A new ‘deliberative’ approach to planning our lives…
A community-based eco-cultural Green Map for Warrandyte?
July 12, 2007Jobs – Qld
July 15, 2007‘Community engagement’ and ‘deliberative democracy’ are becoming common phrases in planning and community development. WA seems to be leading the charge – paying more than lip service (? one hopes!) to ‘sustainable development being about assisting communities to control their destinies’.
The WA Department of Planning and Infrastructure uses:
- 21st Century Town Meetings
- Deliberative Surveys
- Citizens’ Juries etc
It seems to me that many of us involved in community efforts at times feel there is an awful waste of human resources, public funds and ‘burnout’ of volunteers and government people.
Where does it all go wrong when ostensibly it we all have similar ‘sustainable lifestyle’ goals? Do we citizens get more than a token chance to participate in the policymaking process through ‘community consultation’? Do we see our needs and wants reflected in policy ‘solutions’?
Perhaps ‘creative conversations’ in community-wide discussions might provide this as they have in Sweden for 100 years?
Perth was the venue for Fulbright Scholar Mark Brophy’s first Community-Wide Study Circle Orientations. Mark says:
“Some sample circles ran for over an hour and participants still wanted to keep going – I couldn’t break them up, and had to repeatedly urge them to come together for the de-briefing. It was fantastic.”
Mark will run Melbourne’s first Orientation Session Friday 3 August 2007
He says:
“The aim of this Session is to allow everyone to encounter, first hand, the approach that the Study Circle Resource Centre takes in the US. This approach may not suit us here in Australia, but it is a model worth looking at – to help inform our future conversations.”
A 30 minute de-briefing will follow and then a 30 minute overview of a round of study circles, which comprise three stages.
1. The Organising Stage
- Set goals
- Plan for action
- Develop materials
- Pilot circles
- Train facilitators
- ‘Kick Off’
2. Dialogue – The Study Circle Stage
- Several circles community-wide
3. The Action Stage
- Several task forces
Next Study Circles Australia Meeting
Friday, 3rd August, 2007 – 10.30 am to 2.30pm
RMIT, Building 94, Library, 23 Cardigan Street, Melbourne
RSVP: Jessica 9925 5034 or jessica.delaney@rmit.edu.au by 1st August 2007.
Agenda
10.30 to 12.30: Orientation Session
12.30 to 1.00: Lunch (Provided)
1.00 to 1.30: De-brief Orientation Session
1.30 to 2.00: How to organise a round of study circles (Including Bangladesh example).
2.00 to 2.30: Open conversation – Where to from here?
NB:
Anyone wishing to be a Facilitator for the session, please arrive 1 hour earlier for a briefing.
2 Comments
Without wishing to respass on anyone’s views or beliefs, it is interetsing to note that the Baha’i community world wide uses study circles to great effect as a means to develop spiritual insight and better understandings of both the history and nature of the Baha’i community, its aims and teachings as well s prepare participants for service-orientated activities.
There are a series of 8 study circle guides which were originally developed by the “Ruhi Institute” in Columbia and which are sequentially based on developing an increasingly mature grasp of the Baha’i Faith. Each is linked to serve-based activities – for example holding a devotional meeting or running a children’s class; and whilst these may be things of importance only to the Baha’i community, of equal importance might be the structure and character of these study circles (and yes, they have always been referred to as “study circles”) which sees them as sequential, based on developing a spiritual motivation (a recognition that one’s responsibilities extend beyond one’s immediate needs) and linking this to a specific activity.
Equally the Baha’i community operates on a process of consensual decision-making: there is no individual leadership, no clergy in the community, and decisions are made through a process of “consultation”. Small as the import of those decisions may presently be, neverthless, the skill and discipline that develops as a result of this is having a profound effect on the participants, which of couse is the purpose of religion – to provide daily habits and practice (prayer, meditation and participation in community activities) by which one can acquire spiritual virtues – love, compassion, humor etc that distinguish us all as human beings – and which in turn support, sustain and propagate civilization. For the Baha’is the ultimate outcome of this being a global society: “The world is but one country and mankind its citizens”.
The effect these study circles have had on even the most impoverished and remote of participants (from my own experience in Papua New Guinea, and accounts from Africa, India and S.America) has been remarkable in galvanising them into service-driven activities, self-development and self-improvement.
It is worth then examining this community and its methodologies and democratic processes more closely: . Study circles, childrens classes an devotional meetings in particular are open to public participation.
Over 90% of the children attending children’s classes offered to Secondary schools are not Baha’is, such is the regard that parents have for the programme offered. Interestingly because these classes are offered by volunteers, study circles are an important means of increasing the number of teachers and assistants required.
With kind egards,
CHARLES BOYLE
Claremont WA
Very interesting Charles – thank you.