What stood out during this workshop theme are the challenges in identifying and understanding the
more-than-human
organisms and ecosystems that could potentially become part of the organisation. At the same time, each of the groups in this theme identified valuable characteristics that a zooperative model should involve. Other than in the 'rights of nature' theme (workshop 1), the conversations in this theme were more broadly oriented towards different modes of
listening
and paying attention to surrounding ecosystems:
Participants discussed modes of 'reflecting', 'setting targets', 'collective caring', 'empathy', 'connecting', 'attending', 'knowledge enrichment', and 'collective decision making.
Identifying different organisms inevitably led participants to discuss the difficulties of understanding vast local ecosystems and raised questions about how the iterative cycle of the zooperative model could be used to build more ecosystem knowledge over time.
One of the groups assigned the role of speaker to a knowledgeable ecologist who was able to shift perspectives between different species in the interview, which resulted in an inspiring and enriching conversation that provided ecovillage inhabitants and other attendees with new perspectives about their surroundings.
Besides advocating for different modes of listening and attending that could be encouraged through the zooperative model, participants recommended that each decision of the organisation should only be taken after 'hearing' the 'voice of nature'. Other recommendations include thinking not only about life but also about death, ensuring both short term and long term perspectives, integrating external ecosystem impacts into this model, the aim of 'growing towards balance', making organisms feel 'at home', creating broad acceptance of caring for other species among Ecovillage inhabitants, focusing on elements like the
soil
and
water
, and passing along knowledge and connections to next generations.
While this theme did not directly focus on the use of digital technologies within the zooperative model, several pathways for rethinking biodiversity technologies can be informed by these discussions. For instance, how could digital technologies help or harm the understanding of local ecosystems? How could different modes of listening and attending to ecosystems be documented through digital technologies? Or how could such knowledge be expanded iteratively and preserved?