6.1.E. The Emergence of Peer Circles

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6.1.E. The Emergence of Peer Circles

In the cultural sphere, all these changes are expressed in the emergence of a new organizational formal, that of peer circles. We have mentioned the emergence of cooperative inquiry groups and peer circles in the field of spirituality, but this is far from the only field where they are emerging. It used to be that if you wanted to create something new and 'collective', you would create a company, a NGO, or campaign for the creation of a new government agency. But these institutional forms are no longer sufficient to be fully acceptable to the P2P ethos. Attempts at collective creation, at worldchanging are therefore increasingly taking on the new organizational form of peer circles. Self-help groups, not a new phenomenon, where a pre-internet prefiguration of this trend.

One example are the emergence of giving circles . These are groups of people who pool their resources together. For example, in the particular format of Full Circles, members donate $1 per day, or $360 for the year. They collectively research local causes that are worthy of support. Jock Gill of the Greater Democracy blog has proposed to extend the concept to development. Giving circles would directly connect with villages in developing countries, using internet-enabled videoconferencing, and would fund microcredit schemes. He appropriate call its 'citizen to citizen' development based on 'edge to edge' relationships.