Why an Uplift Pattern Language?

Christopher Alexander is a an architect with a philosophical orientation who has examined the general recurring patterns of architecture which contribute to what he calls, "The Quality without a Name." What are the differences in our feelings between walking into a warehouse or a cathedral? What are the patterns of design which trigger these differences, and can we create a language with which to talk about these patterns in other architectural settings?

In his book, A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, (Oxford University Press, 1977), for example, he discusses a pattern called Intimacy Gradient:

"Unless the spaces in a building are arranged in a sequence which corresponds to their degrees of privateness, the visits made by strangers, friends, guests, clients, family, will always be a little awkward"

This pattern can be used in many contexts. One would not typically put a front door into a bedroom, for example. Another example is the pattern "Garden Seat":

Somewhere in every garden, there must be at least on spot, a quiet garden seat, in which a person - or two people - can reach into themselves and be in touch with nothing else but nature."

Patterns can be combined. We could talk about placing a Garden Seat in an Intimacy Gradient just outside the Couple's Realm as part of a Sequence of Sitting Spaces which provides Indoor Sunlight from a Courtyard Which Lives. This sentence could be used to describe a Japanese Ryokan, a cabin in the Alps, or a Santa Fe-style adobe home. The pattern language gives us a simple way of linking these widely divergent styles at a higher level of abstraction, akin to thinking in an algebra instead of arithmetic. Rather than deal with the differences of these designs, we are able to focus immediately on the similarities of the design. At this level of thinking, we may be able to apply lessons learned from a Japanese room to the design of a Santa Fe adobe.

How to talk about things we can't talk about

Hazel Henderson speaks of three layers of economic society in a pyramid structure: The top of this pyramid is that which is measured in monetary transactions: paid by cash or credit card. The sum of these transactions become the Gross Domestic Product. Below this are activities which are still exchanges, but are not measured in monetary terms. Still below that are activities of families, friends, communities, and churches which she calls the "Love Economy." These activities, which comprise a major portion of human endeavors, are invisible to the economic measures. However, if a baby is sent to child care, grandparents sent to a nursing home, and a mother is sent to work to pay for these expenses, these interactions are monetized and thus become part of the growth of the economy.

We have enormous global resources available to us to understand the monetized activities at the top of they pyramid. Yet we have precious few ways of talking about the core of human experience, culture, and community - what Henderson calls the "love economy." What are the personal, familial, and community effects of monetizing what was previously a three generation family? How do we understand the value of trust and community in human interaction? As Gary Gunderson says in "Deeply Woven Roots, Improving the Quality of Life in Your Community," (Fortress Press, 1997), "We don't know how to value things which don't have a price tag."

Is it possible to create a pattern language to talk about what happens at this economically "invisible" layer? A mother reacting to her child's cry does not do a cost/benefit analysis to determine how to react, nor is she the "rational consumer" modeled by economists. Is there a way that we can discover what is positive and uplifting to people without reducing interaction to the language of producers, consumers, and return on investment?

The stuff of the love economy is abundance, not scarce resources to be allocated and priced. A mother's love is not diminished when she helps her child; the bond between them is strengthened. A person becoming more joyful, loving, happy, peaceful, health, well-educated, content, wise, trustworthy, or community-oriented enhances these qualities in others, rather than depleting them. Rather than using the language of negativity and scarcity, we need a way of talking about generative, positive patterns of interaction.

We can begin by postulating a common basis for humanity, which we can call the positive core values of humanity. We can loosely describe these values as how we feel when we look at a baby. Regardless of culture, race, religion, or language, people will gather around a baby,; the prize of the interaction being a brief moment of eye contact. Feelings of love, hope, wonder and common, perhaps inducing some to tears of joy. We can begin our pattern language from this foundation, a common layer which exists before the world drives "wedge issues" between us to make us focus on our differences. These core values are independent of any specific religious orientation; delving into any specific religious principles would tend to exclude others. Similarly, they do not need to assume any particular political or cultural orientation. Making these values as inclusive as possible of the whole of humanity allows us to envision patterns of great breath and applicability. An Uplift Pattern Language would be a way of systematically describing ways of amplifying ideas and actions based on these values.

This approach may seem to be overly optimistic and naive. "There are so many problems in the world to be solved," some might say, "how can you waste your time with simplistic do-gooder talk?" They would certainly be right - there are an infinite number of problems in the world, and only a finite amount of money to solve them.

Note the success of the Women's Empowerment Program in Nepal. Women in Nepal face tremendous problems of poverty, and social standing. Rather than "solve" these problems, however, they focused on teaching women how to read, save their own money, and gain some autonomy. These women then went on to lobby for roads and clinics, and then tackled issues like alcoholism, domestic abuse and sex trafficking. They "dissolved" problems by amplifying the core values of the women.

Rather than focusing on "so many problems, so little money," the Uplift Pattern Language will focus on "So many ways of uplift, so little appreciation." There will be an abundance of patterns of uplift, particularly as the system scales up into larger and more inclusive groups. The issue will be ways of filtering and distilling patterns, building reputations of which work best in which contexts, and ways of understanding the generativity and interaction between the patterns. But like the architect who is able to use the garden seat pattern to understand a wide diversity of specific architectural styles, the Uplift Pattern Language offers us an approach which will give us a progressively more powerful language to talk about a progressively broader set of issues.

Appreciative Inquiry, developed by David Cooperrider at Case Western Reserve University, is an approach to systematically examining and acting on these values. It is based on understanding that which is positive and life-giving, and bringing out discussion in this context. It is also related to the concepts of Positive Psychology, the outgrowth of the work of Martin Seligman. Seligman studied learned pessimism early in his career, and then noticed the narrow focus on the negative in psychology. He "flipped" his thinking to learned optimism.

Tom Munnecke

June 233, 2003