Leon Bellin

The Social Movement of Tomorrow: Sharing Practical VSM Application

An Organization is What it Does'; However, for environmental movements, civil society, and other grassroots organizations, a big disconnect can exist between aims and lived practice: Identity is frequently contested, a select group of members overexploited, or the organization’s health or future changes in its environment ignored. While contemporary applications of the VSM may remedy these problems, they are often expert-led and target businesses and governments. Grassroots organizations, which are critical to a global transition towards viable and sustainable praxis, show new challenges like low personal time commitment and higher needs for scalability. In this workshop, participants will experience the results of my ongoing fieldwork from a Hackerspace in the Netherlands where I encountered the following questions: How can VSM concepts enter the behavior of grassroots members through learning-by-doing rather than facing abstract ideas? How can they ignore noise, focusing on what is relevant to their operations? And finally, how to maintain newfound cohesion in unstable or insecure communication environments? As a participant, you will use your conference attendance and other connections to the VSM as a foundation to explore your goals and activities. You will (anonymously) chart synergies and differences with fellow participants, grouping them to grow a shared activity tree. Finally, you will commit to one of the existing activities or add your ideal activity to the tree. At the end of the workshop, the remaining stages of the self-transformation method will be outlined briefly before participants can ask questions about the method.