What might sociocracy look like on the small scale, less formally, enacted by college students who have just begun to feel it out?
How might sociocracy’s resonance pervade an organization, even without the opportunity for thoroughly elaborated structure?
In this presentation, Juan Pablo will share how “Students for Environmental Justice” used Sociocracy as a subversion of the traditional, hierarchical classroom model. In exposing the intrinsic, but invisibilized, governance and decision-making processes of the classroom, this group was then empowered to take ownership of their collective class– from the curriculum at the foundation of it, to the grant money that would fund their community outreach projects around climate justice.
This presentation is for you if you’re intrigued by the prospect of sociocracy in small or transient organizations, or the overlap of sociocracy with bottom-up education.
Juan Pablo Yepes Tobón Students for Environmental Justice As a student at the University of Connecticut, Juan Pablo was the founder and facilitator of “Students for Environmental Justice,” a grant-funded student activist group lasting a single semester, through which its members (Juan Pablo included) explored and practiced Sociocracy as a means of decision-making and reclaiming self-directed education.
Juan Pablo is currently the coordinator for the Windham Community Food Network, a grassroots non-profit oriented toward providing just foodways for Willimantic communities. Since his undergraduate days, Juan Pablo has continued deepening his explorations of how to navigate the ever-pervasive “governance,” especially in co-living, community settings.