Across the United States, essential public institutions are being dismantled due to claims of inefficiency, fraud, and abuse. Schools, Medicaid programs, food assistance, and other social support systems that communities have relied on for decades are facing cuts or elimination. The troubling reality is that these services are disappearing without any clear plan for what will take their place, leaving many communities without the support they need.
The need for autonomous systems
Instead of feeling blindsided and powerless, this disruption should signal to communities an essential truth: they must step up and create their own autonomous systems that answer to local needs rather than shifting political priorities; a transformative opportunity to reimagine how they can reorganize themselves to better serve their own needs through self-determination, self-reliance, and shared resources. As communities embark on this reimagining, they need practical frameworks to guide them. Wisdom for this work may be found in an unexpected source: a century-old pragmatic concept of shared spaces by the Italian writer and philosopher Giovanni Papini. In his 1913 essay collection Pragmatismo, Papini shares a metaphor of a hotel corridor that offers a prescient framework for navigating our current era of institutional upheaval.
Papini’s vision
In Papini’s vision, diverse and even contradictory activities, such as “a man writing an atheist volume” alongside “someone on his knees praying for strength and faith,” coexist in this corridor not through ideological harmony but through shared access to common infrastructure. In operational terms, they “all own the corridor, and all must pass through it if they want a practicable way of getting into or out of their respective rooms.”
For the past century, the federal government has served as the corridor through which Americans access essential support—from tax collection and social safety nets to public education and small businesses. For decades, these services were reliable, and we took them for granted. Each agency was in a room, each room had a door, but the corridor was used only for entrance and exits, and once inside the doors remained closed.
But as scrutiny of federal agencies intensifies, questions arise about their effectiveness and efficiency. Americans must insist on open, clear passage from room to room and a corridor that orients citizens to services and opportunities. Papini’s corridor metaphor offers a framework for addressing today’s realities and prioritizing civic life to ensure vital support for all.
What jobs does your community need done? What unmet needs must be served? What infrastructure must be present to support this work? The answers depend on the opportunities and necessities of your corridor.
Sharing information across communities
Instead of keeping knowledge and data isolated in separate institutions, we must share information across the community, co-create with other agencies to uncover new solutions, and determine who is best equipped to implement them. This approach will not only expand access to crucial resources but also enable more responsible decision-making about how public dollars are allocated.
Consider workforce development funding. Centralized distribution may not be the best way to determine which programs deserve focus, because decision-makers may lack regional knowledge of job demand and the required skills. They are less able to maximize available resources efficiently. Residents not only need training, but they also require access to training, reliable transportation, childcare, and health services; an entire corridor of support from local and regional organizations must be present, working together, as the best positioned human capital in order to provide the greatest return on public investment.
Because Papini’s corridor metaphor encourages communication and collaboration across organizations, sectors, and classes, it enables communities to replace outdated systems by focusing on purpose and outcomes rather than tradition or ideology. The skills learned in these collaborative settings tend to be cross-functional and transferable, empowering individuals to grow beyond narrow specialization and become well-rounded community contributors. When workers are educated, connected, and actively engaged in their communities, they evaluate themselves based on their effectiveness and the results they produce. Their knowledge is derived from practical experience and work, the foundation of building stability and economic vitality.
