Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Tragedy of the commons

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Sep 27, 2007, at 1:59 PM, Yusuf Pisan wrote:

> First, would a "consensus model" be plausible for conference
> attendees who are together for a short time and know that they are
> playing a game.

I'm not an expert on any aspect of game theory but sociocracy, which  
a governance model based on consensus decision making, is informed by  
game theory. There a few references to Nash and game theory in the  
book under my signature.

Sociocracy structures consensus decision making around domains or  
circles of interest within an organization and limits it to defined  
groups that agree to make decisions together. A group with every  
changing membership, for example, would have a hard time making  
decisions using consensus.

The value of consensus decision making is greater commitment to the  
intended results and utilization of a larger knowledge base.

A benevolent dictator can also utilize the full resources of the  
community, but dictatorships encourage or at least allow dependence.  
Sociocracy encourages self-optimizing teams and individuals that are  
responsible for their own development.

> Secondly, how do cohousing communities avoid the
> "tragedy of the commons" problem.

The areas in which we have avoided this is when a single person or a  
small group essentially makes a common facility their own. The  
facility is available for everyone to use but the individual person  
coordinates and largely makes the rules on how it will be used. This  
is done in a consensual manner but without that one person who exerts  
strong leadership and does a lot of work or gets other people to do a  
lot of work the facility declines.

Each facility needs that one person who really cares about it.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Coauthor with John Buck of We the People
Consenting to a Deeper Democracy
A Guide to Sociocratic Principles and Methods
ISBN: 9780979282706
http://www.sociocracy.info