| Nipun invites some local friends to drive up and share the space and talk about their gift-economy experiments. These are people who decided to do things like: go full-out gift-economy with his film production company; publish her book about the divine feminine on a gift-economy basis; and host major volunteer events in Long Beach area.
They will also explore:
• History of the gift-economy: Native American tribes, Bushmen in Africa's Kalahari desert, monks of South Asia, families everywhere have been rooted in the gift-economy. How can we shape this indigenous idea for our modern times?
• Power of social capital: it used to be that we bowled in leagues and picnicked every weekend and had informal tabs at local restaurants; not anymore. Bankrupt of that social capital, what are we missing out on?
• Role of the Internet: hierarchies came into being to reduce coordination costs. Internet collapses transactions costs and a result, "amateurs" are empowered as change agents. What does that mean for the collective social change movement?
• Compassion quotient: we know about Intellectual Quotient (IQ) and Emotional Quotient (EQ), but what about Compassion Quotient (CQ)? Gift-economy works only with servant leadership, which requires CQ.
Generosity Entrepreneurs: a tree serves the community, and hence is taken care of by the community. Can we birth a cadre of generosity entreprenuers who do what makes them come alive, truly gift their services, and are supported by the community in the same way? |