What is it about?
Convergence is a community- based group of 3-500 people interested in alternative lifestyles who meet every year for six days with nobody in charge. They have been developing their acephalous organisation structure over the last thirty years. The group was significantly impacted by the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. The impact of the earthquakes is assessed, looking at how the group adapted to the earthquakes and repercussions of the earthquakes individually and as a group.
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Why is it important?
This paper explores how an acephalous group copes with an extraordinary challenge exploring its strengths and weaknesses
Perspectives
Traditional hierarchies operate in ways that generate structural violence through those at the top have control of decision making and resources. Convergence operates in a fundamentally different way, exploring an organisational structure where all are equal. Such a structure has strengths and weaknesses and this paper explores the viability of an acephalous structure when under extreme pressure and perturbation.
VIctor MacGill
University of the Sunshine Coast
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Christchurch earthquakes’ impact on the Convergence gathering, Kybernetes, September 2015, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/k-10-2014-0216.
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