Participatory Practice
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chaos, uncertainty or crisis. At this stage, the system may either break down/ degenerate, or it may break through to a new state of order, which is characterised by novelty and involves an experience of creativity that often feels like magic. Since the process of emergence is thoroughly non-linear, involving multiple feedback loops, it cannot be fully analysed with our conventional, linear ways of reasoning, and hence we tend to experience it with a sense of mystery (Capra and Luisi, 2014). Wahl (2016) has shown how such an adaptive system works and how a system can cycle through different stages and the opportunities that this creates. However, we cannot direct a living system, we can only disturb it. (Scharmer and Kaufer, 2013). There have been some great examples of this in recent years such as the actions of the Extinction Rebellion and Occupy Movements in co-creating disruptive change. Can you think of others?
Diversity and flexibility These emergent processes are further sustained by the characteristics of diversity and flexibility that enable ecosystems and communities to survive and adapt to change. As discussed above ecosystems are always in constant flux but there are certain limits to change beyond which the whole system will collapse. The aim is to reduce the long-term stress in the system: maximising a single variable will eventually lead to the destruction of the system as a whole; optimising all variables will create a dynamic balance between order and freedom, stability and change. This means accepting that contradictions within communities are signs of diversity and viability. However, this can exist only where there are strong and complex patterns of interconnections. A healthy community needs members who are aware of the need for interconnectedness, so that information and ideas flow freely through the networks to create a flourishing whole. Rather than a naïve notion of social capital that assumes homogeneity in community, it calls for an understanding that communities are contested spaces that flourish when practical strategies knit them together as part of a diverse, cooperative, interconnected whole.
The Relational: cooperation, co-evolution and co-creation/ co‑production Everything that is in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness. (Hildegard of Bingen, 1982: 41) One of the most pervasive ideas of Darwinism is the notion of competition and ‘survival of the fittest’ or ‘ego-based thinking’. These ideas also reinforce current 82
