The Last Hurrah for Joe’s garden was an example of people showing up for something they love.
I won’t go into the details of what led to the Last Hurrah, but I do want to explore what repeatedly came to mind as I watched the back and forth between the Joe’s community and those in Ceres: Co-option.
Co-option has multiple meanings. To me it means to assimilate or absorb a group or person into a larger group, culture or system. It’s a process happening to all of us who live, work and shop in systems driven by values we don’t necessarily share. One of the most powerful of those values is the primacy of profit, which drives our economy.
One effect of co-option is the fact that most of us don’t have access to the means of our own subsistence – land, skills, resources, commons – to provide all or most of the things we need to survive and thrive. This means we have no choice but to participate in a profit-driven system.
Many organisations, especially non profits or social enterprises like CERES, have other values that can take precedence over pure profit seeking. Evaluating the choices of these organisations by their purported values is a great way to push back against co-option. However, decisions about seeking donations and grants are easily co-opted. Once people become dependent on an organisation for their wages, the importance of the organisation making enough money to pay those wages can slowly and subconsciously take precedence over the values of the organisation.
Co-option within an organisation is dependent upon people not raising concerns for fear of being in the ‘out-group’ or losing standing with those who control employment.
The values CERES say they hold are great: being ‘part of a bigger story’, ‘generosity’, ‘practising what they teach’, ‘everyone is welcome’, ‘hope grounded in action’, and ‘working with love’. But what I saw in the discussion between the CERES board and the community at the Last Hurrah, was money and time taking precedence over the other values they hold.
I watched these people from the Ceres board defend and explain themselves on that sunny morning at Joe’s, reiterating their good intentions. But they need to be open to criticism and doing better, and understanding that we are all constantly being co-opted, and it takes a critically constructive community to help each other push back and keep carving out the spaces where community is more important than money.
Defensiveness is usually the first response when conversations are brought up about sticking to our values. If we ourselves are feeling defensive, that is a great time to stop and reflect and ask questions. I hope the CERES board, and all of us, can keep getting better at this.
By Ani Seed
What are your experiences with co-option? Have you felt the pull yourself? Have you given into it? Why? Why not? Send your experiences to thecoburgmeddler@gmail.com and they will be anonymously included in the follow-up article – ‘Pushing back against co-option’.
The Coburg Meddler 