What does it take to grow a adaptive, enduring and vitally sovereign community?
It takes a human ecosystem…
In a thriving ecosystem, the collective benefits from each part doing what it does best in a collaborative and mutually beneficial way. Within the fertile ground of reciprocity, relationships are nurtured as each are able to share not only resources and nourishment but convey information and offer protection as needed. By seeking more opportunities for collaboration over competition, new adaptations and innovations guide the many interconnected parts forward on their concurrent evolutionary paths. This leads to greater efficacy, adaptability and resilience for all contributing parts alongside the greater whole. This is the story of nature’s most adaptive and thriving communities. It is how trees, fungi, microorganisms and other species within biodiverse ecosystems interact and support one another in reciprocal and collaborative ways for the benefit of not only themselves and their kind but their larger systems within systems. We humans reflect much of this in our own systems and approaches though we still have much to learn from the Natural Order as we re-member our own roots and response-abilities as children of this Earth…
Here in The Greater World earthship community, we live in homes that are beautifully adapted to the environment while having a minimal ecological footprint. The design of the structures and systems within—which incorporate passive solar heating and cooling, water harvesting, on-site sewage treatment, and off-grid energy systems—allow us to subsist on what nature provides along with what we are able to cultivate within the structures themselves (ie food, medicinal herbs, aquaponics and air-purifying plant life). The concept of these living architectural systems allow us to subsist and even thrive independently from centralized power grids and water systems (systems that may serve the majority of the population’s desire for convenience though create a profound reliance and vulnerability by centralizing risk, creating cascading dependencies, and eroding community-level preparedness, cohesiveness and response-ability). This Living Systems approach to architectural design and independent living has largely proven to be a successful experiment thus far. The Earthship concept is not trademarked nor patented so allows for anyone to adapt the fundamental design concepts in any way that best serves them for their own goals within their unique environments while working with particular constraints or availability of resources. In this way, Earthship architecture represents an adaptive Open Source design modality which has great potential in fostering collaborative development and innovation at both a local and global level.
The Earthship concept has introduced many innovative solutions sourced from the intelligence of Nature as a way of empowering humans to live successfully as and within greater Living Systems. The concept has addressed many problems at an ecological level to promote greater independence from centralized power. So, why does our governance structure in the Greater World earthship community—the model for Earthship design—not reflect the same concepts and values to support the community’s independence, health and social wellbeing? What we have, and have been subjected to for decades now, is an imposed HOA that primarily serves the interests of the developer while neglecting the needs of the community. It is a top-down hierarchical Closed System approach which has been both oppressive and harmful to the wellbeing of the community, particularly to those members who have pushed back against the imposed order. The effects of such a system have proven toxic as the social environment has become polluted with infighting, competition and a general sense of discord. Those who come to the community arrive with such a great sense of optimism and enthusiasm which is eroded over time leading to a dispirited sense of resignation. This is not inherently a fault of the people, but a byproduct of the system itself. We are seeing more and more how the top-down control of patriarchal Closed System governance structures have proven a failure in serving the true health and wellbeing of the people on many levels which leads to dis-ease within communities. We, as Greater World community members, can change this not only for our own benefit but for those many other communities longing for a better way...
This is the invitation of the GWCC. It is not a promise but a proposed structure within which we as members can incorporate those earth-based values of harmony, balance, reciprocity and collaboration into our social and governing structures as an open source social technology for community sovereignty. It is a Living Systems approach to governance. Living Systems governance is a frameworks that treats governance as an adaptive, evolving process, similar to a biological system rather than a static structure. This approach emphasizes principles like flexibility, adaptation, and interconnectedness drawing inspiration from both natural ecosystems and theories about how organizations function as living entities. The Living Systems approach is a departure from traditional, rigid models and involves applying concepts from fields like biomimicry and complex systems to design more resilient and responsive governance structures for communities, organizations and even digital systems. The reconfiguration of small community governance may seem a risky if not lofty task, but if we regard it as a collaborative and creative experiment, like the Earthship concept, and a journey for which we must simply take the initial steps to embark on, our steadfast commitment with the positive and proactive contribution of all community members will lead us to our higher aims in service to the vital and regenerative functioning of the whole Human Ecosystem. Consider it an adventure, a Winding Road Journey to Collective Sovereignty.
“You thought I knew where the road was and you followed me.
But no. I didn’t know where the road was.
We had to make the road together.
And that is what we did.
That’s how we got where we wanted to be.
We made the road. It wasn’t there.”—Subcomandante Marcos, Zapatista Army of National Liberation
What is the Greater World Community Collective (GWCC)?
Who we are.
The GWCC is a self-organized and self-governing group of individuals within the Greater World earthship community who’ve chosen to forge a new path distinct from our woefully lacking and oppressive HOA by offering community-managed solutions for improved communication, action and transparency.
The GWCC is a completely voluntary endeavor created by and for the people! Our intention is to uplift, serve and inspire not only residents and property owners within our community but those beyond who are also seeking a viable path towards small community sovereignty based on a Living Systems approach.
Core intent.
Our original and core intention is to support greater unity and sovereignty within our community. As off-grid dwellers, we can find at least some common ground in our spirit of independence, resourcefulness, curiosity and adventure. As individuals, we each have something unique and valuable to offer from our accumulated skills, resources, wisdom and lived experience. Together we represent a veritable goldmine of shared knowledge, wisdom and experience beneficial to both our local and global community.
Through our commitment to organizing, forming stronger bonds as a community and sharing the resources of our unique experiences… not only is the impact of our individual contributions enhanced manyfold, so too is the reciprocal effect—both here in our local community and far beyond, like ripples on a pond.
Our approach.
In short, we listened, we organized and we responded creatively, logically and strategically. For every core problem we identified regarding the acting management and general well-being of our community, we took it upon ourselves to come up with a number of creative and achievable solutions. Those solutions are both practical and imaginative, serious and playful, long and short-term in nature. They address the immediate needs, perceived needs and future aims of our community while honoring the shared values and ideals of the collective. Most importantly, our effort is an open invitation to any and all members to be heard and allowed to contribute so long as they demonstrate basic integrity and a sincere commitment to the wellbeing of the whole.
For every problem, there is at least one creative solution!
Among our core tenets is "present no problem without offering a potential solution." This represents not only the most fundamental basis on which evolutionary progress can be built, it defines the spirit of a new and more proactively engaged culture operating from a mindset of creative response-ability .
In alignment with this ethos, we’ve turned the 3 core issues with our current community management structure—communication, transparency and action—into 3 core pillars of our community improvement movement.
Action.
Heart-based engagement fuels our sovereign economy of exchange and reciprocity. It may be offering a suggestion, contributing to a community improvement project, participating in a poll or vote, coming together to support a neighbor… part of the core functions of the GWCC is to support member response-ability.
With multiple channels of engagement and many ways to contribute, any member can participate at any time, in whatever way and at whatever level suits their preference. Absolutely no commitment is obligatory. After all, the most impactful and mutually beneficial form of engagement is through inspired action!
Transparency.
Anything related to GWCC’s operations as a community-managed organization is made readily available to all members. We feel it’s of utmost importance to maintain a policy of complete transparency and with that, full accountability to our supporting members.
Through the GWCC community hub, all information regarding the organization’s documentation along with recordings of all meetings are organized, archived and made readily available to those seeking it. This is a self-serve hub accessible to all registered members. It requires no dealings with privately employed gatekeepers nor special permissions and offers no resistance, no dismissal and no deflection.
Communication.
Effective communication is at the heart of any successful group endeavor. In a world already oversaturated with noise, too much and too little is always a question. To improve communication and connectedness sans overstimulation we propose just a few integrated solutions for general news, calendars, project management, wellbeing (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual) resources and emergency updates all accessible through one centralized hub.
Each member may tune in or out of any topic as suits them and find their like-hearted sub-tribes within the community (“Circles within Circles”) through topics, committees and neighbor profiles on our community map.
