The PPS Dispatch_003
Welcome to a semi-regular dispatch of interesting signals from our desk to yours.
Every day, we come across stories of people and places that inspire us.
The PPS Dispatch is our way to capture, share, and amplify some of the incredible things happening within different communities. These signals resonate with us and inform our work, which is focused on moving towards more resilient systems, communities, places, and services.
In this edition we talk about the role of maintainers and fixers and the need for “adaptation and improvisation” in order to create more resilience within our systems. We share examples of neighbourhood-based approaches to creating more resilient places such as Montreal's 31 neighbourhood round tables. We share Gordon Brander’s thoughts on “rituals as protocols” and the implications for resilient communities. And lastly, we think about the power of plain language and share a resource from The Civic Design Forum & Public Policy Lab.
1. Resilient Systems
I first learned of the Maintainers research network while working in the tech industry, mostly in the R&D and Innovation spaces. I was starting to feel frustrated with the constant churn of the “feature factory” and grew quite cynical of the story that was being told of innovation as “always-new” without a recognition for maintenance and care work. And seeing the need for “adaptation and improvisation” in order to create more resilience within our systems.
In this edition of Solidarity Hall’s Dust, Cracks, Corruption, Elias Crim writes about why "broken world thinking" is more important than fetishized innovation.
This kind of repair-thinking means that the world’s fixers see things differently from designers or users. Fixing a broken system always involves elements of adaptation and improvisation. “To study maintenance is itself an act of maintenance.” (Shannon Mattern) It’s helpful to think of systems of maintenance working on different scales, which anthropologist Shannon Mattern offers in a brilliant 2018 article on Maintenance and Care.
He also references the work by the Maintainers research network, founded Andrew Russell and Lee Vinsel and their more recently published book Innovation Delusion.
In 2020, Andrew Russell and Lee Vinsel, both historians of technology, published their Innovation Delusion, a reflection on why our fetishized focus on innovation, tilted toward economists and engineers, must be replaced by a culture which can address disruption and breakdown. Drawing on the work of the Maintainers research network, which Russell and Vinsel founded in 2016, the book argues for a cultural shift toward “how the world gets put back together”—i.e., the important but mostly devalued labor that keeps us healthy, safe, and productive.
How might we consider the role of fixers and maintainers who “ensure the world gets put together” and support continuous adaptation and improvisation?
2. Resilient Places
There is a growing chorus around the importance of place-based—and more importantly, neighbourhood-based—efforts, and we love coming across different examples from around the world. I recently learned about Montreal's 31 "neighborhood round tables" focused on neighborhood-based challenges.
They cover both the older parts of the city's dense urban core, as a well as a number of communities with more suburban characteristics, ranging in size from 10,000 to 100,000 residents in each. Each round table is an incorporated organization that brings together in an association a variety of partners who belong to different networks (community groups, municipal governments, schools, local health & social services, even local businesses, citizens etc.) and operate in different fields of intervention (youth, seniors, mental health, food security, etc.). The goals are to identify emerging issues, mobilize residents, develop a common vision, combine strengths, and leverage the collective capacity of local stakeholders for the betterment of the neighborhood.
P.S. If any of you come across similar examples, we would love to hear about them. You can always reach us at hello@processpractice.studio.
How might we create spaces for shared learning and communities of practice at the neighbourhood-level?
3. Resilient Communities
When we think about resilience, especially resilience through a constant process of improvisation and adaptation, rituals seem to be an important part of this process.
In the newsletter “squishy computer” Gordon Brander writes about Ritual Technology, and shares 7 thoughts on rituals, including: Rituals are the feedback loops we construct to construct ourselves. Rituals shape the medium of time. Rituals orient us. Rituals are protocols. Ritual is a form of play. Rituals take place in a world set apart. And rituals make meaning.
The fourth thought, “Rituals as Protocols,” especially points to some interesting implications for resilient communities.
Rituals are protocols. When performing a ritual, we make the part of ourselves that participates in the ritual like the ritual. We give up a bit of requisite variety, shape our range of motion, act in structured ways, to gain what the ritual has to offer. When many of us participate in a ritual, we each become the like the ritual. The ritual is an interface, a common set of procedures. It can act as a stable point of coordination, a “source-of-truth”, in software terms, or a lego dot that helps us click together. In this way, rituals can be a kit for constructing community. Perform the ritual together, and a particular kind of community will emerge around it. Rituals channel our collective energy in a particular shared direction. There are returns to scale on coordination, so, ritual is adaptive.
How might we leverage rituals to act as a stable point of coordination, and to help us “click together” as a community?
4. Resilient Services
I have been collecting signals about language, communication, and storytelling for a long time. It seems obvious, but I keep coming back to the simple fact that plain language is needed and must be a recognized skill. As an English-as-a-second-language speaker, I personally have to continuously practice and hone these skills, and I still have so much to learn, so I value these resources and conversations.
One example I came across was this lovely workshop series by The Civic Design Forum and Public Policy Lab, focusing on better and easier ways to describe things taken for granted (like in a very complex context like government work) and making them accessible and actionable for everyone. I’m not affiliated, just a fan. But you can sign up for their Plain Language Newsletter to hear about upcoming events, like the example below here.
What is language accessibility? This Forum kicked off our 2023 series on language accessibility with a deep dive into plain language writing. Language accessible writing and design that considers all readers including those with cognitive disabilities, low reading literacy, or anyone encountering an unknown topic. Plain language is communication your audience can understand and use the first time they read or hear it. At the forum, we discussed what language access barriers New Yorkers face when attempting to access vital information and public services. Attendees got a chance to learn essential plain writing techniques and practice.
How might we use plain language to create accessible services for all and build shared understanding, even in the face of complexity?
P.P.S. Does it though…?
Thanks for coming along!
Lena with Process/Practice Studio