Beyond Development 2018
Course dates:
Monday, 22 January, 2018 to Friday, 9 February, 2018
With Rob Hopkins, Ashish Kothari, Dr Stephan Harding FLS, Paula Andreewitch, Robin Bowman, Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti (Video Link), Jane Davidson (Video Link), Karambu Ringera (Video Link), Katherine Trebeck and Jonathan Dawson
The development paradigm that has dominated thinking and policy on
the political and economic trajectory of ‘Third World’ countries since
the end of the Second World War is drawing to a close.
Even key players such as the World Bank and IMF now recognise the
weaknesses in the ‘one-size-fits all’ structural adjustment programmes
that have been enforced throughout the global South (and more recently
also in Greece). For large swathes of the human population, the last
quarter century has seen economic stagnation, with a growing gulf in
wealth between the rich and the poor.
However, the critique of this kind of ‘development’ goes far beyond
its failure in purely economic terms. A deeper critique points to the
conceptual and cultural impoverishment entailed in defining wealth in
purely monetary terms, and the resulting steamrollering of regionally
distinctive cultural, economic and political forms of organisation. All
of these, together with much of the planet’s ecological wealth, have
been sacrificed at the altar of an economic growth model that has served
primarily the 1%.
We are, however, living through a period of profound innovation and
transition. In the words of environmentalist and author Paul Hawkins,
the explosion of ecologically informed, community-centred activism that
we are witnessing worldwide represents the ‘earth’s immune system
kicking in’!
From Gross National Happiness in Bhutan, to buen vivir in the Andean
region of South America, from Ubuntu in southern Africa to Swaraj in
India, and beyond, we are seeing multiple experiments in redefining and
reorienting the process by which peoples define and realise wealth.
These movements are not limited to the global South. Also – perhaps
especially! – in the global North, there is a growing recognition
(manifested in such movements as degrowth, commons, Transition Towns,
steady-state economics and permaculture) of the need to transition to a
post-materialist, post-developmental paradigm.
All of these various approaches, North and South, are rooted in a
validation of cultural and ecological integrity, making of these the
very foundations on which planning and policy, values and norms are
built. In place of the economic and cultural monoculture that has
prevailed this last half-century, what we are seeing emerging is, in the
words of the Zapatistas, ‘A world in which many worlds can fit’.
And yet, the transition is still in its infancy and remains fragile.
How do economies whose role in the global economy is predicated upon
the export of raw materials make the transition beyond ‘extractivism’?
How can the legitimate desire for indigenous people to have their
ancestral lands protected from exploitation be reconciled with the
requirement by governments to raise funds for schools, hospitals and
rural electrification? How to catalyse the revolution in consciousness
and values required to enable us to transition away from consumerism?
And what are the complementarities and perhaps also potential conflicts
between the various movements, North and South. How can we optimise the
synergies between these different players and accelerate the transition
to a richer and more diverse global ecological civilisation?
In this three-week programme we will explore both
conceptually and experientially, with support from a large and diverse
team of teachers and mentors:
- Evolution of different theories of development
- Critiques of development theory and practice
- The emergence of post-development and more pluriversal models and concepts
- The contribution of indigenous wisdom traditions to the mix; sumak kawsai/buen vivir
- The challenges of operationalising buen vivir; the political economy of transitioning beyond extractivism
- Cross-overs/complementarities between buen vivir and other movements/concepts future pathways to alternatives to development
We will be drawing not just from economic theory and practice but also
from the fields of anthropology and ecology. These disciplines are a
great place to start in the search for a language fit for the purposes
of the 21st century. Both reveal a mosaic of diverse, elegant and
creative adaptations to the specificity of place; a global heterodoxy of
beautiful solutions to the challenge of living well on a diverse and
finite planet.
The concepts that lie at the heart of these disciplines – such as
resilience, adaptability, symbiosis, the power of networks and so on –
open up whole new ways of understanding and generating reciprocal wealth
and wellbeing within the biophysical boundaries of the planet.
The course will seek to educate the whole person, and will draw on
multiple ways of learning including small group design work and
techniques drawn from Agosto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed (link is external)as well as more conventional, conceptual approaches to the subject.
This course is an elective on Schumacher College's MA Economics For Transition
postgraduate programme. It is open to external participants who would
like to deeply explore this subject material and can join us for the
whole three-week programme.
Teachers
Rob Hopkins
Rob Hopkins is co-founder of Transition Town Totnes and the
Transition Network. He has many years’ experience in education, teaching
permaculture and natural building, and set up the first 2-year
full-time permaculture course in the world in Kinsale, Ireland, which
was also the first community to develop an Energy Descent Action Plan.
Futhermore, Rob set up the Hollies Centre for Practical Sustainability
in Ireland. He is author of The Transition Handbook and The Transition
Companion, and publishes www.transitionculture.org, recently voted the
4th best green blog in the UK.
Ashish Kothari
Ashish Kothari is an Indian environmentalist working on development,
environment interface, biodiversity policy, and alternatives. He is one
of founders of Kalpavriksh, a Non-Profit Organisation in India which
deals with environmental and development issues and has been associated
with peoples' movements like Narmada Bachao Andolan and Beej Bachao
Andolan. He has been a member of Steering Committees of the World
Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and IUCN Commission on
Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP) from 1998 to 2008 .
He has also been a co-chair IUCN Inter-commission Strategic Direction on
Governance, Equity, and Livelihoods in Relation to Protected Areas
(TILCEPA) from 1998 to 2008. Ashish Kothari has also served on the
steering group or governing board of the CBD (Convention On
Biodiversity) Alliance, the ICCA Consortium, and Greenpeace
International. At present, he is the chairman Greenpeace India’s Board
Dr Stephan Harding FLS
Stephan coordinates the MSc Holistic Science, and will teach on the Economics for Transition
programme. Stephan was born in Venezuela in 1953 and came to England at
the age of six. Since childhood Stephan has had a deep fascination with
the natural world, and his scientific cast of mind led him to do a
degree in Zoology at the University of Durham and then a doctorate on
the behavioural ecology of the Muntjac Deer at Oxford University. He has
been involved in ecological research, expedition and teaching in
Zimbabwe, Peru, Venezuela and Costa Rica. Stephan became a founder
member of Schumacher College in 1990. The College’s first teacher was
James Lovelock, with whom Stephan has maintained a long-lasting
friendship and scientific collaboration that culminated in their joint
appointment as chair holders of the Arne Naess Chair in Global Justice
and the Environment at the University of Oslo. Stephan lives on the
College campus with his wife Julia Ponsonby and their son Oscar, and is
the author of Animate Earth:
Science, Intuition and Gaia published in
2006
Paula Andreewitch
Paula facilitates Theatre of the Oppressed workshops, drawing on the
work of Agosto Boal, around the UK, and delivers life coaching and
training to inner city young people in London. She is also a classically
trained yoga teacher with a background in Capoeira Angola.
Robin Bowman
Robin has run nature connection and wilderness skills and awareness
events and camps with a variety of organisations, charities and schools
for 15 years. Many moons ago he was also one of the founding members of
Landmatters Permaculture Community, and lived in a bender he made out of
hazel for 5 years. Nowadays as well as being an integral part of the
Art of Mentoring and 8 Shields movement in the UK, Robin currently runs
Hunger Games themed camps for teenagers through WildWise as well as
working with young prisoners and recovering adult addicts for the
charity Write to Freedom. Robin manages a large woodland called Moor
Barton Rewilding Project which he manages as a venue for organisations
to run camps, to rewild people and for the land to rewild itself and
increase bio-diversity. In his 'spare time' (ha ha ha) he lives with his
young family in the middle of Dartmoor running a smallholding.. Robin
shares his skills, knowledge and experience with passion and humour.
Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti
Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti holds a Canada Research Chair in Race,
Inequalities and Global Change, at the Department of Educational
Studies, University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She has
extensive experience working across sectors internationally in areas of
education related to global justice, community engagement, indigenous
knowledge systems and internationalization. Her research focuses on
analyses of historical and systemic patterns of reproduction of
knowledge and inequalities and how these mobilize global imaginaries
that limit or enable different possibilities for (co)existence and
global change. She is currently directing research projects and teaching
initiatives related to social innovations that gesture towards
decolonial futures.
Jane Davidson
Jane Davidson is Pro Vice-Chancellor for External Engagement and
Director of INSPIRE, (Institute for Sustainability Practice, Innovation
and Resource Effectiveness) at the University of Wales Trinity Saint
Davi. From 2007- 2011, Jane was Minister for Environment, Sustainability
and Housing in Wales where she proposed legislation to make sustainable
development its central organising principle – the Wellbeing of Future
Generations Act came into law in April 2015. She introduced low carbon
planning requirements; created a Welsh Climate Change Commission and
Future Generations Commissioner, the 800 mile Wales coastpath,
legislated on waste which has seen Wales become the lead recycling
country in Britain, (currently 3rd in the world) and introduced the
Welsh charge on carrier bags. She led on energy for the Silk Commission
advocating the transfer of increased energy powers to Wales which was
included in the Wales Act 2017. From 2000 – 2007, Jane was Minister of
Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills in Wales. She introduced major
curriculum changes – the Foundation Phase and the Welsh Baccalaureate
and integrated Education for Sustainable Development and Global
Citizenship into the Welsh curriculum.
Dr Karambu Ringera
Dr Karambu Ringera is the founder and president of International
Peace Initiatives (IPI: www.ipeacei.org), an organisation that works to
mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS, poverty and violence in the lives of
women and children. She has used her extensive academic background and
international experience working in many countries to design and
implement models of effective community engagement, women’s grassroots
organizing programs, collaborative problem solving models, pre-emptive
and post conflict reconciliation, proactive health campaigns, and a
successful, working model of “Amani Homes,” community homes of peace for
orphans and vulnerable children. Karambu is a visionary, an activist, a
compassionate, committed, formidable force for change, and an
inspiration to all who meet her.
Katherine Trebeck
Katherine is Senior Researcher in Oxfam’s Research Team where she is
exploring an economic model that delivers social justice, good lives,
and which protects the planet. Before this role Katherine was Policy and
Advocacy Manager for Oxfam’s UK Programme, and prior to this she led
research and policy for Oxfam’s Scotland office. Here she developed
Oxfam’s Humankind Index, a measure of Scotland’s real prosperity
developed through wide ranging community consultation (see her Tedx talk
outlining the need for the Humankind Index). She also managed Oxfam’s
Whose Economy? project which asked why, despite decades of economic
growth, Scotland’s poverty has not been addressed and inequalities have
deepened.
From 2005 to 2008 Katherine was a Research Fellow at the University
of Glasgow. Her work there included analysis of community development,
corporate social responsibility and social housing. She has a PhD in
political science from the Australian National University (her thesis
considered techniques utilised by Aboriginal communities to compel
mining companies to recognise and respond to community demands). She is
an Honorary Professor at the University of the West of Scotland, Senior
Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde, and was part
of the GIZ Global Leadership Academy’s New Economic Paradigm project.
Katherine was a Commissioner on the Fairer Fife Commission, sits on WWF
Scotland’s Low Carbon Infrastructure Task Force, the Board of Ethical
Scotland, and is Rapporteur for Club de Madrid’s Working Group on
Environmental Sustainability and Shared Societies.
Her forthcoming book 'Arrival' (co-authored with Jeremy Williams)
explores a new mantra for development that shifts attention from growth
to quality and distribution of economic activity as we seek to 'make
ourselves at home' in a wealthy world.
Jonathan Dawson
Jonathan Dawson is a sustainability educator, currently working as coordinator of Schumacher College’s innovative Economics for Transition
postgraduate programme. He has a deep fascination with the power of
narrative and language to shape how we understand the world and as a
potential source of radical change in the norms, values and behaviours
of our societies. Until recently a long-term resident at the Findhorn
ecovillage and a former President of the Global Ecovillage Network, he
has around 20 years’ experience as a researcher, author, consultant and
project manager in the field of small enterprise development in Africa
and South Asia. Jonathan is the principal author of the Gaia Education
sustainable economy curriculum, drawn from best practice within
ecovillages worldwide, that has been endorsed by UNITAR and adopted by
UNESCO as a valuable contribution to the UN Decade of Education for
Sustainable Development. He has taught this curriculum at universities,
ecovillages and community centres in Brazil, Spain and Scotland.
No comments:
Post a Comment