A neighbourhood organising movement which originated in India in the 1970s.
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This is a neighbourhood organising movement which originated in India in the 1970s. People on the same street come together to hear the needs of each neighbour, and help themselves meet their needs together. These groups are sometimes called neighbourhood circles. There are more than 400,000 groups in India at the moment, with many neighbourhoods having circles for children, young adults and adults.
What they have achieved is truly impressive, solving everyday life problems such as violence, poverty, loneliness… and littering. In the state of Kerala (population 34 million), the circles are given 40% of the state revenue to be distributed through participatory budgeting. It's a model for society-wide participatory democracy. Read more about its origins and impacts here.
Over the past decade, the Neighbourhood Parliaments movement has been gradually adopting Sociocracy.
Sociocracy is a way of organizing in teams based on the principle that everyone has something important to contribute, every voice should be heard. It combines bottom-up representation with top-down coordination. This includes making decisions that work for everyone together, and openly electing team roles such as the leader. Teams that use sociocracy tend to get more done, faster, and include everyone.
An Erasmus-funded program in Europe has translated the Indian model into practices that work in Europe, and called these Sociocratic Neighbourhood Circles (SONEC). We have developed a handbook for how you can do it in your community.
SONEC WISE is an organisation promoting these circles for Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England. https://www.sonec.uk/
The key parts of the model include:
Citizen Democracy, community, Neighbourhood Democracy, Europe, Global, Training
