Romy Shovelton surfaced and had the following to contribute to Avner. I guess she is not curretnly on the LIST -- so I will pass it on.
ho
Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2003 11:12:22 -0400 From: Romy Shovelton <[email protected]> Subject: Master Planning & opening space Sender: Romy Shovelton <[email protected]> To: Avner Haramati <[email protected]>, Harrison Owen <[email protected]>, John Thompson <[email protected]> Avner Thanks to the generosity of Harrison (as always), he has woken me up to a hugely important issue that you posted on the OSLIST, despite my being virtually invisible there these days. Firstly, I am in awe every time I hear of the work you are doing. What a gift to Israel and our world. So... needless to say, I would be honoured to see if there is anything I can add or support. As you might imagine, most of my own thinking would chime 100% with that of Harrison. And.... I have a couple of other thoughts. 1) I agree that an important primary focus will be on mentoring the planners & politicians, to get them to a place where they see the real value of the direction you are taking in engaging the people - as Harrison says, so that they see how genuinely aligning with the desires of the people (rather than doing so in theory only) GIVES them extraordinary power,rather than taking it away. What I might add, is that I believe you can move to participatory democracy in stages. It is true that, in many ways, when the people have tasted Open Space, you can't put the 'genie back in the bottle': they have a sense of the effectiveness of running their own show, and will not easily go back to 'business as usual'. However.... just as Open Space has a clear and strong framework (within which is the freedom to create our world together),it is almost always helpful to be very clear on 'the givens' in any situation: these form part of the framework. So...you might say that a 'given' is that, in the current democratic and legal context, the planners and politicians have certain responsibilities for taking certain decisions. For the time being, they can retain those responsibilities - using the participation and dialogue with the people as the best possible way of making the best possible decisions ie.deciding with the people... and NOT loosing power, rather building it. I agree that ultimately and ideally we will move to a situation where decisions are being taken through a process of hugely broader engagement of the people. And.. even in that situation there are likely to be groups of people, and some individuals, who are asked to work on behalf of the people (eg. the teams who have just been working to produce some of the five-year-plan detail.). In a way we are perhaps grooming the P&P to work in a way that democracy was originally intended to work? So.. in short, I believe it's possible to work with the planners & politicians (P&P) without frightening them! In this way to bring them along into genuine participation with the people (as Harrison has said, in a lot fewer words!). 2) In addition to mentoring the P&P, Harrison is right that I have some experience of involving them in working directly with the people to draw up and implement plans. Working with John Thompson and his colleagues (www.jtp.co.uk), we use community architects, planners & urban designers to help 'the people' and the planners & politicians to take community desires to the next stage - to literaly visualise what the physical and social space could be like. The result is very often a Master Plan. Working groups are often formed, and these can also benefit from the expert input of community planners etc. These are people that can speak the language of the P&P, while almost translating the will of the people. I have just returned from two such pieces of work in Yorkshire in England. In one, the main event, which pulled things together and effectively launched the implementation stage, included some significant transformation activities, to signal the change eg. closing the main street completely and building a (temporary) dry-stone wall down the centre - reclaiming local skills and acting as a seat for great local entertainment in the evening. btw John Thompson has personally worked in many contexts with significant conflit. I will copy him on this note, to see if he has worked in Israel? You may well have local 'experts' who play a similar role. If not perhaps John might be able to help? 3)the other thing, which I'm sure you will have given the P&P to understand, is that using Open Space (and appropriate related work)will not only support them in their power and popularity, it will also be MUCH more effective and streamlined in creating the needed output eg. Master Plan and its implementation. Having the people on board at the start is quicker and cheaper than lengthy objections and obstruction later. 4) btw on the question of elections, I'm sure your aim will be to involve those of all parties and 'sides'. And they will be advised to show genuine interest and desire for dialogue too. Of course what you don't want is them using your gatherings as a political platform: they would be invited to join in like everyone else. Perhaps you have a more specific concern here? So... Avner please forgive me for probably stating the obvious.... At least maybe I'm endorsing your own thinking (as well as that of Harrison)?! In summary, it would be wonderful to support you in your work. Please do let me know if there is anything at all that I can do. btw it was also such an honour to be invited to assist with /facilitate the work in Rome, with representatives from Israeli, Palestinian and Italian universities. As you will know, the intended event at the end of April was postponed:I am planning to drop an email to Sharon Rosen and Daniel Kropf to see what news there is. While so far, Sharon and I have only 'met' by telephone, it was wonderful to spend a brief time with Daniel when he was in London at the end of April/early May. With very best wishes Avner Romy -------------Forwarded Message----------------- From: Harrison Owen, INTERNET:[email protected] To: Romy Shovelton, romys Date: 31/07/03 12:05 PM RE: Some help? Haven't seen you on the OSLIST recently -- and presume you are alive and well. Avner Haramati (Israel) put up a note, and I thought some of your experience might be helpful. He said: -- Dear colleagues 9 months ago we opened (holded) a space in a Regional Council that includes 25 villages and Kibutzim ( corporate villages). They decided to build a 5 years strategic plan for the region together with the inhabitants. 11 teams worked on the issues that stemmed from the Open Space and last friday 10 teams that included inhabitants (130 of them) and civil servants presented their final suggestions in an open event/market to the public and guests and were acknowledged as the official guidelines of the strategic plan. The teams decided that they want to continue. The issue of the missing team was as Harrison calls it "clear as mud" and was publicly declared by the Head of the Council as the next focal point. The event and all the process was declared by the Inhabitants and the Academic and Govenmental guests as the first manifestation of real participatory democracy that they have experienced and they were thrilled. One of the inhabitants shared her understandind of the process: " We were excited by the 4 principals but I would like to add to the 4th: It ends when it ends but then it starts again". Or as Tova said " After 9 months the baby was born but now all the work of raising him up starts" It seems that they are getting addicted to this, and our role along the way is just slightly to remind them of the tune (in their words). And the question: We (with Tova) are in a process of using OS in the context of inhabitants participation in building a "Master- Plan" for a small city. We would be very thankful to hear and learn about your experience in this kind of work, especially on the allignment with the city planners and the planning stages, and how coming elections effects it? Thank you Avner Haramati Jerusalem I answered: -- I think Romy Shovelton has done some work in this area -- she is sometime lurker on the list -- but just to get her attention, I will forward this to her. As far as your question goes -- You have surely asked the tough one. I find that both city planners and politicians are (in general) adverse to Open Space. The bottom line is control. They think they should have it (control), Open Space makes it clear that nobody really does -- and so the problem. While there are undoubtedly ways to integrate Open Space events into the whole process (At the beginning to set the stage, in the middle for course corrections and working the "clear as mud issues", and at the end -- or continuing -- for implementation) I find that the critical thing it to seek the active, continuing, participatory involvement of planners and politicians. Things go badly astray when planners and pols consider the Open Space to be an exercise of the people which they may observe, and from which they may receive recommendations -- the old "senior management" model. Pulling this one off is a major task, and usually involves something like a "soul change" for the P & Ps. Indeed for some of them it requires that the world as they have seen it be turned upside down. All of a sudden the people are "in charge" and the task of the planners and politicians becomes one of working out the technical details -- a most important task -- but definitely secondary. This is called democracy. From the sounds of things (your story) you are off to a good start. My suggestion would be to spend a lot of time with the P & P in mentoring relationship, helping them to understand to genuine power of aligning their efforts with the desires of the people. As Gandhi was purported to have said -- help them to find out which way the parade is going and clear the route and manage the traffic. Actually, Gandhi didn't say that exactly, but I think he could have. Harrison Hope all goes well with you. I am in Maine, enjoying the summer. If you want to respond to Avner directly < [email protected] > will do it. And it would be great to see you on the list. ho Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 USA phone 301-365-2093 Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected] Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html ----------------------- Internet Header -------------------------------- Sender: [email protected] Received: from dns.midcoast.com (dns.midcoast.com [206.26.226.15]) by siaag1aa.compuserve.com (8.12.9/8.12.7/SUN-2.7) with ESMTP id h6VB5P8t006323 for <[email protected]>; Thu, 31 Jul 2003 07:05:25 -0400 (EDT) Received: from HOLAPTOP.mindspring.com (69-39-98-235.du.midcoast.com [69.39.98.235]) by dns.midcoast.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id B7AFCAE05 for <[email protected]>; Thu, 31 Jul 2003 11:05:00 +0000 (UTC) Message-Id: <[email protected]> X-Sender: [email protected] X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.2.1 Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2003 07:04:59 -0400 To: Romy Shovelton <[email protected]> From: Harrison Owen <[email protected]> Subject: Some help? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="=====================_2761971==.ALT"
Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 USA phone 301-365-2093 Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected] Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
