C O N S T R U C T I V E D I S O B E D I E N C E .

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A Manifesto.

Gabriel Wulff / Studio 2 / MA Sustainable Design / University of Brighton

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What?

Constructive disobedience is a critical introspective approach to global issues. By analysing our behaviours and spotting the areas upon which we can change, we are able to simplify and scale down the vast complexity of the challenge. This praxis will bring people together. Common problems become vehicles for community cohesion Constructive Disobedience is the refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands but more importantly of constructively criticising our own perception, behavioural patterns, norms, traditions and habits that perpetrate ecological (env + soc) degradation. Constructive Disobedience is an approach for pioneering community involvement. It re-organizes the elements at play, eliminating unnecessary costs by finding beneficial connections within the community’s resources. Constructive Disobedience offers a platform, an experience, in which people come to realize that change is not only possible but also beneficial. This experiential process infects the users and spectators with the wakefulness that to be a truly responsible citizen is more about taking responsibility and actively participating, than pointing fingers and marking ballots.

How? New opportunities will arise by taking advantage of the fragile links, vulnerabilities and dependencies of our current socio-economic paradigm. From these visible weaknesses can be promoted and projected new possibilities.

A)Spot the issue (this should be a visible impediment) The constructive disobedient has to be attentive in his environment; conscious and aware that action might be needed. Like pain in our bodies, Constructive Disobedience is an unrequested but valuable feedback, pointing out instability, tensions and issues worth addressing.

B) Expose the problem (so that the general public knows) It is about achieving a closer critical dialogue between the agents at play (activists, public, decision makers and their relationship to the ecosystem). By first, critically analyzing the situation, then imagining new possibilities through constructive criticism and implementing the results of this discussion.

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C) Propose new solutions Intrinsic to the success of Constructive Disobedience is openness to failure and criticism. It is a process of constant feedback and constant change.

Constructive Disobedience is about having the courage to act, to point out failures to yourself and then to the public, it is about refusing the status quo, refusing idle consumerism, refusing to swallow and digest everything that is thrown at us. It is about paying attention, reflecting on the most attractive and empowering ways of expressing our concerns, and ultimately of belonging to a society of active participants defining their identity through their practices and not through the things we own.

Why? The context is set. We live in a fast changing world in which our actions have repercussions that affect the whole planet. The illusion that economic progress through resource depletion will continue unhindered is coming to the end of its life. It is becoming harder and harder to ignore the facts. We are no longer talking about how the next generations are going to live on this planet, now the debate involves us. How are we going to live on earth in 50 years time? The Challenge is within ourselves. It is a challenge of perception and behaviour: it is about changing the way we relate to ourselves, each other and to our surroundings. The current state of affairs offers seldom the infrastructure necessary in order to move to a more durable lifestyle. In other words, the shift that we are looking for is not offered on a silver platter, and the desire to transcend this status must then be coupled with methods that go beyond the usually used routes. It is now too late to wait for international treaties or sound ecologically minded legislation. I believe it is time to act.

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“Every act

of rebellion

paradoxically

embodies an

aspiration to

order.” A.Camus

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::Table of Contents:: 1_The context is set - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - p7 2_Ecology (or how I affect you, you affect me) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - p11 3_Urban Ecology (or how our second skin is concrete) - - - - - - - - - - p13 4_Why name it? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - p14 5_What is it? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - p16 6_How does it manifest? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - p20 7_Disobedience (re) visited - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - p23 8_From Adam and Eve to Wikileaks - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - p25 9_Case Studies of CD - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - p29 The LRCG

Innovative Striking methods

Fair use act Girl Talk

The ploughshare four

The EDO decomissioners

Celebrity smuggling in SA

The Boy who used a skirt

Auction hijacking

10_Bigger is not better: The case of the “Big Society” - - - - p34 11_The Siblings: “Same same but Different” - - - - - - - - - - p37

Design Activism and Constructive Disobedience

Positive Deviance and Constructive Disobedience

12_Get some De-conditioner - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - p41 13_Neighbours are people too - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - p43 14_Constructive Disobedience is Resilience based - - - - - - - p45 15_How can its power be harnessed - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - p48 16_Framework for Constructive Disobedience - - - - - - - - - - p50 Bibliography - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - p52

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The context is set.

We live in a fast changing world in which our actions have repercussions

that affect the whole planet. The illusion that economic progress

through resource depletion will continue unhindered is coming to the

end of its life. It is becoming harder and harder to ignore the facts. We

are no longer talking about how the next generations are going to live

on this planet, now the debate involves us. How are we going to live on

earth in 50 years time?

To perpetuate this model is like investing in sub-prime real estate. To

believe that science alone will get us out of this hole is comparable to

obeying a blind faith, a fundamentalist religion. To blindly believe that

our scientific achievements will offer salvation is even more dangerous

than believing in a God or Goddess that doesn’t exist. When the myth

becomes human, we lose all grounding, all connection to the bigger

whole. When we believe we only depend on ourselves, any action is

justified.

Ban Ki-Moon, the UN general secretary states: ‘Our carbon based

infrastructure is like a toxic asset that threatens the portfolio of

global goods, from public health to food security.’

Today the challenges we face no longer only involve objecting to black

on white reforms and legislation by oppressive regimes. The oppression

is within ourselves, partly planted by the accumulative processes of

industrialisation and mass-consumerism, but mainly just there because

we obey. The challenge nowadays is a challenge of perception and

behaviour: it is about changing the way we relate to ourselves, each

other and to our surroundings.

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The Socio-economic paradigm in which we live has been defined as

being perverse:

“any ecological initiative must be economically viable,

whereas any economic initiative doesn’t have to be ecologically

viable.”

This is obstinately wrong says Sarah Parkins, leader of Forum for the

Future: Moulded by scientific progress and fuelled by profit driven

economics, the current state of affairs offers seldom the infrastructure

necessary in order to move from a perverse world to a sustainable

world. In other words, the shift that we are looking for is not offered on

a silver platter, and the desire to transcend this status must then be

coupled with methods that go beyond the usually used routes.

It is now too late to wait for international treaties or sound ecologically

minded legislation. Although it is important to remain faithful that one

day in the future we will see legitimate action from our representatives,

I believe that the time has come to act. The non-renewable energy that

we consume equates to the manual labour of approximately 22 billion

people. (Limits to Growth conference Andrew Simms in the Panel

Discussion) In a time when cuts, unemployment and public deficit are

the main economic concerns, the solutions is glaring… let’s get out of

our chairs, and engage in vita activa.

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ants nest and beehive.

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Ecology

Ecology is the study of relationships. How I affect you, you affect me;

we affect the rest; and how these affects affect the whole. It considers

living organisms and their surroundings, the living and the non-living.

Human ecology integrates environmental and social conditions as both

play an equally important role in the structure and functioning of any

given setting. In other words, every action we take in our surroundings

has an environmental implication and a social implication, thus an

ecological implication.

David Orr in “The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture and Human

Intentions.” states that:

“The problem is not how to produce ecologically benign products for the

consumer economy, but how to make decent communities in which

people grow to be responsible citizens and whole people who do not

confuse what they have with who they are.”

We are products at the same time as actors of our environments.

Humans, beavers, termites and ants have been defined as ecosystem

engineers because of their power to change energy fluxes and alter

their home, or oikos (the word for house in Greek, and the etymological

root of the word ecology). The difference between our species and

social insects per say, is that we have become so adept at manipulating

energy, through scientific progress, so as to become our own shadow.

But is the evolutionary advantage our ability to alter energetic

cycles and ecosystems? Or is it the knowledge and

understanding of this capacity that will help us gauge our

decisions and adapt to sudden changes in the environment?

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Richard Dawkins has elaborated the idea of extended phenotypes by

broadening the platform of genetic expression to our oikos. In other

words, cities, in the same way as birds’ nests, beehives, and termite

mounds, are the expression of genes outside of the body.

Our surroundings are our second skin. If your room is damp and dirty

chances are you will be more susceptible to asthma and respiratory

problems, and down the line if nothing is done well your walls will

collapse. There are living organisms everywhere; there are ecosystems

in your mouth, under your nails, inside your bed, as well as on your

walls, under your floors, and above your roofs. And most importantly

we are playing a part in every one of them

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Urban Ecology

The year 2008 will most probably be remembered as the year the

demographic scales of the world tipped from rural to urban. More than

fifty percent of the world population now lives in urban areas (fig. 1).

Rural populations have to face leaving their traditional dwellings, in

which they have evolved for centuries, and build new homes in a new

setting. The consequences of the global capitalist economy has

centralized productive activities in urban centers and obliged rural

populations to inhabit this new urban ecosystem.

The urban ecosystem is a relatively new notion. It arises from the

realization that ecosystems exist everywhere, and that we as humans

can change ecosystem fluxes to such an extreme extent that we have

created a new ecosystem. This ecosystem proves challenging but also

holds many opportunities.

By visioning the city as a living entity made out of other living entities,

we are integrating it in the biogeochemical cycle of our world. It is a

metabolic organism. Cities breath (gazes are consumed and rejected),

the eat (food, space) and they grow. By considering them from an

ecological point of view we can determine the different energy fluxes

and interdependencies within them.

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Why name it?

To name a certain process or approach to sustainability provides a

common ground on which a movement can grow. By defining and

framing the means and ends of such an approach, the intention is not

to constrain or invent a new movement but to highlight a trend by

providing it with a space to mature, be enriched and tested. It could be

called social branding, and provides unity amongst the disparate groups

allowing the users to focus their independent practices towards a

common goal.

It is about Praxis, the process by which a theory, lesson, skill is

enacted, practiced, embodied or realized. Marxism has been called the

Theory of Praxis. Marx believed that the importance of philosophy was

how it reported and informed action. He states:

“ Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the

point is to change it.”

Hannah Arendt, in The Human Condition explains that Western

Philosophy has too often focused on the contemplative life, and has

neglected the active life. This Arendt explains has lead humanity to miss

much of the everyday relevance of philosophical ideas to real life. She

calls “praxis” the highest and most important level of active life. She

argues that more philosophers need to engage in everyday political

action or praxis, which she sees as the true realization of human

freedom. She believed that what makes us uniquely human is our

capacity to analyze ideas, wrestle with them and engage in their praxis.

She goes even further and states that action is a mode for human

togetherness, this leads to participatory democracy a concept that

counters the modern elitist forms of politics characterized by

bureaucracy.

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The aim is to give coherence and to communicate the actions that are

taking place, in order to assess the impact and relationships between

them. Indicators are needed, not in order to quantitatively evaluate

statistics for projections, but to qualitatively evaluate the methods

available to counter ecological degradation.

It is also a call to action, to be inspired. In the information age the

world isn’t smaller it’s just easier to get around, providing a platform in

which the transference of ideas and praxis is increasingly fluid.

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What is it?

Constructive:

Constructing or tending to construct; helping to improve;

promoting further development or advancement, opposed to

destructive.

Disobedience:

When a child disobeys, he is testing the waters, pushing his limits in

order to learn and determine what is acceptable and what is not.

Constructive because it builds on what is already there. “We envy what

we do not posses, the rebel protects what he has.”

Disobedient because we need to step away from the same mode of

thinking that has got us in this situation in the first place.

Constructive Disobedience is activism in your backyard, in your

neighbourhood, in your community. A constructive disobedient will

value the intangible over the tangible. Current low-carbon initiatives are

trying duplicate the same consumer dynamics albeit reducing their

impacts, with the same reward mechanisms. This is not a solution. We

will need to link satisfaction and happiness to less tangible things like

sharing, love, community, meaningful work, skills and friendship. GNP

the indicator most countries use to assess their state of affairs is

eloquently dismembered here by the Robert Kennedy:

“Gross National Product measures neither the health of our children, the

quality of their education, nor the joy of their play. It measures neither

the beauty of our poetry, nor the strength of our marriages. It is

indifferent to the decency of

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our factories and the safety of our streets

alike. It measures neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our wit

nor our courage, (…) It measures everything in short, except that which

makes life worth living.”

.

Constructive Disobedience is an approach for pioneering community

involvement. It re-organizes the elements at play, eliminating

unnecessary costs by finding beneficial connections within the

community’s resources.

Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws,

demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying

international power. In the same way Constructive Disobedience is the

refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands but more

importantly of constructively criticising our own perception, behavioural

patterns, norms, traditions and habits that perpetrate ecological (env +

soc) degradation.

Constructive Disobedience offers a platform, an experience, in which

people come to realize that change is not only possible but also

beneficial. This experiential process infects the users and spectators

with the wakefulness that to be a truly responsible citizen is more about

taking responsibility and actively participating, than pointing fingers and

marking ballots.

In the post-awareness era it is no longer a question of convincing

people that the way we live is not durable, but to offer new

opportunities by taking advantage of the fragile links, vulnerabilities

and dependencies of our current socio-economic paradigm. From these

visible weaknesses can be promoted and projected new possibilities.

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These vulnerable spots in the current widespread paradigm correspond

to the territory in which action will be most effective. Because these

weaknesses, if spotted, can be exposed, the unreasonable nature of the

functioning of our system unveiled, and then decorated with a vast

array of solutions.

Constructive Disobedience is about adapting to constant change, from

production to provision, from competition to co-operation, from rigidity

to flexibility, from dependency to resilience.

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How does it manifest?

Constructive Disobedience territory arises when a problem/issue in the

local surroundings is noticed and people pull together to act upon it. It

has three main stages:

1- Spot the issue (this should be a visible impediment)

2- Expose the problem (so that the general public knows)

3- Propose a solution (get ready to be criticised>good)

The constructive disobedient has to be attentive in his environment;

conscious and aware that action might be needed. Like pain in our

bodies, Constructive Disobedience is an unrequested but valuable

feedback, pointing out instability, tensions and issues worth addressing.

It is about achieving a closer critical dialogue between the agents at

play (activists, public, decision makers and their relationship to the

ecosystem). By first, critically analyzing the situation, then imagining

new possibilities through constructive criticism and implementing the

results of this discussion.

Intrinsic to the success of Constructive Disobedience is openness to

failure and criticism. It is a process of constant feedback and constant

change.

To constructively disobey is to experiment and find local solutions to

external dependency problems.

We are conditioned to think and act in certain ways. It is about breaking

free from these chains. Constructive disobedience is a critical

introspective approach to global issues. By analysing our behaviours

and spotting the areas upon which we can change, we are able to

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simplify and scale down the vast complexity of the issues. Responsibility

is spread amongst society. This praxis will bring people together and

the common nature of our issues will be framed by the conditions under

which we live. Common problems become vehicles for community

cohesion.

Constructive Disobedience is about having the courage to act, to point

out failures to yourself and then to the public, it is about refusing the

status quo, refusing idle consumerism, refusing to swallow and digest

everything that is thrown at us. It is about paying attention, reflecting

on the most attractive and empowering ways of expressing our

concerns, and ultimately of belonging to a society of active participants

defining their identity through their practices and not through the things

we own.

Constructive Disobedience finds ways to consciously object that are

both more informative and educational to the public, as well as the

targeted group. It has become to easy for demonstrations to remain

ignored or misreported in the media, we need to be more incisive and

persuasive in our communication. Infused with creative oils, the

relationship between activists and the public will be lubricated. In other

words Activism must be re-ignited and adorned with the same

playfulness, innocence and creative stride as when children disobey.

It is site and issue specific, it adapts to the shape and context of the

challenge it faces, it will be appropriate because it can only manifest

ground up: every territory being different, a diversity of responses will

appear. This diversity contributes to a bank of ideas that can then serve

as inspiration for the future. Constructive Disobedience rehearses the

futures.

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The possibilities become kaleidoscopic when a community decides to act

together to catalyze change. Constructive Disobedience does not wait to

be invited. It’s contagious storming into the room and positively

infecting all of the agents with an ethical itch to act.

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Disobedience (re)visited

“You cannot step into the same river twice”- Heraclitus

This observation by the Greek philosopher can be translated into: “the

only thing that never changes is change itself”.

We live in a changing world, thus the rigid laws and codes of society will

have to change with the world in order to achieve a balance between

the actors: the people, the environment, and the decision makers.

The stigma attached to the word disobedience is dangerous and

contextual. In other words, in a perfectly balanced system disobedience

is indeed a vice. Far from a perfect system, disobedience in this article

should be considered as an unrequested but valuable feedback method.

Oscar Wilde boldly expressed:

“Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is Man’s

original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made,

through disobedience and through rebellion.”

Disobedience is a response mechanism that alerts the elements in a

complex system like the urban ecosystem, of obvious failures in the

current paradigm.

It can be compared in this sense to pain, which is a signal that alerts

the body when danger is imminent. The aim of pain is to produce a

reflex of retraction. Pain itself will not kill you it is only your bodies’ way

of saying danger!

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To believe in the obsolescence of disobedience is to believe that the

world we live in is perfect. In a way, to be completely obedient is to

give up the hopes that change for the better is possible.

If you disagree with this statement above please

STOP READING NOW.

?

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From Adam and Eve to Wikileaks

Disobedience as a virtue through history:

a) Evidence in mythology

Erich Fromm, the German social psychologist, states at the beginning of

his Seminal essay “Disobedience as a psychological and moral problem”

that:

“Human history began with an act of disobedience, and it is not unlikely

that it will be, terminated by an act of obedience.”

He starts his essay by noting that in both Hebrew and Greek mythology

humanity is born from an act of disobedience; the “original sin”, far

from corrupting man, actually set him free. He makes a similar parallel

with the Greek myth of Prometheus, who stole the fire from the gods,

thus making man self-sufficient.

This is evidence that even in the founding mythologies of Western

culture disobedience plays a central role in defining our identity as

human beings.

b) Civil disobedience

Throughout history disobedience has catalysed change, with some

examples being:

The Civil Rights movement

Abolition of Slavery

Women’s right to vote (suffragettes)

Gandhi’s Satyagraha

Squatters rights

Lgbt movements

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Civil disobedience was a reaction against laws, and authoritarian rule.

The rise of the consumer economy has changed the playing field. We

still face authoritarian rule everyday masked by seemingly unlimited

choice. This illusion of unlimited choice has been referred to as the “cult

of choice”: Liberalism masks its authoritarian rules and laws by offering

an apparent unlimited choice. Are we free? Free trade? Freedom of

speech? But how free are we really? To a certain extent it could be said

that we are regulated by our own confusion and identity crisis. We are

programmed to believe that as consumers we have the obligation to

feed the consumerist machine. Consumerism is us; therefore, we can

change the current consumption flux. We are conditioned by our

programmed minds that we need “stuff”. And while tangible and

concrete laws or rules are easy to counter by resistance, resisting

personal temptations that are engrained in our minds from the day we

are born is much harder. CD reacts towards laws and rules, but its

strength lies in countering habits, codes of conduct, norms, traditions,

perceptions and behaviour patterns. WE NEED TO (RE) CONDITION

OURSELVES.

c)“Idle” Consumer to Active Participant

The consumer economy expects us to act in certain ways. These

behavioural patterns can then be predicted, and despite an apparent

unlimited consumer choice the freedom of choice is but an illusion. The

freedom provided by the mass-consumerism machine is a freedom

dictated on each individual consumer’s ability to pay. Freedom is

therefore determined by how much money we have saved in the bank.

Wealth and power accumulation, a mechanism intrinsic to the capitalist

model also persuades the consumers that the wide array of alternatives

for one type of product is a virtue, why? Why is unlimited choice a

virtue? Most of the time the basic version and the high-end version are

produced by the same company and our apparently powerful consumer

choice is disintegrated in an instant, its consumer limits not choice.

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CD offers a new perspective on freedom. It offers the freedom to act

against a problem in our immediate environment. In CD every

consumer is also a potential actor. It works by diffracting out our innate

desire to consume by putting us in situations in which action is

necessary. The less time you have to spend, the less you can spend

time consuming. Furthermore you will be producing, making, doing,

imagining… these things are not only free, they are an important

element of wellbeing. These actions nurture, and provide the pleasure

and wellbeing that where satisfied in the past by shopping, comfort

eating etc… etc…

d)Digital disobedience

WikiLeaks offers a living example of CD in practice. Their moto is a

powerful one: “Courage is contagious”. By creating a secure platform on

which people from around the globe could anonymously leak any

confidential information without fear of retribution, Julian Assange and

his team have managed to promote the largest leak in history. More

documents were leaked on WikiLeaks than ever before. I define this

action as Constructive Disobedience. Not only does it point out failures

in the methods used by international business and politics, it allows us

to rehearse what a totally transparent world would be like. This offers

citizens a new perspective.

After the leak, large financial companies like Visa and Paypal blocked

WikiLeaks’ accounts, restricting any donations. Not only did Paybal and

Co. prove to the world the ever-growing concentration of wealth power,

and how these multinational entities are linked to governments. they

also gave birth to the first mass internet direct action, when 40,000

users overloaded the Paypal servers to cause a meltdown. Indeed,

Assange was right: courage is contagious.

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Digital disobedience offers many possibilities for effective political

leverage.

CD will find new ways of rebelling, making it harder for authority to

respond effectively, thus empowering protest and rebellion by limiting

the risks taken by the active participants.

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Case Studies of CD.

The example to follow is my personal experience of CD in practice. It

was after the closure of this site that I thought of describing what we

had done. It was through this experience that light was shed on the

virtue of disobedience as a catalyzing enzyme for change. The

community, by joining their efforts and actively taking care of their

extended phenotype, indirectly took care of themselves by growing

strong community links. Gardening was the vehicle used to enhance

community cohesion.

The Seeds: Find Fertile Ground – Dare to disobey – Imagine the possibilities.

The Lewes Road Community Garden was a community initiative born

from a single disobedient act. A derelict disused petrol station was

transformed into a community garden that gained mass appeal in the

area. Duncan Blinkhorn, the original gardener, decided one day to

“jump the fence” and introduce some plants to the site. This in turn

motivated other actors to do the same. Duncan’s disobedient courage

was contagious and went viral. A few months later the once idle site

was buzzing with activity. A sign stating, “Imagine a Garden” was

placed on the fence of the site, calling on the local community to get

involved in this initiative.

Roots and Shoots

Once our actions were visible, more interest sprouted and the garden

continued growing in both numbers of plants and gardeners. The

garden was not only visible, but recognized by the local community as a

beneficial initiative worth protecting. The local council, the green party

and the police all expressed their admiration for a community taking

care of their environment. The garden was a breath of fresh air on

Lewes Road.

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Fruits – the greatest fruit is adversity -

Adversity comes hand in hand with change. Adversity will force

definition by challenging our values. One morning we woke up to a

chain locking the gates and a security sign posted on the garden fence.

The sign was a hoax and the chain a deliberate attempt of intimidation.

The authors of this act forgot that a lock is only as strong as the frame

to which it is fitted and the gates were easily opened again; the chain

was later re-used to secure the site. This spurred the political phase of

the garden in which lobbying and petition collecting was performed and

the community put efforts into diversifying the uses of the garden in

order to accentuate its beneficial effects on the local ecology:

workshops, cinema, swap sessions, skill exchange, compost centre …

Harvest – new seeds -

What had we done? We had managed in a year to create a dynamic

space that provided the actors with an alternative experience to all the

other public spaces in the area. From the garden grew new ideas, like

the bike train and Lewes road campaign for clean air. From one

disobedient act germinated new disobedient seeds. The garden is now

closed but the change it catalyzed is still felt in the area.

“The garden was that rare thing in Brighton, somewhere where it was

possible to go any day of the week, without spending any money, and

get chatting to strangers. Pubs, shops, cafes, all require consumption

to enter. The garden was a place to converse and create.” Lianna

“The Garden was a great expression of all that’s good about Brighton

and the people that live here - creativity and community. A tangible

example and symbol of how we can all create space in any situation.”

Julie

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Other examples of CD

Examples of CD that illustrate it as an emergent practice can be found

around the world and are very varied:

-Innovative “striking” by Japanese Underground workers: In Japan

workers of the underground rail service have designed a very positive

way of protesting, that innovates the mostly passive act of striking:

they offer to the users of the service free travel until their disputes are

settled. In this way not only do they express their discontent with

working conditions, they also get the backing and support of the public,

and additionally rehearse a possible future in which public transport is

free of charge.

-Under the fair use act, music artist “Girl Talk” has been able to use

other people’s material in order to produce new musical content of his

own. This is a breach of copyright but the big record companies, fearful

of losing the court case and thus setting a court precedent, have not

sued. They have decided to tolerate this single disobedient act.

- On the 29 January 1996, Andrea Needham, Joanna Wilson and Lotta

Kronlid - known as the 'Ploughshares Four' - broke into the British

Aerospace factory in Lancashire and caused £1.7 million worth of

damage to BAE Hawk number that was to have been supplied along

with 23 other jets to the New Order regime of Indonesia. Accused of

causing, and conspiring to cause, criminal damage, with a maximum

ten-year sentence, they argued that what they did was not a crime but

that they "were acting to prevent British Aerospace and the British

Government from aiding and abetting genocide". The jury acquitted

them. This then created a precedent on which criminal damage can be

legitimate if it prevents a more important crime from happening.

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-Similar case in Brighton with the The EDO Decomissioners Case (R v

Saibene and others) was a legal case tried in England in which seven

members of the Smash EDO campaign were acquitted of conspiring to

cause criminal damage at the premises of EDO MBM Technology Ltd. On

16/17 January 2009, Smash EDO campaign activists broke into the EDO

MBM building in Moulsecoomb and damaged equipment worth around

£200,000. The jury, which accepted that they were acting with a lawful

excuse by preventing Israeli war crimes during the 2009 Gaza War,

cleared the activists.

-This year a boy wore a skirt to school, in order to protest against what

he called, sexual discrimination. Girls can wear skirts in the summer

months but boys are left with no choice but to swelter the end of the

academic year in trousers. Chris took advantage of a loophole in school

policy in order to protest and raise a debate surrounding the issue. The

school had no policy against boys wearing skirts so chris did. He

attracted, the attention of the school and the media.

-In South Africa, aids activists utilized the celebrity status of some local

famous people to smuggle generic HIV/AIDS treatments into the

country. These drugs being illegal, the government turned a blind eye

because of the imminent media storm brewing. The law didn’t change,

but tolerance towards smuggling in needed yet illegal drugs is a step in

the right direction.

- Tim DeChristopher caused consternation among oil executives and their US government cohorts in December 2008 when he won 14 bids at an auction of oil and gas leases in Utah – worth $1.8 million dollars – and then announced he had no intention of using or paying for them. It turned out he was a 28 year old economics student from Salt Lake University, who came to the auction to take direct action to keep fossil fuels in the ground in an area known for its natural beauty. Forcing delays in the auction in the dying days of the Bush presidency, his action proved successful as most of the leases were subsequently cancelled by the Obama administration.

33

“Disobedience in the eyes of anyone who has read history is (hu)man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” O.Wilde

34

Bigger is not better: The case of the “Big Society”

Treating people as if they are adept tends to turn out good results. This

theoretical standpoint, which the coalition government is promoting, is

a huge step away from the “nanny-state” vision. Local knowledge based

on everyday experience will have beneficial outcomes to planning and

decision-making.

Evidence shows that, when people feel they have control over what

happens to them and can take action on their own behalf, their physical

and mental well-being improves: they get together in their

neighbourhoods, get to know each other, work together and help each

other, with lasting benefits for everyone involved: networks and groups

grow stronger, so that people who belong to them tend to feel less

isolated, more secure, more powerful and happier.

The current government believes that by shifting power and

responsibility to the volountary sector the public deficit will be curved.

This is as far as the “Big Society” idea goes in addressing the current

causes of poverty and inequality. It does very little in trying to find a

solution to the forces of modern capitalism characterized by wealth

accumulation in the hands of a few at the expense of others. It also

ignores the fact that the current structure of the UK economy

selectively restricts the ability of citizens to participate.

We are all born equal yet we are not all born under the same frame, or

roof, or setting: we are conditioned by our surroundings.

Resources are unevenly shared. Our Prime Minister States that the “Big

Society” will encourage and enable people to come together to solve

their own problems. But the “Big Society” does not offer the

35

infrastructure necessary for such a model to happen. The pre-

supposition that those who have more will automatically behave in an

altruistic manner is far-fetched. We are conditioned to compete, and the

capitalist model values competition over co-operation. Co-operation

must have economic incentives if it is to flourish and overshadow

competition. Further more if these barriers of wealth are not broken

there is no reason to believe that those who come from disadvantaged

settings will have more chances compared to the better off. The

scenario thus changes little and perpetrates the same unjust model. Is

the “Big Society” just the “Society of the Big”?

The scenario set in front of us is confusing. A government urging people

to work together for the greater good but allowing huge multinational

corporations to be exempt of paying tax, Cuts in basic services like

Health and Education hindering the future ability for people to get equal

chances in life. The dynamics of this initiative are not structurally

sound, and yet again governments are trying to empower people from

the top-down, resulting in a path littered with gaps and potholes.

Constructive Disobedience has a different approach. It highlights the

problems so that a constructive critical dialogue can occur between

parties. It shares the ideals of the “Big Society” but by objecting to idle

obedience, not by empowering people but by highlighting how people

empower themselves.

Constructive Disobedience demands a government that will listen to the

actions taken by their constituency. Constructive Disobedience does not

pretend to change the way our society works but to build stepping

stones which gradually will change the perception of our relationships to

each other and our surroundings and thus alter behaviours that

perpetrate ecological (env + soc) degradation.

Constructive Disobedience is more about promoting the “Better

Societies” diverse, innovative, locally minded. We do not need a

36

government that tells us how to live what we need is a government that

legitimately represents their respective constituency by ensuring that

gaps are closed and socio-economic inequality diminished. We need a

government that is strong in integrity and transparency, a government

that cannot be paid-off or sub-let by the corporations that can afford it.

As Andrew Simms from the New Economics Foundation stated at the

University of Sussex’s “limits to growth” conference:

“Do not let anyone tell you the money is not there. Even if its just

looking at evaded, avoided and un-payed tax estimates fluctuate

between £40bn and £120bn a year! Something that would totally

change the economic landscape. We can spend £97bn on re-arming the

trident or we can put that into job creation schemes, transport and

agriculture infrastructure. Furthermore not doing this will cost the UK

an extra £52bn… What we need is an economics of maintenance,

qualitative improvement, sharing, frugality, adaptation to limits, an

economics of better not bigger.”

“You might say that twentieth-century political life is a cemetery containing the moral graves of people who started out as alleged revolutionaries and who turned out to be nothing but opportunistic rebels.” E.Fromm

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The Siblings: “Same same but Different”

In this section my aim is to place Constructive Disobedience within its

literature context in order to subtract the similarities and differences

between them. But also, as proof that this is a relevant and timely

subject that is being explored through different scopes. Design

Activism, Positive Deviance and Constructive Disobedience are all trying

to change this “unsustainable world path” for a more equitable and

durable modus operandi. In a nutshell they all have the same aim: Find

ways in which we can ensure a more just future for people and nature.

Design Activism and Constructive Disobedience

The main difference between Design Activism (DA) and Constructive

Disobedience is the target audience. DA is focused on the design

perspective, and how designers can and have changed the way the

world works. In this approach the book is adorned by many frameworks

that aid the reader follow the design process from a different

perspective. Focusing on social, institutional, environmental and

economic change.

It goes through a history of DA dating from 1750, the arts & crafts,

modernity, Bauhaus and other design movements. In the authors eyes,

most activism in these movements targeted themselves, and thus did

not transcend the boundaries of the design culture.

DA also looks at examples of practice, and these are broadly organized

into activism that addresses over-consumption and activism that

addresses under-consumption. In the over-consumption section Fuad-

Luke addresses awareness-raising/behavior-change, alternative

methods of production, eco-efficiency, “contesting the meaning of

consumption,” and social cohesion/community. For activism targeting

38

under-consumption he covers shelter/water/food, education, and

health. Here again we find a useful range of categories with which to

consider design activism that transcend western societies.

The author presents many frameworks, some very complex and in

doing so he limits his readership, falling again in the trap of “designers

talking to themselves”. The main difference between Constructive

Disobedience and Design Activism is in the means not the ends. This is

not a problem but an advantage. In order to attract more and more

people towards a sustainable approach different discourses must be

expressed. I believe Constructive Disobedience proposes a much

simpler and approachable method, in which a designer becomes a

member of a community and the community becomes the designer.

The book provides a valuable tool for designers wanting to further their

knowledge and practice of “good design”. Focusing on perception and

behaviour in the same way as Constructive Disobedience. It is a book

destined for design-literate audience. And although the design process

is almost everywhere in the world I believe it is important to encourage

non designers to experiment with building, dreaming, “imagining, and

making the unthinkable possible” as he states designers are licensed to.

Since when do you need a license to imagine?

“Synchronicity reveals the meaningful connections between the subjective and objective world.” Carl G. Jung

39

Positive Deviance and Constructive Disobedience

Positive Deviance (PD) first appeared in nutrition research in the 1970’s

when researchers observed that despite poverty in a community some

poor families had well nourished children. The practices used by these

families where then used to plan nutrition programs.

It has been tested since then in nutrition plans and foreign aid with

spectacular results. The first major success occurred in Vietnam in the

1990’s when Save the Children, managed through identifying the PD’s

and the uncommon but successful strategies used.

The project leaders then instead of telling the participants how to act,

designed a program to guide them subtly to act their own way into a

new way of thinking.

The solution was found within the problem.

At the end of the pilot program malnutrition fell by 84% and the skills

where transferred to younger siblings.

PD is based on the community’s own assets, by identifying pioneers of

solutions and highlighting their practices, this approach enabled people

to believe that “uncommon behaviour could be adopted as it was

already in use by some members of the community. They also avoided

the “immune response” that can occur when an external body tells a

group of people what to do.

Since this pilot project PD has been used to inform nutrition projects

over 40 countries.

Sarah Parkins (2010) has integrated the idea of PD into sustainability

leadership. She defines a positive deviant as: “someone who does the

right thing for sustainability despite being surrounded by the wrong

institutional structures, the wrong processes and stubbornly

uncooperative people.”

40

Her motivation to write this book comes from a question from a student

having completed a course in sustainability-management; she

wondered what she had to do differently on Monday? Tjis student had

all her paint and brushes ready but the canvas was not there…

This book is a sustainability-literacy manual for leadership and

management orientated people looking to catalyze change in their

workplaces despite being surrounded by unhelpful elements. She

stresses the fact that sustainability-literacy is necessary, offering an in-

depth analysis of the current state of affairs. By doing this she allows

others to join in the debate. I do agree with the importance of an

understanding, but Constructive Disobedience values the praxis of

focusing on specific issues in the local community because the process

of building closer social networks by beneficially altering our

surroundings will have direct beneficial consequences to the

environmental conditions. It’s as simple as valuing yourself and your

peers as resources. Creating tighter feedback loops, more connections,

basically, a safety net called resilience.

Another difference is that PD works by finding the positive deviants, and

thus imitating their behaviours. This is an important tool in the

Constructive Disobedience approach, yet Constructive Disobedience

does not assume that this way of functioning can be found already in

use and opens the playing field to a diverse spectrum of proposals.

Constructive Disobedience focuses on getting people to think together,

thus creating multi-disciplinary community teams, who know how to

satisfy THEIR needs. The Independent positive deviants or constructive

disobedient might be performing better practice that their peers but the

collaborative aspect might be absent from their praxis.

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Get some De-conditioner

Aldous Huxley in his book “A Brave New World” explains it in a psy-fi

manner:

All the babies are conditioned, physically and chemically in the bottle,

and psychologically after birth, to make them happy citizens of the

society with both a liking and an aptitude for the work they will do. One

psychological conditioning technique is hypnopaedia, or teaching people

while they sleep- not teaching facts or analysis, but planting

suggestions that will make people behave in certain ways.

The Controller, one of the ten men who run the world, explains some of

the more profound principles on which the Utopia is based. One is that

"history is bunk"; the society limits people's knowledge of the past so

they will not be able to compare the present with anything that might

make them want to change the present. Another principle is that people

should have no emotions, particularly no painful emotions; blind

happiness is necessary for stability. One of the things that guarantees

happiness is a drug called soma, which calms you down and gets you

high but never gives you a hangover.

Our families, our education, our societal structure, our peers, our

governments, advertisement … condition us to such an extent that we

rarely question the structure of our life. When someone asks why can’t I

do it this or that way and people answer, “that’s the way it is”, they

are inaccurate: as moments like foam pop away as soon as our glances

settle on them. Change happens in small steps without us noticing it.

>As Huxley notes in his predictions the subject of History is no longer

part of the compulsory curriculum in schools. >American studies

estimate that the average American will have to assimilate anywhere

42

between 1600 to 3000 publicity ads a day (Google Answers), these are

unconsciously analysed and processed, inferring behaviours and

producing habits, it might not be hypnopaedia but its close enough.

>Furthermore psychotropic pharmaceuticals are being administered

readily to children from a very young age, authors Richard Hughes and

Robert Brewin, in their book, The Tranquilizing of America, warned that

even though psychotropic drugs may appear “to ‘take the edge off’

anxiety, pain, and stress, they also take the edge off life itself…these

pills not only numb the pain but numb the whole mind.”

If Ecological, thus social and environmental degradation happened

through zillions of conditioned (unknowingly) wrong decisions and

actions, then ecological improvement towards a more durable world can

be achieved through zillions of knowingly right decisions. This is what I

have called de-conditioning, it starts identifying our conditioned states

and doing our best to break free from them.

<<"And that," put in the

Director sententiously, "that

is the secret of happiness and

virtue-liking what you've got

to do. All conditioning aims

at that: making people like

their inescapable social

destiny.>> A.Huxley

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Neighbours are people too

Think of your neighbourhood as a library of knowledge and skills and

shortcuts. Especially in urban developed areas people live really close

to each other but we have been conditioned to remain quite isolated. It

is like the spatial constraints have forced us into living on above each

other but we would rather not. Or is it? Each one of us buys a car, goes

to the shop independently (using fuel), we share space but live behinds

blinds and doors, we used to use windows to communicate and now

Windows means something totally different.

Do you know your neighbours name? And I am not talking about

his/her initials on your doorbell, what I am asking is have you ever had

a chat with your neighbour that involves something else that the

weather?

Neighbours are people, with skills; knowledge, experience and above all

they are people like you. I believe that pointing out issues in the

surrounding areas to your neighbours in a motivated and a “let’s do

something about it/ Can you skilfully help” kind of way is an excellent

start to for the Constructive Disobedience approach. You will discover

not only if there is willingness to participate, but also who this person

is, what they do, and their skills. This is the first step towards a more

sustainable community. Relationships are around us even when you

don’t speak to someone. I call a negative relationship a relationship that

is wasted and becoming a cost for both parties, like a broken marriage.

Instead of mutually helping each other you are unconsciously creating

costs to each other, ignoring the benefits of sharing services, friendship,

support, skill swap…

A permaculture garden is divided into growing zones according to how

frequently you visit the different areas, and your plants are placed in

these areas according to how much attention they need.

44

Permaculture zones save a lot of time and energy by reducing

necessary travel.

In the same way our neighbours at work and at home constitute

elements in our immediate zones: to attend to them is to catalyse

positive relationships within your ecosystem. The effects will usually

produce social and environmental benefits.

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Constructive Disobedience is Resilience based

Resilience comes from Latin verbe resilire that means to spring back, to

rebound. Take a ceramic vase, affect it with gravity, when it hits the

floor it will break, never to be the same vase again. Now take a tennis

ball, affect it with the same conditions, it will not only remain virtually

unchanged, but will bounce back up to your hand. Within these

conditions the tennis ball and its structure are much more resilient than

the vase.

Resilience is defined here as the ability or power of any system to

absorb disturbance and reorganise while undergoing change, so as to

retain essentially the same function, structure, identity and feedbacks.

This term is appearing more frequently in discussions about

environmental concerns, and there is a strong claim that resilience is a

more useful concept than that of sustainability.

Sustainability has grown a conjoined oxymoronic twin called Sustainable

development: together these two concepts are believed to be sufficient

to face the challenges of an uncertain climate. However sustainability,

in my eyes, has long passed its “best before date”. Today we have

already passed peak oil production and sustainability is lagging behind

because it does not offer the solutions to the compound error, it is a

band-aid that will peel off in time.

In Ecology, resilience is the measure of strength, and increasing it is the

main strategy of evolution. The more connections (relationships)

between the elements in an ecosystem the more resilient that system

is. This is the reason biodiversity is so important.

It emerged in ecological sciences as a way of looking at why some

systems collapse and others don’t. These insights offer today very

useful overview of how communities can thrive whilst adapting to

46

changing circumstances. We have all squinted, at sustainability models,

and their complex links and frameworks, I know I have, Resilience on

the other hand offers simplicity. This is the base on which durable

communities can grow. It is also the ethics on which Constructive

Disobedience builds.

Resilience depends upon:

Diversity: A broader base of livelihoods, land use, enterprise and

energy systems than the present model.

Relationships: The more positive connections, the more channels to

spring back the more resilient the system. It’s less about self-

sufficiency and more about self-reliance.

Tight Feedbacks: Bringing the results closer to home means a more

efficient feedback cycle can be achieved. Local food sourcing, local

services decentralised energy systems.

Constructive Disobedience is coherent with resilience because it

promotes a diversity of practices by encouraging communities to find

their “ways of acting into a new way of thinking”, this in turn will

provide a catalogue of different solutions to problems of similar nature

(food, energy, water, social justice).

Constructive Disobedience also uses action and responsibility (the

ability to respond) as a vehicle for human togetherness, community

cohesion.

As stated earlier in this essay, Constructive Disobedience works on

building tighter relationships between people other people and their

surroundings. This includes business, politics, and services. Tighter

relationships mean tighter feedback loops.

47

48

How can its power be harnessed

In order to harness the power of Constructive Disobedience it is

important to note that we are not talking about empowering people

from the top-down.

A few ideas of how Constructive Disobedience can grow:

1-Taking advantage of hyper communication age:

Information travels fast in vast quantities nowadays. I believe that in

order to harness the power of Constructive Disobedience we need to

improve transference of ideas and praxis through all channels especially

the digital channels as they allow users to Disobey from the comfort of

their own home.

2-Promote positive relationships:

Relationships in which you share skills, knowledge and support are

essential for preparing the ground for a constructive disobedient

approach. We need to be more social in public areas, promoting

activities that are fun for everyone, every age and every background.

3-We need the skills that have been used to condition us in order to de-

condition society.

People say they don’t like being told what to do, but it happens

everyday. The subversive methods utilised by advertisement companies

might be the only way to change our wiring, on a mass scale.

49

“Human history began with an act of disobedience and, it is not unlikely, it will be terminated by an act of obedience.” E.Fromm

50

Framework for Constructive Disobedience

In order to catalyse social change, the constructive disobedient has to

be ready to act at any moment! Here is a simple framework, but

remember to disobey to it, and more importantly do not only frame the

work, work within your frame.

Constructive Disobedience has three main stages:

Spot the issue:

Be aware in your surroundings, critically analysing your relationship to

the elements within it.

Expose it

Publicly expose the problems with the current way of functioning by

adorning the issue with visible solutions. This stage is essential to

gather people around issues, thus using the problem to solve isolation

and using the community to solve the problem.

Propose new solutions

By ACTING upon the problem. Transparence is essential in this stage.

Clearly state by your actions why you are doing it. Make sure athe

authorities and the public understand the issue and your solution. You

will most probably fail and receive criticism. Welcome adversity as a

guest and learn from it. Feeding back any valuable information.

Remember “the master of all trades is he who has made all mistakes”.

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To disobey is to hope. Hope is but the love of life. We disobey because we love.

52

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