By Joe Mancini
Published in September 2000
This past spring, Toronto author Jane Jacobs, the author of several classic studies on urban development including the Death and Life of Great American Cities released a groundbreaking book, The Nature of Economies. She proposes “a radical notion of breathtaking common sense: economies are governed by the same rules as nature itself.” She does this in 150 pages using a very easy to read novel-like conversation among five friends.
One of her main points is the nature of development and expansion. Standard economic theory or the Thing Theory of development supposes that development happens when the infrastructure of factories, roads, dams and schools are present. Jacobs supposes that it is the innumerable creative acts by individuals and commercial and non-commercial organizations that co-operate together to create a diverse, sustaining economy. Things come later as a by-product.
Jacobs’ main example is of a desert or a forest. Each could exist where the other had been. Deserts are barren because the sunlight has only sand and rocks to filter through. “The passage of energy is swift, simple and vanishing, leaving no evidence of the passage.”
A forest ecosystem is completely different. It grows and expands because of the sun’s energy flowing through diverse and roundabout ways through zillions of organisms. “Once sunlight is captured in the conduit, it’s not only converted but repeatedly reconverted, combined and recombined, cycled and recycled, as energy/matter is passed from organism to organism.” A forest teems with species while a desert is comparatively barren. But if the same forest is clear-cut and the soil allowed to bake, soon you will have a desert.
Biology’s recent understanding of this phenomenon of multiple recombinations of energy passage has much to offer for understanding the way communities grow. Creative ideas are best supported by an environment where other diverse, decentralized activities are taking place. Energy needs to be co-operatively and not so co-operatively passed back and forth through numerous interdependent links. Over the years, The Working Centre has developed a small supporting web of initiatives that support people in important ways by providing access to tools, projects and other supports.
Working Centre board member, Ken Westhues calls this approach “the joy of producing for ourselves.”
“Against the ethic of mass consumerism, the Working Centre pits the ethic of ‘producerism’, drawing on thinkers like Illich, Lasch and Schumacher. It means acquiring skills and seizing opportunities to produce many of the necessities and luxuries of life on one’s own or in small groups. Unemployment from this perspective need not mean deprivation, the loss of the good life, but instead a chance to redefine the good life in a more authentic, joyful and sustainable way, in terms not so much of purchasing power as of producing power.”
Every day bikes are being fixed, reused and becoming a cheap means of getting around. People are growing food at community gardens. Every day people co-operate together to prepare and serve the meal at St. John’s Kitchen. People are getting assistance in finding a job, while others are sewing clothes and household articles. BarterWorks teaches the skills of trading and bartering as the project continues to grow and reshape itself. The new housing will create an important support in the community. Access to on-line computer training, computer recycling and community voicemail links people with new technology in a practical way that builds knowledge. These activities work as an ensemble that grows through the support they offer each other. It is like a forest with diverse interconnection.
In the midst of a great deal of activity the construction labours on. Peter, Greg and many others have contributed tremendous energy over the past year to keep the project moving and overcoming major barriers like dismantling the elevator shaft, cutting holes in the floor to create a back exit to the third floor, and cutting out the third floor back corner balcony. The housing like the bike recycling, computer recycling, computer training, community space and events, craft workshop and bartering will create a beehive of creative community services that will provide projects and tools to assist people to participate more fully in the building of community.
