In my lectures, based on my reading of history books during 2003-2004, I use a genealogy of social change and phase transitions from one system to another, that starts with the crisis of a dominant system, creating an exodus or flight out of the system, which in turns leads to a mutual reconfiguration of both… Continue reading
Date archives "May 2010"
Timothy Wilken’s recipe for change: Giftegrity, Ortegrity, Synocracy
I asked Timothy Wilken for an update on his activities: “Market is unsustainable, inefficient, and enormously destructive to the biosphere. And, it is failing. There will be no solutions from Big government or from Big business. All attempts to work within or through these failing systems will be wasted effort. There is no need to… Continue reading
Use communities and sharing infrastructures are vital for sustainability
Transforming one’s relationship with objects from one of ownership to one of use offers perhaps the greatest immediately available leverage point for greening our lives: British researchers found that in order to reach sustainable prosperity, Londoners would have to shrink their ecological impacts 80% in the next four decades. Shared infrastructures, such as use communities… Continue reading
Series recap: the Commons, Market, Capital and State debate
A seven-part series we published last month: 1) The commons as system-confirming paradigm 2) Commoning as resistance and disruption 3) the really really free market approach? 4) a critique of free market ideology 5) network vs. state 6) water commons, community and state (part one) 7) water commons, community and state (part two)
An update on the Reenchanted World: the Greening of Religions through Sacred Earth Theology
The paperback version of James William Gibson’s “A Reenchanted World: The Quest for a New Kinship with Nature“, one of our favourite books, is out. Here is some additional information: – an excerpt at Reality Sandwich – a radio interview on the theme of radical gardening here Here’s an excerpt with a short history of… Continue reading
Complexity and catastrophy vs. resilience and ‘failing gracefully’
Via Patrick Meier: “Scholars like Thomas Homer-Dixon argue that we are becoming increasingly prone to domino effects or cascading changes across systems, thus increasing the likelihood of total synchronous failure. “A long view of human history reveals not regular change but spasmodic, catastrophic disruptions followed by long periods of reinvention and development.” That doesn’t mean… Continue reading