Participatory practice
However, it is not easy to view the world in this different way. The hegemonic colonisation by the outdated worldview of our minds is reinforced on a daily basis in the stories we tell ourselves and those that others tell us, whether heard in the media or from our peers. The alternative voices required to bring about change must shout louder and more consistently to be heard above the cacophony we are subjected to.
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A participatory consciousness underpinned by love creates the lens that is needed to create the change we want to see in the world and helps us to be that change with others.
Theme 3: Participatory practice as the embodiment of values and principles Take away love and our earth is a tomb. (Browning, 1855) If we are to succeed in co-creating new social realities, we cannot choose between love and power, we must choose both. (Kahane, 2010) We know that it is important when working with community groups to spend some time agreeing on the rules of engagement, often called ground rules. In more formal workshops these are usually posted on the wall, and when someone strays from those ground rules a member of the group will often refer to that wall chart, pointing out gently what has been agreed. None of us is perfect, so occasionally any of us might forget what has been agreed or fall back into habitual practices that deviate from those agreed. However, the collective agreement holds sway because if the process has been truly participatory – that is, there has been participatory parity in decision-making – the rules are owned. Those ‘rules’ will be based on agreed values and principles. They are embedded in the values of those who shape their practice and act as a social bond between people. In the more informal setting, a community group dialogue as a general discussion of values is a useful starting point. The values and principles of empathy, compassion, kindness, mutual respect, dignity, diversity, including honouring all ways of knowing, are fundamental to participatory practice.
The principles of participatory practice form the basis of the most important value of all: love. This is not being ‘Pollyannish’ in perspective; rather, we are brain-wired to love, as current neuroscience developments show us, just as we are wired to collaborate. We are not talking about love in the romantic sense but the wider concept of love which the Greeks differentiated by seven different words,1 one of which, agápe, reflects Freire’s (1972) love of all humanity. Embarrassment with talking about love is a reflection both of the way contemporary language reinforces 21
