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Shane Williams®

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Living framework

The Five Rings of Governance

A framework for understanding participation, access, membership, responsibility, stewardship and custodianship within a living community or ecosystem.

Concentric rings describing how people relate to a living community — from participation and access through to stewardship and custodianship.

Sample content — full exploration in development

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The Five Rings of Governance is a framework for understanding participation, access, membership, responsibility, stewardship and custodianship within a living community or ecosystem.

It describes how people relate to a shared endeavour — and how responsibility deepens as one moves toward the centre.

Authorship & stewardship

  • Created by Shane Williams.
  • Stewarded through Frequency.
  • Shared for widespread adoption.
  • Evolved through inquiry, application and feedback.

Framework use and attribution · Share feedback on this framework

Related frameworks

The central organising architecture of Frequency — its worldview, mission, principles and structures in one coherent pattern.

A relational and ethical framework centred upon Truth, Love and Unity, surrounded by twelve interdependent principles.

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