Part Two of a two-part series on 1) what we are learning and 2) what is emerging in this transitionary phase for the Beyond Patriarchy project. Part One is available here.
Over the past two years, Beyond Patriarchy has grown through sustained practice, and attention: to what participants bring, to what feels difficult to stay with, and to what quietly changes when people have time, space and company to unlearn together.
In the harvest we recently shared, we reflected on what this work has been teaching us — about method, pace and the conditions that make transformation more likely. This second piece turns towards what’s emerging now, as those learnings begin to shape the next phase.
What follows is both an articulation and an invitation. It’s a snapshot of a project in transition — naming a few areas where energy is gathering, experiments are forming, and invitations are opening. If the first post was about listening closely to what has already grown, this one is about stepping forward without losing that attentiveness.
This work may resonate especially with people who sense that patriarchy is shaping their lives and relationships in ways they didn’t choose — and who want to stay with that realisation long enough for something different to become possible.
Four directions taking shape
1. Learning Journeys
Practising unlearning patriarchy together — slowly, relationally, and in context.
The learning journeys remain the heart of this work. They are spaces for collective inquiry where people explore how patriarchy operates not only ‘out there’, but in our relationships, bodies, habits, and imaginaries — and where we practice staying with that awareness long enough for something new to emerge.
Participants consistently name the value of rhythm, trust and shared sense-making: learning that is grounded, embodied and carried back into everyday life through small but meaningful acts of ‘home-weaving’.
In 2026, this will include:
- Continuing in-person journeys in Berlin and selected other locations (from April 2026).
- Hosting online learning journeys – designed to be widely accessible without sacrificing depth (first one starting February 2026).
- Hosting mixed-gender learning journeys (in-person and online) – not as a replacement for men*-centred work, but as a complementary edge; patriarchy operates relationally, and some of the learning can only happen when we’re in the room together (starting February 2026).
2. Facilitation Onboarding
From holding space alone to stewarding the work together.
As the work has matured, it’s become possible to begin supporting new facilitators to host learning journeys. Facilitation onboarding is about cultivating shared capacity, not reproducing a fixed method: learning through co-facilitation, reflection, and ongoing practice, while staying accountable to the political and relational stakes of the work.
In practice, this means:
- A first facilitation onboarding cohort starting in February 2026, and continuing in seasonal cycles throughout the year.
- Co- and shadow-facilitation within live learning journeys.
- Continued development of facilitation materials and reflective tools.
- Growing a community of practice where facilitators support one another and keep learning together.
3. Generative Storytelling
Letting lived experience speak — without spectacle or extraction.
Again and again, participants generate language, insights, and moments of clarity that feel more alive than any framework we could impose. Generative storytelling is about carefully harvesting these experiences — with consent, context, and care — to support wider sense-making.
This is not about marketing transformation, but about sharing grounded stories that invite reflection and connection. Over time, we begin to see the plurality of stories shifting broader narratives, without losing the personal stories contained within.
We’re continuing to:
- Harvest stories and reflections at the end of learning journeys.
- Share selected stories through the Beyond Patriarchy blog and partner channels.
- Train facilitators in Generative Journalism to hold and weave these conversations into the work.
4. Ecosystem Weaving
Strengthening the mycelium beneath the work.
Beyond Patriarchy sits within a wider ecosystem — of feminist organising, men’s work, systems change, popular education, and regenerative practice. Ecosystem weaving is about tending relationships across these fields without trying to unify or brand them. Much of this work is intentionally quiet: peer-to-peer exchange, slow trust-building and narrative alignment, rather than visibility or scale.
This includes:
- Connecting people and groups across fields through shared reflection and learning spaces.
- Supporting informal, mycelial networks of practice.
- Hosting public gatherings — such as Shared Table Dinners or ‘Stammtisch’ evenings — that make the ecosystem visible without over-formalising it.
What we’re not doing
Naming what we’re growing into also requires naming what we’re choosing not to pursue — at least for now.
- We are not building a scalable programme optimised for rapid growth — depth, care, and relational trust set natural limits on pace and size.
- We are not offering quick fixes, toolkits for behaviour change, or shortcuts to “being better” — this work asks for time, discomfort, and ongoing practice.
- We are not positioning Beyond Patriarchy as the centre of an ecosystem — the intention is to strengthen connections, not to accumulate attention.
- We are not turning this into therapy, nor into purely intellectual critique — the work stays practice-based, relational, and oriented toward collective meaning-making and action.
- And we are not pretending to have arrived — much of what matters most in this work remains unfinished and alive.
An invitation
As we move into 2026, Beyond Patriarchy feels less like a project to be delivered and more like a field that’s being carefully tended — through learning journeys, facilitation practice, shared stories, and relationships that extend beyond any single format.
Some people will meet this work by joining a learning journey. Others by supporting it, facilitating alongside us, or weaving it into what they’re already doing elsewhere. There’s no single way to belong here — only an ongoing invitation to stay in relationship with the questions that matter.
If any part of this resonates, you’re welcome to reach out, stay connected, or step closer. The work is ongoing — and it needs many hands, perspectives, and forms of care.
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