A plug for two rounds of online conversation taking place on Wednesday (2nd December) around the theme of ‘Emergent Agency in a Time of Covid’
The Emergent Agency in a Time of Covid project is definitely the most fun thing in my work at Oxfam right now. Why? First, the discussions so far have been fascinating (check out our webinar earlier this month, or our paper on what we are initially seeing).
But also because – true to the ‘emergence’ idea – we are constructing the project as we go and, at an emotional level, because we are looking for (and finding) some positives – silver linings in the dark global Covid cloud. Namely, the nature of grassroots responses to the pandemic, and whether/how they could change politics and power even after the pandemic subsides.
The next stage takes place on Wednesday, when we kick off a series of ‘cluster conversations’ around particular themes that have arisen from those early discussions.
There are two 75 minute sessions:
at 1PM UTC
- Informal leaders vs the State
- Children and Youth
- HIV
- Women’s Organizations
A second session at 4.30PM UTC
- Faith Organisations
- Social Movements
- Livelihoods
- Education
You are welcome to attend a cluster conversation in either or both sessions – sign up for your preference here (we need to manage the numbers a bit). If you’re new to the project and want to register for updates etc, please sign up here.
Each cluster is being convened by someone with a deep engagement of/knowledge of the area, and the idea is to build a community of practice and thought around each, to discuss questions such as
- What is emerging?
- What aspects of Emergent Agency are likely to be lasting? What are ephemeral?
- What surprises us and why? Which of our assumptions are being challenged?
Needless to say, we’ve been kicking around 2x2s to start thinking about typology – here’s an example
All of this is emergent: we’ll follow the energy and interest; each cluster will decide for itself whether to use these questions or discuss other, more relevant ones, and how they want to work. Come on and join – it’ll be fun!
To give you a flavour here’s the video of the November webinar again, which featured three of the cluster convenors. And here’s my blog write-up.
Hope to see you on Wednesday