This year’s Integral City Award is to an ecosystem with three sub-systems each of which and all together are demonstrating Integral City Intelligences.
The first subsystem is Neighbourhood Parliaments – now often know as Neighbourhood Democracy or Neighborocracy.
The second is Children’s Parliaments.
The third sub-system is SONEC.
Let’s consider the “organs” in this ecosystem (and notice the Integral City Intelligences linked in italics).
Neighbourhood Parliaments
Joseph Rathinam (a Living Cities Earth Co-Founder) has helped inspire grassroots neighbourhood democracy across Southern India.
Joseph Rathinam has been training people to set up and operate Neighbourhood Parliaments for almost thirty years, and has been the elected leader of his own neighbourhood in Chennai (a city in Tamil Nadu, southern India) for about twenty. He has helped people to set up tens of thousands of hyperlocal democratic mutual aid institutions across India and around the world (as reported by Citizen Network).
Most recently, city officials in Augsburg, Germany, have decided to adopt a European version of the Neighbourhood Parliament model in the wake of his visit to Augsburg in August of 2022. They want the high-engagement, low-cost benefits of neighbours helping neighbours that this model promises.
The model of neighborocracy has these Integral City Intelligence features:
- Street-level– The basic unit is street-level government – no more than about 150 people or 30 UK households
- Inclusive– It is essential that everyone is included and everyone has a vote and all decisions are by consent (although you can vote ‘I can live with that’)
Strategic: Inquiry & Meshworking & Navigating
- Empowering– Everyone takes on a leadership role – minister of finance, energy etc. – roles and strategies are agreed together
- Subsidiarity– What can be done at the street level is done at the street level – the indirect goal is to invest in each other – not in corporations
- Federative– Streets federate to neighbourhoods – neighbourhoods federate to municipalities – municipalities federate to regions – goal is global democracy
Contexting: Living
- Intergenerational– There are 3 interlinked kinds of Parliament organised by age: Children/Young People/Adults
Strategic: Navigating
- Convergence– Don’t threaten the existing system of power – run parallel- create positive pathways with old system .
Joseph’s work reflects Emergent Intelligence and builds on the work of Father Edwin Maria John who started to develop Basic Communities in the 1980s, and which it was itself inspired by the Liberation Theology movement from Latin America and Ghandian Village Self Reliance (Swaraj). It links to the emerging practice of sociocracy and the emerging movements of New Municipalise, or what Citizen Network calls Neighbourhood Democracy.
You can listen to Josephy talk on the Scottish Communities Climate Action Network podcast here.
Children’s Parliament
Children’s Parliaments were started by Joseph in India.
Children in India have taken their lives into their own hands. Strategic: Inquiry & Meshworking & Navigating
They don’t want to tolerate social grievances as well as environmental pollution any longer. They have been founding children parliaments and electing their own ministers in order to stand up for their rights. They are not only changing their own lives for the better, but also those of their communities.
This exemplar and learning are now being brought to Europe by Lisa Praeg. Lisa Praeg (from Vorarlberg, AT) and Anna Kersting (from Berlin, régisseur “Power to the Children” ) are bringing global leaders in the Children and Youth Parliaments movement to Berlin.
A collection of films provide inspiring stories and examples shared by Joseph. One film focuses on the value of Children Parliaments and the emergence of new kinds of schools using sociocratic methods.
This film also focuses on the organisation of Children Parliaments:
This film was produced together with Nathaniel Whitestone, Indra Adnan, Swarnalakshmi Ravi and Joseph Rathinam and explores the reasons why neighborocracy is powerful and an essential part of the global transition of to a just and sustainable world:
This is a longer interview with Joseph, in conversation with young people, exploring the ideas that have inspired him and the lessons he has learned:
Film | 08.08.23
local government, Neighbourhood Democracy, India, Film
The European initiative has been learning how to bring Power to the Children, demonstrating the Integral City Intelligences of Contexting: Living Intelligence & Strategic: Navigating Intelligence.
The film takes the perspective of the children to tell us about the challenges they have to face in a society that expects them to follow the example of adults. The film shows how these children have opted to take a new path – with determination, courage and creativity.
Three examples of children taking leadership roles in their village are Sri Priya, Shaktivel and Swarna Lakshmi:
Sri Priya (14) – Home Minister (Contexting: Eco Intelligence)
She is taking care of the environmental problems of the village.
She has learned from a young age to stand on her own feet. Her parents live in a faraway city, where they found work. She lives with her grandmother and elder brother. Since she has pointed out the garbage and water problems of the village to the mayor again and again, she has earned great respect from the adults. Together with the children’s parliament she has stopped child marriage in her village.
Shaktivel (15) – Cultural Minister (Collective: Cultural Intelligence)
He loves dance and theatre. As cultural minister he develops unique and vibrant campaigns with his creativity. Many children from the village suffer because of the alcoholism of their fathers. They decide to ensure that the alcohol shops are going to be closed. Together with the children Shaktivel develops a play. They want to show the adults what it means for them to grow up in a family where the father drinks and becomes violent.
Swarna Lakshmi (15) – Prime Minister (Individual Inner/Outer Intelligence)
As a blind girl, she has learned from a young age what it means to be different.
Since she was ten years old she has been fighting for inclusion. After having various minister roles, she now has got the highest position as the prime minister of India within the children parliaments. She is committed to ensure with the whole heart that the child rights are respected, not only in India, but everywhere in the world.
How do Children Parliaments evolve?
There are two types of Children Parliaments. One is founded by the children; the other is founded by the schools.
The film (produced by Anna Kersting and team) is only about Children Parliaments which are founded by children. They are called Neighbourhood Parliaments in India. (Collective: Social Intelligence)
The idea goes back to the NCN (Neighbourhood Community Network), a South Indian aid organisation that developed the concept of independent children’s parliaments about 15 years ago. The concept has been adopted by many local human rights and environmental organisations in India.
In recent years, more than 100,000 such Children Parliaments have been created there.
Delegates from many countries are now travelling to India to get advice on how to organise children’s parliaments in their countries. The founders of the Indian children parliaments also conduct trainings in Europe.
Local human rights and environmental organizations in India go to the villages to first inform the children about their rights. Most children do not know that there are children’s rights, such as the right to education.
Usually social workers are involved. Sometimes someone from the village is chosen who is willing to support the children. Not all adults agree that children have their own rights. It is important that the children trust this person. The person of trust teaches the children about democracy and explains how a parliament works, and accompanies them over a longer period of time.
As soon as the children can solve their problems on their own, the person of trust withdraws, but is still available to them as a contact person.
What effect do children parliaments have?
Child marriage (Individual Outer, Collective Cultural)
A large proportion of young girls are still being married off in the rural areas of India.
Even in the villages that are shown in the film, girls were being married off every year, sometimes as young as 12 years old. The children of both parliaments are proud that they have managed to abolish child marriage completely in their villages. If they find out that a young girl is going to get married, they immediately contact the parents of the girl and explain to them that child marriage is forbidden by law and that girls have a right to education. If the parents do not agree, the children contact CHILD LINE, a governmental organisation that advocates for child rights.
Child labour (Individual Outer, Collective Cultural, Social)
The children from both villages in the film have also managed to stop child labour and make sure that all children go to school. If a child does not turn up at school, they ask for an explanation from the parents of the child. In the case of parents forcing their child to work, the children inform them of child rights. If the parents insist that their child works, the Children Parliaments contact CHILD LINE.
Domestic violence and alcoholism (Individual Outer, Collective Cultural, Social)
Obedience to parents is given the highest importance in India. If one parent is violent or dependent on alcohol, the children become conflicted. They know they have to follow their parents, but if the father beats them and their mother because of his addiction to alcohol, there will be no protection anymore. They know their rights, but there is no one to protect them. Therefore, they try to help themselves by starting campaigns against alcoholism and violence.
Environmental issues (Ecosphere Intelligence)
There is usually no garbage disposal in the rural areas of India. Villages and whole regions are contaminated with plastic garbage. In addition, people from the villages burn their plastic waste. The children from the Children Parliaments understand the connection between global warming and the burning of garbage. They are starting campaigns in their villages to inform the adults who are very often illiterate.
Democracy, Water – and Electricity supply (Contexting: Integral, Collective: Social)
The children from the Children Parliaments have learned how democracy works. They know that the mayor of the village is supposed to ensure sufficient drinking water and overcome problems with the sewage. They also make sure that defective street lights get repaired.
They write petitions and threaten to contact higher authorities in case the mayor forgets his promises.
SONEC: Sociocratic Neighbourhood Circles
The SONEC partnership includes organizations from 7 European countries (Austria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, UK), that bring into the project diverse social backgrounds, experiences and knowledge. Local governments, scientific platforms, various educational institutions, existing neighbourhood and citizen participation initiatives with a longer or shorter history are also participating.
Nathanial Whitestone (co-founder of SONEC and co-founder of Living Cities Earth) explains:
This allows for mutually enriching exchanges among partners, as well as indirect benefits for other European stakeholders.
The Indian Neighbourhood Parliaments movement (Strategic: Inquiry & Meshworking & Navigating Intelligences) , while large in European terms, includes only a small fraction of the 1.4 billion residents of India. Similar community networks – the Global Ecovillage Network, (Award Winner of Integral City Network 2023)for example – also cover only a fraction of the communities in areas where they have developed. If this way of organising is really to offer humanity a viable path to resolving the global and local challenges we face in coming decades, it must be available to almost everyone.
The SONEC movement does offer an opportunity for weaving together the wide range of similar projects and networks of communities that are doing similar work. You can think of a SONEC as a specific form of neighbourhood democracy (as promoted and supported by the Neighbourhood Democracy Movement), which is a specific form of Community Agency Network (as promoted and supported by The Alternative UK).
This implies a sort of hierarchy of shared purpose: (Collective Cultural, Social Intelligences)
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- Groups that are supporting some form of locally-led holistic community development (such as the CTRL Shift alliance)
- Groups that are supporting Community Agency Networks (such as The Alternative UK and the Asset Based Community Development movement)
- Groups that are supporting neighbourhood democracy in specific small-scale neighbourhoods (such as the Neighbourhood Democracy Movement)
SONEC and Neighbourhood Parliaments networks are examples of neighbourhood democracy, as are Cohousing networks and Ecovillage networks.
In practice the Sociocratic Neighbourhood Circle is a form of resident-led holistic community development, combining (Contexting, Collective Social, Strategic, Evolutionary Intelligences):
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- the sort of “connected community” you might find in a great cohousing community or a community agency network of the sort supported by Asset Based Community Development practitioners, with
- practices of learning together throughout life in a way that reflects the Bildung movement and the successes of, for example, the Swedish “study circle democracy,”
- sociocratic governance at the neighbourhood level (and, through sociocratic double-linking and federation, at other levels), and
- Collective Impact alliance-type networks bringing together multiple organisations and associations at each level of organising.
The emphasis on developing this alliance, as an essential part of the model, means that wherever the SONEC network develops we must also nourish and support allied communities and partner organisations that have similar objectives. For example, in the UK we work closely with a range of partner organisations through the CTRL Shift network to provide support to local groups – whether or not they choose to adopt the SONEC model.
Nate Whitestone believes that this active mutual support, together with a heart-centred practice of developing meaningful connections with our neighbours, a commitment to learning, and a well-structured form of local governance, is what we need in order to live well into the turbulence of the 21st century. SONEC hopes that others feel similarly!
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AWARD
It is an inspiration to learn how Integral City Intelligences have grown across Gaia’s noosphere, starting with impulses of Liberation Theology in Latin America, spreading to India where they seeded Neighborocracy which in turn incubated Children’s Parliaments and are now jumping from India to Europe and creating nurturing hybrids like the Sociocratic Neighbourhood Circles in SONEC.
Congratulations to this Amazing Ecosystem of Neighborocracy, Children Parliaments and SONEC. We are proud to recognize you as the Integral City Ecosystem of the Year 2024.
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Learn about the prior Integral City of the Year Awards here:
Global Ecovillage Network of the Year 2023
Global City Collaboration – City Collaboration of the Year 2022
Urban Arena for Just & Sustainable Cities – City Region of the Year 2021
Edmonton – City of the Year 2020
Amsterdam – City of the Year 2019
6AIKA Finland – Cities of the Year 2018
Russia’s 3 City Associations – City of the Year 2017
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REFERENCES
If you’d like to know more about the details of the SONEC practice or to get more actively involved you can add your name here.
And you are welcome to contact the SONEC project via our website, visit: https://sonec.org/
Notes:
- Journal of Asian Scientific Research, United People Designing a New Model of Governance
- A Community Agency Network, also known as a Citizen Action Network, can take a wide variety of forms. For more on this concept, view the relevant Appropedia page.
The publisher Citizen Network Research publishes the white paper, Neighbourhood Parliaments and Sociocracy © Nathaniel Whitestone 2022.
THE SONEC HANDBOOK (52 pages), THE SONEC HANDBOOK SHORT VERSION (18 pages) and THE SONEC POLICY BRIEF (3 pages) can be downloaded from this Website link (in multiple languages.
OTHER USEFUL LINKS
Neighbourhood Community Networks
Sustainable development goals by the UN
https://sdgs.un.org/
Facebook page of Neighborocracy by Joseph Rathinam
https://www.facebook.com/neighborocracy/
duties. Countless Children Parliaments have solved water and electricity problems this way.
If you are interested to watch the film, or acquire a license, please contact:
Anna Kersting Filmproduktion
Backpack Distribution – Anna Kersting Filmverleih
Bruno Taut Ring 5 b
12359 Berlin
E-Mail childrenparliament.info@gmail.com
If you are interested to contact the founders of the Indian children’s parliaments, please contact:
Joseph Rathinam
Email: rathnamjoseph@gmail.com
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