Neighbourhood Democracy Movement
A Fairer Society / SINGBI / SONEC
By adapting the Indian Neighbourhood Parliaments' model to the diverse European realities and by including the EU values of participation, resilience, safe and peaceful coexistence, inclusion and equality, SONEC wishes to provide an effective answer to both the democracy-crisis and the climate-crisis that our society is currently facing.
SONEC aims at generating results that are applicable on an European level to all municipalities and their citizens.
The SONEC methodology follows the Sociocratic Circle Method SCM – or “Sociocracy”- an organisational method based on four basic principles, that help strengthen the responsibility of the individual within the organization.
Created in the 1970s in the Netherlands, Sociocracy has spread throughout the world.
Today about half of the 400.000 Indian Neighbourhood Parliaments have replaced majority-voting with sociocracy; sociocracy has also played a key role in the success of co-housing projects in Vienna since 2010.
The main pillar of sociocracy is consent-based decision making, where everyone is heard and every opinion is included in the final decision. That leads to the fact that everybody stands behind all decisions and has a responsibility in it.
SONEC believes that these circles could enhance behavioural change by sharing knowledge and information, as well as by providing a supportive network for their members. For this, it is essential that the group norms fulfil a set of basic principles in line with European values (tolerance, mutual respect and non-discrimination, solidarity, gender equality), and that they function in a pleasant and efficient way.
