Rethinking scale – a response
For most, the concept of going to scale invokes a sense of the large, the systemic, the external. It brings to mind replication, expansion and spread − like tentacles, ever-reaching, ever-growing. But taking a single project, or a concept, and trying to make it ‘work’ for everyone leads to forced, false constructs and a single vision of ‘success’ or ‘the good life’. It negates the beauty of the diversity of human existence.
Instead, we at the Global Youth Leadership Collaborative (GC) invite a different perspective on scale − inviting a billion flowers to bloom into many possibilities of human life. As the Zapatistas say, ‘we want a world that embraces many worlds’. Going to scale for us means linking the personal, the interpersonal and the systemic levels of change. We have to look at who we are as people today, what is happening in our relationships, and what is happening in the communities and world we live in, then try to bring each level into alignment with our deepest values.
The GC formed about three years ago. We are a group of 15 activists from 13 countries, including Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, India, Thailand, Senegal, Kenya, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Canada and the US. We work on environmental justice, building learning communities, healthy food systems, indigenous sovereignty, cultural articulation, sustainability, health and healing, and more. Our community grew out of the World Youth Leadership Jams, events co-organized by YES! (www.yesworld.org) and a number of other organizations. Jams pull together a diverse community for a week based on community building, personal reflection, and commitment to social change.
Together, we at the GC administer a flow fund, in which a pool of money is divided up equally among all our members, who are connected deeply to the work and context of communities. We believe people on the ground understand the needs of our times and are able to use our rootedness and nimbleness to affect transformative change. We have hosted many different gatherings for young activists in our regions and countries, supported media projects that link diverse and divided communities, and numerous other efforts. We believe in getting a ‘big bang for the buck’, which can happen only when resources are in the right hands.
In the process of having conversations that matter, we have realized that one size does not fit all − and ‘scaling up’ doesn’t work. So we find ourselves committed to greater sovereignty and freedom from the control, hierarchies, destruction and inequalities that come with extraction-based and techno-industrial development. It means asking ourselves if our actions (1) promote appreciation of each individual’s passion and contributions; (2) build community and interdependence, especially across difference; (3) challenge injustices and system breakdowns; (4) replenish nature; and (5) lead to greater local sovereignty and decision-making in peoples’ hands. We want measurements that matter (like Jacques Ellul’s ‘76 reasonable questions to ask of any technology’ – www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/nowact_jacques.htm).
For us, scale is about connections, among self, community, nature, and the divine. It’s about building communities across deep divides, understanding the interdependence of all issues and contexts, and recognizing that each of us has something unique and valuable to contribute in this web of change. Making space for, and supporting the flow of, these connections is a crucial element of going to scale.
Shilpa Jain coordinates the GC. To learn more, email shilpa@globalcollaborative.net
This article reflects her views and not necessarily those of every member of the GC.
