fbpx

September 2024 Equinotes: Placecaring & Placemaking Capacities

Equinotes are published periodically drawing on the Archives of Integral City’s Reflective Organ Newsletter, Blogs, Books and Website. The perspectives of Equinotes weave across: Planet, People, Place and Power.

The theme of this issue is Placecaring and Placemaking.

September 2024 Equinotes are drawn from these publications:

Placecaring & Placemaking: Hamilton, M. 2018. Integral City 3.7: Reframing Complex Challenges for Gaia’s Human Hives. Minneapolis, MN: Amaranth Press,LLC p.296

Science & Spirit of Commoning Well in Community by |September 20th, 2022|Building – StructuresC. Collective IntelligencesHouseholder DharmaIntegral MapsPlacecaringPlacemakingStorytelling – Cultures

Citizens: Discover the Complexity of Community, Integral City Meshwork Website

How Can We Influence City Development in Creative Economy?Interview of Marilyn Hamilton by Lev Gordon, Founder of Living Cities Russia, CoFounder Living Cities Earth. December 11th, 2020|A. Contexting IntelligencesB. Individual IntelligencesC. Collective IntelligencesCapacity BuildingCaringCaringContextingE. Evolutionary IntelligencesMeshworkingPlacecaringPlacemaking

Scroll to end of Equinotes to access Free Resources, MetaBlogs 2013-2024

Plus Bonus Video: Radical Guide to Reality

In the modern era, cities have tended to focus primarily on placemaking, either ignoring or denying the importance of placecaring. But, it turns out that cities who develop their caring capacity are cities who develop their carrying capacity for economies, systems and infrastructures. Thus, we have learned that caring and carrying capacity need to be in balance.

When we only build value for one stakeholder or one quadrant, the city grows in an unbalanced way. While developers and business naturally focus on placemaking capacities (Right Quadrants), and citizens and civil society naturally focus on placecaring capacities (Left Quadrants), in order to flourish, cities need to bring placecaring and placemaking into an organic flow and balance.

Hamilton, M. 2018. Integral City 3.7: Reframing Complex Challenges for Gaia’s Human Hives. Minneapolis, MN: Amaranth Press,LLC p.296

Science & Spirit of Commoning Well in Community

Life and circumstances in our dynamic evolving Ecovillages and Urban Habitats, are giving us the opportunity not only to define our Commons, and who might steward them but also how might we do that in community, so we honour both the wisdom of Spirit and intelligences of Nature? Elinor Ostrom’s principles for Commoning might serve us well for both Placecaring and Placemaking.

The life and spirit of the Commons is already within us. We ARE the Commons, for we are part of this planet, part of Gaia. It’s now a matter of acknowledging that this is so and acting accordingly.” (Spangler, David)

From this beautiful spirit of the Commons, I would like to share some insights from the science of commoning – the practices of co-holding Commons that can be useful for Ecovillages (like Findhorn Ecovillage where I live) and Urban Habitats everywhere that are seeking guidance for Commoning well in Community.

Elinor Ostrom, a Nobel-prize winning economist was curious if there were characteristics in communities that were successful in their commoning practices. Her research determined that successful Commoning shared eight practices.

Citizens: Discover the Complexity of Community

How Do I Find Community in Complexity in my City?

Where do I find community in the city? In my neighborhoods. On the street. At my workplace. At my place of worship. In my cultural centres. With my communities of practice.

In thinking about the community, I find it useful to examine community systems as complex adaptive systems that are multi-relational, multi-scalable and multi-dynamic. In other words, it seems that community and complexity co-emerge by virtue of my life’s interconnections and interrelationships.

Why is Community Important?

Community is vital to my personal health and welfare. Without connecting to community, I lack the context to understand my individual capacity and how I make meaning from life’s experience. In other words I have no terms of reference. But within a community context, I gain the support to learn values, knowledge, behaviors and life skills. In fact, research shows, that people who are active in community are healthier, more motivated and live longer. That has to be an outstanding benefit of a healthy city.

If I want to change in any way, my community will support or challenge my intentions. If I want to change in a sustainable way, my community can help me to change my story and the way I tell that story internally and externally to make meaning of the change. This is clearly work (and play) that involves a constant discovery of the complexity of community.

Some of the ways that I can do that are explained on the website.

How Can We Influence City Development in Creative Economy?

I would start with considering that as citizens we should express gratitude for our cities. They are the most complex systems yet created by humans.

What should you be grateful for? That you live in a place where it is possible to express what you are passionate about. What you love to be, do, share and co-create is your greatest gift to the city. Knowing what you love about yourself can also help you find what you love about your city.

Find that “corner” of the city that you love and invite others to share their beloved places. Notice what brings life and energy to those places when you are together. It is inevitably your passion – and that leads you to discover purpose and priorities.

As a Citizen you are part of Gaia’s City Design pattern. The Citizen is one of the 4 Voices of the Human Hive. The other 3 Voices are Civic Managers (government), Business Innovators, 3rd Sector (NGO/Academia).  (I have learned this from the honeybee hive who has these same 4 roles.)

Until recently most of human evolution has practised competition as the way to move forward – that is because humans are a very young species – and Competition is typical behavior for a young species. However, as evolution biologist  Elisabet Sahtouris points out, the next stage of development for a maturing species is Cooperation and Collaboration.

So, to cooperate is to evolve – and specially to cooperate with the 4 Voices of the Human Hive means that you are cooperating with the whole system. By the same token, those other 3 Voices must also cooperate with citizens. It is by sitting around the same table as 4 Voices that we can make the wisest cooperative decisions.

For city development this creates the conditions for optimum health, wellbeing and justice.

Click here to read the full interview of Marilyn Hamilton by Lev Gordon.

By |2024-09-19T16:37:38+00:00September 19th, 2024|EquiNotes|0 Comments

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

About the Author:

HI I am the Founder of Integral City Meshworks Inc. and Chief Blogger. Working with cities and eco-regions, I ‘meshwork’ or weave people, purpose, priorities, profits, programs and processes to align contexts, grow capacity and develop strategies for sustainability and resilience in the Integral City. You can read more details about me here http://integralcity.com/about/about-the-founder/

Leave A Comment

Go to Top