NEC Annual Meeting Input

Produced by the Post Carbon Institute and the +Conversation Collaborative, in collaboration with the New Economy Coalition and the CommonBound 2014 conference.

Back to the +Home Pad for the Weaving the New Economy Movement Conversations

This pad offers an interim set of reflections from the "weaving the movement" team, based on the five focus areas that have emerged from the interviews and three group conversations that have occurred to date. These items constitute a highly subjective list of what is resonating most strongly for us at this time.

Shared Narrative/Vision

Part of the challenge is how far we are from where we want/need to be....

Invite many stories to be told, rather than trying to draft one narrative that everyone signs off on.

Find different language for different constituencies

Appreciative interviews across the movement and beyond may offer a doorway into these stories, as well as a process that energizes and connects us the more we engage in it.

Three dimensions:

What is already happening

+"The adjacent possible" (i.e. the next level of complexity and integration that is immediately available to us given the current state of the movement and of mainstream thought).

Practical visions of "economies that works for all."

Use the narrative to...

Engage with the mainstream

Raise money for the movement

Energize ourselves

"[We] need a story line tying the powerful work happening on the ground with the policy and governance piece that [either] gets in the way of, or can facilitate the work of families and communities building the life they want, and tying that to the paradigm-shifting work taking place in different realms." Heather Tischbein, Thriving Resilient Communities Collaboratory

"…in terms of the national discourse, we understand that there's an issue of climate change and an issue of inequality… [T]o address inequality sometimes it’s said that we just need to “grow the pie,” but that conflicts with the need for ecological sustainability." Noel Ortega, Institute for Policy Studies

Shifting Capital and Resources

Fund movement capacity now!

We still have to live in the old economy, i.e. both orgs and individuals need money

Most NE orgs could use more capacity simply to fulfill their current missions

Many freelancers and entrepreneurs struggle while building the NE

Two powerful questions:

If we could increase the funding for movement capacity 3-5 times, how might we leverage that into a 50-100 fold increase in impact?

What new models provide financial support for movement-wide capacity building?

Anchor institutions that divest from the old economy/invest and become partners in co-creating the new one

Tell the stories of where this is happening now

Create a systematic approach to bringing new anchor institutions on board. involving collaboration among: fossil fuel divestment, impact investing, "Buy Local," social justice, cooperatives

"We developed "the anchor dashboard:" a set of recommended metrics for measuring how an anchor institution impacts the local community to see what was & wasn't working. It's a fairly wonky piece of analysis but we've found it excites people. University officials across the country are excited about it. Student groups are using it to inspect how their universities are relating to their communities. Seeing that amount of energy around something that we see as very strategic - the amount of resources that could go toward sustaining the community instead of continuing in an exploitative and unsustainable economy - is tremendously exciting." John Duda, The Democracy Collaborative

General strategies for shifting capital & resources:

Divestment - not just out of fossil fuels, but with every purchase we make

Reclaiming the Commons

Localization

Alternative currencies, economies, & indicators

Changing policy (redirecting government resources)

"In Greensboro, NC we're launching a community grocery store in a longstanding food desert in an urban community...and last week, I was meeting with a County Commissioner. They're trying to figure out how to move county money to help open the grocery store, and to have an ongoing piece of the public health budget directed at food deserts. The reason they are taking this seriously is because of all the people power generated through two years of work. It's not uncommon for 150 people to show up at a City Council meeting… just building momentum around a shared goal, stating the need, providing technical assistance, etc." Marnie Thompson, Fund for Democratic Communities

Race, Class and Privilege

To build a just and sustainable future, we will need to address the legacy of centuries of structural racism, labor exploitation, and resource extraction. What steps can we take -- individually, within our respective organizations, and as a movement -- to facilitate equity?

Challenges within the NE movement:

Some degree of fear/discomfort/hesitation talking about race, class & privilege

Some member organizations are explicitly political, while some intentionally avoid political and/or potentially polarizing issues

Question: how do we do both economic justice/jobs creation and environmental sustainability?

Opportunities:

Training on tools & frameworks for thinking about/working on race, class, privilege & power

Host/facilitate dialogues that offer a safe space for these conversations to occur

Framing to invite people from all backgrounds into conversation without alienating them

Community investment as a form of wealth redistribution

Redefining the purpose of the economy as collective well-being (of people and our larger ecosystem)

"We're trying to bring a class and race lens into everything. One thing about class culture and working class organizations - people who are attracted to the idea of Transition & resilience tend to be a college-educated constituency, which can be class-diverse, but there's a difference between being attracted to the concept as an idea vs. as a source of livelihood. So part of our constituency is future-oriented: thinking about climate change, resource depletion, etc. And part of our constituency is attracted to our projects like the time circle because they can get trade for a free haircut, and they are underemployed. And we always have really good food - part of our organizational commitment is to feed people quality food. People can come and eat, we're constantly breaking bread together. We honor that people are coming in through different portals, and try not to be so abstract. We'll be more relevant as we do more stuff around livelihoods - moving money, moving consumer power to the local economy." Chuck Collins, JPNET

Connecting & Supporting Local Efforts

How can NEC and member organizations help facilitate connections between organizers within a common geographic or issue area?

Respecting and supporting what is:

Native peoples have jurisdictions, meaning they could create new (or re-create old) economic models.

Many people in rural, immigrant, and excluded communities have the "old" skills (farming, weaving, repairing, etc.) needed for the "new" economy.

What might NEC do?

Formal opportunities for idea exchanges.

Platform for showing what is needed, and what's the capacity of people here?

Leveraging those via opportunities to link up.

Greater opportunities for connection and communication.

"I really want to know more about new economies, because they're so radical, I want to hear specifics about what worked--and how. Whether it's in Nepal or the next town over, how did you overcome both the objections and the structural barriers?" Workshop Participant

"What is the best, most effective, most elegant way of collaborating and working together for greatest gain, and what could those systems look like? What's that architecture and communications structure, that's as simple as possible but gives enough bones to the structure so it is coherent and strong? What do the groups on the ground want?” Carolyne Stayton, Transition US

“We've seen that our [Center for a New American Dream & Shareable] teams can come together and join forces, moving forward together, especially with Sharefest. Also, we have different "toolkits" we provide, and different backgrounds and resources, and those have crossed over and been shared between the two groups pretty well.” Sarah Baird, Center for a New American Dream

Internal and External Communications

Possible approaches to internal communications to support cross-promotion, cooperation, collaboration include:

Centralized movement-wide communications infrastructure, e.g. Local Food Cleveland

Leverage existing networks to create a distributed/decentralized "meta-network"

Should we take a both/and approach, or put our efforts into one or the other?

External communications ideas:

A team of NE spokespeople at local, national and international levels

Short compelling videos: 2, 5 and 15 minute versions

Infographics that quickly engage and inform, suitable for easy sharing

Map the Movement!

A visual image that can help people and orgs see the whole

A systems map that helps us to understand and navigate within this complex and evolving space

Some things we might map:

Sectors and organizations

Assets, including social capital

Stories

Local, on-the-ground efforts

Leverage points and value propositions

Strategies, tactics and targets

Collaborations

"…[I]n terms of the national discourse, we understand that there's an issue of climate change and an issue of inequality… to address inequality sometimes it’s said that we just need to “grow the pie,” but that conflicts with the need for ecological sustainability." Noel Ortega, Institute for Policy Studies

"...[M]assive change requires speaking to more than middle- and upper-class people." Joe Grafton, AMIBA

“…[I]f we share resources, co-promote events, etc. we can support each other rather than compete with the mainstream economy." Mira Luna, Shareable

NEC Annual Meeting Input
Back to the Home Pad for the Weaving the New Economy Movement Conversations
Shared Narrative/Vision
Shifting Capital and Resources
Race, Class and Privilege
Connecting & Supporting Local Efforts
Internal and External Communications

​​Shared Narrative/Vision

​​Shifting Capital and Resources

​​Race, Class and Privilege

​​Connecting & Supporting Local Efforts

​​Internal and External Communications

Shared Narrative/Vision

Shifting Capital and Resources

Race, Class and Privilege

Connecting & Supporting Local Efforts

Internal and External Communications