rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/event/new-power-updating-our-governance-systems-for-21st-century?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-event-area-new-power-updating-our-governance-systems-for-21st-century' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> Power Now Network https://actionnetwork.org/groups/new-power-network https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/events/photos/000/980/432/normal/compass_lab_together.png Old power works like a currency. It is held by few. Once gained, it is jealously guarded, and the powerful have a substantial store of it to spend. It is closed, inaccessible, and leader-driven. It downloads, and it captures. New power operates differently, like a current. It is made by many. It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. It uploads, and it distributes. Like water or electricity, it’s most forceful when it surges. The goal with new power is not to hoard it but to channel it. We are living through an era of rapid technological change which is impacting how we live, work and communicate. This is the age of participation. From the creation of Wikipedia where the building of a free online encyclopaedia is a global endeavour, to the emergence of new forms of civil society in Barking and Dagenham, at every level people are creating, participating and making new power for themselves. From the platform capitalism of Uber to a new breed of cooperatives; new economic models are emerging. From the #MeToo movement to local Facebook Groups; technology is creating new political online spaces and tools which people are using to create power and organise. These shifts are fundamentally changing the nature of power in our society... and so we must transform our politics. Politics is a process by which we decide how we live together and share resources. Too often we have prioritised the need to purely redistribute resources to mitigate the worst harms of our system rather than to challenge the underlying power structures that perpetuate inequality in its broadest sense. When so many injustices come back to an inherent inequality of power in our workplaces, our economy and in our politics; it is a subject that can no longer be ignored. We must explore how our future government can devolve and share power, not just to places but in key sectors and the business community in the belief that only through the effective dispersal of power can the state and wider society, acting as partners, transform the country. In light of these paradigmatic shifts, a new politics needs to be built which renegotiates the relationship between power and people. How can we renegotiate this? What is the role of civil society? What principles should this renegotiation rest upon? How can we update our instruments and architecture of power for a new age? How might we create new ones? We don't have all the answers so join us for the launch of the New Power Project with contributions from: Jeremy Heimans, author of New Power Steve Reed, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Dr Sue Goss, writer, political scientist and system enabler https://actionnetwork.org/events/new-power-updating-our-governance-systems-for-21st-century