Concentric circle

The image is sound, not rank. Concentric circles relate to amplification, so the voices and ideas nearest the centre are heard most loudly, which is a difference of volume rather than of authority. Nobody at the centre has direct control over the actions of anyone, which is what removes the structure from the category of hierarchy despite its shape. Promotion comes from peers rather than from a certifying body. An expert in a concentric circle is someone whose working peers have pushed them towards the centre on reputation, and any user of the system can review that work directly or through the peer review surrounding it instead of placing faith in a third party credential. Two properties keep the structure honest. Transparency means both the work and the promotion are visible to anyone who wants to check them. Permeability means the circles are not sealed, so people and ideas move in and out as reputation changes. Knowledge bridges do the outward work, auditing what the centre produces and explaining it to the outer circles and the general public, which is how expertise reaches people without converting itself into authority over them. Marsh offers the arrangement as the replacement for representative structures, since it brings expertise and amplification together while giving neither any power of command.

Concentric circles appear in urban sociology as Ernest Burgess's model of the city in rings, and in social network research as layers of intimacy around a person. In ordinary speech the inner circle means the opposite of what Marsh intends, a closed group with privileged access, and the phrase carries an assumption that proximity to the centre is proximity to power. Her structure keeps the geometry and removes that assumption twice over, first by making the circles transparent and permeable rather than closed, and second by defining centrality as amplification rather than as control. The nearest working parallels are open peer review and reputation systems in free software, where standing comes from visible contribution rather than from credential.