Mutual Accompaniment and the Creation of the Commons by Mary Watkins;

Author:Mary Watkins;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780300245486
Publisher: Yale University Press

BEING INVITED

Of course, there are exceptions when a community requests that outsiders do not live with or even visit members. Being sensitive to whether or not one is invited and welcome is critical to an ethical practice of accompaniment. If an invitation has been extended, it is important to carefully clarify what it is for. There can easily be a collision between what accompaniers think they have come to do and what is actually desired.

Accompaniers patiently await a clear invitation to be present and remove themselves if this is not forthcoming. This should be non-negotiable. The accompanier must be transparent and honest as to the uses of his or her involvement, as to who will hopefully profit and how. Those extending an invitation should be able to do so in the fullest knowledge possible of who it is who wants to come and what their motives are. The members of the community must be free to participate with the newcomer or not, and free to ask that person to leave. When there is a conflict between the accomplishment of the visitor’s goal (such as research) and the well-being of the participants and the community, the latter should be chosen unequivocally. For accompaniers, the accumulation of knowledge is not an end in itself. They ought to be aware that knowledge is for use and they must strive to be conscious about which uses it will be put to, making sure it is for the sake of the community and, possibly, for other similar communities.

For instance, facilitators of Alternatives to Violence Project workshops in prisons and communities require that participants freely choose to participate or not, and that they are not required by any governing body to attend. Accompaniment programs established to companion immigrants without documents in the United States similarly make their presence known to community members, offering their services but awaiting an invitation to accompany any particular person to his or her court proceedings regarding detention and deportation.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.