Following on from the formal characteristics of a pattern language. a template for a foprop pattern has these elements - although not presented in the following order:
- A description of a central recurrent problem (actually, *contradiction*) to be resolved in practice, expressed in terms of relations of production and **altered relations of production**. A simple *visual schema* to represent this is a good indication that the issue has been clearly framed. > This element of the pattern language is critical. On one hand the ’targeting’ of specific hegemonic relations of production guarantees the *significance* of a pattern. On the other, historical instances of alternative relations of production (see the ‘history’ element, next) demonstrate that other modes of resourcing, visioning and commitment are in practice available: *‘There is an alternative’*. . > In the pattern language tradition there are differing views regarding the value of ‘anti-patterns’, but it makes complete sense here for *alternative* RoPs to be the core, since we are trying to get to the 'DNA' of a still-emergent *anti-practice*: a historical transformation, whose traditions and contemporary instances are not necessarily very old or stable. *Formaciòn, as an anti-practice, calls for anti-patterns, built on altered RoPs*.
- A summary history - a **back-story** - of handling such challenges, and insights arising; *summarised, referenced and instantiated* in a 'container' within the pattern description, in various genres (journalism, research, first-person narrative, evocative-poetic 'travelogue' description, 'faction', etc). >This might be seen as the ‘R&D’ base of the pattern but, importantly, it serves as *a container for cues* in how the pattern collection may be sung or danced into practice 'here', on *this* occasion. A resonant, evocative, instantiating image also is a great help, though not always easy to find for cultural and aesthetic relationships.
- A brief **memorable or evocative name**. Alexander’s pattern language, at the level of pattern names, reads like a Whitmanesque, *invocatory poem or song*; a curated collection of patterns related to the resolution of a particular challenge reads almost like a synopsis of a drama, or a celebratory hymn.
- Identification of other patterns in the language/repertoire that **contextualise** this one (broader in scope or preceding in time); or affiliate and resonate with it; and
- Other patterns that detail and particularise this one, constituting a more fully **liveable, workable, enactable and inhabitable weave of practice**.