I am a researcher and resource curator using this space to share what I learn as I learn it. I enjoy the process of collecting, organising, analysing, and synthesising insights from existing resources to understand collective uses of contested concepts within and across specific contexts. This approach is informed by my training in historical, philosophical, and sociological examinations of technical concepts, as well as my professional experience implementing qualitative research methods and curating resources for specific audiences. While I tend towards this process of conceptual analysis for my own learnings, I sometimes share resource-collections and write-up my learnings to share with others. These outputs reflect my limited perspective - including assumptions steaming from my experiences within several default categories that imperialist/capitalist systems privilege, as well as my experiences navigating these systems with disabilities and other marginalised characteristics. This knowledge garden is where I keep the resource-collections I've prepared for myself, my friends, and various communities (in varying stages of draft form). More polished forms of my resource collections have been shared on the Commons Social Change Library. (I also have various academic writing that has been published - most is open-access, but if anything is inaccessible please reach out directly)

There are many ways to conceptualise the various practices involved in participating in collective governance (including questions about whether or not governance is a useful framing for collective practices at all). My initial motivation for collecting these resources was to explore the role of participatory decision-making within intentional collaborative practices. More recently, I've broadened scope to consider the conceptual landscape relevent to understanding a range of practical approaches to participating in collective pratices and when/how these are relevant to practicing commoning. Being careful with concepts I believe it's important to be careful about the concept we use as tool in organising for better futures. When using the term governance in the context of collective practices, I am intending to refer to the set of (formal or informal) processes by which people structure how they relate to each other and their shared environments and when and how they coordinate their actions and the deployment of resources within these contexts. In the context of collective practices, this concept of structures of accountabiliy can be help draw attention to when and how we can co-create our ways of relating while collectively stewarding our shared resources, navigating conflict well together, and so on. However, it is important to acknowledge that the concept of governance is entangled with the dominance of centralised governance practices - against which resistance is often articulated as a process of becoming ungovernable.

The following resource set is intended to support discussions on the concept of housing as a collective responsibility. Contents: Context Contextualising housing as a collective responsibility Glossaries of key concepts Resources for navigating precarious housing (location specific) Resources for developing community-led approaches to housing Australian experiments in collaborative housing examples

The formal or informal systems that structure how we are able to hold each other to account for how we act in relation to others within given spaces/projects are sometimes described as collective governance practices. How we act out these structures matters. These structures impact how leadership practices emerge within groups - with some structures enforcing centralised dominance practices while others support efforts to distribute power and responsibilies. Within colonial contexts, capitalism pressures us to unintentionally default to relating to each other within oppressive structures. One way to resist these pressures is by being more intentional about the governance structures we choose for ourselves. While our choices for collectively governing ourselves are constrained by these broader contexts, making our governance choices explicit can help to open up space within which to co-create more just futures together. In my explorations of different approaches to collective governance practices, I've found that guidelines and agreements are being used to detail specific expectations around participation within collectively governed spaces and projects. In some cases, formalised statements are also shared publicly to communicate existing guidelines and agreements with new participants (and broader audiences). When and how the effort of identifying, calibrating, and articulating shared expectations around a given aspect of participation depends on the a range of factors including the how many people are involved, how stable the collection of participants are, how long the given collective space/project is expected to last, and so on. For example groups practising commoning may need additionally considerations that allow for regularly revising agreements to allow for shared expectations to change as new considerations emerge within a dynamic collection of participants). There are numerous ways to group different aspects of participation together through these processes. The following broad categories are my attempt to sort examples of guidelines and agreements that have been shared as public statements.

A space for collecting examples of efforts to resist the unsustainable systems we've inherited by creating alternative practices that contribute to better-futures. Unless otherwise specified, these can be assumed to be navigating contexts dominated by the social/legal/economic structures of Federal and State Governments of Australia. Rather than an exhaustive list, this list forms part of my more general Recommendations Snapshot. For related projects from further afield and/or amplifying and coordinating international efforts, see the broader Better-futures Resource Lists While generally connecting across multiple themes, the following are roughly sorted by the following characteristics of resisting oppression and building alternative approaches to shared futures: Resisting oppressive systems: projects led by people with lived experience of surviving specific forms of oppression Food Justice: projects focused on reducing food insecurity by ensuring equitable access to healthy, nutritious, and culturally appropriate foods that are produced and distributed in environmentally sustainable ways). Community resilience: projects focused on cultivating community-participation, resource-sharing, cooperative practices, and collective responsibility.

A sample of things I've recently recommended - sorted into the following broad interest areas (each updated & trimmed sporadically): Concept explorations Engaging with the current state of the world Speculative & reflective artforms Better-futures resources. Concept Explorations A section for highlighting non-specialist presentations of topics from my field of research (dynamics of knowledge generating practices), and perspectives from fields of research I find personally relevant (outlier and marginalised experiences, decolonising practices, intentional relationship and community-building practices, etc.,).

image of a flower growing out of a concrete block and destroying the concrete to free it's root, from: https://ncph.org/history-at-work/how-should-we-respond/ Contents: Key Concepts Additional Resource Lists Tools Books Podcasts & Videos News Clippings Research

I recognise the ongoing soverignity of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples throughout the lands and waters known as Australia. I pay respect to past, present, and emerging Elders and honour their connections to land, sea, and community. I extend that respect to all First Nations peoples, and recognise their leadership in cultivating knowledge and practices for caring for Country and collectively building better futures. I was born on Birrbay (Birpai) Country and currently live in Naarm on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. I have called these lands home since 2008, and often visit and travel through the nearby lands of the Dja Dja Warrung, Boon Wurrung, Gunaikurnai, Taungurung and Wadawurrung peoples. I acknowledge that I am a beneficiary of the invasion and occupation of these lands by my ancestors and other settlers. I also recognise that I continue to contribute to the damage caused to these lands and peoples by the ongoing settler-colonial occupation. Before moving to Naarm, I also lived for varying lengths of time on the unceeded lands of the people from the Awabakal, the Dharug, the Bundjalung, and the Yaggera language groups respectively. I am still learning about my ancestory (see below) but, as I do, I am learning more about the people on whose lands I and my ancestors have lived. As I learn, I am repeatedly humbled by the historical and ongoing resistance to colonial attempts to disrupt and obscure Indigenous knowledge systems, technologies, and relational and cultural practices. As a token this acknowledgement that I live on unceeded Aboriginal lands, I commit a minimum of 1% of my income to restoration funds. More generally, I pledge to act in solidarity with First Nations peoples and support their leadership of better-future projects (by contributing to collective actions, participating in coalitions, acting in solidarity, offering financial support, contributing to land-back efforts, and/or getting out of the way; whichever I understand to be the most appropriate action for the situation).

The following set of discussion prompts is part of a series on Exploring Intentional Collaborations and builds on the earlier step of articulating intentions for collaborating on a specific project. In this step, the focus is on discussing how our values motivate us to participate in this project, how our values align and diverge, and which values we want to guide our collaboration. What are values? Values are typically understood as the set of attitudes, unique to each individual (or group), which guide the way we look at the world and govern our behaviour. Values are not about what you want to get or achieve; they are about how you want to behave or act on an ongoing basis. There are many approaches to identifying and articulating personal and shared values for different contexts. We will be drawing on several of these.

Note: small selection of resource collected with a specific context in mind; shared in case it offers a useful starting point for others Emergency Support - Phone/Text Lines 13 YARN - 13 92 76 Suicide Call Back Service - 1300 659 467 Alcohol Drug Information Service - 1800 250 015 Nurse on Call - 1300 60 60 24 QLife - 1800 184 527 For more, see this list of phone numbers for chat/text, with times and notes, by Melbourne Psychology and Counselling Services

A sample of resources for resisting the unsustainable profit-driven systems we've inherited by creating alternative practices that contribute to better-futures. Rather than an exhaustive list, this list forms part of my more general Recommendations Snapshot by offering a sample of the projects I value, sorted by my interests in: amplifying resources that cultivate international impacts facilitating cross-pollination in support of multiple local projects tools & services developed to support those building better futures stories with strategies for sustain hope in future-building efforts For projects that function at the local scales required to navigate contexts dominated by the social/legal/economic structures of Federal and State Governments of Australia, see Examples of Local Projects for Better Futures

The following discussion topics offer one way to structure an initial exploration of explicitly incorporating intentional practices within an emerging collaboration. When beginning a new collaboration, we often dive into creating the ‘what’ without taking the time to develop a shared understanding of why we choose to collaborate with each other on a specific project, and how we intend to relate well with each other along the way. In contrast, understanding why we are collaborating can provide a foundation for exploring how we can create a given what in ways that align with our shared values. In these discussions, a project can be any collaborative endeavour - it may involve temporarily sharing a specific space (e.g., during a retreat), co-creating a space together (e.g., while co-living), participating in a series of recurring activities (e.g., mutual aid organising), being part of an outcome-focused team (e.g., in worker copperatives), contributing to a long-term collective (e.g., affinity groups), or cultivating ongoing relationships of any kind. Each configuration of people, and even the same configuration of people collaborating on a unique project, invites and enables us to practice intentionally relating to each other while coordinating our efforts on a purposeful activity that contributes to a specific output or goal. Investing time in foundational relational practices also offers us an opportunity to be more intentional about when and why we commit to specific collaborations. Fortunately, there are many intentional processes for being explicit about how we relate to across various contexts.

Examples of responses to 'individual reflection' question prompts within the Values Calibration Discussion Prompt part of the Exploring Intentional Collaborations process. Example 1: Context: The following responses are from one of the participants involved in exploring whether to add 'collaborating on housing collective experiments' as an element to an existing relationship dynamic. Brainstorming personal values In the context of collaborating on experimental housing collectives, my values include: Trust, Interdependence, Connection, Commitment, Solidarity, Overlapping Communities, Shelter-security, Stability, Intentional process-orientated relating...

Friendships can be an important type of intimate relationship. Despite this, adults often find it difficult to cultivate new friendships. Part of this difficulty is that friendships are often considered a lower-priority than finding a person with whom we can have a Relationship with. One of the most well-known ways this is expressed is the set question/response of ‘Are you two in a relationship? / ‘No; we’re just friends’. Those familiar with this script may recognise that the question implicitly asks whether two people are on the relationship escalator; the response clarifying that this relationship is 'merely' a connection ‘as between friends’. This default uses of the concept of 'a Relationship' carries a lot of baggage, including a set of scripts that nudge us to prioritise forming and maintaining a Relationship over cultivating our friendships. For example, the typical Relationship pathway involves putting concerted effort into finding and claiming one person with whom we can entwine our lives, often at the expense of all non-familial connections. While we are expected to put deliberate effort into these Relationships, situational circumstances are expected to provide us with incidental friendships. Additionally, even when incidental friendships may develop intimate connections of various kinds (if we’re fortunate), attempting to articulate these connections is typically resisted for fear of overstepping boundaries and ‘ruining the friendship’. This resistance to explore the intimacies that can emerge between friends obscures the incredible variability in the ways in which people can and do form relationships. One approach to the limitations of the default narrative are efforts to overcome the lack of terminology available to describe meaningful relationships outside of romantic or sexual partnerships. These approaches have helped broaden what mainstream society considers a 'normal' (legitimate) Relationship to include a wider range of configurations of committed partnerships. For example, terms such as quasi-platonic relationships have helped to draw attention to non-sexual/non-romantic relationships that incorporate elements of commitment typically reserved for romantic relationships. Unfortunatly, while those who choose to prioritise platonic partnerships unsettle the norm, they can also be co-opted to contribute to expectation that committing to one-relationship (of any form) is more societally valued than forming multiple friendships. Meanwhile, as a more mainstream example, the phrase 'friends with benefits' is typically used to emphasise that the relationship in question is not expected to accrue societially-valued Relationship milestones associated with commitment (emotional entanglement, shared finances, cohabitation, co-parenting, etc.,). In mainstream monogamous contexts, this distinction tends imply that any 'friends with benefits' will cease (or at least no longer include the 'benefits' component) when a more significant Relationship is available. The impacts of the Relationship/friendship distinction also extend beyond attempts to clarify different forms of intimacy. For example, the tendency to position (romantic/sexual) relationships as more important than friendships has policy implications - as highlighted by restrictions to seeing friends despite the 'intimate partner' exceptions during pandemic lockdowns

Building on housing-related discussions, one possible direction is to identify and undertake three distinct elements of implementation (that may develop alongside each other). Cultivating collective practices within and across individual properties Forming multi-property housing collectives with explict social justice goals. Participating in a network that supports the formation and ongoing flourishing of multiple housing collectives. This document is focused on the second element: researching and articulating a detailed legal/financial model for setting-up multi-house collective with explicit social-justice goals. This phase would be undertaken by a small group funded by donations, and the outputs a contribution to the public domain. Complementary to this, a larger group of interested parties could form to co-create a housing network with a specific vision, hopefully something boldly utopian. Within such a network, groups of like-minded people who want to live together could connect and plan specific houses with their own governance and principles. We also hope that the model will allow existing properties to be brought into the network, so having a perfect model need not be an obstacle to people starting now on expermments in shared living and/or home ownership.

Example archived as part of the Resource Set on Housing as a Collective Responsiblity Context: This discussion prompt follows on from the one focusing on some of the intersecting goals for supporting Cooperative Queer Co-living in Naarm. In this discussion, we hope to focus on potential approaches to structuring a collective that supports a network of multi-house cooperatives (or similar) for collaborative living in Naarm. For ideas, see the resource-set with examples and resources on various types of community-led housing. Question prompts: The starting premise for these questions is that participation in such a network should be possible through multiple pathways. For instance, at any given time a participant may be a resident in a house and/or an investor in the network.

Example archived as part of the Resource Set on Housing as a Collective Responsiblity The following are some questions to prompt discussion amoung a specific group of people wanting to collaborate on living collectively across multiple houses. Who are we and what are our motivations (if any) for: Co-owning multiple houses? Co-living across multiple houses (whether owning, renting, or in other arrangements)? Participating in a housing cooperative (or other legal entity) to co-own multiple houses? Participating in a housing collective to administer a network of housing cooperatives?

A reference-list of resources for people living beyond the gender binary and their allies, prepared for myself as a memory-aid (for more carefully curated resource sets, see the 'collections') Collections Resources for psychologists supporting non-binary youth Inter-generational relationships and transmission of movement history in queer movements (new project being developed for https://www.thethingswedidnext.org/) Quotes from beyond the gender binary Histories, Personal stories, and Positive representation Historical contexts

Standards of care for working with non-binary people within the health sector: Standards of Care relevant to non-binary and gender-diverse people collected by AusPATH The Royal Children’s Hospital Australian Standards of Care and Treatment Guidelines for Trans and Gender Diverse Children and Adolescents Working with young non-binary people, their families, and their schools: Working with Transgender Young People and their Families: A Critical Developmental Approach A book by Damien Riggs (who also blogs on diversity and representation in Psychology). Working with Transgender Young People and their Families advocates a critical developmental approach aimed at countering the cisgenderism that can be perceived in previous developmental literature on gender. It clears a path to understanding gender development for transgender young people by providing a detailed account that spans early childhood through to late adolescence. In doing so, it demonstrates how clinicians can work more effectively with parents and other family members in order to affirm transgender young people. By outlining a GENDER mnemonic created by the author, the book provides worked through examples of case materials that highlight the benefits of a critical developmental approach. Offering unique insights and practical guidance, it provides a cutting-edge resource for clinicians and researchers, as well as for families and other professionals seeking to understand and work affirmingly with transgender young people. Available in paperback or ebook.

We Will Not Cancel Us, which has the subtitle And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice, was written by adrienne maree brown in 2020. It is a booklet that collects four short essays that, together, support the proposal that cultivating transformative justice approaches within social change movements will offer a more effective accountability process than that of 'canceling' individual harm-doers. As detailed below, this proposal draws on personal experiences to offer a valuable exploration of the role of constructive criticism in developing more nuanced discussions about the accountability practices we cultivate within our communities and movements. Content warning: the booklet includes discussions of abusive behaviour (and briefly describes experiences of suicidal ideation). While this review does not go into these details, the associated concepts may still bring up difficult feelings and memories - please consider ensuring that you are in a safe location and have options for support if needed. Key Concepts: To appreciate the context of this booklet, it is worth briefly clarifying the uses of two key concepts: the practice of canceling harm-doers, and transformative justice approaches to conflict resolution. Canceling harm-doers The practice of 'canceling' is a form of boycott - a withdrawal of support for an individual/group following a set of objectionable behaviours or opinions being 'called-out' as harmful. The phrase cancel culture emerged as a term to dismiss the practice of canceling by re-characterising it from a form of justified-protest to that of 'politically correct' censorship.