Occupy the future and a Tent City University WG update

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Tent City University

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Apr 26, 2012, 9:52:36 AM4/26/12
to Tent City University

Dear Friends of Tent City University,

 

We are writing to you from Occupy London's Tent City University working group. This email is going out to everyone who has played a pivotal role in TCU since its creation, along with Occupy London, on the 15 October.

 

First of all, again, a big thank you to everyone who has contributed to this incredible and unique process of collective thinking and wisdom. Our apologies to those people who showed up and found out their workshop had not been booked. We are learning as we go, as such, the space and our systems of learning, organising and acting together is growing.

 

Over the last six months, in a marquee outside St Paul's with the words “Tent City University” painted on it, you helped us plant many seeds. Together we created a space with incredible energy, a space in which people freely expressed their anger and frustration at injustice and shared their creativity and wisdom regarding how to create a just and equal society.

 

As Madeleine Bunting has aptly described what is unique about this process:

 

"[...]the protesters stubbornly refuse to conform to any of the conventions of our political and media culture. The protesters are challenging how the illusion of public debate is created through a stage-managed process that excludes all but a self-regarding elite who are largely in agreement, quibbling only over technocratic detail. To do that they don't want to win an argument with soundbites but capture the imagination; engineer experiences that prompt the slow burn of new perceptions and new questions as simple as, why not? Why not now?"

 

Occupy London is six months old and moving into its next phase. We want to broaden and further push the boundaries of public conversation, about how we 'inhabit otherwise' and use space for discussion, but also to find new ways of working with each other, crafting ideas, and cultivating collective thinking. The initiative we propose is called 'Occupy the Future'. Through this we want to amplify the wealth of ideas and discussion that have taken place, and continue to take place in Occupy spaces, and ensure they reach a public thirsty for inspiration.

 

On May 1st 2012, we will launch, on-line, the first part of the ‘Occupy the Future’ initiative. In order to do this, we want to capture your ideas and reflections that stand out from your experiences at Tent City University. To that end, could you please send us, in approximately 300 words that capture your experiences.

 

Once collected, we will give these ideas and the voices behind them, a potent and transformative platform.

We want to open this conversation on Tuesday, May 1st so please send your idea to

occupyth...@gmail.com by this date.

 

NOTES ON OCCUPY THE FUTURE.

 

1. We are sensitive to intellectual copyright issues, and where appropriate, will make it our priority to credit original ideas to their owners.

 

2. Please feel free to submit more than one idea.

 

3. Three hundred words is not a lot but it’s enough to light a spark. This is just the beginning of the conversation.

 

4. Example 300 words: Elaine Unterhalter:

 

In retrospect what was really powerful was the very materiality of the experience. I realise that in a university classroom or a conference/seminar the group is defined by age or professional background. What this did was open the pedagogic space, but not in the 'flat' way that an internet discussion does or I suppose a radio phone in. The context mattered a lot. The fact that our talk happened immediately after the City of London bailiffs had gone around pinning up notices to say the camp was illegal and needed to be cleared within 24 hours, gave a sense of the importance to take the space and use it as creatively as we could for the time we had it. The presence of people of enormously different backgrounds - some who had been to university, some who had not, some who were in work, some who were not, some who were young, and some who were quite old, some who were alert and listening, and some who were exhausted and just needed to sleep -gave an incredible dynamism and I guess a sense of equality amongst interlocutors to the discussion and a sense that it wasn't just restricted. I'd never before seen how the construction of a classroom does pre-define the kinds of discussions that can go on. There was also the sense of being in the middle of the city - the traffic noise, the bells from the Cathedral ringing, the feel of the cobbles and the cold - that heightened the sense of knowledge connecting. So I can see this sense of occupying a particular space and changing its meaning is a very powerful one. I think there's something about knowledge flowing outside particular bounds that is very compelling. So I think if the camp is forced to close thinking about re-opening at another site might have lots of mileage.

.....................................................................................................................

 

‘Anyone can teach, and everyone can learn’.

We have proven this, and our power is in creatively bringing together surprising combinations of people to discuss pressing and timely issues in surprising/unlikely places.

 

The future for Tent City University

We are liaising with the other Occupy London camps and will be creating spaces for Tent City University to live on and grow with the same ethos and core values of the Occupy movement.

 

Stay in touch

Check out what they've been saying about TCU

There has been some great press coverage of TCU and Occupy educational initiatives:

 

TCU Free University initiative

Also, the Free University, which TCU and several of you has been part of creating, is going strong and currently has five weekly courses running at various locations. If you would like to get involved, details are here:

·         Free Uni facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/196850767064492/ 

·         Free Uni courses and info: https://occupywiki.org.uk/wiki/Free_University

 

Occupy Citizenship

Occupy London has started to deliver workshops in schools as part of the national Citizenship curriculum. We are very excited about this. It has much potential to help the movement grow and reach out. Please let us know if you, or any other schools you know of would be interested:

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Occupy-coming-to-a-secondary-near-you-6167586/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16650613

 

 

With thanks and all the best,

Tent City University
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