Tradition That Has No Name

* Book: Mary Field Belenky, et al. The Tradition That Has No Name. Basic Books, 1997.

Description

"The Tradition That Has No Name,1 by Mary Field Belenky and others. In it the authors describe at length several cultural and citizen innovations, many within the (especially southern) African-American community, that are spawned by what they call public homespaces. These are physical and social environments, safe or free spaces, in which people can come to a stronger sense of themselves, are supported in finding their own voices, and gain skills in listening to and respecting the voices and identities of others. Belenky and colleagues, along with other social theorists such as Harry Boyte and Sara Evans, hypothesize that such public homeplaces are an essential condition for developing (and strengthening) a participatory, or deeply democratic, culture. If they are right, as I think they are, we need to incorporate this theory-derived finding into our practice of cooperative enterprise development. If we don’t, we may well remain a marginal presence, one that can on rare occasions flicker brightly, but has little staying power or capacity to widen and deepen itself. If we do integrate it, this should contribute to that process of self-correction which, as Jaques points out, seems to be lacking in the current (USA) cooperative movement." (http://www.geo.coop/lktheor.htm)