COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

The Great Turning Initiative has been working closely with organizations, strategic partners and local grassroots organizers with shared interests and commitment to forward the work of the Great Turning. We often refer to these relationships as communities of practice.

The term Community of Practice comes from Meg Wheatley & Deborah Frieze, "Using Emergence to Take Social Innovations to Scale." It is a group of people who share particular interests and form committed relationships to advance a field of knowledge and practice with a focus on sharing discoveries with a wider audience of people doing related work. A given Community of Practice may be local, with members able to engage in face-to-face meetings on a regular basis. Others are non-local in that they transcend the normal barriers of geographical space using whatever communications technologies are available. Non-local Communities of Practice are likely to be strongest when their members are also grounded in local Communities of Practice.

Identities and Areas of Interest

Numerous initiatives are underway to change the stories that frame our understanding of who we are, our areas of interest, what we are trying to do in the world, and how. In each instance the goal is to replace an Empire story that affirms dominator values and relationships by creating a sense of separation and competing interests with an Earth Community story that affirms partnership values and relationships to create a sense of connection and common interests. These are some examples:

THE ARTS

Empire story: The work of the artist is to create works of art for arts sake appreciated for their beauty and emotional power.

Earth Community story: The work of the artist is to engage in and facilitate artistic expression to help societies discover and express their defining values and character.

THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Empire story: The building professions create fortresses that protect humans from the wild forces of nature and one another, serve as monuments to human power and ambition, subdue the environment and bend nature to the human will.

Earth Community story: The building professions create human habitats that connect people and nature in living communities that contribute to the health and vitality of the whole of life.

BUSINESS & THE ECONOMY

Empire story: The role of business and the economy is to create wealth by converting otherwise unproductive natural, human, social, and intellectual capital to marketable products in ways that maximize the financial assets of investors.

Earth Community story: The role of business and the economy is to create real wealth and serve the community through the productive employment and enhancement of natural, human, social, and intellectual capital. See also the discussion of “Prosperity Stories.”

CIVIL, GENDER, & INDIGENOUS RIGHTS MOVEMENTS

Empire story: The goal of civil, gender, and indigenous rights movements is to eliminate barriers preventing to the traditionally marginalized and oppressed from competing on an equal or favored footing for positions of power and privilege.

Earth Community story: The goal of civil, gender, and indigenous rights movements is to eliminate the system of dominator power in favor of a partnership system of democratized power that respects the rights, needs, and creative contributions of all.

EDUCATION

Empire story: The purpose of education is to prepare young people with the knowledge and skills organized by academic discipline that they will need to pursue financially successful careers in service to existing institutions.

Earth Community story: The purpose of education is to prepare young people and others for creative engagement in visioning and birthing the cultures and institutions of a new human Era of Earth Community.

ELDERS - BABY BOOMER GENERATION

Empire story: The retirement years are a time to take an extended self-indulgent vacation free from responsibility as reward for a lifetime of productive employment.

Earth Community story: The elder years are a time to experience the joys of elderhood through an encore career in service to the community, including in the roles of mentor, teacher, and wisdom keeper.

FAITH AND SPIRIT

Empire story: We honor God and thus achieve material prosperity in this life and a place in heaven in the afterlife by obeying his word as interpreted by those he has entrusted with power and authority.

Earth Community story: We honor the living spirit by finding our place of loving service in the great work of of creating a world that works. Some people of faith refer to this as the work of creating God's Kingdom on Earth

PEACE & SECURITY

Empire story: Peace and security depend on strong leaders with the police and military powers required to impose international and domestic order through pre-emptive action against all potential criminal and military threats.

Earth Community story: Peace and security are secured through cultivating a culture of peace that recognizes the human capability for cooperation, sharing, and compassion, the creation of planetary systems of interlinked just and caring communities, the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy, and the elimination of military capabilities beyond modest national defense forces.See also "Security Stories."

HEALTH

Empire story: Good health depends on an advanced high-tech health system staffed by trained specialists and educating people to assume personal responsibility for healthy diets and exercise.

Earth Community Story: Good health is a measure of the extent to which a society provides secure access to family and community-centered primary health care, nutritious food, and a clean environment and creating democratically governed, caring communities with a strong sense of place, and an equitable distribution of wealth.

YOUTH - MILLENNIAL GENERATION

Empire story: The smart and responsible youth chooses an established career in a mainstream institution that will support his or her material life style aspirations, learns the rules, progresses up the career ladder, and acquires a sufficient nest egg to assure a comfortable retirement.

Earth Community story: In this time of rapid change in which we humans must reinvent ourselves and our institutions, the smart and responsible youth avoids a dead end career in the establishment institutions of a dying system and creates his or her own opportunities, often by inventing new careers, devoted to birthing a new human era.