Meet the team
Joseph Rathinam, SONEC co-director
Joseph Rathinam has been training people to set up and operate Neighbourhood Parliaments for over thirty years. He has trained over 150,000 children and helped organise that many children parliaments as well as thousands of youth and women parliaments. He has trained over 90,000 in NGOs in India and more worldwide. Working at the neighbourhood and village level, he has also helped them network up to the block, district and state levels. He has been the elected leader of his own neighbourhood in Chennai (a city in Tamilnadu, southern India) for about twenty years. He is the Convener of National Children Parliaments and National Youth Parliaments. President, Neighborocracy Network and LivingCities.Earth co-founder. Further achievements include supporting the Tamil Nadu Puducherry State Children Parliament, which received “San Marino” UNICEF (UN) award in 2009 as the best child organisation in the world to ensure child rights.
Nathaniel Whitestone, SONEC co-director
I cofounded the Ecovillage Network of the Americas in 1996, brought Sociocracy to the UK in 2007, and co-authored the SONEC model from 2020-2022. I’m also a co-founder of Living Cities.Earth , and A Fairer Society, as well as a steering circle member of CTRL Shift network. My life purpose is to support the global shift from toxic power being considered normal to a world where healthy ways of being powerful are the norm in every community and workplace.
Carolina Downey De Oliveira, SONEC co-director
I was born in Brazil and now live in the UK. I have been working to bring sociocratic neighbourhood circles to the UK / EU for 4-5years now. I am helping to set up neighbourhood circles in Hastings where I live and support other local mutual aid work. I am pursuing certification as a Sociocratic Consultant with the International Network of Sociocracy Centres. I am also one of the coordinators of the UK wide CTRL Shift network. I hold music circles for community healing and connection. My dream is to seed connection and community everywhere, by bringing people back together through music, and helping them to organise to help each other.
