Oliver Escobar was raised in a country governed by a dictatorship. Now he is making a life work in democratic research, teaching, and advocacy. He says many or most of our democracies are very underdeveloped. They focus on just a few practices, elections and party politics, which are important but very limited aspects of democratic life. That underdevelopment may have played a role in bringing about what is now a time of great upheaval. That upheaval might in turn serve up an opportunity for renewal.
Peter Pula

The time to move well beyond representative democracy as the way we 'do democracy' is well upon us. Representative democracy has been found wanting. It has become the bastion of professional politicians, and the limits of its usefulness to the every day citizen are increasingly apparent. A strong argument can be made that worse than not being particularly useful, it has ensconced us in a system in which the political and state apparatus, in its habitual pattern, actually interferes with citizenry in a detrimental way. That does not mean that it must be abandoned, but it must be transcended. We must do better. And that means proliferating democracy into spaces where we as citizens can experience both agency and efficacy.
Peter Pula

We are in a global storm of shifting sands. Big, having the uses it does, has reached the limits of its usefulness. Doing more and more of Big isn’t going to get us any more significant results than it already has.
Twitter Feed
-
18 hours 52 min ago
-
21 hours 3 min agoEvery 2 wks we host a generative space for connection, conversation, & light collaboration. Join us Friday to Cultivate #Community, practice relational presencing, & experience & learn the #hosting arts. All are welcome! https://t.co/IRGtbESpzP CultivatingtheGreatCommunity
-
21 hours 13 min agoRT @angelafell: Generative Journalism: What's possible with the materials at hand & the direct experience of the person in front of you? What is your soul wanting to bring into the world? The unfolding of a persons story has 2 parts: the story of a person unfolding & the story unfolding 💕😍 https://t.co/WzSLfMw0Eo
-
1 day 21 min agoRT @DemeMove: Alongside movement friends & supporters we are exploring how generative journalism might midwife the future we can… https://t.co/DTbbjDLSXr
-
1 day 29 min agoRT @RBurke35: Excited about these 3 days hosted by @BelongingBrant celebrating neighbourhoods in September! We will be in convers… https://t.co/S3qPdyzFlo
-
1 day 8 hours ago
-
1 day 8 hours ago
-
2 days 18 hours ago@CormacRussell @AxiomNews Looking forward to my pre order to land soon.
-
2 days 23 hours agoRT @CormacRussell: "As a form of modern wilderness, no one on earth understands the neighborhood better than Cormac Russell and John M… https://t.co/D89oqCmmGo
-
3 days 23 min agoRT @hannah_ellis89: How do you sit with someone when they are sad, or grieving someone or something? It is so hard to try not to fix,… https://t.co/I3xBC3vFah