Some Definitions

Civil Society 

“Civil society involves all of us. When we act not for profit nor because the law requires us to, but out of love or anger or creativity, or principle, we are civil society. When we bring together our friends or colleagues or neighbours to have fun or to defend our rights or to look after each other, we are civil society. Whether we organise through informal friendship networks, Facebook groups, community events and protests; or formal committees, charities, faiths and trade unions, whether we block runways or co-ordinate coffee mornings, sweat round charity runs or make music for fun; when we organise ourselves outside the market and the state, we are all civil society”.[49] (emphasis added) 

Commons 

“In the English language the term commons exists as a noun to describe something that is held/used within a community or rather shared by all or many”.[50]

Experts by Experience 

“Social change-makers who seek to use their lived experience to inform the work of social purpose organisations, to drive and lead social change, and/or to drive their social impact work”.[51]

Learnt Experience

Experience(s) that help people develop tangible skills and other competencies that can then be applied towards work in various sectors. Learnt experience can also be informed by lived experience.[52]

Lived Experience

“The experience(s) of people on whom a social issue, or combination of issues, has had a direct impact”.[53]

Official futures

“Dominant future narratives [or] so-called ‘official futures’... Organizations large and small lean on official futures as north stars or guidance systems, to keep employees, partners or constituents focussed on a mission … and they reflect the overriding assumptions that are necessary to believe in a mission”.[54]

Practice Experience

Experience(s) gained as a social-change practitioner.

Weak signals

"The earliest, smallest signals of change, particularly where the overall pattern they point to isn't yet readily evident. Weak signals are the items, data or stories that catch your eye as curious, out of place and potentially noteworthy, based on your experience and knowledge".[55]

Independent Inquiry into Civil Society, “Civil Society in England: Its Current State and Future Opportunity.”

Johannes Euler, “The Social Practice of Commoning as Core Determinant,” October 27, 2015, 34.

Baljeet Sandhu, “The Value of Lived Experience.”

Baljeet Sandhu, “Lived Experience Leadership: Rebooting the DNA of Leadership” (Clore Social Leadership, July 11, 2019), https://lexmovement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/LEx-Report-Final-2.pdf

Ibid.

Scott Smith and Madeline Ashby, How to Future: Leading and Sense-Making in an Age of Hyperchange (Kogan Page Inspire, 2020), 20–21.

Ibid., 71.