. To prevent stagnation of knowledge and of social progress, one useful strategy...

Patterns

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