[@OKau] care and consensus

Mon Apr 27 00:52:20 UTC 2015

Nic Gruen passed on the following quote in relation to a different
discussion the other day, perhaps relevant to the discussion on creating a
forum for consensus being by its nature a forum for collusion.

“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and
diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or
in some contrivance to raise prices.”
Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations

*STEVEN DE COSTA *|
*EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR*www.linkdigital.com.au

On 27 April 2015 at 10:23, Cobi Alison Smith <cobi.smith at unimelb.edu.au>
wrote:

>  Hey folks,
>
>  I'm citing this paper in my PhD
>
> https://www.academia.edu/12034526/The_Proper_Care_and_Feeding_of_Hackerspaces_Care_Ethics_and_Cultures_of_Making
>
> and have been talking about it with people from some maker communities
> I've been involved with.
>
>  I'm citing it in a section of my PhD in which I talk about the need for
> processes that support diversity rather than consensus, as consensus can
> silence, alienate or otherwise marginalise people and undermine critical
> thinking skills and tolerance. The new WA climate consensus centre is a
> demonstration of how consensus may involve implicit motivations and
> alienate people. The paper I share above is interesting as it discusses how
> organizers of a hackerspace recognize they have diversity problems, they
> also acknowledge that consensus has been challenging, but continue with it
> as a core value in decisionmaking (which I consider alongside international
> development studies in which consensus has been associated with oppression).
>
>  Steve I appreciated the article you wrote about the value of projects as
> outcomes of hackathons, so hope you didn't see my contribution about the
> value of learning/sharing as outcomes of hackathons as in opposition to
> that - perhaps I should have started by thanking you and saying I
> appreciated you sharing what you did, as it led me to craft my thoughts on
> what I value from hackathons :)
>
>  I think it's a good thing that the open knowledge community in Australia
> is growing to the extent that there are people with diverse perspectives
> expressing their experiences and values and outcomes. I hope that diversity
> is reflected in private discussions and decisionmaking at management level
> .
>
>  Best wishes, Cobi
>
>
>
>
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