Patterns of Liberation

About four years I was doing some literature research on information and communications technology for sustainable development and came across the writings of Douglas Schuler, a computer scientist now retired from Evergreen State College in Washington, who works on democratic technology. He is most noted for the 2008 book Liberating Voices: A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution, published by MIT Press. I revisited this book today and it seems a good work to share in our present moment. As the title suggests, it is inspired by the highly influential 1977 book A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by architect Christopher Alexander. Liberating Voices takes a similar approach to the latter book and provides a catalogs of patterns helpful for positive social change.

The physical book for Liberating Voices seems hard to find but much of the content is replicated in the website the Public Sphere Project. In particular, there is a section specifically on the Liberating Voices pattern language. Several examples of these patterns include Linguistic Diversity, Participatory Design, Intermediate Technology, and Voices of the Unheard. There are 136 patterns listed in the original Liberating Voices publication and these are summarized in a set of cards here. Patterns which others have submitted are also listed here.

It looks like the Public Sphere Project has gone dormant for now but many of the patterns described there for social change are timeless, and it is well worth reviewing the set for ideas on how to act.