“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” – Audre Lorde, feminist activist & writer As people who care about the world, we know it’s easy to forget to take care of ourselves. Our movements and organisations often need a lot of dedication, and sometimes value […]
Liquid democracy is one of the most interesting ideas that I’ve come across recently. It’s a cross between direct democracy and representative democracy that takes some effort to get one’s head around. This blog is partly to help me do that and partly to see what other people think. The […]
If you’ve not come across the ‘Skillsharing Portal‘ before, it’s a way for training collectives to share their skills and experience across Europe, across languages and cultures. The website has resource guides and workshop modules that are made by and for activist groups across Europe in topics like consensus and facilitation, strategy, anti-oppression, group process […]
Like many of you, our dear readers, Rhizome-folks engage with the social tensions highlighted and created by the Brexit vote in many ways, having conversations on a personal level with family, friends and strangers, and facing the direct impacts of discrimination and status insecurity stirred up by the way the referendum campaign was fought. We […]
A few months ago I read a wonderful book called ‘Reinventing Organisations’ by Frederic Laloux. It borrows a framework from Ken Wilber in describing the evolution of organisations towards ones that are freer of ego and control, ones that believe in abundance and in wholeness. What makes the book wonderful, though, is not the framework […]
Recently I attended my first forum theatre performance. It was the last in a week-long series of performances of The Great Austerity Debate taking place around the country done by the Menagerie Theatre Company. They’d been commissioned by two geography researchers, Prof. Susan Smith and Dr Mia Gray, from Cambridge University. Performances have been filmed, […]
In mid-January we blogged about one training collective changing name and form. What we didn’t do was highlight ourselves and the other training collectives that each in our own way try to support grassroots groups striving to make the world a better place. With the forces that are swirling out there at the moment, Rhizome […]
We’ll be discussing and debating along with other co-ops tomorrow in Manchester about radical alternatives to austerity and capitalism, shaping a shared vision of a prosperous caring society based on a principles of democracy. Rhizome is looking forwards to see co-op friends old and new, to chats in the sidelines about how to build the […]
Oxford Seeds for Change has become Navigate. A warm welcome to Navigate, to ‘the field’ we plough furrows in too, of social change facilitation, training for co-ops, NGOs, campaign and community groups, and many more. The story of how Navigate was born can be found here. Lancaster Seeds for Change becomes simply Seeds for Change […]
Following on from our Convergent Facilitation blog post, here’s an illustrative case study. Child custody is often a battleground in American legislatures, like abortion and gay marriage, with the additional ferocity provided by the divorce courts. In Minnesota, these struggles have gone on for more than a decade. In the end, some opponents just avoided […]
