In the Beginning was the Commons: Transformative Learning as Praxis for Regenerating the Cultural Commons

Culture is the medium through which human capabilities are transmitted. In this respect, culture may be understood as a commons that is consequential to the future of other forms of commons. Regenerating the commons is inherently and intrinsically associated with democratizing and partnering. The commons of shared meanings that enable truth telling are exploitable by the market when education is dominated by the market. If educational institutions are at the behest of the market and the state, education can neither be a commons nor be in the service of the commons. We can frame this circumstance as an enclosure of learning. Transformative learning facilitates a shifting from the mindset of exploiting the commons to a mindset of regenerating the commons. In fact, the core transformation that occurs in transformative learning is the liberation of awareness from identity enclosure. Such a liberation prepares the ground for growing partnership capabilities from the intimate to the global, essential for preserving and regenerating the commons. An education that transforms seeks to re-sacralize and regenerate culture as a commons, which can then enable partnership-based care towards all other forms of commons.

Artist's Statement: Warli Village Solar Trust

Artist’s Statement for the cover art of IJPS volume 8, issue 2: Warli Village Solar Trust, rice paste on parchment.

"In others we trust": Finland and Norway – High Trust Societies in the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the Covid-19 pandemic, trust has been identified as a key mechanism in pandemic containment. Norway and Finland, two Nordic countries with high trust scores, are cited as best-practice examples. In a qualitative research project on the theoretical construct of caring economics conducted by the author, the deep societal anchoring of trust and integrity has been confirmed in both countries. Based on the empirical example of the Nordic countries, the concept of caring economics emphasizes partnerism and thereby the real wealth of nations. Dugnad/Dugnadsånd, which refers to collective effort, is a trust-based Norwegian type of commons and commoning that can be regarded as an intersection with caring economics. Dugnad/Dugnadsånd integrates the various notions of interpersonal, system, and institutional trust, and thus widely supports mechanisms of pandemic control.

The Role of Public Art in Solar Commons Institution-Building: Community Voices from an Essential Partnership among Artists, Community Solar Researchers, and Activists

In this urgent decade when American democracy faces the challenge of decarbonizing the U.S. electric grid and assuring that the economic benefits of our energy transition are equitably shared, many solar energy researchers and activists are searching for new ways to partner with the civic sector. Instead of treating energy users as passive customers, experts understand the importance of engaging community as active decision-makers, beneficiaries, and communicators for a just energy transition. Distributed solar technology offers more democratic potential than small savings on individuals’ electric bills. Energy experts working on the Solar CommonsÔ community solar model at the University of Minnesota are piloting demonstration projects with community partners in Arizona and Minnesota. These solar commons aggregate savings through power purchase agreements that create 25-year peer-governed revenue streams to support mutual aid and reparative justice work in neighborhoods. This article describes a Solar Commons research project in Arizona, with a conversation among the public artists who partnered with the legal research team to co-create communication and peer governance tools that will allow DIY Solar Commons to iterate throughout the US as a new institution in our civic sector. Images of the Solar Commons public art demonstrate how the artists helped expand the vision of solar energy from the iconic individual solar panel to a technology embedded in community justice and in a complex human-more-than-human environment.

Perpectives on Gender: An Investigative Study of Gender Equity in Children [Espejuelos para el género: Apuestas investigativas por la equidad en la infancia]

The construction of gender identities begins at a very early age. These identities are consolidated through the influence of various socialization actors, among which the family, the school, and the media stand out. Therefore, addressing gender issues is necessary from childhood to ensure that girls and boys reach adulthood as women and men capable of establishing more equitable, horizontal, collaborative, and healthy gender relations. For this reason, since 2012, Perspectives on Gender [Espejuelos para el Género] has conducted a school research project, focusing on the second cycle of primary education in Cuba. The collective goals of the two phases of the project were to analyze gender constructs in girls and boys as well as those associated with actors involved in the children’s formal and informal education, such as family, teachers and the media. The basic methodological design was conceived from arts-based action research. Up until now, the persistence of sexist gender stereotypes has been identified in the scenarios and subjects under study although, at a discursive level, some gender equity is noticeable. This article describes the main results of the project. Editors' note: The English version of this article is a translation from the original Spanish, and this special feature is a result of a partnership between IJPS and the University of Havana, Cuba. The original Spanish article appears after the English translation.

NOVO network: A Research and Development Platform with the Vision of a Nordic Model for Sustainable Systems in Health Care

Musculoskeletal and psychological/mental disorders are major causes of sick leave, threatening the welfare of individuals and the economics of companies and societies. The prevailing research and development (R&D) of ergonomic interventions show minimal long-term effects on health and wellbeing while interventions to improve production seem to have a dominant negative effect, particularly in the health-care sector. Scientific evidence suggests that improved partnership is needed between stakeholders with different and often opposing aims, i.e., organizational productivity vs. worker wellbeing. In 2006 a Nordic R&D network, the NOVO Network, was established highlighting the need for a new approach, integrating work environment and production needs in intervention R&D. Our hypothesis is that such an integration is more readily established in the Nordic countries, largely due to their leading positions in the world in terms of social capital. Through annual symposia and other activities, the NOVO Network brings together scholars and practitioners to share knowledge and experience and to suggest and develop new areas of collaboration towards increased organizational sustainability in health care. A multicenter study conducted within the framework of the NOVO network resulted in a new, practical tool. This tool aims to facilitate partnership instead of the prevalent domination orientation, thereby combining consideration of work environment and production needs. Based on our experiences so far, this article highlights some key future challenges. As a result, we hope to see development of a stronger Nordic R&D tradition towards increased organizational sustainability in health care.

Seeding Seed Releaf

How does a grassroots Covid-19 relief effort help to promote partnership culture? This article offers a first-person account of partnership values at work in Seed Releaf, a community-based organization co-founded by the author in response to local food inequity amplified by the coronavirus pandemic. Tracing the origin of Seed Releaf to partnership, Jewish, and Women’s Spirituality precepts, the author describes how a single relief organization connects and supports multiple entities—restaurants, farms, community groups—while delivering nutritious meals to hungry neighbors. In addition to illustrating how Seed Releaf provides an example of everyday people working to care for one another during global crisis, the article also addresses how Covid-19 exacerbates existing systems of oppression and further necessitates partnership in and across communities. A seven-point template offers readers a blueprint for how to replicate a Seed Releaf model in their own communities, and help to shift from a culture of domination to partnership, one plate at a time.

Call for Papers: Empowering Systems for Mutual Aid and Care: Institution Building in the Commons Sector

The Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies will publish a themed issue in Fall 2021: Institution Building in the Commons Sector. The guest editors of this issue invite researchers, scholars, activists, and authors to submit original writing for publication in its Fall/Winter 2021 issue (Vol. 8 No. 2). The submission deadline is August 15, 2021.

Partnership Commitment During a Global Pandemic

Riane Eisler challenges us to identify and embrace partnership relationships in every aspect of our lives — personal, social, cultural, environmental, and economic. Her trove of written work and public appearances shape a vision of our greater selves working together to achieve more than the sum of our separate lives. Now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the reality of overwhelming separation, grief, loss, and social distancing begs the question: Is it truly possible to achieve partnership values? Sometimes, we need to step away from news reports and social media to seek comfort in the stories that make positive differences in our lives. In this article, the author shares a story, more than three decades in the making, of a small group of committed volunteers who tackle a most difficult and disturbing form of oppression — child sexual abuse. An annual camp program, first requested by child survivors themselves, is deeply linked to partnership system ideologies. The Victory Over Child Abuse (VOCA) Camp story actualizes partnership values by firmly wrapping them around a tenacious vision of intentionally safe community. When communities commit to partnership systems, healing and non-violence become the norm, social transformation is possible, and children are safe.

Mind and Heart As Partners

A common cultural belief in technologically advanced societies is that emotion and reason are opposites, with reason superior to emotion. This belief is not supported by recent results in neuroscience and experimental psychology which show instead that emotion and cognition are strongly interconnected and depend on each other). Moreover, the belief is also harmful to society because it contributes indirectly to racism, sexism, homophobia, and the appeal of demagogues. Scientific understanding can help to heal the cultural split between emotion and reason in the service of building a partnership society.