"GOODWILL HUNTING": A METALOGUE ON SETTING UP HUBS TO FOSTER MULTI SPECIES RELATIONSHIPS FOR THE COMMON GOOD

Abstract

Abstract

Goodwill hunting’ is the  title by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck of a movie in 1997.  Our  paper has (almost) nothing to do with the movie because it is literally about finding ways to create and build on good will for the common good of multiple species; but it does have something in common as it is about building relationships through the genius of local wisdom.  The paper and panel presentation is in the form of a metalogue and traces the story of setting up multispecies hubs to address what works why and how.

How can we balance the needs of individuals and species? How can we scale up local wisdom by working locally and at the wider level? Is the subsidiarity principle scalable? We discuss old and new wisdom to promote turning  points for the better through a community of practice. It is  structured in the form of a metalogue on what multispecies relationships imply together with  Indigenous custodians and community facilitators  in   South Africa , Australia and Indonesia.

In line with the latest IPCC synthesis report (2023) this paper  works with local policy knowledge holders using a metalogue approach . The participants include academics and practitioners who are concerned about climate change and who understand the implications of species apartheid.  Members of the community of practice lead local hubs using mixed methods for participatory engagement. A metalogue approach originally refers to reflection on ideas and was first used by Gregory Bateson in “ Ecology of Mind” (Bateson, 1972). The way we use it is to engages in a series of policy conversations that strive  to make sense of so-called contextual warm data , a term used by Nora Bateson (2021) to support deeper local understanding. We also reflect on our participation in an  SDD  led by AnonX  and AnonY. The SDD process  entails engagement based on generating ideas in response to an agreed triggering question, grouping ideas into clusters , ranking, voting on the most important ideas and considering which ideas are vital to enable achieving specific outcomes. On  the 11^th March we met together as a community of practice  to discuss maps of ideas generated in  the structured democratic dialogue comprising 52 members. From 36 ideas clusters were formed and then these form three layers of ideas on which we reflected and voted to produce action plan in the form of maps generated from the ideas.  This was followed up by a survey  by Anon X and Y to assess significance and feasibility. The result has been raising the enthusiasm of the members of the COP to work on ‘doable’ projects focusing  on water security and soil protection to support agroecology and to raise awareness on pollution.