Advancing the IDEA: Whose Perspective and the implications for How? Alfonso Morales, PhD Planning and Landscape Architecture

How I have worked with communities Street Vendors and Marketplaces (Chicago, NYC) Supportive of economic self-determination – sort of… Immigrants, Formerly Incarcerated/Returning Citizens Supporting public participation – self government Market Managers Supporting local economies across supply chains – MIFI Metrics and Indicators for Impact Think, pair, share, was/am I working at self-government? Community and economic development? Political (re)engagement? Thus, my thesis…

Thesis – multiple ways FORWARD What is the BEST way to learn something? ? Therefore, what should we expect of our organizations? Who’s perspective matters most? So my thesis is simple: The USERs perspective matters the MOST and understanding that/those perspective(s) in process(es) and through dialog best delivers on the IDEA.

Dialog – with whom? Processes – what do we mean? What does Raison say? My view begins with Dialog Interpersonal Organizational Processes Intrapersonal, how and what you become Interpersonal, social, religious, political, economic, What are the roles and when are they partners, experts, or other? Economic Legal / Political Pay attention to perspective, purpose, and scale.

The Wisconsin Idea – I Is born of a historical moment and used in that moment Legislation on behalf of labor and etc. But is basically ABSTRACT – it is EMPTY of specifics – What is its SPIRIT? We can see how it is framed in terms of economics Yet its spirit is generative that means that politics/government, economics/education, humanities and social life, are each important, each informing the others, but they become generative when done in a more inclusive way, in dialog, and over time. Change is NOT optional – when can we direct it?

The Wisconsin Idea – II Is from the University to the people This means MANY things, consider implications of the word “universe(ity)” It is, “to” the people – when is it “with” or “between” the people? WHO is the people? Am I a person? Or just a professor? It is, “the application of intelligence and reason…” Consider the word “application,” it has two principle uses A ‘one-way’ use based on execution A reciprocal use based on engagement For 40-50 years there has been a tension between expert delivery of service and support as opposed to engaging, serving, and supporting When is expert delivery of ‘intelligence and reason’ appropriate? Think, Pair, Share

RELATED to the Idea are… Land Grant, Cooperative Extension, and Extension The Land Grant The Morrill Act was intended to provide a broad segment of the population with a practical education that had direct relevance to their daily lives. The institutions that were founded or designated the land-grant for blacks in each of the then-segregated Southern states came to be known as “the 1890 land-grants.” A third land-grant act conferred land-grant statues to Native American tribal colleges in 1994.  These colleges are sometimes called the “1994 land-grants,” in reference to the year they were granted land-grant status. There are also HSI (Hispanic Serving Institutions), that are not all land grant, but some are, e.g. New Mexico State University.

Other parts of this Ecology of Organizations UW Cooperative Extension Consider this representation Whose purpose and perspective? What scale? How? Where do you see self-governance and economic self-efficacy? Expert knowledge? Partnership? Interpret this in light of lecture and Raison. Think, Pair, Share

Other parts of this Ecology of Organizations UW Extension and Extension more broadly Ohio State Extension and Raison’s article Whose purpose? What scale? How? Where do you see self-governance and economic self-efficacy? Expert knowledge? Partnership? Interpret this in light of lecture and Raison. Think, Pair, Share

Other parts of this Ecology of Organizations Implementing the Idea [data base] Whose purpose and perspective? What scale? How? Where do you see self-governance and economic self-efficacy? Expert knowledge? Partnership? Interpret this in light of lecture and Raison. Think, Pair, Share

Many Activities, Many Purposes How might we represent these activities? One can see variation by scale and style of engagement, larger/smaller and humanistic/science, 2x2 or gradient Try this out, consider the gradient – think of ‘self-government’ as a continuum, how do WI Idea projects populate this continuum of ”low to high?” What do you see in how the Idea is practiced? Is it mostly about education, whether of tools…training…or task completion, or what? Think and write… How do the perspectives people have to the activities cut across institutions, SREP? One way we might reconstruct the Idea – is to REVERSE it… Bring knowledge from the community to inform CAMPUS. Returning to my practice…I could not have been successful without INTER- ACTION. So, one way forward…

The Idea’s REAL purpose To Foster Fullest Expression of Human Life in any given activity, to release the energy of society (W. Hurst, WI law prof 1956 book, Law and the Condition of Freedom). What this means? Socially – making the opportunity for interaction Economically – earning to live, not living to earn Politically – engaging in governance in one of its many forms Religiously – recognizing that people often act in the name of their values (religious or not), but that it is INTERACTION that we wish to foster Our encounter with others is at the heart of society and the Idea fosters a healthy society.