Commoning Gaze
Description
via Will Ruddick:
"Navigating the complexities of our world, we quickly realize that our choices craft the paths we tread — particularly in economics. Long-standing proprietary, commodified, and centralized systems have often dominated our economic landscape, yet these pathogenic practices erode both societal and planetary well-being. To navigate towards health-generating solutions, we must redirect our gaze towards salutogenic, grassroots economic practices. This redirection is more than a shift in perspective; it represents a ‘Commoning Gaze’.
A Commoning Gaze is not simply a metaphor. It’s a lens through which we envision societal change and the means to manifest it. It is about stepping away from isolation and towards interconnectedness. It’s a shift from commodified value to shared, collectively determined value. It’s about trading centralized power for distributed, equitably shared power. It’s moving from ownership to stewardship, from profit-maximization to benefits-distribution. In essence, it’s about choosing cooperation, collective stewardship, and shared wealth of all forms."
(https://medium.com/@williamruddick/a-commoning-gaze-512aea949f25)
Discussion
Will Ruddick:
"So, how can we shift our gaze and uplift our vision? Here are some practical steps to follow, echoing the transformative framework of programs like Alcoholics Anonymous:
- Acknowledge the need for a change in our socio-economic system by educating yourself about commons-based systems.
- Recognize that we are part of a greater whole: the community.
- Decide to turn our will and economic actions over to the care of the community.
- Conduct a fearless moral inventory of our participation in pathogenic systems and their impacts.
- Admit to ourselves and to others the exact nature of the wrongs of pathogenic systems.
- Be ready to have the community help us remove these defects of character, by joining or creating commons.
- Humbly ask others to support our efforts to share our skills and knowledge, ensuring they can be modified and shared again.
- Make a list of all those we have harmed through our participation in pathogenic systems, and become willing to make amends to them all, by choosing services from associations committed to the common good.
- Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, by encouraging and supporting alternative finance models that prioritize shared utility over venture capital.
- Continue to take personal inventory and, when we are wrong, promptly admit it, by investing time and resources in initiatives rooted in your community.
- Seek through thought and meditation to improve our conscious contact with the community, by participating in or creating community-centered initiatives such as community-supported agriculture, indigenous practices, and mutual credit.
- Carry this message to others, having had an awakening as the result of these steps, and practice these principles in all our affairs. Use, contribute to, and support education and awareness about commons principles in your community and network.
- By intentionally steering our actions and choices towards these alternatives, we promote a shift from pathogenic economics to salutogenic, well-being, and community-centered models. This journey paves the way to a grassroots economy that supports the well-being of all members of our society and the health of our planet. Let’s adopt a Commoning Gaze and continue to learn, grow, and make choices that carry us toward health."
(https://medium.com/@williamruddick/a-commoning-gaze-512aea949f25)