The 5th Generative Citizen Practice: a Curated Citizen’s Knowledge Base
Generative Citizen is a network of people using generative skills to help make the world a better place.
There are two components:
- A community of people engaged in collaborating, networking, and sharing worldwide.
- A Generative Citizen Programme
The Generative Citizen programme has 5 key elements:
- Self – management, emotional and somatic intelligence, COACH / CRASH states
- Empathy, compassion for self and others (includes approaches from the arts)
- Self-development at identity level, mission, values, healing family patterns etc
- Communication skills, including linguistic approaches to perception, meaning and belief change
- Curated citizen’s knowledge base; history, social issues – non-ideological ‘book club’
Here we explore the fifth element more fully:
The 5th practice is like a book club or study group with very carefully selected non-controversial texts that relate to the history of a country, race, status of women, class, land ownership issues and approaches to the climate and biodiversity emergency.
For British people, we will include Black and British: A Forgotten History, by Historian David Olusoga about the relationship the UK has to people of African descent: amongst other things it includes how from Roman times there are traces of African Roman soldiers along Hadrian’s wall, and also how the profits of slavery are so embedded in British society. There’s even a children’s version and a BBC TV series. We could do the same for the British relationship with India – find a clear evidence based non-ideological text which can explain something of empire and colonialism.
We will create similar reading list and materials for other countries.
On gender, for example, we would include Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez et al
Thus, a skilful, relational person in COACH state has basic fact-based data to inform their choices, understanding of the world and advocacy around world issues.
We want to introduce knowledge and understanding around material conditions like race, class, sex, and climate change in a non-confrontational, non-dramatic way. An education in the basics, over time, and at the discretion of each group.
This of course is even more difficult if you are in a country with a very disputed history …
This is about experiencing the field (the community of mind) in a relaxed informed way, able to enrich the maps of others in rapportful, friendly and non-snotty way!
It’s not about racism awareness or something that upsets or triggers people. It is about understanding our world more fully, how people are the way they are, and how we have come to create the maps we have.
It is about expanding and enriching our maps.
Generative Citizen has to be done responsibly otherwise it will get too ‘political’ for some people and they will feel alienated.
That’s why we have put this together with the other 4 elements of Generative Citizen – so that we have COACH state and other high level personal skills.
The Generative Citizen programme
Generative Citizen: Level 1 training
Five Core Practices for skilful living in challenging times
