neotribes

facilitators: Antonin Léonard.. Alexa Clay.. Pedro Jardim.. Tomás De Lara.. Felipe Anghinoni

from about page:

Neotribalism is a sociological concept that postulates that human beings have evolved to live in tribal society, as opposed to mass society, and thus will naturally form social networks constituting new tribes.

In the book Beyond Civilization: Humanity’s Next Great Adventure, acclaimed author Daniel Quinn presents this “New Personal World Order” that would allow people to assert control over their own destiny and grant them the freedom to create their own way of life right now and not in some distant utopian future.

Daniel Quinn

In a practical sense, you might have read news, or even know people, that are “abandoning everything”, deserting the Western lifestyle to engage in small community building activities, living off the land or following the path of the digital nomad. You may also know people struggling to transform cultures within established organizations or working to bring intimacy and community to the anonymity of mega-cities.

via https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/neotribal-emergence/2016/09/05

LIVING QUESTION # 1:  Why are neo-tribes emerging at this time?

[..]

GENERATIVE TENSION 1: Neo vs. Ancient

“The tribal life is precious because it is tested out. For 3,000,000 years it worked for people. It worked for people the way nests work for birds, the way webs work for spiders, the way burrows work for moles. That doesn’t make it lovable, it makes it viable.”- Daniel Quinn

What is so “neo” about these tribes that are cropping up? ….Trends toward decentralization and the desire for local living patterns are conditioned by the Internet, which reroutes power to the local and to the “long tail” of possibilities for niche communities…We are in a moment of cultural evolution that is decidedly different from anything we’ve seen to date. Perhaps its signature challenge is how to be informed by ancient wisdom and indigenous practices without superficially appropriating or extracting culture from the people and places where it emerged.

eagle and condor ness

GENERATIVE TENSION 2: Autonomy vs. Belonging

..The idea is not to move beyond individual identity and autonomy, but to create space for the complex range of motivations and expressions that have been labeled unimportant or non-existent by neoliberal economics…We believe in the power of individual autonomy, and also in the power of mutualism. ..For example, Enspiral, a neo-tribe in Wellington, New Zealand, has pioneered the mutualization of resources for freelancers and social entrepreneurs. The collective has created a tool called Co.Budget where the group can do participatory budgeting: portions of earned income are diverted to a common pool that can be spent on mutually agreed projects. The collective has also built a shared infrastructure for accounting and operations that allows “solo-entrepreneurs” to benefit from membership in a purpose-driven community, while reducing the overhead of running one’s own business.

imagine we disengage from money/business (measuring transactions)

GENERATIVE TENSION 3: Openness vs. Coherence

In constructing our communities, many of us think about how to create a place of shared identity, while also maintaining inclusivity. Traditional tribes are often very closed. You inherit an identity based on kinship and the place you were born. [..]

GENERATIVE TENSION 4: Local vs. Global

We draw inspiration from diverse political, social and cultural movements and the new strategies for organizing that are emerging from groups like Podemos in Spain andFora do Eixo, a network of cultural collectives in Brazil. And so we are examining the role and value of transnational collectives and commons policy, and the potential of learning and strategies shared between diverse tribes of people and place.

GENERATIVE TENSION 5: Nature vs. Urban

For many of us, the possibilities of “digital detox” and “off-grid” living have entered into common parlance. We’re drawn to nature, rural landscapes and decommodified simplicity as an antidote to modern urban life. But more deeply, neo-tribers are also exploring what a return to rural, regional and localized living would look like. Pandora Hub, a neo-tribe that originated in Spain embraces the simple goal of “living the good life in rural areas.” The group has initiated experiments ranging from co-living in an abandoned village to learning permaculture practices from rural Nepali communities. In a similar vein, the Global Ecovillage Network equips thousands of communities around the world with tools and skills, providing tangible examples of sustainability in action.

The tension that many of us currently feel is how to create lifestyles on principles of openness, geographic wanderlust, and cross-pollination, while also making long-term commitments to people and place. We want to be both a part of the progress and openness that is incubated in cities, while also maintaining links to the land through stewardship in ways that align our lives with the pace of natural cycles.

LIVING QUESTION 2: What do we want to do together?

We invite this movement, this groundswell emerging under the banner of NeoTribes, not as an absolute truth but rather as an invitation to listen. Instead of crying out and screaming “the world is on fire,” we seek to receive and live stories of demonstrated better ways.  Bringing idealistic principles from past movements into practice, we now have the technological tools to share, organize and regenerate— inspired by global success stories rooted deep within local place. The magic of this moment lies not in more development, another novelty project, or an isolated brand, but in a remembering of value, ethos, identity, belonging, purpose and power that come from a shared story.

Over the course of the next 6-months we will embark on a learning journey, crafting and curating a cookbook of practical “how to” wisdom from over 50+ neo-tribes around key themes related to community design, group practices and rituals, methods of self-organization and facilitation, and tools for governance, financing, and mutualism.

More information about gatherings and coursework can be found here: www.neotribes.co

Say hello at: neotribes@neotribes.co

OR join the group conversation on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1706731536226852/

______

https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/readings-about-the-tribalization-of-america-neo-tribes/2017/05/04

David Ronfeldt has written a thoughtful reaction to one of last year’s most popular blogposts, “Neotribal Emergence“. Read the original if you haven’t already and come back for David’s reactions below.

[..]

At present, NeoTribes consists of five cutting-edge transnational collectives: OuiShare, Wisdom Hackers, Agora, Sistema B, and Perestroika. But they are just getting going, and will campaign to expand this year.

______

let’s try this to help 7 bn find their tribe.. everyday.. as the day..

a nother way

________

wisdom hackers

_________

follow neotribes: