Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: consensus and majority vote

[Racheli Gai (jnpalme]

In <492580615.1026989764 [at] dhcp-129.snre.umich.edu>, on 07/18/2002 
   at 10:56 AM, cscheuer [at] umich.edu said:

>> The impression i've gotten is that almost all peoples have used consensus
>> process, and that in many cases it actually has been in some formal
>> setting such as a council.  

>Community is often not restricted to a formally bounded group of
>individuals (a neighborhood for example). Communities can be formed by
>affiliations and activities, often geographical but not exclusively. 

>The community impulse that initiates many cohousing communities, and
>other efforts to increase community in our lives comes from somewhere in
>us. I don't believe that impulse is new or unique,  I do believe it is a
>desire to restore and nurture something important that we experienced at
>times and in varying degrees  among family, friends or in our own
>histories, yet is proving difficult to achieve in contemporary
>residential settings.  By and large we have all experienced meaningful
>community on different levels throughout our lives, but how many of us
>have participated in formal consensus processes in those "communities"?

I think such communities - where no formal decision making process is in 
place - can work, up to a point.  The problem is that once something goes
wrong, the lack of explicit rules can be very detrimental (and often
benefits the people who are the more aggressive, and who are more able and
willing to take advantage of others).
To give an example: I've been a part of various homeschooling groups,
where there is usually incredibly strong resistence to setting up any kind
of explict rules.  Everything goes fine until it does't, at which point
there is nothing in place to help resolve conflict and keep a group going.
I also happen to think that even when there are no explicit rules, there
are implicit ones.  Discussing rules helps insure a buy-in, and also
allows bringing up and re-discussing/changing rules.  Even though on the
surface it might seem like a more restrictive setup, it's actually more
freeing by its nature, because it allows questioning and changing of 
arrangements, if people are dissatisfied.  And it also allows participants
to have a better idea where they stand.

R.

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