Thesis on Leaderless organisations

Dominance-based hierarchies have become the prevailing organisational structure today. Those at the top of the hierarchy have power and resources to control those below. They fit within a wider framework of a worldview that prioritises profits over human well-being1. Structural violence is therefore built into the fabric of the paradigm. We have become so accustomed to top-down dominance hierarchies that alternatives are rarely even considered. Most people simply accept that there will always be leaders and followers. These dominance hierarchies are at the core of an ideology that has led to enormous wealth for a few, but poverty for many millions; environmental degradation; oppression; wars; refugee migrations and so much more. There is a need to develop more humane ways to organise ourselves that are more life sustaining, and which reduce structural violence. The peer to peer movement is promoting different forms of commons based projects enabling the free co-operation of equals without any intermediary body taking control. They include work/housing/food co-operatives, intentional communities, computer based networks like Wikipedia, Creative Commons Licence, Occupy Wall Street, and the Arab Spring.