I think “Local Groups/Meetups” are the counter-part to tents – which are sort-of interest/working groups on a specific topic or project.
I wonder if we want to provide some kind of way to list emerging local groups / meetups and to set them up.
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This came up in yesterday’s community sensing meeting with @JamesBaker and @laurenw
Lauren suggested the idea of an “ambassadors/affiliates program” that could support groups in steering their online and offline activities based not only on geolocation but also around specific areas of interest.
This could complement the “Local Groups/Meetups” concept really well, providing a more flexible and inclusive way for emerging groups to connect and organize, whether by location or shared focus. Definitely worth exploring further as we think about how to surface and support these initiatives.
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I’ve been working towards a Seattle area 2R local meetup for a couple years now. (Not under 2R branding - but with similar goals). @JamesBaker hosted a one-off potluck for Intentional Society in a local park about a year ago, which is about as close as we’ve gotten so far.
The closest to critical mass for a 2R meetup in this region is Regenerate Cascadia. That’s an offshoot of Joe Brewer’s larger global bioregional regeneration movement. I encountered an IS member at a recent RC conference in Seattle, and the whole conference (of a couple hundred participants) seemed pretty values-aligned with 2R. Where 2R differs from RC is 2R has more of theoretical focus is not specifically environmentally concerned. But to me there is a substantial intersection between 2R and RC. I’d love to take Joe Brewer’s recent webinar on “bioregional mind”, for example, and parse it in 2R terms.
By way of analogy, I’m experiencing 2R as something like “theology” and bioregional activism as something like “devotional practice”. They don’t really contradict, but not everyone devotional really cares much about details of theology. Some of us have that calling, however, and I believe local practice groups can benefit from insights shared in spaces such as this.
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I didn’t know that! 
My first step in this direction was to join up with https://fractalseattle.org/ recently
Most of my prior efforts were branded “integral”, “metamodern”, or “bildung”. Bildung got us Lene for a few days, but my reluctant conclusion is the bildung brand has no traction in our area. Bioregional regeneration has traction. So practice first, theory later.
A bit too much in the weeds for 2R just now, my true focus is not “Seattle” but 50 miles south of Seattle. That’s a different cultural universe. My daily commute spans the equivalent of time zones and continental geographies. Looking forward to whatever comes from “fractal Seattle”. Meanwhile, I’ll keep cooking the hyper-localized recipe in Grit City.
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Lesswrong has a nice map integration:
We could try something similar, e.g. using google mymaps.
Can you all see this iframe integration OK? What do you think?
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For me, it is essential that 2R is embodied in action and practice - if not it becomes speculative utopianism and loses its rigor (in both senses, intellectual and practical ie. in terms of engagement with the real world). Furthermore, the paths that 2R suggests can only be validated (or invalidated) and evolved through actual experiment.
Again LessWrong stuff we should try out - of get our own LessWrong instance.
Works really well. I’m going to embed this at the top of thread.
Here’s an update on my local efforts that gives the question of 2R practice a bit of a twist. Last weekend my local Bahá’í friends put on a potluck at one of their homes. (A fairly common practice for this group). I met these folks at a weekly open-to-the-public discussion meeting similar to what is described here:
I do a lot of cross-posting of metamodern theory and the like from liminal media to our more local FB group, which has an eclectic spiritual focus. (Strong Native American presence, for example). So this group of people know all about my theoretical tendencies - and allow me into their homes in any case!
At the potluck, we got to talking about the state of the world, and it occurred to me that I hear the same things basically, but in two different ways, depending on the context. In the local Bahá’í-themed group, it’s all about God, and spiritual practice, and virtues, and coping with life in those terms. 2R and other liminal forums are generally more secular in theme. But what the liminal and spiritual groups have in common is a sense the world is headed for crisis, we need to align ourselves properly to face this, and in spite of all the gathering clouds, we can somehow find strength to carry on.
What strikes me however, is in my local context, faith-based groups are far, far ahead of secular-minded groups from an organizational standpoint. It would be far simpler to bring 2R into a church (or in my case, a religiously-flavored gathering), than it would be to entice a lot religious people into a 2R forum. That may be US-specific. It would be great to hear from others in other places how easy it is to organize groups around 2R or similar themes. But my gut feeling is that in the US, religious groups might be the best outreach targets for 2R thinking.
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I think that’s a great point, and am noticing some overlap in communities here in London with church-based communities. 2R and other liminal forums often have religious or spiritual dimensions (2R has a predominantly buddhist inspiration, for example, and there are versions of metamodern Christianity etc) and I think it makes sense to look to politically oriented religious communities as potential collaborators just as we’ve previously identified effective altruists and those involved in ecological politics as relevant adjacent groups - both in terms of local in-person and global online organising.