Multicentrism

Description

Geordan Shannon and Jeremy Lauer:

"Multicentrism is a useful concept to develop antifragile approaches to organising and managing resources. Multicentrism represents “a world of irreducibly diverse and multiple centers of being and value” (Weston, 2004). This ethic reflects the reality of ecosystems, composed of distinct interconnected subsystems, that thrive on diversity and decentralisation (Benyus, 2009; Grilli et al., 2016).

Multicentrism has a stabilising effect on ecosystems, whereas lack of modularity can greatly destabilise ecological networks (Grilli et al., 2016). Indeed, much generative practice in health is inherently multicentric in spirit, working with complexity and encouraging plural, distributed, interconnected nodes of action (Simons, 2019). Emergent techno-social systems such as those built on distributed ledger technology (see below for a more in-depth exploration of blockchain), multicentrism has been a key concept to understand how distributed systems enable effective collaboration and actions (Benkler, 2018; Bodó et al., 2021).

Multicentric systems look to localise to the right scale. The principle of subsidiarity is “that decisions about efforts to help others and to attain the common good … should, by default, take place at the smallest or most proximate level/scale of organisation possible, and only when necessary at a larger or more distant level/scale of organisation” (Abimbola, 2021; see also Chaplin, 1997; Follesdal & Pogge, 2005). Politically, there has been a movement towards subsidiary systems through decentralised forms of governance in countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Ghana, Kenya, and Colombia (Faguet & Pal, 2023; Dillinger & Fay, 1999). Political decentralisation involves the shifting of the management of resources to subnational government units so that there is a system of co-responsibility across levels of government (UNDP, 1999). However, subsidiary systems have often emerged beyond formal governance systems through bioregional, collectivist, or anarchical approaches."

([1])

Examples

Geordan Shannon and Jeremy Lauer:

"In planetary health, a multicentric system may look to localise systems of resources and governance to an appropriate scale aligned with human and ecological needs. Bioregionalism is an example of a proposal for the re-organisation of society according to multiple distinct bioregions, representing unique social-environmental zones rather than nation states. A bioregional model includes economic and governance systems, scaled by and directly in response to the community and environment, fostering care for nature amongst the region’s residents (Bove, 2021). Bioregionalism has similarities to traditional Hawaiian ahupua‘a or moku systems, which “segment land into self-sustaining geographical units to manage human activities in harmony with the area’s natural resources” (Glauberman et al., 2023). In addition to fostering a deeper connection with local ecologies, decentralisation based on the principle of Subsidiarity is essential for social—and arguably ecological—justice (Follesdal & Pogge, 2005). In the recently revised Zapatista Structures of Autonomy, a nested system of Zapatista autonomous governance was described that decentralises management of essential community resources to Local Autonomous Governments based at the community/ranchería/neighbourhood level, supported by decision-making Collectives of Zapatista Autonomous Government, and further coordinated through Assemblies of Collectives of Zapatista Autonomous Governments (Enlace Zapatista, 2023). This structure was designed to support communities in upholding their autonomy over critical community functions such as education, health, agriculture, and empowerment (Schools for Chiapas, 2014).

These decentralised structures for socioecological stewardship are neither chaotic nor isolated. An anarchical system such as the Zapatista model, far from being “disorganised,” is thoughtfully designed—and often well tested through trial and error in the real world—to maximise for agency. It is also based on a spirit of cooperation across contexts, that combines concerns for both human and ecological wellbeing: “We must all cooperate in order to heal the hole in the ozone layer and heal the holes in the hearts of men and women everywhere” (Schools for Chiapas, 2014). Though having an inherently local focus, these socioecological models connect across contexts. For example, a bioregional model is designed to honour diversity within and connection across global bioregions. Ultimately, successful models of decentralisation are also relational in that they ask us to think as much about other components of the whole as they do about local systems."

([2])

More information

• Pluralism