Pocket / Change
Is that an economic revolution in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
Pockets Have Always Held the Seeds of Revolution
Whether freeing women’s hands for work, holding secret suffragette pamphlets, or allowing a different feminine social profile, pockets have carried the seeds of change.
"Choice is the greatest liberator of all. Sometimes all you have to do is choose to empower yourself. Everything that has steered the disparity in the history of the pocket and in fashion, as a whole, has been a construct. It has all been made up and marketed for consumption. The story we are told or the one we tell ourselves can be rewritten to suit ourselves." ~ Give Me Pockets, Give Me Liberty!… a Brief History on the Quest for Pocket Independence
What once held pamphlets may now hold something even more transformative…
From Those Seeds an Economic Garden Grows
The history of the pocket is especially interesting when we think about #womenswork and the kitchen table. This is where the Kitchen Table Capitalism concept transforms from an idea to a reality, and 214 Alpha is the tool to make it happen.
Kent Dahlgren created 214 Alpha because he correctly anticipated a retreat in formal government that would leave the vulnerable behind. We are developing the Anti-Fragile Playbook to guide people through the steps necessary to launch and sustain their own community-run marketplace that funds their community’s governance
This self-governance model delivers hyper-local “earn and learn” programs encouraging people to become producers instead of just consumers, with an explicit focus on regenerative best practices.
In so doing, people become place-makers rather than just placeholders, producing their own wealth on their terms.
Tending the Economic Garden
Our desire for a home and a community in which we feel valued and inspired seeds a new way of living. Community is the container for the soil of connection, and 214 Alpha is the tool needed to harvest and regenerate our ‘soft capital’ investments of time, attention, core values, trust, and personal satisfaction among innumerable others. This creates an economic garden that flourishes.
A Pocketful of Potential: The Tannehill Marketville Collective
We began developing the TMC with a few folks in the neighborhood who could see that the future wasn’t as we were told it would be. Everything we had been taught to believe about economic sustainability was being tested by outside forces and not just found lacking, but also dangerous to the household’s fiscal health.
Though the formal launch of TMC has been delayed, our team is already in a ‘nexties’ learning lab here in the neighborhood as the platform is refined. What this means is coordinating our households to be sure all needs are met to the best of our abilities. This has been incredibly beneficial as we are able to reduce our household costs, despite the rapidly increasing prices of essentials.
The long-term vision is to develop a virtual community marketplace, which not only enables your home-based business to thrive but also empowers your community. 214 Alpha is activating an online app with a 24/7 virtual marketplace designed to value communities. This program is grassroots, DIY, hyper-local, self-funding, self-governing, and strengthens local economies.
Bene Esse: A Pocket Community
I know that I’m pushing the boundaries of the pocket metaphor. And, as an unrepentant word nerd, I’m okay with that.
You may have heard of pocket parks. These are small parks in underutilized spaces designed to provide safe places for children to play, residents to relax, and to enhance access to nature. They serve as what’s known as a ‘third place’, which is a social, informal gathering space distinct from home (first place) and work (second place), crucial for community building and personal well-being. These, often public, neutral spots—such as cafes, parks, libraries, or pubs—foster social interaction, foster equality, and promote a sense of belonging
It struck me today that this is a way to think about Bene Esse: a small community in underserved locations designed to offer people a safe place to root and grow, to expand their experience of community, and to reconnect to nature. The community is sustainable because of the 214 Alpha economic and governance engine underlying it all.
And, when you live in a Bene Esse community, you don’t have to leave to find peace, because it has been designed into the place itself.
For more information about Bene Esse and 214 Alpha, please contact
Ruth@futurestorylab.com or Kent@214alpha.com