Ireland community action

The Citizens' Assembly (Irish: An Tionól Saoránach and also known as We The Citizens) is a citizens' assembly established in Ireland in 2016 to consider several political questions including the Constitution of Ireland. Questions considered include: abortion, fixed term parliaments, referendums, population ageing, and climate change. Over 18 months a report is produced on each topic. The government is required to respond officially to the reports in the Oireachtas (parliament); as of 9 April 2019 responses have been given on three of the five topics.

The Citizens' Assembly was a successor to the 2012–14 Constitutional Convention, which was established by the Oireachtas in accordance with the government programme agreed by the Fine Gael–Labour coalition formed after the 2011 general election. Convention members were a chairperson nominated by the government, 33 representatives chosen by political parties, and 66 randomly chosen citizens. Meeting over 15 months, it considered seven constitutional issues previously specified by the Oireachtas and two more of its own choosing. It made 18 recommendations for constitutional amendments and 20 for other changes to laws or Oireachtas standing orders; the government accepted some, rejected others, and referred others to committees for further consultation. In 2015 Taoiseach Enda Kenny entertained the possibility of a similar body meeting after the next general election, which occurred in 2016. In the buildup to the election, various politicians proposed changes to Irish abortion law, including repeal of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which guaranteed a foetal right to life. In November 2015, Kenny promised "a Citizen's Convention on the constitution, or whatever title would be appropriate" to address the issue.

The programme agreed by the Fine Gael–independent minority government formed after the 2016 election included this commitment:

We will establish a Citizens' Assembly, within six months, and without participation by politicians, and with a mandate to look at a limited number of key issues over an extended time period. These issues will not be limited to those directly pertaining to the constitution and may include issues such as, for example how we, as a nation, best respond to the challenges and opportunities of an ageing population. That said, we will ask the Citizens' Assembly to make recommendations to the Dáil on further constitutional changes, including on the Eighth Amendment, on fixed term parliaments and on the manner in which referenda are held (e.g. should 'super referendum days', whereby a significant number of referenda take place on the same day, be held).

On 13 July 2016, Damien English moved a resolution in the 32nd Dáil (lower house) approving the "calling of a Citizens' Assembly" to consider the four issues specified in the government programme and "such other matters as may be referred to it". A Green Party amendment was accepted which added "how the State can make Ireland a leader in tackling climate change" to the list of topics. Sinn Féin and AAA–PBP amendments were rejected. An analogous resolution was passed in the 25th Seanad (upper house) on 15 July.

In July 2019 Eoghan Murphy introducing legislation related to the "Dublin Citizens' Assembly" and the "Citizens' Assembly 2019". The Irish Times viewed these as lacking the justification for the original Citizens' Assembly, in that they relate to "purely political issue[s] which TDs are well capable of deciding".

Members of each assembly consist of 99 citizens and the chair for a total of 100 members.

The 99 other members were "citizens entitled to vote at a referendum, randomly selected so as to be broadly representative of Irish society". The representative criteria included gender, age, location, and social class.

For the 66 citizen members of the Constitutional Convention, these 99 plus 99 substitutes were selected by an opinion polling company; Red C won the tender and began selection at the start of September. The Electoral (Amendment) Act 2016 was passed to enable the electoral register to be used in this process. Media were asked not to photograph the citizen members before the inaugural assembly meeting. Members received expenses but no other payment. Of the original 99 members, 17 withdrew before the first working meeting, whose replacements immediately took over; another 11 withdrew before the final abortion meeting, whose replacements did not participate until the assembly moved on to its next topic for discussion. Seven replacements joining in January 2018 were removed the following month when it emerged they were recruited via acquaintances of a Red C employee, who was then suspended, rather than via random selection.

The assembly's secretariat was drawn from the civil service. Its office was at 16 Parnell Square in Dublin. In June 2016 the assembly's cost was estimated at €600,000, drawn from the Department of the Taoiseach, with €200,000 in 2016 and the balance in 2017. In October 2016 the Taoiseach said €2m had been set aside. The total cost to March 2019 was €2,355,557, of which €1,535,133 was spent in 2017.

The inaugural and introductory assembly meeting was held on 15 October 2016 at Dublin Castle. The Grand Hotel, Malahide won the tender to host later, working, meetings. RTÉ News predicted that there would be ten weekend sessions, each "opened with an address from the Chairperson, followed by expert presentations, Q&A sessions and debate, roundtable discussion and a plenary session." Meetings were livestreamed. Submissions from the public were invited. The assembly was originally supposed to complete its business within a year of its first meeting. This was extended in October 2017 and again in March 2018, to 27 April 2018. The government then formally responded to each report. The calendar published in October 2016 included seven three-day working meetings, one in November 2016 and one each month from January to July 2017.

The first issue to be considered was the Eighth Amendment, beginning at its first working meeting on 25 November 2016. Enda Kenny in September 2016 estimated it could take "six to seven months" to issue a report, which was referred to an Oireachtas joint committee, This committee, in turn, produced a report for debate in each house. Resolutions to establish the "Special Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution" were passed on 4 and 13 April 2017 by the Dáil and Seanad respectively.

The assembly's inaugural meeting decided that the abortion issue would be the topic for its first four working meetings, a number later increased to five. An advisory group of five experts was appointed: a medical lawyer, two constitutional lawyers, and two obstetricians. The chairperson said she would investigate claims that an assembly member had publicly expressed pro-choice views on Twitter. In the Dáil, Mattie McGrath complained that two of the five experts had previously expressed dissatisfaction with the existing abortion provisions.

The opposition Anti-Austerity Alliance–People Before Profit (AAA–PBP) scheduled the second stage of a private member's bill repealing the Eighth Amendment for debate in the Dáil on 25 October 2016. Fine Gael opposed the bill on the grounds that it would pre-empt the Citizens' Assembly discussion. Similarly, independent minister Katherine Zappone said that, in deference to the assembly's work, she would oppose the bill despite herself favouring repeal. The Independent Alliance ministers wanted a free vote, which Fine Gael opposed as compromising cabinet collective responsibility. As a compromise, it was agreed that government TDs would oppose the AAA–PBP bill and would not shorten the assembly's timeframe for considering the abortion issue, but that the Oireachtas would expedite the processing of the assembly's report, by establishing the select committee ahead of time and giving it a strict six-month lifespan. Accordingly, Simon Harris, the Minister for Health, moved an amendment to the second-reading motion, that "Dáil Éireann declines to give the Bill a second reading in order that the Citizens' Assembly, established by Resolutions of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann, can conclude its deliberations on the Eighth Amendment which is the subject matter of this Bill, and report to the Oireachtas in the first half of 2017".

Over 13,000 submissions were received from the public by the closing date of 16 December 2016. More than 8,000 were submitted electronically, including over 3,200 the final 24 hours. Submissions were uploaded to the assembly website, with "personal stories or sensitive submissions" deidentified. Based on feedback from members, the chairperson selected 17 submitting organisations to make presentations to the assembly. These were announced on 21 February:Amnesty International Ireland,Atheist Ireland,Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment,Doctors for Choice,Doctors for Life Ireland,Every Life Counts,Family & Life,Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference,Irish Family Planning Association,Parents for Choice,Pro Life Campaign,General Synod of the Church of Ireland,Iona Institute,National Women's Council of Ireland,Union of Students in Ireland,Women Hurt,Youth Defence.

The final meeting on abortion began on 22 April, with a series of votes held based on the deliberations from the earlier meetings. The first day's votes were on Article 40.3.3°, the subsection of the Constitution added by the Eighth Amendment:

1. It should not be retained in full (by 79 votes to 12)
2. It should be replaced or amended (50 votes) rather than deleted and not replaced (39 votes)
3. It should allow the Oireachtas to legislate (51 votes) rather than making direct provisions within the Constitution itself (38 votes) regarding "termination of pregnancy, any rights of the unborn, and any rights of the pregnant woman"

The second day's votes were recommendations for the envisaged Oireachtas legislation. There were separate votes on a range of potential circumstances in which abortion might be permitted, possibly restricted to a maximum number of weeks' gestation.

Journalist Mary Minihan reported the following week that "the consensus in the Oireachtas is that the assembly's recommendations were an overly-liberal interpretation of the current thinking of middle Ireland on the issue." On 29 June 2017, the assembly's official report was laid before the Oireachtas and published. On 11 July 2017, the Oireachtas Joint Committee agreed its programme for considering the report, including a presentation from the assembly chairperson at a public session on 20 September 2017.

Laffoy was joined at the meeting by the two leaders of the assembly secretariat. She told the committee that the assembly had considered all of article 40.3.3, including the 13th and 14th Amendments (rights to travel and to information) as well as the 8th (right to life of the unborn), because they were "inextricabl[y] link[ed]". Rónán Mullen said he found its process "disturbing" and criticised it for not acknowledging that the 8th amendment had "saved thousands of lives". Lynn Ruane asked why there was no option to vote for "express positive right to abortion access or to bodily autonomy in pregnancy"; the latter was in the assembly report's ancillary list of issues for the Oireachtas to consider. Laffoy regretted that the assembly had not addressed increased illegal online ordering of abortion pills.

The Oireachtas responded to the report by establishing a Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment, which produced its own report in December 2017, with dissent from pro-life members. The government decided a month later to implement the committee's report. The Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, approved by referendum on 25 May 2018, replaced the constitutional prohibition with a provision allowing the Oireachtas to regulate abortion. The Oireachtas duly passed the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 to legalise and regulate abortion, up to 12 weeks' gestation for any reason, and up to viability for fatal fetal abnormality or serious health risk to the pregnant woman.

The first meetings on "how we best respond to the challenges and opportunities of an ageing population" were held on 10–11 June 2017. In May a second weekend, on 8–9 July, was added to the schedule. The assembly received 120 submissions from the public. The first meeting's main topics were long-term care and independent living. It was addressed by Eamon O'Shea, social gerontology professor at NUI Galway; Pat Healy, social care director at the Health Service Executive; and Michael Browne of Third Age Ireland and the Citizens Information Board. The second meeting focused on pensions and retirement. Votes were taken on 16 questions: 11 yes/no questions and 5 multiple-choice.

Assembly members could distribute votes among multiple answers to the multiple-choice questions except question 2.

Question 2

In general, who should be principally responsible for providing required care for older people?

1. Person or family, totally: 1
2. Person or family, mainly : 47
3. State, mainly: 25
4. State, totally: 5

Question 4

Where do you believe additional funding for care of older people should primarily be spent?

1. Residential care: 122
2. Home care: 198
3. Community-based integrated housing: 186

Question 5

Where do you believe overall funding for care of older people should come from?

1. General taxation: 215
2. Compulsory social insurance: 255
3. Private insurance: 115
4. Public–private cost-sharing: 150

Question 8

If the Government were to decide to extend regulation to other health and care services for older people, what other services do you believe should be regulated?

1. Respite care: 70
2. Day care: 68
3. Home care: 72
4. Supported housing: 71

Question 16

When considering how we respond to the challenges and opportunities of an ageing population, which of these suggestions do you believe are the most important to implement?

1. responsibility for older people should be formally delegated to a dedicated Minister of State for Older People. 72
2. dedicated information service for older people: 71
3. ensure that older people have a stronger voice in determining their own care needs: 69
4. stronger governmental leadership in relation to the prioritisation of the health and social care needs of older people: 65
5. encourage non-financial intergenerational transfers: 57
6. Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 and elder abuse prevention: 72

On 15 May 2019 Jim Daly, the Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People, gave a written Dáil response in relation to those recommendations within the remit of the Department of Health.

One meeting on climate change was planned, for the weekends starting 30 September and 4 November 2017; the second was added to the schedule on 17 July. Speakers included the chair of the advisory group for a promised "National Dialogue on Climate Change".

Recommendations, all passed by at least 80% of members, included: empowering an independent body to address climate change; Greenhouse gas (GHG) tax, including carbon tax and agricultural GHG tax; encouragement of climate change mitigation, electric vehicles, public transport, forests, organic farming, and natural peat bogs; reduction of food waste; microgeneration of electricity; ending subsidy of peat extraction; increasing bus lanes, cycle lanes and park and ride facilities.

The Oireachtas responded to the report by establishing a Joint Committee on Climate Action, which published its own report on 29 March 2019. On 9 May 2019 the Dáil endorsed the committee's report and symbolically declared a "climate and biodiversity emergency",. The motion also requested a Citizen's Assembly to study the biodiversity loss emergency and how the state can improve its response. A "government action plan on climate change" followed on 17 June 2019.

On the weekend of 13–14 January 2018 the Assembly considered the manner in which referendums are held. Recommendations included:

• replacing the ad-hoc Referendum Commission with a permanent Electoral Commission, which would be "obliged to give its view on significant matters of factual or legal dispute that arise during a referendum campaign in the public domain (including on social media)"
• giving equal public money to both sides in referendum campaigns, imposing spending limits for registered parties and advocacy groups, and prohibiting anonymous donations to these groups;
• allowing multiple referendums on the same day, as at present; 41.7% preferred a maximum of two simultaneously
• allowing for preferendums with more than two (yes/no) options; in which case 52% preferred single transferable vote would be used to determine the outcome
• allowing citizens' initiatives for bringing questions either to the Oireachtas or to a referendum

The Assembly considered measures to increase voter turnout. It supported early voting, weekend voting, postal voting, online voting, lowering the voting age to 16, and allowing nonresidents to vote for up to five years after emigrating. It opposed compulsory voting.

The meeting on fixed-term parliaments was scheduled for the weekend of 3–4 March but because of Storm Emma was postponed until 14–15 April. The issue was added to the assembly's remit at the insistence of Shane Ross of the Independent Alliance during negotiations on forming the government. There were eight public submissions, including one from the Green Party in favour of the UK system (embodied in the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011).

With 71 members present, the assembly voted 36–35 in favour fixed terms; 39–27 for 4 (rather than 5) years as the term; 63–3 in favour of allowing the term to be "cut short subject to certain conditions".

In 2019, the Irish government announced two further Citizens' Assemblies including gender equality.

This assembly was tasked with exploring and, within 6 months, making recommendations on; barriers that facilitate gender discrimination towards girls and boys, women and men;removing gender related economic inequalities, reassess the economic value placed traditional 'women's work'; women's full participation in workplace and political; considering the gender imbalance in care; and gender imbalance in low pay sectors.

Former Secretary-General of the European Commission Catherine Day was appointed as chair.

In November 2016, David Van Reybrouck commended the Citizens' Assembly and the predecessor Constitutional Convention as models that other European countries could usefully imitate, which could counter the rise of populism. A 2019 editorial in The Irish Times said that the Citizens' Assembly's work on abortion was a "great success" that "paved the way for the resolution of [a] potentially contentious social issue" and "a vital step on the road to generating support for constitutional change".

• "Questions: Citizens' Assembly". Dáil Éireann debates. KildareStreet.com. 4 October 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
• "Citizens' Assembly". Department of the Taoiseach. Retrieved 14 October 2016.

• Official website

Communal work is a gathering for mutually accomplishing a task or for communal fundraising. Communal work provided manual labour to others, especially for major projects such as barn raising, "bees" of various kinds (see § Bee below), log rolling, and subbotniks. Different words have been used to describe such gatherings.

They are less common in today's more individualistic cultures, where there is less reliance on others than in preindustrial agricultural and hunter-gatherer societies. Major jobs such as clearing a field of timber or raising a barn needed many workers. It was often both a social and utilitarian event. Jobs like corn husking or sewing could be done as a group to allow socializing during an otherwise tedious chore. Such gatherings often included refreshments and entertainment.

In more modern societies, the word bee has also been used for some time already for other social gatherings without communal work, for example for competitions such as a spelling bee.

Harambee (Swahili: [hɑrɑˈᵐbɛː]) is an East African (Kenyan, Tanzanian and Ugandan) tradition of community self-help events, e.g. fundraising or development activities. Harambee literally means 'all pull together' in Swahili, and is also the official motto of Kenya and appears on its coat of arms.

Umuganda is a national day of community service held on the last Saturday of each month in Rwanda. In 2009, umuganda was institutionalized in the country. It is translated as 'coming together in common purpose to achieve an outcome'.

A social event is held to build a house or a farm, especially for elderly and widows who do not have the physical strength to do it on their own.

Naffīr (نَفِّير) is an Arabic word used in parts of Sudan (including Kordofan, Darfur, parts of the Nuba mountains and Kassala) to describe particular types of communal work undertakings. Naffīr has been described as including a group recruited through family networks, in-laws and village neighbors for some particular purpose, which then disbands when that purpose is fulfilled. An alternative, more recent, definition describes naffīr as 'to bring someone together from the neighborhood or community to carry out a certain project, such as building a house or providing help during the harvest season'.

The word may be related to the standard Arabic word nafr (نَفْر) which describes a band, party, group or troop, typically mobilized for war. In standard Arabic, a naffīr ʽāmm (نَفِّير عَامّ) refers to a general call to arms.

Naffīr has also been used in a military context in Sudan. For example, the term was used to refer to النَّفِّير الشَّعَبِي an-Naffīr aš-Šaʽabī or "the People's Militias" that operated in the central Nuba Mountains region in the early 1990s.

Kuu is a labor-sharing arrangement in Liberia, especially for seasonal work.

Gotong-royong is a conception of sociality ethos familiar to Indonesia. In Indonesian languages especially Javanese, gotong means 'carrying a burden using one's shoulder', while royong means 'together' or 'communally', thus the combined phrase gotong royong can be translated literally as 'joint bearing of burdens'. It translate to working together, helping each other or mutual assistance. The village's public facilities, such as irrigation, streets, and houses of worship (mosque, church or pura) are usually constructed through gotong royong, where the funds and materials are collected mutually. Traditional communal events, such as the slametan ceremony, are also usually held in the gotong royong ethos of communal work spirit, which each member of society is expected to contribute to and participate in the endeavour harmoniously.

The phrase has been translated into English in many ways, most of which hearken to the conception of reciprocity or mutual aid. For M. Nasroen, gotong royong forms one of the core tenets of Indonesian philosophy. Paul Michael Taylor and Lorraine V. Aragon state that "gotong royong [is] cooperation among many people to attain a shared goal."

In a 1983 essay Clifford Geertz points to the importance of gotong royong in Indonesian life:

An enormous inventory of highly specific and often quite intricate institutions for effecting the cooperation in work, politics, and personal relations alike, vaguely gathered under culturally charged and fairly well indefinable value-images—rukun ('mutual adjustment'), gotong royong ('joint bearing of burdens'), tolong-menolong ('reciprocal assistance')—governs social interaction with a force as sovereign as it is subdued.

Anthropologist Robert A. Hahn writes:

Javanese culture is stratified by social class and by level of adherence to Islam. ...Traditional Javanese culture does not emphasize material wealth. ...There is respect for those who contribute to the general village welfare over personal gain. And the spirit of gotong royong, or volunteerism, is promoted as a cultural value.

Gotong - royong has long functioned as the scale of the village, as a moral conception of the political economy. Pottier records the impact of the Green Revolution in Java:

"Before the GR, 'Java' had relatively 'open' markets, in which many local people were rewarded in kind. With the GR, rural labour markets began to foster 'exclusionary practices'... This resulted in a general loss of rights, especially secure harvesting rights within a context of mutual cooperation, known as gotong royong."

Citing Ann Laura Stoler's ethnography from the 1970s, Pottier writes that cash was replacing exchange, that old patron-client ties were breaking, and that social relations were becoming characterized more by employer-employee qualities.

For Prime Minister Muhammad Natsir, gotong royong was an ethical principle of sociality, in marked contrast to both the "unchecked" feudalism of the West, and the social anomie of capitalism.

Ideas of reciprocity, ancient and deeply enmeshed aspects of kampung morality, were seized upon by postcolonial politicians. John Sidel writes: "Ironically, national-level politicians drew on "village conceptions of adat and gotong royong. They drew on notions "of traditional community to justify new forms of authoritarian rule."

During the presidency of Sukarno, the idea of gotong royong was officially elevated to a central tenet of Indonesian life. For Sukarno, the new nation was to be synonymous with gotong royong. He said that the Pancasila could be reduced to the idea of gotong royong. On June 1, 1945, Sukarno said of the Pancasila:

The first two principles, nationalism and internationalism, can be pressed to one, which I used to call 'socionationalism.' Similarly with democracy 'which is not the democracy of the West' together with social justice for all can be pressed down to one, and called socio democracy. Finally – belief in God. 'And so what originally was five has become three: socio nationalism, socio democracy, and belief in God.' 'If I press down five to get three, and three to get one, then I have a genuine Indonesian term – GOTONG ROYONG [mutual co-operation]. The state of Indonesia which we are to establish should be a state of mutual co-operation. How fine that is ! A Gotong Royong state!

In 1960, Sukarno dissolved the elected parliament and implemented the Gotong Royong Parliament. Governor of Jakarta, Ali Sadikin, spoke of a desire to reinvigorate urban areas with village sociality, with gotong royong. Suharto's New Order was characterized by much discourse about tradition. During the New Order, Siskamling harnessed the idea of gotong royong. By the 1990s, if not sooner, gotong royong had been "fossilized" by New Order sloganeering. During the presidency of Megawati, the Gotong Royong Cabinet was implemented. It lasted from 2001 to 2004.

Bayanihan (, IPA: [ˌbajɐˈnihan]) is a Filipino term taken from the word bayan, referring to a nation, country, town or community. The whole term bayanihan refers to a spirit of communal unity or effort to achieve a particular objective. It is focused on doing things as a group as it relates to one's community.

The term bayanihan originated in the practice of volunteers from a community helping a family move by carrying the house itself, a tradition which remains the classic illustration for the concept as a whole. The feat is accomplished by building a frame from bamboo poles, which individuals stationed at the ends of each pole then use to lift and carry the house. The family traditionally shows their gratitude for the assistance by hosting a small fiesta.

In society, bayanihan has been adopted as a term to refer to a local civil effort to resolve national issues. One of the first groups to use the term is the Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company which travels to countries to perform traditional folk dances of the country with the objective of promoting Philippine culture. The concept is related to damayán ('to help one another').

In computing, the term bayanihan has evolved into many meanings and incorporated as codenames to projects that depict the spirit of cooperative effort involving a community of members. An example of these projects is the Bayanihan Linux project which is a Philippines-based desktop-focused Linux distribution.

In ethnic newspapers, Bayanihan News is the name of the community newspaper for the Philippine community in Australia. It is in English and in Filipino with regular news and articles on Philippine current events and history. It was established in October 1998 in Sydney, Australia.

Basij was created after the Islamic Revolution and during the Iran and Iraq wars. It was an organization which aimed to gather volunteers for fighting in the frontline. It was also a central idea of utilizing donations and volunteers to help the soldiers and bringing aid to the frontline.Women played a big role by knitting warm clothes, making foods, sewing new uniforms or religious accessories.Basij's aim and goals have been shifted and distorted after the war; after the war ended the Basij organization continue working as a center to spread ideologies of the Islamic revolution in schools and mosques. Basij now is part of the Sepah army (military, cultural and financial) organization which receives an undefined budget from the government.

Imece is a name given for a traditional Turkish village-scale collaboration. For example, if a couple is getting married, villagers participate in the overall organization of the ceremony including but not limited to preparation of the celebration venue, food, building and settlement of the new house for the newly weds. Tasks are often distributed according to expertise and has no central authority to govern activities.

Talkoot (from Finnish talkoo, almost always used in plural, talkoot) is a Finnish expression for a gathering of friends and neighbors organized to accomplish a task. The word is borrowed into Finland Swedish as talko but is unknown to most Swedes. However, cognate terms and in approximately the same context are used in Estonia (talgu(d)), Latvia (noun talka, verb talkot), and Lithuania (noun talka, verb talkauti). It is the cultural equivalent of communal work in a village community, although adapted to the conditions of Finland, where most families traditionally lived in isolated farms often miles away from the nearest village.

A talkoot is by definition voluntary, and the work is unpaid. The voluntary nature might be imaginary due to social pressure, especially in small communities, and one's honour and reputation may be severely damaged by non-attendance or laziness. The task of the talkoot may be something that is a common concern for the good of the group, or it may be to help someone with a task that exceeds his or her own capacity. For instance, elderly neighbours or relatives can need help if their house or garden is damaged by a storm, or siblings can agree to arrange a party for a parent's special birthday as a talkoot.

Typically, club houses, landings, churches, and parish halls can be repaired through a talkoot, or environmental tasks for the neighborhood are undertaken. The parents of pre-school children may gather to improve the playground, or the tenants of a tenement house may arrange a talkoot to put their garden in order for the summer or winter. A person unable to contribute with actual work may contribute food for the talkoot party, or act as a baby-sitter. When a talkoot is for the benefit of an individual, he or she is the host of the talkoot party and is obliged to offer food and drink.

Toloka or taloka (also pomoch) in Russian (toloka in Ukrainian and talaka in Belarusian, tłoka in Polish) is the form of communal voluntary work. Neighbours gather together to build something or to harvest crops.

Kaláka (IPA: [ˈkɒlaːkɒ]) is the Hungarian word for working together for a common goal. This can be building a house or doing agricultural activities together, or any other communal work on a volunteer basis.

Meitheal (IPA: [ˈmʲɛhəlˠ]) is the Irish word for a work team, gang, or party and denotes the co-operative labour system in Ireland where groups of neighbours help each other in turn with farming work such as harvesting crops.

The term is used in various writings of Irish language authors. It can convey the idea of community spirit in which neighbours respond to each other's needs. In modern use for example, a meitheal could be a party of neighbours and friends invited to help decorate a house in exchange for food and drink, or in scouting, where volunteer campsite wardens maintain campsites around Ireland.

Andecha (from Latin indictia 'announcement) is voluntary, unpaid and punctual aid to help a neighbor carry out agricultural tasks (cutting hay, harvesting potatoes, building a barn, collecting apples to make cider, etc.). The work is rewarded with a snack or a small party and the tacit commitment that the person assisted will come with their family to the call of another andecha when another neighbor requests it. It is very similar to the Irish meitheal.

It should not be confused with another Asturian collective work institution, the sestaferia. In this, the provision of the service is mandatory (under penalty of fine) and is not called a to help of an individual but the provision of common services (repair of bridges, cleaning of roads, etc.)

Dugnad is a Norwegian term for voluntary work done together with other people. It is a core phenomenon for Norwegians, and the word was voted as the Norwegian word of the year 2004 in the TV programme Typisk norsk ('Typically Norwegian'). Participation in a dugnad is often followed by a common meal, served by the host, or consisting of various dishes brought by the participants, thus the meal is also a dugnad.

In urban areas, the dugnad is most commonly identified with outdoor spring cleaning and gardening in housing co-operatives. Dugnader (plural) are also a phenomenon in kindergartens and elementary schools to make the area nice, clean and safe and to do decorating etc. such as painting and other types of maintenance. Dugnader occur more widely in remote and rural areas. Neighbours sometimes participate during house or garage building, and organizations (such as kindergartens or non-profit organisations) may arrange annual dugnader.

The Norwegian word dugnadsånd is translatable to the spirit of will to work together for a better community. Many Norwegians will describe this as a typical Norwegian thing to have.

The word dugnad was used to unite the people of Norway to cooperate and shut down public activities to fight the pandemic of 2020.

Moba (Serbian: моба) is an old Serbian tradition of communal self-help in villages. It was a request for help in labor-intensive activities, like harvesting wheat, building a church or repairing village roads.

The work was entirely voluntary and no compensation, except possibly meals for workers, was expected.

Gadugi (Cherokee: ᎦᏚᎩ) is a term used in the Cherokee language which means 'working together' or 'cooperative labor' within a community. Historically, the word referred to a labor gang of men and/or women working together for projects such as harvesting crops or tending to gardens of elderly or infirm tribal members. The word Gadugi was derived from the Cherokee word for 'bread', which is Gadu.

In recent years the Cherokee Nation tribal government has promoted the concept of Gadugi. The GaDuGi Health Center is a tribally run clinic in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the capital of the Cherokee Nation. The concept is becoming more widely known. In Lawrence, Kansas, in 2004 the rape crisis center affiliated with the University of Kansas, adopted the name the Gadugi Safe Center for its programs to aid all people affected by sexual violence.

Convite.

Konbit or Tet Ansanm in Haitian Creole.

Tequio. Zapoteca

Mink'a or minka (Quechua or Kichwa, Hispanicized minca, minga) is a type of traditional communal work in the Andes in favor of the whole community (ayllu). Participants are traditionally paid in kind. Mink'a is still practiced in indigenous communities in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile, especially among the Quechua and the Aymara.

Before the Inca conquest of around 1450, the Aymara kingdoms practiced two forms of communal work – Ayni, which refers to work undertaken for one's own local community, or Ayllu with many tasks subdivided according to gender roles (Chachawarmi), and Minka, which refers to communal work taking place across different Ayllus such as building work or work undertaken during seasonal migrations such as the Aymaras from the Altiplano i.e. areas of the Andes mountains at too high an altitude for agriculture, migrating with their camelids to agricultural areas in the Precordillera, and then to the forests that were once present in today's Atacama Desert and finally helping build boats with the Chango peoples in the sea area near present-day Arica or Tacna, in return for fish which has been found in the stomachs of mummies found at said high altitudes such as around lake Titicaca The Inca added the practice of Mita (forced labour for the empire, e.g. silver mining) and the Yanakuna who are skilled individuals forcibly removed from their Ayllus to perform a task for the empire, for example as architects/builders. The concept of Minga in particular has been shown to encompass various forms of Andean communal work used from the Mapuche peoples in the south to the Moche and other Pre-Chavin peoples near Cuzco in what is now Peru.

Mutirão is, in Brazil, a collective mobilization to achieve an end, based on mutual help provided free of charge. It is an expression originally used for working in the countryside, or for the construction of low-income houses. In a mutirão, everyone is simultaneously benevolent and beneficiary and works in a rotating system and without hierarchy.Currently, by extension of meaning, mutirão can designate any collective initiative for the execution of an unpaid service, such as a joint effort to paint a neighborhood school, clean a park and others.The word mutirão comes from the Tupi term motyrõ, which means 'work in common'. The same Tupi term gave rise to several other spellings, all currently in disuse (motirão, muquirão, mutirom, mutirum, mutrião, muxiran, muxirão, muxirom, pixurum, ponxirão, punxirão, putirão, putirom, putirum, puxirum).

In rural southern Chile, labor reciprocity and communal work remained common through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, particularly in rural communities on the Archipelago of Chiloé. Referred to as mingas, the practice can be traced to pre-contact Mapuche and Huilliche traditions of communal labor. In Chiloé, mingas took the form either of días cambiados (tit for tat exchanges of labor between neighbors) or large-scale work parties hosted by a particular family, accompanied by food and drink, and often lasting several days. Most agricultural work and community construction projects were done by way of mingas. The tiradura de casa ('house pull') involved moving a house from one location to another.

In rural Panama, especially in the Azuero peninsula region and its diaspora, it is common to hold a junta party as a communal labor event. Most commonly these events are used to harvest rice, clear brush with machetes, or to build houses. Workers generally work without compensation but are provided with meals and often alcoholic beverages such as fermented chicha fuerte and seco.

This use of the word bee is common in literature describing colonial North America. One of the earliest documented occurrences is found in the Boston Gazette for 16 October 1769, where it is reported that "Last Thursday about twenty young Ladies met at the house of Mr. L. on purpose for a Spinning Match; (or what is called in the Country a Bee)." It was, and continues to be, commonly used in Australia also, most often as "working bee".

Uses in literature include:

• "There was a bee to-day for making a road up to the church." – Anne Langton
• "The cellar ... was dug by a bee in a single day." – S. G. Goodrich
• "I made a bee; that is, I collected as many of the most expert and able-bodied of the settlers to assist at the raising." – John Galt, Lawrie Todd (1830)
• "When one of the pioneers had chopped down timber and got it in shape, he would make a logging bee, get two or three gallons of New England Rum, and the next day the logs were in great heaps. ... after a while there was a carding and jutting mill started where people got their wool made into rolls, when the women spun and wove it. Sometimes the women would have spinning bees. They would put rolls among their neighbors and on a certain day they would all bring in their yarn and at night the boys would come with their fiddles for a dance. ... He never took a salary, had a farm of 80 acres [324,000 m²] and the church helped him get his wood (cut and drawn by a bee), and also his hay." – James Slocum
• "'I am in a regular quandary', said the mistress of the house, when the meal was about half over. Mr. Van Brunt looked up for an instant, and asked, 'What about?' 'Why, how I am ever going to do to get those apples and sausage-meat done. If I go to doing 'em myself I shall about get through by spring.' 'Why don't you make a bee?' said Mr. Van Brunt." – Susan Warner, The Wide, Wide World (1850)
• "She is gone out with Cousin Deborah to an apple bee." – Charlotte Mary Yonge, The Trial; or More Links of the Daisy Chain (1864)

The origin of the word bee in this sense is debated. Because it describes people working together in a social group, a common belief is that it derives from the insect of the same name and similar social behaviour. This derivation appears in, for example, the Oxford English Dictionary. Other dictionaries, however, regard this as a false etymology, and suggest that the word comes from dialectal been or bean (meaning 'help given by neighbours'), derived in turn from Middle English bene (meaning 'prayer', 'boon' and 'extra service by a tenant to his lord').

• Sharing

Creative Lives is an arts organisation based in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The group was originally founded as Voluntary Arts in 1991 to promote creative cultural activity. In June 2021 the organisation was renamed "Creative Lives". It is supported by funders including the UK Arts Councils and the Irish Arts Council and charitable trusts.

Creative Lives is an arts organisation based in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The group was originally founded as Voluntary Arts in 1991 to promote creative cultural activity. In June 2021 the organisation was renamed "Creative Lives". It is supported by funders including the UK Arts Councils and the Irish Arts Council and charitable trusts.

Structure

Creative Lives has offices in Cardiff and Edinburgh, as well as project workers in different locations across the UK and in Dublin. Through a devolved structure across the UK and Ireland, the organisation provides information and training, and works with policy makers, funders and politicians to improve the environment for everyday creativity.

Creative Lives is registered in Scotland as Voluntary Arts Network Company No. 139147 and Charity No. SC 020345.

Activities

Creative Lives promotes creative cultural activities that people undertake for self-improvement, social networking, mental well-being, leisure and fun - but not primarily for payment. The range of art forms includes 'traditional amateur arts and crafts (singing, dancing, drama, quilting, painting, writing etc), to digital arts and creative cookery and gardening - from knitting a jumper to playing the guitar, making a short film to arranging flowers...'. There have been a number of studies and reports exploring the value of participation in the non-professional arts including for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2008 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Projects

• In March 2020, Creative Lives launched #CreativeNetwork - a series of online networking events for those involved in arts, culture and creative industries.
• Creative Lives On Air is a partnership between Creative Lives and BBC Local Radio stations, promoting everyday creativity through local radio. The project began with BBC Radio Merseyside as a legacy project following the Liverpool's year as EU City of Culture in 2008.
• Beginning in Scotland in 2011 and extended across the UK and Ireland the following year, Voluntary Arts organised Voluntary Arts Week, based on similar models in other European countries including the Week of Amateur Arts in Flanders. Taking place for one week in May across the UK and Ireland, the aim of Voluntary Arts Week is to celebrate amateur arts and crafts, and raise interest from the public. The week involves contributions from various amateur art and craft groups, such as open rehearsals, workshops/taster sessions, special performances or exhibitions. The 2013 Voluntary Arts Week featured a national 'CraftBomb', which encouraged participants to take their arts and crafts into the public domain, including in parks, gardens, on railings and outside buildings. In 2017, the ten-day event was renamed Voluntary Arts Festival.
• Voluntary Arts was one of the founding partners in the Get Creative campaign in 2015 as an initial year-long programme. The campaign became an annual spring event in 2016. Get Creative Weekend took place from 7–9 April 2017, with over 650 events across the UK. The chief executive of Creative Lives chairs the steering committee for Get Creative, which also includes representatives from BBC, Arts Council England, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Arts Council of Wales, Creative Scotland, Crafts Council, Creative People & Places, Fun Palaces and 64 Million Artists. From 2018, the Get Creative Weekend and Voluntary Arts Festival were merged to become the Get Creative Festival.
• The Creative Lives Awards, formerly the Epic Awards, recognise the achievements of voluntary and community-led creativity. The awards have been running in England since 2010, and from 2011 included awards for projects in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The awards are open to any non-profit amateur arts or crafts groups run by volunteers, based in the UK or Ireland, which took place at least partially in the previous 12 months. One winner and one runner-up are chosen from each of the five nations by a panel of Voluntary Arts staff and board members, and representatives from local arts councils. There is also a ‘People’s Choice Award’, voted for online by members of the public, and the ‘Peer Award’, voted for by the shortlisted nominees. An Award ceremony takes place each year, attended by the main winner from each nation. Previous winners have included a breakdance crew, all-male choir, drumming group and photography project. The Epic Awards winners' reception has previously taken place in London, Derry, Glasgow, Salford, Cardiff and Gateshead.

References

External links

• Creative Lives

Ireland ( IRE-lənd; Irish: Éire [ˈeːɾʲə] ; Ulster-Scots: Airlann [ˈɑːrlən]) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest in the world. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially named Ireland), an independent state covering five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. As of 2022, the population of the entire island is just over 7 million, with 5.1 million living in the Republic of Ireland and 1.9 million in Northern Ireland, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain.

The geography of Ireland comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. Its lush vegetation is a product of its mild but changeable climate which is free of extremes in temperature. Much of Ireland was woodland until the end of the Middle Ages. Today, woodland makes up about 10% of the island, compared with a European average of over 33%, with most of it being non-native conifer plantations. The Irish climate is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and thus very moderate, and winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, although summers are cooler than those in continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant.

Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century AD. The island was Christianised from the 5th century onwards. During this period Ireland was divided into many petty kingships under provincial kingships (Cúige "fifth" of the traditional provinces) vying for dominance and the title of High King of Ireland. In the late 8th century to early 11th century AD Viking raids and settlement took place culminating in the Battle of Clontarf on 23 April 1014 which resulted in the ending of Viking power in Ireland. Following the 12th century Anglo-Norman invasion, England claimed sovereignty. However, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, and was extended during the 18th century. With the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. A war of independence in the early 20th century was followed by the partition of the island, leading to the creation of the Irish Free State, which became increasingly sovereign over the following decades until it declared a republic in 1948 ( Republic of Ireland Act, 1948) and Northern Ireland, which remained a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s. This subsided following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. In 1973, both the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, with Northern Ireland as part of it, joined the European Economic Community. Following a referendum vote in 2016, the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland included, left the European Union (EU) in 2020. Northern Ireland was granted a limited special status and allowed to operate within the EU single market for goods without being in the European Union.