As an initiative of **commons transition** - a primary motivation behind the DisCO model - DisCOs are organised also to contribute in commons that are much larger in scope and scale than the coop and its livelihood work. This is a complex work culture, and a juggling act as a political economy at the organisational level. It rests on a foundational technology of sensitively developed **contribution accounting**. This commitment to commoning is fundamental; it’s a reminder that a coop is not, per se, a commons; and that the difference and the practical relationship take some working-out, on the ground, in the workplace, among stewards.
The college has a school of DisCO; also, schools of ‘Curating and enjoying commons’ and the political economy of ‘Livelihood and contribution’.
The work of orchestrating the schools is conducted largely at Faculty level. The college has four faculties, founded on four *zones of reach* in the foprop theory-of-practice frame.
- The most intimate zone of reach, **¿1 In-here**, is founded on landscape §3: the aesthetic landscape (the landscape of structures of feeling and the heart-mind). ¿1 In-here is the foundation of the *Faculty of care work*. > Reminder: ¿ is pronounced ‘zone’.
- The ‘next largest’ zone of reach, **¿2 Here**, is founded on landscape §1: the material landscape of subsistence and material dependence. ¿2 Here is the foundation of the *Faculty of subsistence work*.
- ‘Larger’ again - extending across generations, communities and traditions - is **¿3 We**, founded on landscape §2: the cultural landscape of formations and practices of knowing. ¿3 We is the foundation of the *Faculty of formaciòn work*.
- The ‘largest’ and arguably most problematic zone of reach - **¿4 Region** - is concerned with patterns and practices in any of the landscapes, which stretch beyond the limits of knowable community . . in Deep Time, beyond the horizon or under the radar, either geographically (as with bioregions, for example) or historically (as with global climate change or the wellbeing and legacy of the grandchildren’s grandchildren) or perceptually (as with ecosystemic dynamics and processes in evolutionary time or the mycelial underground). ¿4 Region is the foundation of the *Faculty of stewarding work*.
The comparisons of scale and scope here are in scare-quotes, because every zone is ‘the same size’ - which is, the size of a human awareness. All the zones of reach cycle continually to the top of the stack of awareness.
They are distinguished for practical purposes: the challenges of operating in one or another zone of reach are quite distinct. But action across all zones is called for, to constitute capable practice in making the living economy. In the college it’s the work of the faculties to attend to this dance of perception and capability across zones, through overall **stewarding** of the commons that are constituted in the practice of the college. Central among thsee commons is the pattern language. Commons and commoning constitute the remaining realm of institutional form, next.
The school is the basic operational unit of the college, and an orchestrated constellation of practices of formaciòn is an orchestration of schools. A school, as we indicated above, is formed to steward, curate and mobilise a particular family of patterns within the pattern language. The schools are envisaged as autonomous coops (engaged in ‘cultural’ production) operating within a federation.