Partnerism

Partnerism is an economic system that, unlike Capitalism & Socialism, recognizes the economic value of care and adequately rewards it in both the market & non-market sectors. Like Capitalism and Socialism, Partnerism is an economic ideology that promotes a set of values, assumptions, and beliefs. First coined by Riane Eisler in The Real Wealth of Nations, Partnerism as an ideology promotes and rewards caring for one another, nature, and our collective future.

Hierarchies of Actualization

A Partnership System is not a completely flat structure. We can’t just do away with hierarchies. Sometimes someone has to make a decision. Riane Eisler coined the term “Hierarchies of Actualization” to describe how hierarchies are constructed in Partnership Systems. In Hierarchies of Actualization, parents, managers, leaders and others in positions of authority seek to uplift and empower others. In hierarchies of domination, rigid rankings are used to control others and keep people deemed inferior “in their place".

The Four Cornerstones

Riane Eisler’s research reveals four interactive levers for shifting away from domination systems toward Partnership Systems:

• Family & Childhood relations
• Gender relations
• Economic relations
• Narrative/Language

Eisler’s scholarship directs us to focus our efforts in these four areas as foundational to build Partnership Systems. In a hierarchy of domination, accountability, mutual respect/ mutual benefitonly flow from the bottom up. In a Hierarchy of Actualization, they flow both ways. And that’s a huge difference.

Citations and recommended sources

Websites

• partnerism.org - Dedicated to activating a mainstream movement to build Partnership-based economic and social systems
• centerforpartnership.org - Center for Partnership Systems website

Foundational Books

• The Chalice & The Blade: Our History, Our Future (Riane Eisler, 1988) - The most comprehensive explanation of how and why partnership and domination societies were conceptualized and normalized. Its main message is that our social norms frame our reality, but norms can be evolved towards peaceful and prosperous coexistence.
• Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination & Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future (Riane Eisler, 2019)
• The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics (Riane Eisler, 2008)
• The Partnership Way: New Tools for Living and Learning, Healing Our Families, and Our World (A Practical Companion for "the Chalice and the Blade") (Riane Eisler, 1990) - Provides group exercises and activities as well as case studies of groups from different sectors learning about and implementing partnerism.

Additional Books

• Sacred Pleasure: Sex, Myth, and the Politics of the Body – New Paths to Power and Love - An intensive read on politics and inequality throughout written history, ex. institutionalized patriarchy.
• Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future - Research and insight in the neuroscience behind the two social systems of partnership and domination respectively and how they shape our internal and external realities. It addresses the importance of childhood experiences and learning, and our true human instincts of caring and compassion.

Documents

• Partnership Systems & Partnerism One Page - An informative infographic that highlights all the main components and building blocks of partnerism.
• How to Turn 20 Everyday Phrases From Negative to Positive - Shifting towards partnership/positive rhetoric and dismantling underlying violent/domination norms]