Warp - Zones of reach and the scope of an activist life

A further dimension remains to be defined in the framing of a curriculum of making a living economy. The three ‘weft’ landscapes §1 §2 §3 give traction on the material structure of economy, and of practice per se. But considering formaciòn - the skilful production of *formations* of activist practice, within skilfully conducted activist lives (yes, we have just the one; and the clock ticks; and all is emergent in a *life*, as distinct from in *society*) - we need also to have a framing of what, in contrast with structure, is usually called agency.

Thus, the warp of the foprop conceptual weave is constituted by four **¿zones of reach**. What kind of reach does an activist or a formation of activists have? what kind of reach is needed? What kind of scope can be subtended by a practice, if effectively informed through institutions of formaciòn?

These zones are the basis of the faculty structure of the college.

> I use the symbol ¿ - pronounced ‘zone’ - to highlight this aspect of the weave.

The zones are founded on the landscapes. Each landscape offers a certain kind of reach to the activist, through an engagement with a certain range of material. Cast in terms of reach and agency, then, we can construct a span of zones, each of which has one of the landscapes at its generative, perceptual, intentional, orientating core:

- ¿1 - *In-here - based on landscape §3: Aesthetic. This zone is constituted by mobilising what is present ‘in-here’, in skilfully responding to an ocean (or plentitude) of in-heres, ‘out-there’.* Here we - the activist, the person skilfully conducting an activist life - are handling *forces* in the preconscious and intersubjective, phenomenological field: moment-by-moment. This is skilful stuff. This zone is the foundation of the *Faculty of care work*.

- ¿2 *Here - based on landscape §1: Material. This zone is constituted by mobilising stuff out-there, to meet material needs in-here.* Here we’re handling *forms* of material organisation and machinery; this is the field of technics and technique, logistics, manual skill, built environment, urban space, manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare. ‘Here’ is where we necessarily have contacts, get our material needs met; it’s where our body is. This zone is the foundation of the *Faculty of subsistence work*.

- ¿3 *We - based on landscape §2: Cultural. This zone is constituted by mobilising in-here, to know and organise out-there.* Here we’re handling *formations* of labour power; this is the field of relationships with others who concern themselves with the same kinds of things that we do, look at things in the same kind of way; or complement our capacity to see, know and organise. This zone is the foundation of the *Faculty of formaciòn work*. In this regard, it is at the heart of the college.

There’s then a fourth ¿zone to be recognised which may arise, as a perception and a need, in any landscape:

- ¿4 - *Region - This zone is constituted by attempts to bring what’s moving out-there - ‘over the horizon’ - into well-modulated mutual relationship with other things moving out-there (or equally, under the radar).* Here we’re attempting to handle a relationship with very large or very deep things: practices beyond the scope of knowable community, tacit processes in Deep time, species evolution, the fact that there is No Planet B, the circumstances of our grandchildren’s grandchildren. This zone is the foundation of the *Faculty of stewarding work*.

Because each zone is in a sense ‘bigger’ or ‘smaller’ than others, it may seem that this is a hierarchy. But these four constitute a *span* of zones of reach not a hierarchy because, as perceptions, orientations and intentions, any of them may rise in their turn to the top of the stack of awareness, and as such, all are ‘the same size’: the size of a human mind. The issue is to enlarge the mind. And to cycle the awarenesses. And to mobilise stuff in the three landscapes. It’s the work of the college to facilitate all of these.

> (img) To be added xxx Schema - Warp: four ¿zones of reach

> (img) To be added xxx Schema: College faculties (and schools

The weaving of the schools’ practice, across the families of pattern and across the Faculties, is the ‘hidden curriculum’ of the college. Genre and skill (the tacit elements in a dance of knowing) are stronger in the contribution of the college than the explicit curriculum, of conceptualisation and storytelling. It’s time to consider the dance of knowing.