communities of practice
Critical connections between future-builders matter more than critical mass in long-term transformative work: without these, nothing new can emerge. Networks are the lifeblood of emergence, and yet so much of the way life is organised gets in the way of pioneers connecting
Sophia Parker • Emerging Futures at JRF - Two Years In, the Story So Far
This infrastructure will be more than a set of foundations or a scaffold. It will look, in fact, more like a playground: which exists, not subordinate to or below some other, more important work, but as a structure in its own right, one which supports, co-creates, and constantly re-produces play, creativity, imagination. Not something which can be
... See moreOlivia Oldham • Imagination Infrastructure — What Do We Mean?
these are all types of relational infrastructure too:
• Peer-to-peer journeys and learning crews - topic as focus
• Communities of practice - practice as a focus
• Participatory ecosystems - place as a focus
• Labs - social, living, innovation and more - process as a focus
Sam Rye • On Relational Infrastructure
People are an essential ingredient of social infrastructure.
New_ Public • 🤔 Revisiting Discord, libraries, and Somewhere Good
Let’s consider that formula: community knowledge + solidarity networks + folklore. The web3 communities I’m in have powerful ideologies; these are spaces with shared perspectives and rituals that have emerged over a compressed period of time. This manner of collective world-building in and around projects (in the best possible way, I wouldn’t use... See more
Medium • Magic, belief systems + web3
Theorists commonly identify two forms. There is “bonding” social capital created within existing social groups and “bridging” social capital created by relationships between existing social groups or across conventional lines of social segregation.
The Relationship Is the Richness
Relationships are the energetic core of communities. They are the glue. They are the reason people keep showing up. They are the biggest (and yet ironically the most intangible) value that communities create. Relationships are the community’s soul and source of life. Without relationships, the community is an empty shell.
Fabian Pfortmüller • Community = relationships
Relational infrastructure is only really seen when you know what you're looking for - much like the web of mycelium connecting trees in our forests that make the flow of communication, resources, and mutual intermingling possible, and enable life to thrive.
Sam Rye • On Relational Infrastructure
Those relationships can have intrinsic value for the individual members, creating a sense of belonging or being connected to others. But it can also have value fo r the larger society for three reasons: first, because one can draw on it as a resource for accomplishing some objective , such as partnering with other parents to improve the local... See more