Organising dissonance on the Tibetan plateau: insights from the wisdom of nonduality

ABSTRACT

The authors adopt a Tibetan cultural perspective (Buddhist core philosophy ‘nonduality’) on the concept of organised dissonance and the four flows model of community organising. Working within the political and technological discourse of Tibet, we map out multiple dimensions of organised dissonance to explore how digital communication technology sustains the niamles. Our analysis highlights how niamle members live a nondual unity of the tension-filled four flows: (1) bureaucratic and technological negotiation of membership, (2) a hybrid, self-organising structure, (3) latent coordination of activity, and (4) contradictory institutional positioning. The study extends the interdisciplinary field of organisational and communication scholarship by examining grassroots organising in a culturally and politically complex international context.

KEYWORDS:

• Nonduality
• community organising
• organised dissonance
• communication technology
• Tibet

Acknowledgements

We appreciate the reviewers’ comments that helped us develop the manuscript further.

Disclosure statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 In Wylie Tibetan transliteration system, མཉམ་ལས། is written as mnyam-las. The first author transliterates it as a pronounceable term ‘niamle’ for keeping the regional Tibetan pronunciation and its political etymology.

2 Tibetan Buddhism has diverse schools of thoughts. This study relies on the most important Tibetan Buddhist philosophers Nāgārjuna’s(c. 2nd century CE) and Candrakīrti’s (c. 600–650 CE) central insight: all phenomena are empty of any intrinsic nature and are dependently arising.

3 Hukou is a Chinese household registration system. It is a booklet including all the family members’ names, gender, and detailed background information, such as birthplace, educational background, and political/religious affiliation.

4 Tara is a Buddhist goddess, known as ‘mother of liberation.’ She embodies qualities such as compassion, loving-kindness and emptiness.