PATTERN
HIERARCHIES TO NETWORKS
If you take a wooden square box frame and pour millions of little balls into the middle, you will inevitably end up with a pyramid, the hierarchical structure of our economic and political systems, which concentrate money and power into an elite at the top. This appears to be more a product of natural evolution than some grand conspiratorial design.
However, in the same way that nature and natural processes are being used to inspire design (BedZED, Cradle to Cradle), eco-technologies (solar, wind), farming methods (biomimicry, permaculture) and industrial systems (ZERI, industrial ecology), so they are giving rise to new models in our political and economic systems.
In keeping with the reciprocal exchanges within the biological systems they seek to emulate, these complex systems tend to ressemble networks rather than hierarchies, with an emphais on decentralisation rather than increasing centralisation. Like an ecosystem, or the planet itself, their ability to adapt, self-organise and self-regulate, increases with diversity and complexity.
Leading examples in the world of business are VISA international, inspired by Dee Hock's 'chaordic design process', and the Semco Corporation in Brazil. The Participatory Budget Process (PB) in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre is a prime example of how this thinking can be successfully applied to our political systems, giving birth to Gaian Democracies.