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.
Domination/Partnership Social Scale
| Domination/Partnership Social Scale | |
|---|---|
| Domination | Partnership |
| In groups and out groups | Everyone matters |
| Hierarchies of domination | Hierarchies of actualization |
| Power maintained by force and fear | Increase in liberty and expression |
| Inequality | Equality: gender, race, etc |
| Ignores economic value of caring | Care is valued economically |
| Violence and abuse | Human flourishing and creativity |
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. 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.
Family & Childhood relations
Partnerism values the work of caring.
Neuroscience shows that what children experience and observe, starting at birth, determines how our brains develop and therefore how we think, feel, and act. Infants and children absorb partnership or domination worldview's from parents' relationships with each other and from their relationships with parents and siblings, long before they go to school and long before critical mental faculties are developed.
Gender relations
Partnerism values all people, regardless of gender or other differences.
How a society constructs gender roles and relations not only affects everyone’s individual life options; it affects families, education, religion, politics, and economics. When people learn to equate the physical differences between male and female with superiority or inferiority, dominating or being dominated, being served or serving, they internalize a template that can automatically be applied elsewhere: race, religion, ethnic, sexual orientation, etc..
Economic relations
Partnerism recognizes that the real wealth of our world consists of the contributions of people and of nature.
The gap between haves and have-nots has been growing among and within nations. This is a crisis. Moving to a more robust, sustainable and humane economics is not only vital for human and environmental reasons, but for purely economic ones. A caring economics of Partnerism recognizes that the real wealth of our world consists of the contributions of people and of nature.
Narrative/Language
Partnerism supports empathetic, mutually beneficial, caring relationships.
We need the language of partnership systems to transcend old categories and to describe beneficial social and economic systems. A caring democracy requires accurate narratives about 'human nature'. This will require a concerted effort in which the arts, music, literature, and education are informed and inspired by science and caring values.
Domination vs Partnerism Languaging
| Domination vs Partnerism Languaging | |
|---|---|
| Domination | Partnership |
| We are shooting for a Thursday deadline | Our intention is to complete this project by Thursday |
| We are aiming to finish | Our plan is to finish |
| Let's target demographic | Let's focus on this demographic |
| I dodged a bullet | Things worked out for the best |
| Deadline | Deliverables, due date, tasks done |
| Fight injustice | Heal injustice |
| Killing time | Filling time |
| Mankind | Humankind |
| Kill two birds with one stone | Feed two birds with one scone |
| I really killed it/crushed it/nailed it | I really brought it to life |
| I will what that into shape | I will concentrate on this project |
| Take a stab at | Attempt, try |
| Things went South | Things went downhill from there |
| Spearhead an effort | Initiate an effort |
| Man the office | Staff the office |
| Command central | Action hub |
History
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]
Partnerism Media Kit
Link to Partnerism Media Kit pdf by Center for Partnership Systems
