Reinventing the Commons:
\nDesigning Social Ecosystems for
\nLocal Stewardship & Planetary Regeneration<\/b>With Dave Jacke and David Bollier<\/p>\n
This event unfortunately has been cancelled at this time. I’ll keep you posted if it is rescheduled. Not a common thing for the organizer, something called “Life.” Okay hope to post more about sharing the commons soon…\u00a0<\/i><\/b>For more information:<\/p>\n
davej@edibleforestgardens.com<\/a><\/p>\n Despite all its benefits, more and more of us recognize that the dominant capitalist economic model based on the short-term self interest of a privileged few degrades both the social systems and the ecosystems upon which we depend.\u00a0 What feasible alternatives exist?\u00a0 This workshop explores the tangible potential of the commons as a practical and fair system of local provisioning, governance, and culture for transforming society and healing damaged ecosystems.<\/p>\n From early in human cultural evolution until only a few centuries ago, the vast majority of resources were held and managed in common.\u00a0 Defined groups of people formed agreements about how to share and manage specific resources, from woodlands and farm fields to pastures and water\u2014and they managed those resources sustainably for generations.\u00a0 It took the privateers hundreds of years to consolidate control of state and market structures so they could dismantle the commons systems of Europe and then the rest of the world.\u00a0 The unbridled privatization and commoditization of commons that began the Industrial Revolution continues today, with catastrophic results for planetary ecosystems and social well-being.<\/p>\n Reinventing “commoning” can begin counterbalancing these market and state forces, and regenerate the social and ecological wealth that is our collective heritage.\u00a0 Commons systems provide human-scaled social structures for shared resource management and nurturing community.\u00a0 They foster regenerative stewardship, ethical long-term relationships, and the common good.\u00a0 Commoning requires cultures of skillful social negotiation and coordination, and the development of trust and shared purpose.\u00a0 The question is: How can we consciously, creatively, and practically adapt and reintegrate practices and patterns of commoning into our modern cultural contexts?\u00a0 This evening talk and participatory two-day workshop will engage that question.<\/p>\n \u00a0This is what Was Planned…but is cancelled, FYI..The 2-hour Friday evening public talk will introduce the essence of the problems we face and how commoning can help us respond.\u00a0 We’ll also explore some of the history, principles, and concepts of commoning as a new and old social form, and examine a few case studies of commons systems that can inspire and offer us practical direction.\u00a0 You can register for the Friday evening talk by itself and come away with new eyes, hope for a better future, and sense of how we might get there.<\/p>\n The Saturday-Sunday workshop will include and build on Friday evening’s talk through lectures, discussions, exercises, and case studies in an environment fostering co-learning and co-creation.\u00a0 How do principles of ecology and the commons converge?\u00a0 What do commons systems entail philosophically and experientially, and imply politically and culturally?\u00a0 What contemporary, cross-cultural examples exist?\u00a0 We’ll also engage with designing commons systems on a four-acre homestead where the owners aim to share their land with a community of people in a practical, functional, and ecological manner.\u00a0 Workshop leaders Dave Jacke and David Bollier will combine forces and ideas with participants to see what we can learn together as we reinvent commoning here and now.<\/p>\n Bios:<\/b><\/p>\n Dave Jacke<\/i><\/b>\u00a0has studied and practiced ecological culture design since the mid-1970s.\u00a0 Since writing the now-classic tome\u00a0Edible Forest Gardens<\/i>\u00a0with Eric Toensmeier, he has come to firmly believe that we must spend at least as much time designing ecological human social structures as ecological landscapes.\u00a0 Dave’s research on ancient land use in Britain led him to appreciate the long, close relationship between commoning and land management practices like coppicing, both of which will likely become essential in the near future.<\/p>\n Independent scholar, activist, and blogger\u00a0David Bollier<\/i><\/b>\u00a0focuses on the commons as a new paradigm of economics, politics, and culture.\u00a0 He works primarily as co-founder of the Commons Strategies Group, an advocacy\/consulting project, and as Director of the Reinventing the Commons Program at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.\u00a0 Bollier has written or edited eight books on the commons, including\u00a0Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons<\/i>\u00a0(2014) and, with co-editor Silke Helfrich,\u00a0Patterns of Commoning<\/i>\u00a0(2015).\u00a0 He and Silke are currently finishing\u00a0Free, Fair and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the Commons<\/i>, due out later this year or early next.\u00a0 David lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, and blogs at\u00a0Bollier.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nDave Jacke
\nDynamics Ecological Design
\n33 E. Taylor Hill Rd. \u2022 Montague, MA \u2022\u00a001351
\n603-831-1298 \u2022\u00a0davej@edibleforestgardens.com<\/a><\/p>\n