Group Process Innovation from Intentional Communities

Discussion

Allen Butcher:

"Intentional communities also make or adapt innovations in group process, for inter-personal communication, self-governance, and communal economics. There are many forms of inter-personal and group processes used in community, from check-ins, to social contracts, to large-group processes such as, “Heart of Now” and “The Forum.”

In decision-making, consensus process may have been invented by Quakers in their “Friends Meetings,” although tribal cultures around the world have used forms of consensus process in place of authoritarian decision-making for ages. Within intentional communities, particularly the cohousing movement, consensus process is preferred. Many different adaptations of consensus process have been developed as a result of people both in and outside of community having decades of experience using it.

In the field of communal economics, the greatest innovation in secular intentional community must be the vacation-credit labor system, the most advanced form of labor-credit system in use. In these systems, hours of work done over the required minimum weekly quota of hours accumulates in the member’s personal account, to be drawn down by the member at a later time when taking a vacation. Different versions of this economic innovation have been used at Twin Oaks, East Wind, Acorn, Emma Goldman Finishing School and other communities. This method of organizing labor in communal society values all labor equally, including domestic labor and income work, and encourages and supports the feminist ideal of both men and women being free to work in cross-gender roles.

The most innovative aspect of labor-credit systems is that there is no or minimal exchange or trade of labor credits among members, since labor credits are only units in an accounting ledger, without using any form of token or anything else that might be used as a currency.

Non-exchange, labor-credit systems in communal societies are the most advanced form of time-based economy, called “labor-sharing.” Simpler forms of time-based economies do not involve labor-sharing, instead are called labor-exchanges, like “time banks,” a form of hybrid between monetary exchange systems and time-based economics, in which hour credits can be traded among members.

The vacation-credit innovation in communal economics serves to show how people can live exclusively according to the values of sharing and equality. Although this form of communal economy is not likely to be adopted by the dominant culture, it does contradict the idea that there is no alternative (TINA) to monetary economics." (http://0350f21.netsolhost.com/WordPress/2013/10/13/answers-to-the-anguish-of-the-ages/)