2023 NENA Conference Speakers

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List of Speakers
  1. Paul Atkins
  2. John August
  3. Michael Bayliss
  4. Erst Carmichael
  5. Marta Conde
  6. Jonathan Cornford
  7. Kevin Cox
  8. Louise Crabtree-Hayes
  9. Geoff Davies
  10. Degrowth Network Australia
  11. Elsa Dominish
  12. Liz Downes
  13. Mike Dowson
  14. Scotty Foster
  15. Tom Foster
  16. Mel Geltch
  17. Jane Goodall
  18. Mary Graham
  19. Michael Haines
  20. Tim Hollo
  21. S. A. Hamed Hosseini
  22. Sarah Houseman
  23. Anthony E. Jensen
  24. Katrina Johnson
  25. Phil Jones
  26. Myfan Jordan
  27. Molly Kendall
  28. Simon Kerr
  29. Robin Krabbe
  30. Terry Leahy
  31. Rosemary Leonard
  32. Barbara Lepani
  33. Nat Lowrey
  34. Michelle Maloney
  35. Scott Matter
  36. Nick McGuigan
  37. Jonathan Miller
  38. Richard Mochelle
  39. Bronwen Morgan
  40. Anitra Nelson
  41. Cesidio "Sid" Parissi
  42. JP Parker
  43. Chris Riedy
  44. Anisa Rogers
  45. Janet Salisbury
  46. Anna Schlunke
  47. Helen Schwencke
  48. Kesh Sharma
  49. John J. Shiel
  50. Andrew Skeoch
  51. Samantha Slade
  52. Michele Smith
  53. Vivien Sung
  54. Rod Taylor
  55. Adriano Tedde
  56. Nikki Thompson
  57. Peter Thompson
  58. Shann Turnbull
  59. Dennis Venter
  60. Catherine van Wilgenburg
  61. Duncan Wallace
  62. Susan Wanmer
  63. Adrian Watts
  64. Jax Wechsler
  65. Samantha Wittenberg

Paul Atkins

Staying present for action: Managing yourself while facilitating your groups

Presented with JP Parker

How are you feeling about the state of the world right now? How about your own agency in it? What impact does your feeling state have upon your capacity to act, particularly when working with groups?

If we are to address the most pressing issues of our time with wisdom, as convenors and facilitators it’s essential that we get much better at helping our groups make collective decisions based on authentic, and authentically shared, needs and values.

Our approach, ProSocial, supports dialogue about individual and collective values that might otherwise be challenging to discuss. By incorporating presence practices, contextual behavioural science, and Ostrom’s design principles for the commons, ProSocial offers a powerful and replicable methodology for bringing people of divergent interests together on common ground in pursuit of a shared purpose.

In this workshop, we’ll briefly introduce the ProSocial framework, explore use cases from around the world (including government departments, local sustainability initiatives, community and environmental health programs, even one we did among UN groups), and demonstrate a few tools you can use right away to help your own groups navigate themselves toward greater trust, harmony, and collaboration.

Paul is an author, researcher and facilitator trainer. He is a Visiting Associate Professor with the Crawford School of Public Policy (ANU). His research is focused on interventions to reduce stress while enhancing relationships, wellbeing, and cooperation in groups and organizations. He is co-founder of ProSocial World, a not-for-profit organization focused on enhancing cooperation and trust in purpose-driven groups globally.

 

John August

Understand Government, Business, Markets and Value – Towards a better outcome

To move forward it’s worth recognising existing abuses of government regulation and capitalism. Government and business rely on consultants and ignore just how easily “the market” can go off the rails and fail to deliver on its much-vaunted promise. Business has its part to play, but Government can make a real difference, and “deliver value”, much as it’s claimed only business can truly deliver value.  This prompts us to think about what “value” really means, and whether the notion can help us understand the world and improve it. Between business and government, we need to recognise the initiatives possible from individuals, community groups and co-operatives, and back away from promoting large lumbering business in favor of smaller business, community and personal initiatives.

Further, current approaches which do not recognise our common ownership of land, together with how our particular taxation system is set up, making the problem worse. We can aspire to move forward by replacing capitalism, but whatever we do we must interact with each other. It’s worth understand some of the problems which currently exist on order that we can develop the vision of what’s possible.

John August has been interested in economics and justice in the world for as long as he was aware there was something called economics. He has particular interests in Intellectual Property and Universal Basic Income, which prompted him to become involved in the Pirate Party of Australia and stand for several elections. He also hosts the community radio show “Roving Spotlight” where along with ideas from economics, he takes a look at science, history, politics and numerous other areas.

 

Michael Bayliss

The impact of population growth on the housing crisis

Australia is facing a crisis in the affordability and quality of housing which is leading to increased inequality and homelessness, threatening to shatter the social contract. An accumulation of ill-advised policy measures (e.g., negative gearing, reduction in capital gains tax, and first home buyer grants) have combined with accelerated population growth to create a perfect housing storm. This year, Sustainable Population Australia commissioned a detailed report exploring the demand side contributors to the current housing crisis. “The housing crisis is a population growth crisis”, co-written by Michael Bayliss and Dr Jane O’Sullivan, is unique within the literature in that is looks beyond supply based solutions to a much larger problem. This presentation will explore the main core arguments of this report. It will also further examine the relationship between state capture by the vested interests of property developers and big business, resulting in a dogged pursuit of the wrong kind of economic growth. To solve the housing crisis and many other social ills, a transition away from a speculative, growth-based economy toward a degrowth, wellbeing economy that does not rely on population growth is proposed.

Michael Bayliss is host of the Post-Growth Australia Podcast (PGAP). He has been active in urban planning reform, co-founding Town Planning Rebellion in 2016. His current focus is in advocating for post-growth alternatives to the current growth based economic system. He currently lives in Albany, Western Australia.

 

Erst Carmichael

How can we overcome capitalism? Community led responses

Presented with Cesidio (Sid) Parissi

In this session, Erst Carmichael will lead a workshop aimed at helping people share, and create, local strategies about how to move beyond capitalism.

Erst will draw on her many years of experience in community-based initiatives, including bush care, local not-for-profit businesses, the Lyttleton Stores Cooperative Ltd and the ongoing work of Action for Community and Environment (ACE) in Lawson, Blue Mountains. She will facilitate break out groups so that people who are passionate about local, place-based strategies for moving beyond capitalism, can brainstorm and discuss their ideas, and inspire each other by sharing insights back into the group.

Ms Erst Carmichael was a lecturer at UWS 1991 – 2015 in Academic Literacy. She initiated the theme of Sustainability for an introductory short course “Unistep” from 2005 – 2014 which involved around 300 students/year. She has been a political activist for almost 50 years, and holds a BA, M.Ed & M Env Sc.

 

Marta Conde

Degrowth and Post-extractivism: Beyond Pillaging and Growth 

Presented with Nat Lowrey

Degrowth and post-extractivism have been said to be “two sides of the same perspective”. Both are known to critique sustainable development or ‘green’ growth and green capitalism that remain within existing logics of out-of-control production and consumption, a global addiction to economic growth (GDP), abuse of human and land defenders, and pillaging life sustaining systems on which the wellbeing of all life on Earth depends.

In the Degrowth and Post-extractivism: Beyond Pillaging and Growth session, both degrowth and post-extractivism perspectives will be explained along with 2-3 short case studies from the Asia Pacific region to highlight key questions for discussion, including:

  • What is the common ground between degrowth and post-extractivism?
  • How can degrowth and post-extractivism complement each other in building a movement that can challenge and overcome the dominant dynamics of pillaging and growth (capitalism) towards an equitable, ecologically and socially just world that values diverse ways of life; that protects the land, air and waters we all rely on?

Degrowth and post-extractivism are two sides of the same struggle. Both are known to critique sustainable development, ‘green’ growth and capitalism that remain within existing logics of out-of-control energy and material production and consumption. Global addiction to economic growth (GDP) implies the abuse of human and land defenders, and the pillaging of life sustaining systems on which the wellbeing of all life on Earth depends. In this session we will strive to describe the commonalities and differences of degrowth and post-extractivism perspectives as well as the main strategies we identify to achieve both. This will be supported by indigenous perspectives on shortcomings and how this can be achieved with two cases the Asia Pacific region A driving question of the session will be: How can degrowth and post-extractivism complement each other in building a movement that can challenge and overcome the dominant dynamics of pillaging and growth (capitalism) towards an equitable, ecologically and socially just world that values diverse ways of life; that protects the land, air and waters we all rely on?

Marta Conde is a researcher who looks at the governance of extractive industries. Using political ecology, ecological economics, political economy and environmental justice she analyses the drivers, strategies and discourses of resistance movements to mining. Marta links her research to environmental justice and degrowth, exploring how these groups are successfully contesting the imperative of endless economic growth.

 

Jonathan Cornford

The Post-Capitalist Vision of R.H. Tawney

Reconceiving non-capitalist modes of economic life from within the Christian tradition. R.H. Tawney was the most influential British socialist thinker of the twentieth century, and was one of the primary inspirations for E.F. Schumacher in writing Small is Beautiful. Tawney’s socialism drew on a rich heritage of economic thought within the Christian tradition and applied it to the industrial economy of interwar Britain. He reconceived the ways in which we think about property, the organization of industry and the relationship between economy, society and the state. As well as an influential thinker, Tawney was able to combine academic scholarship with political activism in ways that bridged social factions and helped build consensus about a post-capitalist future. Recovering Tawney’s submerged influence on the new economy movement can enrich our thinking and action towards life after capitalism.

Jonathan Cornford is co-founder of Manna Gum, a non-profit organisation that seeks to recover the rich heritage of Christian thinking about economic life, and apply it to the challenges of the 21st Century. Jonathan has doctorates in political economy and theology. He lives in an intentional community in Bendigo, Victoria.

 

Kevin Cox

Fighting inflation: Petition to the Reserve Bank of Australia

On July 18th, we launched an online petition to the Reserve Bank to reduce the cost of home loans by Banks sharing interest. https://www.change.org/shareinterest

This session will describe what happened and discuss lessons learned.

Kevin has worked as a Civil Engineer, Systems Engineer, Lecturer, Entrepreneur, and Researcher. He has developed Open-Source Software and is currently researching and developing open-access finance – meaning finance open to all.

 

Louise Crabtree-Hayes

Community land trusts as a post-capitalist strategy

 

Geoff Davies

A New Australia: Discarding delusions, promoting wellbeing

What if Australia is governed by delusions? Delusions that give rise to a machine that’s consuming the world? Things like claiming there is no such thing as society? Ignoring connection with the natural world? Being wrong about how banks and markets work? Taking counter-productive approaches like deriding government roles and services, acting like colonials, favouring industrial agriculture, regarding the First People as a problem? Such ideas may subvert the good things NENA tries to promote, but are they inevitable?

In this session you are invited to share and discuss big ideas that are wrong, and the better ideas that can promote our wellbeing. To identify interlocking parts that form a destructive system. To find some key changes that would most quickly slow the machine and allow us to flourish.

Could banks and markets be adapted to support a sustainable society? Might higher wages actually stimulate employment, and the economy? Could we provide for our own needs without importing more people, or wrecking the land? Could we create a non-colonial constitution that gives First and later people joint sovereignty?

Reference: Davies, A New Australia: Discarding delusions and organising for the wellbeing of all, BetterNature Books, 2023.

Dr. Geoff Davies is a scientist, author and commentator, and has been exploring economics for over twenty years. He is a retired Senior Fellow at the Australian National University. He is the author of ‘The Little Green Economics Book’, ‘Economy, Society, Nature’ and the forthcoming ‘A New Australia’. He has authored over one hundred scientific papers and three scientific books.

 

Degrowth Network Australia

Future Scenarios Session

DNA meets nationally online every second Wednesday of the month (12pm) and the Melbourne group meets every first Wednesday of the month (6pm). The network is a place for those who want to and/or are already acting, organising and fighting for a degrowth world to meet, discuss and plan. We gather to learn from each other, share updates and discuss plans and projects. The gatherings are what we make them, so jump in with your ideas and make things happen! There are already so many degrowth aligned projects and individuals around the country, and the network allows them to connect to a broader critique of economic growth and alternatives, as well as discuss and

debate with each other. We look forward to meeting you! 

Sandy Gonzalez de la Vega, Jess Prescott and Tonié Field are all part of the Melbourne group of the Degrowth Network Australia (DNA). We believe a lot more discussion, organising and ACTION to critique the growth economy is needed to show the alternatives. Bringing people together using the concept of degrowth is key to help this happen. This interactive workshop invites reflection after a weekend full of learnings. It will be an exploration of “future scenarios” based on the challenges that climate change and the “meta-crisis” will bring in a fun and accessible way! We encourage you to immerse yourself in these scenarios, leading to discussion and invigoration for action on how you can apply what you’ve learnt in your own setting back home.  

 

Elsa Dominish

Justice in the green energy and material transition

Presented with Nat Lowrey and Liz Downes

A rapid transition is required towards clean energy and transport systems to avoid catastrophic climate change. The concept of a “just transition” is to ensure the green transition happens in a fair and inclusive way. However, the current capitalist approaches to this transition are driving demand for new minerals, which is leading to human rights and environmental impacts in communities in the global south and north, in particular in Indigenous communities. At the same time many marginalised communities and countries are unable to access clean technologies.

In this session we will provide perspectives on the key aspects to achieve a green energy transition that is socially just and ecologically sustainable. This will include a case study on a community affected by mining, an overview of how mineral demand can be minimised through degrowth strategies, a discussion on community energy business models and/or indigenous perspectives.

This session will seek to question the assumption that the injustice in the green transition is the ‘price we need to pay’ for a rapid transition, by highlighting interventions that challenge high mineral demand assumptions and business-as-usual models of transition.

Elsa is researcher focused on driving progress towards social and environmental justice in sustainability transitions and resource supply chains. She has more than 10 years of experience within research, non-government and private sectors in Australia and Asia.

Elsa is a Research Principal at the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), a transdisciplinary research institute with the aim to create change towards sustainable futures. She undertakes applied research to inform policy and practice change in the areas of resource governance, climate change, circular economy and just transitions, across sectors including renewable energy, food, textiles and plastics.

She has worked on collaborative projects with clients and partners including Australian Commonwealth and state governments, International Labour Organisation (ILO), Stewart Investors, Greenpeace, Earthworks and WWF-Australia. She has led several impactful projects to drive change towards a just energy transition which have been used for advocacy to shift industry and governments towards more responsible practices in renewable energy and battery supply chains.

 

Liz Downes

Justice in the green energy and material transition

Presented with Nat Lowrey and Elsa Dominish

A rapid transition is required towards clean energy and transport systems to avoid catastrophic climate change. The concept of a “just transition” is to ensure the green transition happens in a fair and inclusive way. However, the current capitalist approaches to this transition are driving demand for new minerals, which is leading to human rights and environmental impacts in communities in the global south and north, in particular in Indigenous communities. At the same time many marginalised communities and countries are unable to access clean technologies.

In this session we will provide perspectives on the key aspects to achieve a green energy transition that is socially just and ecologically sustainable. This will include a case study on a community affected by mining, an overview of how mineral demand can be minimised through degrowth strategies, a discussion on community energy business models and/or indigenous perspectives.

This session will seek to question the assumption that the injustice in the green transition is the ‘price we need to pay’ for a rapid transition, by highlighting interventions that challenge high mineral demand assumptions and business-as-usual models of transition.

Liz Downes is a campaigner and researcher for Rainforest Information Centre, Melbourne Rainforest Action Group and Aid/Watch.

 

Mike Dowson

Trauma and transition  

This talk will consider the role of trauma in shaping our current predicament. I argue that we will not transition to a life-affirming culture after capitalism unless we consciously acknowledge, understand and move toward healing the effects of trauma, both personal and inter generational, in ourselves, our communities, and in the functioning of our institutions. The talk will consider how this might be done, in particular the importance of coregulaton and syncrony.

Mike Dowson has been a contributor to NENA since its inception. He has written extensively on the social, economic and political ramifications of the breakdown of global systems and our slide towards civilisation collapse. He is particularly interested in the psychology and sociology of a just and safe transition to a survivable future.

 

Scotty Foster

NENA Canberra / CoCanberra plan to move Canberra out of capitalist organisation

We need a core group of people to help us co-create and set up a series of cooperatives in the Canberra region to provide for our basic needs. This will ensure the activities required for meeting each need are done in a way that contributes to the health of our community and the health of nature in our region.

Governance will be non-authoritarian. Profits are put back into the community through participatory budgeting.

Scotty Foster is a solar powered, radio broadcasting, organic growing, co-operative creating, earth and people protecting lunatic worker from Canberra, Australia. A solar electrician, his real work is done through the community groups CoCanberra and NENA, the Soil City Co-operative Farms, community radio2XX and the Align in the Sound podcast.

 

Tom Foster

Debunking the three myths about money to achieve an ecologically and socially sustainable economy

This presentation outlines how the three common myths about money support neoliberal growth economies and how – by replacing these myths with money’s factual story – this knowledge can be used by voters and activists to achieve the transition to an ecologically and socially sustainable economy.

The three common myths are:

  1. The story of barter;
  2. That central governments need to tax and borrow to fund services; and
  3. That banks recycle customer’s savings deposits to fund their loans.

Knowing these are myths and replacing them with the evidence-based truths about money, activists and voters are better placed to hold politicians and other vested interests to account to achieve the economic and societal changes necessary to avoid ecological and social polycrisis, thus enabling humans to live sustainable dignified lives within planetary boundaries.

Panel Session: Economics after Capitalism

Presented in a panel session with Mary Graham, Michelle Maloney, Anna Schlunke, and Dennis Venter

This presentation explores the synergies between ecological economics and Modern Monetary Theory and the Master of Economics of Sustainability course that is teaching this.

Panel Session Outline:

Research at Rethinking Economics Australia echoes the experiences of economics students from other chapters. In class, students study an outdated and frustrating approach known as Neoclassical economics. It’s not working, and students are fed up. How can we reclaim economics from the orthodoxy and re-integrate it into society? We need to paint a clear and captivating picture of what economics truly is and then lay down the core principles of this new (or actually very old) economics that can work for people and planet.

Tom Foster holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) Honours degree from the University of NSW, a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Macquarie Graduate School of Management and is currently studying for the Master of Economics of Sustainability degree at Torrens University. He has been published in ERA Review, the journal of Economic Reform Australia.

 

Mel Geltch

The Wicked Question Game

Bring your big and personal questions about your relationship to Life after capitalism, and the socio-ecological transition needed to get us there.

This is a conscious and highly participatory way to deepen your question, and seek different perspectives on your question in a brave and care-full space.

In small groups, participants will practice offering and receiving different perspectives, and sharpening skills of asking powerful questions… and end up with a whole lot of wisdom and insight into your own burning questions.

Co-founder of Campfire Coop, living and working on Yuin Country on the South Coast of NSW. I am deeply committed to co-creating a movement of courageous collaboration, experimentation and learning that serves organisations, communities and the planet. I work locally and internationally with participatory, living systems and complexity practices, building capacity and a spirit of generosity wherever I can.

 

Jane Goodall

Basic Income and Economic Transformation

The Universal Basic Income (UBI) hub at NENA has drawn together people with diverse approaches to Basic Income, and different forms of knowledge to bring to the campaign. Recent initiatives to introduce a participatory income are prompting some rethinking about the fundamental principles, and raising large questions.

What do we mean by “unconditional?” How should a basic income plan be administered? How does it relate to the debates about the future of human work.

I will address these very briefly, to focus discussion from those attending.

Jane Goodall is Emeritus Professor in Writing and Society at Western Sydney University. Her most recent book, The Politics of the Common Good (NewSouth 2019), explores the history of the idea for basic income in the principle of The Commons. She writes regularly for Inside Story.

She is convenor of the Basic Income Hub for New Economy Network Australia and lives on Ngunnawal land.

 

Mary Graham

Panel Session: Economics after Capitalism

Presented in a panel session with Tom Foster, Michelle Maloney, Anna Schlunke, and Dennis Venter

During this panel event, Mary Graham and Michelle Maloney present on how we could incorporate a relationalist ethos into society and economics.

Panel Session Outline:

Research at Rethinking Economics Australia echoes the experiences of economics students from other chapters. In class, students study an outdated and frustrating approach known as Neoclassical economics. It’s not working, and students are fed up. How can we reclaim economics from the orthodoxy and re-integrate it into society? We need to paint a clear and captivating picture of what economics truly is and then lay down the core principles of this new (or actually very old) economics that can work for people and planet.

Dr Mary Graham is an Adjunct Associate Professor in Political Science at the University of Queensland. She grew up in South-East Queensland, and is a Kombu-merri person through her father’s heritage and a Wakka Wakka clan through her mother’s heritage. With a career spanning more than 30 years, Mary has worked across several government agencies, community organisations and universities. Mary has been a dedicated lecturer with the University of Queensland, teaching Aboriginal history, politics and comparative philosophy. Mary has written and published many prominent works, including – publications in the Aboriginal Encyclopaedia, training modules for Cross Cultural Awareness and a host of academic papers. Mary is a Director of Future Dreaming Australia, an Indigenous and non-indigenous partnership organisation working to increase cross-cultural ecological knowledge in Australia (www.futuredreaming.org.au)

 

Michael Haines

Why and How a Basic Income for All Australian Adults – How to make it a Reality within the Term of the Next Parliament

Start at just $10/wk/person increasing to the Poverty Line over 5 years. This phase-in will allow the supply chain time to adapt to the new pattern of demand without creating shortages that drive inflation. It also reduces the risk of ‘unintended consequences’, as the increase can be halted at any time to countermeasure emerging problems, or (more likely) be sped up as the benefits emerge. It can also be adapted to help keep the labour market in balance as automation, virtualization and AI change jobs. Though paid to all adults, (through a system of ‘recoveries’ based on earned income), the NET benefit would be targeted to those in most need. It would be much simpler to administer than the current welfare system, while ensuring that no one misses out, or has to wait until their benefit is approved. Members of communities can also consider how to pool some of the extra money for their joint benefit. The proposal also offers a unique funding model that requires no increases in tax or debt. Participants will be asked to download a phone app that can be used to respond to a survey in real time.

MICHAEL HAINES has worked at senior levels in brewing, construction, consumer goods, and in manufacturing at Toyota. He was a Board Member of Australian Logistics Council, and a Member of Austroads Intelligent Transport Industry Reference Group. In 2011, he established VANZI to broker development of a legal framework for the emerging Digital Built Environment. He has also spent 40 years investigating how our money, banking, tax and welfare systems function together, and more recently has been appointed a Director of Basic Income Australia Limited.

 

Tim Hollo

Living the path to transformation

A highly regarded environmentalist, community builder and musician, Tim Hollo is Executive Director of the Green Institute and author of Living Democracy: an ecological manifesto for the end of the world as we know it.

 

S. A. Hamed Hosseini

The Well-living Paradigm: A Commonist Approach to Good Life in Our Turbulent World

This presentation proposes the concept of ‘well-living’ as a transformative framework to reimagine the quality of life amid the looming global socio-ecological crises of our time. It critically analyzes the limitations of mainstream and reformist well-being discourses, advocating for a radical shift in our perception of a fulfilling life. ‘Well-living’ is presented as a civilizational project and a multifaceted imperative encompassing creativity, liveability, conviviality, and alterity, operating at various levels from the individual to the international. It emphasizes nine qualities like harmony, purpose, solidarity, autonomy, and integrity to foster an integrated approach to living in accord with oneself, others, and (the rest of) nature. Embracing ‘well-living’ as not only a goal but also as a process helps the actors challenge the dominant global capitalist mindset, reclaim their relationship with the web of life, and strive for a more just, regenerative, and pluriversal world inclusive of many worlds. The paper acknowledges the need to avoid reifying well-living, instead promoting ‘contextually’ defined values that respect diverse socio-ecological systems. Finally, using a ‘commonist’ lens, it outlines the institutional and legislative-policy transformations necessary for realizing well-living.

S.A. Hamed Hosseini, Ph.D. in Sociology and Global Studies from the Australian National University (ANU, 2006), is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science and tenure Senior Lecturer in Sociology, at the University of Newcastle (UON), NSW, Australia.

 

Sarah Houseman

What might become possible in a non-hierarchically governed organisation?

Join me for a conversation that explores the different relational paradigm emerging within non-hierarchically structured organisations. I will draw on my ethnographic research of 4 non-hierarchical organisations to discuss the ways non-hierarchy can transform people, practice and process when organisations are guided by principles of equality, diversity and inclusion.

I am an educator and researcher energised by creative collaborations in community. I bring expertise in non-hierarchical approaches to governance and use a range of embodied and creative methods to support greater inclusion and diversity in organisations. My facilitation kitbag includes Liberating Structures, The Work that Reconnects, Warm Data and the Art of Hosting, among other engagement approaches.

 

Anthony E. Jensen

Democratic cooperatives for fairer wealth distribution in a post-growth economy

Presented with John J. Shiel

Labour has been valued differently down through the ages: hunter-gatherer, slavery, serfdom and master-servant and wage-labour. The role of labour in capitalism has evolved with the rise of corporations that maximise shareholder value and concentrate global wealth at the expense of a more equitable distribution of profits. Modern corporations extract resources while polluting the commons, often underpaying employees, and promote consumerism and unsustainable economic growth and are designed to maximise profits to shareholders. This has widened income disparity and is leading to environmental impacts creating a “wasteland”.

This paper argues that it is essential, and has been shown to be possible, to stop this trajectory into a “wasteland” by transitioning the current means of production into employee-owned organisations (cooperatives) operating in a sustainable zero growth economy without adversely impacting the community. Cooperatives can distribute wealth more evenly without the need for continued economic growth to satisfy external shareholders. The paper looks at how cooperatives and their workers can prosper when there is participatory democratic control without consumerism. This can organise the means of production into a fairer, more efficient, environmentally friendly, stable and sustainable form of organisation. This will pave the way for new ecological businesses to improve global equity. 

Dr Anthony E. Jensen founded the Bluetongue Cooperative which develops solutions for the success of small businesses. He also founded the Asia Pacific Cooperative Research Partnership and is an advocate and activist for workplace democracy, and has a long held passion for social justice. Previously, Anthony lectured at the University of Newcastle in Corporate Governance and Business Ethics.

 

Katrina Johnson

Monash Master of Indigenous Business Leadership

Presented with Nick McGuigan

The Masters of Indigenous Business Leadership (MoIBL) program is Australia’s first Indigenous-led business master’s program, co-designed and led by Indigenous business leaders, Elders and business school academics. Recognising that many Indigenous business leaders have had only limited opportunities to engage in formal education and business training, MoIBL successfully provides a co-designed, first-of-its-kind program that offers unparalleled access to higher education opportunities that strengthen Indigenous community and business leaders. Through innovative course design and support mechanisms, MoIBL removes barriers to access traditionally preventing Indigenous students from entering tertiary education. By flipping traditional business education MoIBL places Indigenous knowledge systems first, creating a culturally safe and engaging learning environment for Indigenous peoples, delivering face-to-face in intensive mode, allowing students to participate without interrupting their jobs, family or communities for long periods of time.

This session will unpack key learnings, exploring behind the scenes of how such a program was conceptualised, designed, and ultimately implemented. Find out how Indigenous business leader participants bring their ways of knowing together with western business models to analyse complex business problems, devising solutions through different disciplinary, social, cultural and political lenses.

A proud Gooreng Gooreng woman, Katrina Johnson was raised on traditional lands located along the Burnett River from Cania Gorge to Bundaberg in South-East Queensland, Australia. Katrina is a Senior Lecturer at Monash University and a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University (USA). Driven by a commitment to empower others, her work has influenced various sectors including media, education, employment, youth and families, leadership, not-for-profit and community governance. Katrina is an experienced corporate executive with a demonstrated history of working in the non-profit organization management industry. Skilled in Leadership, People and Culture, Nonprofit Organizations, Organizational Development, Media Relations, Management, Strategy, Business, Engagement and Community Organizing.

 

Phil Jones

The Steady State Economy for Years 9 and 10 Science Classes

While Sustainability has been a compulsory theme across the Australian school curriculum, the current approach has shown itself to be entirely inadequate. While teachers tick the Sustainability box on their programs as they cover various elements their courses, these bits and pieces of a jigsaw are never enough to create a clear picture of the system that is leading to such crises as climate change and biodiversity loss.

Phil Jones is a recently retired high school science teacher, an active member of the NSW Chapter of the Centre for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy. He was a contributing author to the book “Positive Steps to a Steady State Economy” edited by the late Haydn Washington. He is an activist in the area of social justice and on climate change.

 

Myfan Jordan

A Tale of Two Economies

Relating two unique studies of women’s economic behaviour during the first two years of Australia’s COVID-19 crisis, this presentation will compare the experiences of female workers staffing the paid ‘care frontline’ across 2020 and 2021, with women’s voluntary labours in ‘hyperlocal digital sharing networks’ across the same pandemic period. In the pandemic ‘businesses of care’ we see extreme workload pressures and deteriorating work conditions drive a high incidence of workplace bullying, including a shockingly high prevalence of women bullying other women in the workplace, something the author argues is inevitable in an advanced neoliberal and neopatriarchal market economy which routinely devalues and under-resources women’s work.

By contrast, in the micro ‘gift economies’ of online neighbourhood groups, we instead see women more typically engaging in ‘care-full’ practices – really ‘economic behaviours’ – of gift giving, collective provisioning and hivemind problem solving, in convivial collaboration and without expectation of reward or recognition. Utilising degrowth theory, this presentation will present the gifting behaviours of women workers during COVID as subversive, potentially offering humanity a blueprint for moving beyond the destructive hierarchies of the modern capitalism and towards a degrowth future.

Myfan Jordan is the Founding Director of Grassroots Research Studio. She has spent 20 years working with communities as a researcher/advocate, supporting those at the grassroots to influence public policy. Myfan’s work focuses on degrowth and decolonial feminisms, (gendered) ageing, housing, and social justice. She lives in Naarm, where she co-convenes NENA’s Women’s Hub and sits on the board of CoHousing Australia.

 

Molly Kendall

Worker Co-operatives – Behind the scenes of Australia’s worker owned movement

Worker-owned Co-operatives are quietly repopulating capitalism with a human heart. Join Molly as she shares her experience of 7 years managing a large worker co-op in lutruwita/Tasmania and 3 years convening an Austrlia-wide network of worker co-ops (WeCAN). Discover common themes, including the joys and advantages, but also the common pitfalls and barriers (including the societal narrative that “humans could never work together”). Finally, consider the possibility of repopulating capitalism as Molly shares examples of businesses converting from sole traders to worker-owned co-ops – a growing trend as our ageing population nears retirement.

Molly Kendall is a Social Anthropologist with a particular interest in sharing models and cooperative structures. Her honours thesis focused on intentional housing communities around Australia. Molly spent seven years managing one of Australia’s largest worker-owned co-ops, Resource Work Co-operative and this experience ignited a passion for worker ownership. In 2020 Mollly founded WeCAN. A network which regularly brings together Worker Co-operators around Australia for solidarity and support. Molly is the Communications and Business Development Officer at The Co-op Federation (TCF). TCF is a not-for-profit co-operative peak body providing services, advocacy and support to co-ops around Australia.

 

Simon Kerr

Critical skills for building a new economy in the climate predicament

This year is expected to be the hottest humans have ever experienced … and likely to be the coolest we will ever again experience. Heat, a first order effect of greenhouse gas emissions, is now producing profound damage and disruption across the world. There is no analogue for this in human history. We are already living in a new world but are not ready for what has already happened, let alone what is coming. Humans are losing the battle against planetary heating. And this changes everything about the future we will get. This presentation looks at some strategies for surviving and even prospering in a world of deepening climate and ecological damage. This talk is about how to prepare for what is coming, building an informed understanding on how these impacts will cascade through our lives, families, businesses, organisations and communities. Facing up to the predicament we are collectively now in, seeing clearly the ways the future is likely to unfold, helps us think, plan and respond more clearly, and develop better foresight. These are critical skills for the new world we face.

Dr Simon Kerr is Program and Engagement Manager for the Murray-Darling Water and Environment Research program, led by La Trobe University, former social science lecturer, Honorary Fellow at La Trobe and Affiliate with La Trobe’s Climate Change Adaptation Lab. Simon is founder of Music for a Warming World and convenes the Musicians’ Climate Crisis Network. He is on the NENA board.

 

Robin Krabbe

Community Basic Income: By the Community For the Community, and building sustainability capabilities

Humanity is at the crossroads; it requires us all to reimagine the Good Life, transcending both the growth paradigm and dominance hierarchies. In turn we are called to realise our true human potential for this challenge; beginning with progressing individual and collective health and wellbeing, and ultimately towards building sustainability capabilities. This is the aim of a project in North-West Tasmania, which aims to trial Community Basic Income (CBI), a form of Universal Basic Income, but a version that is ‘by the community and for the community’. It’s immediate aim is to address unemployment, inter-generational poverty, a non-fit for purpose welfare system, and the lack of work that could be happening in our communities to improve life for everyone. This presentation will also briefly discuss a concept crucial for the sustainability of our future, that of the future of work, whereby a CBI aims to ensure that meaningful work is available to all participants, along with receiving a liveable income. Secondly the potential of a CBI to generate sustainable socio-economic activity will be discussed, for example projects covering housing, transport, food production, increasing mental and physical health and more.

Robin Krabbe worked for the CSIRO and the Victorian Department of Primary Industries for 17 years, and has a Bachelor of Economics, a Qualifying Masters of Environmental Science and a PhD in community initiatives towards sustainability. She lives on a farm in Tasmania with her family, and has a deep interest in human potential and inner and outer transformation.    

 

Terry Leahy

Workshop: Real Values, the problem with money, a post-capitalism without money

Presented with Anitra Nelson

It is generally assumed that money is a politically neutral medium of exchange. We will contest this viewpoint, explaining the problematic implications of a monetary economy for social justice and the environment. Alongside this critique we will explain how we might use ‘real values’ to interpret and guide decisions about production and distribution. We will propose a post-capitalist economy that will work without money and show how that could operate. Communities would negotiate agreements to produce — to provide for the real needs of people and the planet.

Terry Leahy is a sociologist affiliated with Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle. His most recent writing has been concerned with social movements (The Politics of Permaculture 2022), food security strategies (Food Security for Rural Africa – Feeding the Farmers First 2019) and social theory (Humanist Realism for Sociologists 2017). He has a podcast series on postcapitalist strategies, System Change Made Simple. www.gifteconomy.org.au / Terry.Leahy@newcastle.edu.au

 

Rosemary Leonard

With and beyond the circular economy: Virtuous cycles in an ecovillage

Narara Ecovillage (NEV) on the NSW Central Coast aims to demonstrate social, environmental, and economic sustainability. Like all ecovillages it is a living experiment in which people attempt to work together at the local level to create thriving communities. The establishment of an ecovillage is a culmination of many projects small and large such as: building infrastructure, building renewable energy and water systems, restoring the land, growing food, building a sense of belonging. However, the great value of an ecovillage is that these are not isolated projects. There are overlapping groups who work on and benefit from these projects in the same location. They can connect with each over through a circular economy whereby waste from one project is a resource for another. But there are other types of connections for mutual benefit such as the business ecosystem, collective purchase to minimise cost and transport, and a shared solar power supply. Ideally, we need to set up virtuous cycles in which each project both benefits from and passes on benefits other projects. The present study collected data on 40 projects at NEV and identifies the intersections and mutual benefits of projects. to show examples of how re-localisation can become feasible.

Adjunct Professor Rosemary Leonard is Chair in Social Capital and Sustainability in the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney University. She lives in a retrofitted home in Narara Ecovillage and is Leader of the Narara Ecovillage Research Group. She has extensive experience researching the importance of social capital for creating water sensitive cities and developing community.     

 

Barbara Lepani

The Three Pillars of Regenesis

Under three core principles, I discuss how we can provide a new story of hope for Australia as a successful multicultural society that cares for Country in the tradition of Australia’s ancient cultural heritage, working together with the insights of modern ecological sciences, and which runs its zero-waste circular economy for the equal wellbeing of all of its peoples, their communities and our planetary home, the Earth. Drawing on Dr Mary Graham’s work, I argue the clash of civilisations in the 21st century is NOT between the Christian West and the Muslim East. Nor it is between Liberal Democracy and Autocracy. It is between globalised ‘extractivist’ techno-capitalism in all its forms, and the ‘relationist’ eco-spiritual knowledge systems of First Nations peoples, working together with the new economic thinking that maximises community wellbeing in the face of the complex intersecting crises of our times.

Barbara Lepani (MA Science & Technology Studies, UOW) and a professional career in the NFP, government and university sectors, is the 2022-23 President of the Greater Blue Mountains Creative Arts Network and editor of its Regenesis Collective blog. Her book, The Regenesis Journey (2023) explores the importance of understanding competing knowledge systems as we contemplate the looming and intersecting crises of our times.      

 

Nat Lowrey

Justice in the green energy and material transition        

Presented with Liz Downes and Elsa Dominish

A rapid transition is required towards clean energy and transport systems to avoid catastrophic climate change. The concept of a “just transition” is to ensure the green transition happens in a fair and inclusive way. However, the current capitalist approaches to this transition are driving demand for new minerals, which is leading to human rights and environmental impacts in communities in the global south and north, in particular in Indigenous communities. At the same time many marginalised communities and countries are unable to access clean technologies.

In this session we will provide perspectives on the key aspects to achieve a green energy transition that is socially just and ecologically sustainable. This will include a case study on a community affected by mining, an overview of how mineral demand can be minimised through degrowth strategies, a discussion on community energy business models and/or indigenous perspectives.

This session will seek to question the assumption that the injustice in the green transition is the ‘price we need to pay’ for a rapid transition, by highlighting interventions that challenge high mineral demand assumptions and business-as-usual models of transition.

Degrowth and Post-extractivism: Beyond Pillaging and Growth

Presented with Marte Conde

Degrowth and post-extractivism have been said to be “two sides of the same perspective”. Both are known to critique sustainable development or ‘green’ growth and green capitalism that remain within existing logics of out-of-control production and consumption, a global addiction to economic growth (GDP), abuse of human and land defenders, and pillaging life sustaining systems on which the wellbeing of all life on Earth depends.

In the Degrowth and Post-extractivism: Beyond Pillaging and Growth session, both degrowth and post-extractivism perspectives will be explained along with 2-3 short case studies from the Asia Pacific region to highlight key questions for discussion, including:

  • What is the common ground between degrowth and post-extractivism?
  • How can degrowth and post-extractivism complement each other in building a movement that can challenge and overcome the dominant dynamics of pillaging and growth (capitalism) towards an equitable, ecologically and socially just world that values diverse ways of life; that protects the land, air and waters we all rely on?

Nat Lowrey – Aid/Watch Australia – Communications & Advocacy Coordinator, Deep Sea Mining Campaign, Co-coordinator, Yes to Life No to Mining (YLNM) global solidarity network and member of Degrowth Network Australia.

 

Michelle Maloney

Panel Session: Economics after Capitalism

Presented in a panel session with Tom Foster, Mary Graham, Anna Schlunke, and Dennis Venter

During this panel event, Mary Graham & Michelle Maloney present on how we could incorporate a relationalist ethos into society and economics.

Panel Session Outline:

Research at Rethinking Economics Australia echoes the experiences of economics students from other chapters. In class, students study an outdated and frustrating approach known as Neoclassical economics. It’s not working, and students are fed up. How can we reclaim economics from the orthodoxy and re-integrate it into society? We need to paint a clear and captivating picture of what economics truly is and then lay down the core principles of this new (or actually very old) economics that can work for people and planet.

Dr Michelle Maloney is the Co-founder and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), and a Director of Future Dreaming and the New Economy Network Australia (NENA). She is currently writing a book with Indigenous elder Mary Graham, called “Future Law: How the Relationist Ethos can be a Foundation for Australian Society”.

Presented with Mary Graham

 

Scott Matter

HSD, ABCD, FLOWER: Frameworks for creating post-capitalist social ecologies

Life after capitalism must be grounded in ecological ethics, and “reverance for life, in all its manifestations” (Max-Neef 2013). It must also be grown from the grassroots and built on collective imagining and collective action – solutions to wicked problems and actions to create preferable futures should be developed by communities rather than for them and contribute to self-reliance. This paper presents a critical review of three frameworks, Max-Neef’s Human-Scale Development, Asset Based and Citizen-led Development, and the Multisolving Institute’s FLOWER (Framework for Long-Term, Whole System, Equity-Based Reflection).

The purpose of this paper is to explore how these frameworks might contribute to building community resilience and transcending anthropocentrism, to identify risks and limitations in their application, and to consider adaptations and extensions. This presentation will be aimed at both academics and practitioners, and is part of an emerging project to experiment with, evaluate, and adapt tools and methods for societal transition towards planetary wellbeing.     

Scott Matter is a researcher, teacher, and practitioner, based in the TD School at UTS, with professional experience in academic, private, and public sectors. His work combines anthropology and political ecology, service and strategic design, and futures and foresight practices. He is primarily interested in engaged research and teaching that contributes to societal transition for planetary wellbeing.

 

Nick McGuigan

Monash Master of Indigenous Business Leadership

Presented with Katrina Johnson

The Masters of Indigenous Business Leadership (MoIBL) program is Australia’s first Indigenous-led business master’s program, co-designed and led by Indigenous business leaders, Elders and business school academics. Recognising that many Indigenous business leaders have had only limited opportunities to engage in formal education and business training, MoIBL successfully provides a co-designed, first-of-its-kind program that offers unparalleled access to higher education opportunities that strengthen Indigenous community and business leaders. Through innovative course design and support mechanisms, MoIBL removes barriers to access traditionally preventing Indigenous students from entering tertiary education. By flipping traditional business education MoIBL places Indigenous knowledge systems first, creating a culturally safe and engaging learning environment for Indigenous peoples, delivering face-to-face in intensive mode, allowing students to participate without interrupting their jobs, family or communities for long periods of time.

This session will unpack key learnings, exploring behind the scenes of how such a program was conceptualised, designed, and ultimately implemented. Find out how Indigenous business leader participants bring their ways of knowing together with western business models to analyse complex business problems, devising solutions through different disciplinary, social, cultural and political lenses.

Nick McGuigan is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Fellow of CPA Australia. He holds joint positions as Professor of Accounting and Director of Equity, Diversity and Social Inclusion at Monash University, Australia and Professor of Accounting at Rostock University, Germany. Nick is directly involved in applied research, focusing on the enhancement of educational programs of accountants and business professionals. His research interests include student conceptions of learning, integrated thinking and reporting, creativity and innovation, systems design and behavioural change, where he is a sought-after international speaker. Nick is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK) holds an Australian National Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, an Australian Business Deans Council Award for Learning Innovation and is the recipient of the prestigious Aspen Institute Global ‘Ideas Worth Teaching’ Award (New York).

 

Jonathan Miller

Why we need a steady state economy: a renewable transition is not enough

The mainstream political discourse is that climate change is the only salient environmental problem. It is assumed that once climate change is addressed by technology, capitalism can continue its global growth.

Instead, climate change must be seen as just one of many inter-linked environmental crises that threaten contemporary civilisation (as well as life more broadly on this planet) driven by growth in consumption and pollution. Climate change itself is possibly unsolvable without reducing energy demand, in part due to questions as to the feasibility of making the energy-switch in a very short period of time.

Fifty years on, Limits to Growth still provides an excellent framework for understanding our predicament, and the need to move rapidly to a steady state economy.

Jonathan Miller is an ecologist who has worked on environment and economic policy in the Australian and ACT governments, and as a parliamentary advisor. He has managed national programs for threatened species and invasive species. Realising that the threats to the world’s biosphere, as well as our civilisation, require systemic change, Jonathan now advocates the urgent need to move to a steady state economy. He is Director of Steady State ACT.”          

 

Richard Mochelle

CIVIVA Project – Introducing “Priocracy”.

Introducing Priocracy – a moneyless, cosmopolitan responsibility-based and priorities-responsive system of political economy and its proposed prefiguring in Civiva – an opt-in, honorary, world service trusteeship network.

Committed to global impartiality, Priocracy‘s citizens eschew national sovereignty and the international military order, helping to disarm the world by refusing to fund national military defenses. They enact the principle of ‘priaction’ – self-organising, voluntary responsiveness to their informed judgement of changing local and global priorities. They don’t ‘work’, are not ‘employed’ nor ‘unemployed’ and don’t ‘retire’.

How are they resourced? Giving freely and consistently requires getting freely. How might this be done? Enter the Civiva Project. The mission: develop a Global Resource Trust giving Civiva’s trustees and aid volunteers free access to land, housing, equipment, transport, tools and materials. Attract the massive property cache to be willed. Constitute Civiva – a cosmopolitan priocratic trusteeship of integrity having ecologically-based property improvement, repair and care capabilities. Having multifunctional capabilities, Civiva will seek to coalesce with volunteer service organisations to attract property bequests into Civiva Commons Trust, providing the world’s aid volunteers with free housing and resources, thereby exponentially increasing volunteer aid capacity and incentivising a gradual shift to Priocracy .

Civiva Project co-developers sought.

Concerned with global crisis trajectories, Richard switched from practicing architecture to moral, political and educational philosophy in search of system-corrective pathways. Since the 80’s he has experimentally engaged learners at all levels in crisis, diagnosis, and system-corrective discourse. His PhD thesis (2001) focused on the call for global responsibility by the Commission on Global Governance and the future world, system design implications. Thus emerged the ambitious Civiva Project.

 

Bronwen Morgan

Playing for Survival: Join a Facilitated Round of the Collaborative Game ‘Earth Rising’

Join us to play a facilitated ‘fast round’ of the recently released collaborative game ‘Earth Rising’. Based loosely on the framework of doughnut economics, up to six players (or teams supporting the six) work together over 20 years (20 turns) to bring the world into sustainable harmony. Players choose one of six roles from Climate Scientist, Ecologist, Activist, Grass Roots Politician, Innovator, or Eco Investor. On a circular board, all players cooperate and plan together not just to create sustainable practices but to disband unsustainable practices. Wild cards entrenching the ‘status quo’ make the latter particularly difficult, but cross-sectoral influence can save the day, and the game requires and encourages thinking across different sectors in creative and stimulating ways.

The main objective is to transform each of the six sectors of society so that they no longer burden the planet, but any one sector can go into ecological collapse. Ultimately we either all win or all lose together – but what we learn in the process is the heart of the session.

Bronwen Morgan is Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law and Justice at UNSW Sydney. Her research explores creative ways of reimagining economies, including innovative ways of sharing the ownership and governance of digital platforms, distributed participatory approaches to providing important infrastructure such as energy, food and water, and links between social activism and social enterprise.

 

Anitra Nelson

Workshop: Real Values, the problem with money, a post-capitalism without money

Presented with Terry Leahy

It is generally assumed that money is a politically neutral medium of exchange. We will contest this viewpoint, explaining the problematic implications of a monetary economy for social justice and the environment. Alongside this critique we will explain how we might use ‘real values’ to interpret and guide decisions about production and distribution. We will propose a post-capitalist economy that will work without money and show how that could operate. Communities would negotiate agreements to produce — to provide for the real needs of people and the planet.

Anitra Nelson is an activist-scholar affiliated with the Informal Urbanism Research Hub at the University of Melbourne. Some recent books are. Beyond Money, A Postcapitalist Strategy (2022). Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide co-authored with Vincent Liegey (2020). Food for Degrowth: Perspectives and Practices, co-edited with Ferne Edwards (2021). Co-edited with Francois Schneider, Housing for Degrowth: Principles, Models, Challenges and Opportunities (2018). 

 

Cesidio “Sid” Parissi

Where to from here…possibilities unbounded.

With all other species on this planet we humans face huge challenges, on this our only planet. Although many can see the problems, many still seek alternatives. One body of thought that is highly neglected is only one of two that humans have come up with for creative, regenerative solutions to our common problems. This presentation will focus on one of these: anarchist social-revolution.

Our problems: Global Boiling, rampant militarism, social dissolution, expanding ecological disasters, unequal social relations of race and gender, and increasing authoritarian social and virtual societies. These problems are primarily caused by or inflamed by capitalism. I will briefly critique the other so-called alternatives of theocracy, Marxism, post-modern individualism, and social democracy. None of these escape the bonds of capitalist structures and relations. One alternative to capitalism is what most of human society has lived by historically, that is, smaller scale tribal and village associations. However, the only alternative to capitalism that humans have come up with in a more technological world, is anarchist socialism. This is based on the principles of Mutual Aid, the Gift Economy, social equality, acceptance that our species is co-dependent on all the others, and living with the planet, not against it.   

How can we overcome capitalism? Community led responses

Presented with Erst Carmichael

I would like to initiate a problem-solving workshop about overcoming capitalism locally in our own communities. I would start with a brief overview of what I have been doing in my local community, including the establishment and ongoing work of the group Action for Community and Environment (ACE) in Lawson, Blue Mountains. My involvement with the ACE group, bush care and a local not-for-profit community co-op, Lyttleton Stores Co-operative Ltd, have led me to the point where I see capitalism as the major reason our planet is under so much threat from climate change. Not only are future generations bound to suffer enormously but the earth and its creatures as well. The aim of the workshop would be, in small groups, to find out what others have been doing to combat or overcome capitalism. Each group could record this on butchers’ paper so that it could be fed back to the larger group at the end. The hope would be to find connections with others who have had similar experiences so that networks across Australia may be formed. It is hoped that an inclusion of learning from aboriginal culture would be part of the discussions.

Sid Parissi is a lecturer in Problem Based Learning at Charles Sturt University. In addition, he is a board member of Jura Books, and anarchist bookshop in Sydney, a board member of the Lyttleton Stores Cooperative in Lawson (Blue Mountains), and works with First Nations communities in the Central West of NSW.

 

JP Parker

Staying present for action: Managing yourself while facilitating your groups

Presented with Paul Atkins

How are you feeling about the state of the world right now? How about your own agency in it? What impact does your feeling state have upon your capacity to act, particularly when working with groups?

If we are to address the most pressing issues of our time with wisdom, as convenors and facilitators it’s essential that we get much better at helping our groups make collective decisions based on authentic, and authentically shared, needs and values.

Our approach, ProSocial, supports dialogue about individual and collective values that might otherwise be challenging to discuss. By incorporating presence practices, contextual behavioural science, and Ostrom’s design principles for the commons, ProSocial offers a powerful and replicable methodology for bringing people of divergent interests together on common ground in pursuit of a shared purpose.

In this workshop, we’ll briefly introduce the ProSocial framework, explore use cases from around the world (including government departments, local sustainability initiatives, community and environmental health programs, even one we did among UN groups), and demonstrate a few tools you can use right away to help your own groups navigate themselves toward greater trust, harmony, and collaboration.

Making her home in Boorloo/Perth, on the traditional lands of the Whadjuk-speaking peoples of the Noongar nation, JP is a recovering futurist and troublemaker-at-large. Her stock in trade is questioning our unconscious, unquestioned assumptions, and her focus is on fostering the Regenaissance of the human heart that—despite appearances to the contrary—is already well underway.
https://www.jpparker.org

Chris Riedy

Narrative pathways beyond capitalism

The dominant capitalist economic system is supported by interwoven cultural narratives that have proven remarkably persistent in the face of challenge. These narratives cast humans as competitive creatures, separate from nature. Shaped by a history of scarcity, they position economic growth as the primary human goal. Despite overwhelming evidence that capitalist systems are devasting the ecological systems on which we rely and failing to deliver just outcomes, the capitalist narrative marches on.

One problem is that alternative economic narratives are numerous and diverse, with none yet accruing sufficient support to mount a serious challenge to capitalism. Yet there is significant narrative common ground between new economic narratives that could support a more united challenge to capitalism. This common ground is particularly evident when looking at visions or goals for a future economic system, and much less evident when considering pathways to reach that future. After briefly touching on common ground in future economic imaginaries, this paper focuses on ‘pathway narratives’ – what do alternative economic models say about how we can get from here to there? While holding onto plurality, are there ways that proponents of alternative economic models could better work together to challenge capitalist narratives?

Chris Riedy is Professor of Sustainability Transformations and Associate Director Learning and Development at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney. Chris is a transdisciplinary action researcher with a focus on sustainability transformations. He uses sociological and political theory, narrative theory and futures thinking to design, facilitate and evaluate practical experiments in transformative change towards sustainable futures. He currently leads the development of ISF’s coursework programs and has recently developed and facilitated courses on sustainability futures, systems thinking and deliberative democracy.

Chris is an Advisor to the Transformations Community, a Senior Research Fellow of the Earth System Governance project and Co-Chair of NENA’s Narratives Hub. He is on the Editorial Board of Futures and Action Research, and Editorial Advisory Board of the Global Social Challenges Journal. He recently Co-Chaired the Transformations Conference 2023 held in Sydney, Prague and online. His recent research projects include development of scenarios for the future of Sydney’s drinking water catchments for WaterNSW, an Opportunity Assessment of Australia’s energy foresighting and planning capability for the RACE for 2030 Cooperative Research Centre, identification of megatrends and development of scenarios for the City of Sydney’s Sustainable Sydney 2050 initiative, and a comprehensive future-oriented review of Australia’s National GreenPower Program.

Anisa Rogers

Why working less can help us move into a post-capitalist future

Relationship with money, ways to live communally, why and how to be less employed – having more time for what is important. This workshop opens up the space for us to reflect on and discuss how we relate to paid work. Why do we do it? Does it meet our needs and desires? What other things could we be doing? How do our different circumstances lead to different opportunities and barriers to working less? We will also share tips and tricks on living a cheaper and more sustainable life, and becoming less dependent on the profit driven system that is killing the planet!

Janet Salisbury

Women’s Climate Congress (presented with Lyn Stephens)

Will our climate survive capitalism? The role of women in making change

The WCC was founded with twin objectives: promoting women’s voices in political discourse, and bringing together polarised voices to agree national actions on climate.
To achieve these objectives, we drew on input from our members and communities to develop a Charter for Change, a framework of 11 sweeping Actions to first secure the climate and then build long-term human and planetary well-being. Seeking contributions from a diverse range of voices, and to influence discussions in many places, we’ve embarked on a Roadshow to take the Charter around the country.
Capitalism in its current form is inconsistent with long-term human and planetary well-being. Action 9 of the Charter: Adopt life sustaining economic models and values has specific relevance for the conference theme ‘Life After Capitalism?’ and we would particularly like to engage with conference participants on this topic. However, all the proposals in the Charter necessarily have economic consequences, require new economic thinking and necessitate discussion around priorities of allocation of scarce resources.

 

Anna Schlunke

Panel Session: Economics after Capitalism

Presented in a panel session with Tom Foster, Mary Graham, Michelle Maloney and Dennis Venter.

Research at Rethinking Economics Australia echoes the experiences of economics students from other chapters. In class, students study an outdated and frustrating approach known as Neoclassical economics. It’s not working, and students are fed up. How can we reclaim economics from the orthodoxy and re-integrate it into society? We need to paint a clear and captivating picture of what economics truly is and then lay down the core principles of this new (or actually very old) economics that can work for people and planet.

Helen Schwencke

Inviting Nature to Dinner: the benefits of bringing biodiversity to our backyards

Our Earth is such an amazing, exquisitely complex, place with its untold millions of living species, each interacting and continuing to evolve in complex ecosystems.

Our species, through no fault of its own, is hell-bent on simplifying ecosystems. There is a simple action, though, that almost anyone can take, almost anywhere, to support the Earth’s legacy, that starts re-building more complex ecologies.

Growing our own areas’ local native plants lets these plants do the work for us. They support many times more biomass of butterfly and moth caterpillars, for example, than non-native species, and also a higher biodiversity of other insects that are specialised to those plants, and not to introduced plants. This feeds a more complex food web while re-creating, and teaching us about,  relationships and interactions.

Rewilding works hand-in-hand with UNESCO’s recognised climate change strategy through developing “pocket forests”; also with reconnecting people with nature that has health and well-being outcomes, locally, while also addressing ‘eco-grief’, and offering hope;  and further, with food security by growing local native foods inter-planted with introduced food crops and sharing them with other species: building a new notion of “the commons”.

“The economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment” Gaylord Nelson

Invertebrate biodiversity and conservation has been ecologist Helen Schwencke passion since 1986, founding the Butterfly & Other Invertebrates Club in 1994. Helen’s activities are focused on connecting people directly with ecological complexity through community education: presentations, field activities, displays and book publishing including as Inviting Nature to Dinner, Create More Butterflies (co-author and publisher) and Australian Stingless Bees (publisher).

Kesh Sharma

Warm Data Session

A session for all conference attendees to get to know each other and discuss ideas.

Kesh (MA in Applied Positive Psychology) is a wanderer. His journey has covered how people learn, what ensures wellbeing and thriving, and understanding complexity or systems science. He has woven this expertise into work that seeks to create systems of wellbeing. He has played in health, education, community, government, and corporate, from individuals, and small teams, all the way to big organisations. From the prevention of family violence, to youth development, gender equity and positive masculinities, to his current work in intercultural collaboration and warm data, Kesh is always seeking to provide people with opportunities to build the capabilities necessary to navigate complex challenges together. “Often the answer is not in the what, but the how. Let’s pay attention to the relationships, relationshipping, together.”

 

John J. Shiel

Democratic cooperatives for fairer wealth distribution in a post-growth economy

Presented with Anthony E. Jensen

Labour has been valued differently down through the ages: hunter-gatherer, slavery, serfdom and master-servant and wage-labour. The role of labour in capitalism has evolved with the rise of corporations that maximise shareholder value and concentrate global wealth at the expense of a more equitable distribution of profits. Modern corporations extract resources while polluting the commons, often underpaying employees, and promote consumerism and unsustainable economic growth and are designed to maximise profits to shareholders. This has widened income disparity and is leading to environmental impacts creating a “wasteland”.

This paper argues that it is essential, and has been shown to be possible, to stop this trajectory into a “wasteland” by transitioning the current means of production into employee-owned organisations (cooperatives) operating in a sustainable zero growth economy without adversely impacting the community. Cooperatives can distribute wealth more evenly without the need for continued economic growth to satisfy external shareholders. The paper looks at how cooperatives and their workers can prosper when there is participatory democratic control without consumerism. This can organise the means of production into a fairer, more efficient, environmentally friendly, stable and sustainable form of organisation. This will pave the way for new ecological businesses to improve global equity. 

Dr John J. Shiel lives at the net zero energy Narara Ecovillage Cooperative village; is a Director of Bluetongue Cooperative and Principal of Envirosustain. He is interested in resilient systems that improve wellbeing and reduce inequity, with certificates in wellbeing (NENA) and permaculture, while studying Modern Monetary Theory. Previously he researched affordable home adaptations for climate change and scarce resources.

 

Andrew Skeoch

Deep listening to nature reveals how life cooperates, rather than competes

Indigenous cultures have traditions of deep listening; learning from the communications and interactions of wild creatures. What can we, as modern peoples, learn from listening, particularly in the context of our current environmental and social crises? I will begin by sharing the skills of listening to nature; how to recognise species by voice, interpret vocal behaviours and develop empathic listening to animal sentience. Deepening our listening to ecosystems, I’ll then discuss co-operative behaviours facilitated by communication, and show how fundamental they are to natural systems. Social systems – economics, law, culture, politics – exist to achieve the same aims as the processes of natural systems; to sustain life. Through a process of biomimicry, we can learn from the ways nature has evolved to avoid harm and promote resilience. Listening, both to each other and nature – is essential to re-imagining and shaping our social systems toward justice, inclusion and sustainability.

Andrew Skeoch is a naturalist, sound recordist, environmental thinker and author of ‘Deep Listening to Nature’. Over the last thirty years, he has documenting the sounds of wild environments around the planet, and through his label ‘Listening Earth’, published over one hundred immersive soundscape recordings featuring habitats from most continents. This experience now informs his educational work through both public speaking events and writings. 

Samantha Slade

Conflict Cafe

The Conflict Café is designed as a restaurant-café where the menu includes an assortment of practice workshops and exercises that help us develop a nuanced understanding of ourselves and others in the face of conflict.
Alone, in pairs or groups, we will be welcomed by experienced facilitators, ready to serve us with practices tailored to our needs; all in a safe and caring space.

Samantha Slade is a social entrepreneur and business author, who believes organisations can be a microcosm of the world we dream of. She reclaims work, learning, and governance as spaces of reconnection and healing with productivity.

An immigrant to Canada, Samantha lives on Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabeg ancestral lands in Montreal. She has a background in Cultural Anthropology and a first career in education. She co-founded Percolab, an innovation lab that is employee owned and run, and 15 years young. What really matters to her is healthy power dynamics, deep inclusion and worldview awareness.

Samantha’s work is firmly anchored in transformative learning and capacity building for a future based on generative and sustainable paradigms. Samantha is a master of small practices that lead to system change, and the inner shifts that support navigating that complexity. 

Samantha is deeply embedded in the living lab, FABcity and Commons movements, and Art of Hosting international community. She is a TedX speaker and author of the best seller Going Horizontal.

 

Michele Smith

The government’s proposed nature repair market

The Commonwealth Government’s proposed nature repair market would attempt to measure changes in biodiversity, put a dollar value on them and issue tradeable certificates. This is fraught on so many levels. The policy is a moving feast, with legislation recently failing to pass the Senate. There are likely to be further policy developments between now and November.

Michele Smith has a background in economics at university and in the public service in Canberra. She considers it necessary to rethink the way economics is taught and understood and is deeply skeptical about the government’s attempt to commodify and monetize nature.

 

Vivien Sung

Systemic Constellations: Relationality and Embodiment

Presented with Jax Wechsler

“A living system is defined not by the individual parts, but by the relationships between them. The flow of energy. The flow of love.” – Bert Hellinger.

Systemic constellations are widely used to understand and explore ancestral and family dynamics but can be used in other contexts such as business, organisations, place-based systems and other collaborative contexts. They provide a powerful tool for gaining insight and navigating complexity.

In this workshop, we will connect in embodied ways through systemic constellations. This way of working can give us greater perspectives of our relationship to the complexity of issues we are enmeshed in from nature, the economy, work, wealth, money, wellbeing, technology and afford us an understanding of the larger living system. Systemic constellations can bring greater awareness of relationships, entanglements and patterns between inanimate objects and the animate world.

The format is an embodied and a reflective experience, and is participatory and inclusive. The systemic constellation will involve the felt experience of selected elements within a system. Participants will listen and pay attention to their bodily sensations, feelings and direct knowing, to access information about the relevant systemic roles bringing insight and guidance to see the whole from a new perspective.

Vivien Sung, (School of Being and UNSW, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture) is a strategic designer, regenerative practitioner and educator working at the intersection of design and leadership, developing design capability and inner intelligence to regenerate planetary and societal health. She interweaves visual communication, participatory design, leadership, cultural intelligence, regenerative practice and systemic constellations.

 

Rod Taylor

Capitalism and Civilisation: how to destabilise a system

If business as usual continues, the system we call civilisation will collapse. As the Earth system ruptures, so will civilisation. In this talk I present some of the features of a resilient system and what is driving us towards disaster. Key messages are the key indicators of instability, and how do we return to some form of balance.

Rod Taylor is a science writer and broadcaster. His latest book, co-authored with Mark Diesendorf, is The path to a sustainable civilisation published by Palgrave-Macmillan.     

 

Adriano Tedde

Life After-Capitalism: Literature and the never-ending search for new forms of living

This presentation draws on my research on popular culture and neoliberalism and aims at discussing uses of literature as a valid method to investigate economic and social issues. Writers across generations have known well how the tyranny of money encroaches with their intellectual or artistic aspirations.

My paper explores the literary character of the “drop-out” as someone driven by the inherent desire for a non-capitalist economy. I propose a comparison of a series of writers and novel characters through time and space, to argue that literature is a mirror into the shortcomings of capitalism. Paul Auster, Henry D. Thoreau, E.A. Poe, James Baldwin, Sally Rooney, Elsa Morante and Australia’s George Johnston are some of the authors whom I am investigating to present my argument. These are writers who, either in their lives or through their books, confronted the struggle between creative writing and the imperatives imposed by money and market-driven societies, revealing a deep aspiration for freedom and alternative or utopic ways of living. They all dream of a life after capitalism guided by bonds of solidarity and love.  

I am an early career researcher with a political science background, currently employed as a lecturer by Deakin University in Canberra. My research interests are in neoliberalism, intellectual history, political philosophy and theory, and uses of literature. I am interested in how market-based public policies, and neoliberal doctrines, drive political culture towards non-democratic/authoritarian dispositions. I worked as a diplomat for 12 years.

 

Nikki Thompson

Living in Right Relationship

Presented with Peter Thompson

We have lost touch with the natural intelligence that permeates life. In our search for understanding we have lost meaning. Our story is one firmly grounded on the land growing food, nourishing people and in the process finding right relationship. A story of love, loss and learning. What will arise post capitalism is not another system, it is a new way of being. Living and working in close connection with nature has granted us lives rich in experiences that transcend and include food production. As we have walked with droughts, floods, fires, the integration of coal seam gas onto our land, it has been the holding of land as lore which has guided us forward. Looking forward we want to continue this journey towards right relationship with the land and each other.

Our vision is based on an ecological way of being based on natural intelligence, stewardship, generosity, interdependent and well-being for all. Stewarded by Syntropic Principles, land sharing, purpose driven and cooperative business structures. Separation is the underlying cause of our current reality and resuming right relationship, which incorporates the wisdom of indigenous ways of being and doing with life affirming technology, holds promise for the way forward.

Nikki has spent her life working with human potential. She believes in the power of people working together for a common cause. Her professional life has been in  the arena of healthcare and coaching. All this while being grounded in the Middleback of inland Queensland.

 

Peter Thompson

Living in Right Relationship

Presented with Nikki Thompson

We have lost touch with the natural intelligence that permeates life. In our search for understanding we have lost meaning. Our story is one firmly grounded on the land growing food, nourishing people and in the process finding right relationship. A story of love, loss and learning. What will arise post capitalism is not another system, it is a new way of being. Living and working in close connection with nature has granted us lives rich in experiences that transcend and include food production. As we have walked with droughts, floods, fires, the integration of coal seam gas onto our land, it has been the holding of land as lore which has guided us forward. Looking forward we want to continue this journey towards right relationship with the land and each other.

Our vision is based on an ecological way of being based on natural intelligence, stewardship, generosity, interdependent and well-being for all. Stewarded by Syntropic Principles, land sharing, purpose driven and cooperative business structures. Separation is the underlying cause of our current reality and resuming right relationship, which incorporates the wisdom of indigenous ways of being and doing with life affirming technology, holds promise for the way forward.

Peter is a man of the soil. The land is in his blood and imbedded into the skin of his gnarly hands. He is hands on practical, broad minded and passionate about technology as a way of supporting rural communities flourishing. Equally comfortable in the paddock and in the boardroom, he has held positions in a number of well respected agricultural  organisations.

 

Shann Turnbull

Life after capitalism based on biomimicry

Ecological ownership and control of natural resources, property, corporations, and money provide a basis for achieving eternal well-being for people and the planet. All living things are self-regulating and self-governing. Mimicking nature establishes a basis for each bioregion of the planet to establish self-determined sustainable population levels in almost circular economies as illustrated by indigenous Australians. Gaia would be governed by federations of bioregions with enriched democracy introduced by polycentric self-governance described by Ostrom. A self-financing tax incentive is described to create a universal well-being dividend income to replace big government and welfare costs. Ecological ownership and control of corporations introduced by the incentive allows their stakeholders to replace shareholders over the life of a patent. Corporations become what Ostrom described as a Common Pool Resource providing well-being to all stakeholders. This is an objective of the US Business Round Table which needs the tax incentive for its achievement. Central banking would be replaced with decentralized bioregional self-terminating currencies tethered to a sustainability index of its bioregion. This would remove the cause of market failure creating climate change and the need for carbon taxes and trading. As described by Ostrom, Gaia could be governed without markets or state-like biota. 

Dr Shann Turnbull obtained an MBA from Harvard and became a serial entrepreneur both creating new enterprises and changing others. He became a founding author of the first educational qualification in the world for company directors. His Ph.D. established the science of governance. He authored “Democratising the Wealth of Nations”, and advised governments in Australia, China, and Czechoslovakia on stakeholder privatisation to create a universal dividend wellbeing income.

 

Dennis Venter

Panel Session: Economics after Capitalism

Presented in a panel session with Tom Foster, Mary Graham, Michelle Maloney, and Anna Schlunke

To understand what economics is, we look at society as a complex evolving organism, how our inner space mirrors our outer realities, and how we are all interconnected in a relationship with the physical things in our environment. In other words, we are all pieces of a larger puzzle, where each part plays a crucial role in the bigger picture of life. Finally, we offer some applications of this approach to economics.

Panel Session Outline:

Research at Rethinking Economics Australia echoes the experiences of economics students from other chapters. In class, students study an outdated and frustrating approach known as Neoclassical economics. It’s not working, and students are fed up. How can we reclaim economics from the orthodoxy and re-integrate it into society? We need to paint a clear and captivating picture of what economics truly is and then lay down the core principles of this new (or actually very old) economics that can work for people and planet.

Dennis Venter is involved with curriculum reform at Rethinking Economics Australia. He also founded a research initiative that promotes Integral Economics as a more dynamic approach to the economic mainstream (IEDA) in 2016.His other research interests include complex dynamic systems and the history of economic thought.

 

Catherine van Wilgenburg

Putting Country First

ARTS & CULTURE STRIPPED BARE BY RELATIONIST ECONOMICS

ARTS & CULTURE within  the current Neoliberal economy is about the  business  of collecting & selling  of objects, events and visual spectacle in and between private and government institutions; establishing investment value through art investment businesses, engaged in corporate private and government collections. 

Arts & Culture  within Relational  Economics is Relationship to Country: the centrality of earth knowledge systems in human relationships; in relationship  with celestial and cosmic scales of existence.

Putting Country First changes everything when it comes to making stuff or not making, performing, speaking  stuff!  Things, ideas and actions only have meaning / value in relationship to Country. 

Putting County First begs the question ‘What are the driving forces to make ‘Art?’ and who and what drives ‘Culture’?

Catherine van Wilgenburg gives a visual presentation of her visual cultural practice  ‘ Putting Country First’ – projects  grounded in allyship with First Nations cultures – Wurundjeri Woiwurrung and currently with Gunaikurnai in East Gippsland.

Projects include:

  • Bandicoot Flight Path at Melbourne Airport
  • The First Australian Firewise Garden at Nungurner Primary School funded by Junior Landcare
  • KEEPERS intergenerational stewardship program connecting Nungurner Primary School, Lakes Entrance Secondary College with local Nungurner Coastcare and youth groups in on-ground plant identification, scats research, cooking and weaving with reeds and weeds with Koorie Engagement Support Officers.

 

Catherine (MA Vis Arts, B.Ed.) is the Director of Living Colour Studio Art & Architecture, Director of EcoArt Systems – https://www.ecoartsystemsaustralia.com.au and Co-convenor of the NENA Arts & Culture Hub. Her interdisciplinary collaborative EcoArts practice straddles painting, performance art, installation and community cultural development projects. It is inspired by relationships with Wurundjeri elders and environmental scientists at Iramoo Grassland Reserve, St Albans & Cairnlea in Melbourne’s West and now with Gunaikurnai elders in East Gippsland. Her ongoing research is to activate the role of the artist in communities – an amalgam of roles seen in previous centuries –  individual creative, animateur, translator of collective images, political image maker, community voice.

Duncan Wallace

Post-capitalist corporations law – Are corporations a product of capitalism?

This presentation will argue that corporations are not a product of capitalism – that corporations are a phenomenon universal to human societies. For example, corporations, it is widely acknowledged in anthropological scholarship, existed in Australia prior to colonisation under the laws of Aboriginal polities. The evidence for this, and for the ubiquity of corporations in human societies, will be discussed. Capitalism, does, however, mean that large and powerful corporations are profit-maximising monsters. This, as will be argued, is because corporations are treated as commodities, owned by shareholders, who exploit the corporation for their own financial gain. In a post-capitalist society, it will be suggested, the treatment of corporations as commodities would not be possible. Corporations would appear in the democratic forms, like the co-operative.     

Duncan is a PhD student and Teaching Associate at Monash Law School. His background is law, philosophy and economics, and his primary research interest is the corporation, towards which he takes an interdisciplinary approach. His research focus is on the ontological status of the corporation, the history of thought regarding the corporation’s ontological status, and the history of the development of the publicly- traded business corporation. Before beginning his PhD, Duncan worked in the co-operatives and mutual sector, both as a consultant and in a full- time role.       

 

Susan Wanmer

Evocative Storytelling, Marketing, and your Potential Values Conflict – Resolved!

This session provides a training workshop for NENA conference participants: communicating your story to move beyond capitalism.

How evocatively do you to tell the story of your Good Cause to people outside of your usual circle or readers or viewers? Without new supporters, progress can be slow, stagnant or your supporter base can experience demotivating attrition. Your stories can be – and should be – about vision creating, and solid relationship-building. In the business world, these narratives are more often bound up in the concept of marketing. Stories always have been – and will continue to be – how people find out about ‘stuff’ and how they engage for sharing. They will still be part of our lives after capitalism. However on a post-capitalism planet, they will spotlight good messages and in the way that we share good news between friends. As many common business terms are linked to the worst of capitalism, time is allocated for you to ask any question you want about marketing, commerciality of causes, and divisive topics like using social media for your Good Cause.

This practical, guided, interactive session shows you how to create relationships where people want to know more about what you do. Join us and help illuminate your cause through your words, your vision, and your deepest values.                 

Frustrated with seeing good causes hidden through ineffective marketing, Susan Wanmer offered pro-bono business skills to struggling causes. What she discovered was the fascinating world of shadow values conflict. Mainstream corporates feared going ‘eco’. Non-commercial organisations rejected ‘business help’ just as they rejected capitalism. Susan fearlessly directs Byron Bay Business College in the heart of Byron’s ecology vs investment region.

 

Adrian Watts

Grenfell Tower: advocacy after abandonment

On June 14, 2017, a fire lit up a 24 story housing-block in London, Grenfell Tower, devastating the homes of 600 and leaving 72 dead. The fire, which began in a flat on the fourth-floor, had spread to the external envelope of the building where it climbed – latched – onto cheap, flammable (ACM) panels that had been installed as part of a major refurbishment one year earlier. In this paper, I probe the limits of neoliberal discourses of ‘risk management’ leading up to the fire which, despite the repeated complaints of residents, failed to see this coming.

While conventional accounts of risk management configure violence as a threshold to be managed and contained, the temporalities of this violence are often slow (Nixon 2011), dispersed in time and space (Ahmann 2018), and resist capture and representation (Williams 2019). Attention to the wider social, economic, and political contexts of risk is not just critical for transformative struggles in the present – it may call for different modes of advocacy altogether (Fortun 2001). What might these new regimes of ethical engagement look like beyond the neoliberal discourses of the state?

Adrian Watts is a lecturer in anthropology at the University in Melbourne, where he has taught widely on crisis, social movements, and critical anthropological theory. His PhD research, completed in 2022, examined the politics of cooperation and contestation in the UK squatting scene. His primary research interests include autonomy, urban social movements, and political theory.

 

Jax Wechsler

Systemic Constellations: Relationality and Embodiment

Presented with Vivien Sung

“A living system is defined not by the individual parts, but by the relationships between them. The flow of energy. The flow of love.” – Bert Hellinger.

Systemic constellations are widely used to understand and explore ancestral and family dynamics but can be used in other contexts such as business, organisations, place-based systems and other collaborative contexts. They provide a powerful tool for gaining insight and navigating complexity.

In this workshop, we will connect in embodied ways through systemic constellations. This way of working can give us greater perspectives of our relationship to the complexity of issues we are enmeshed in from nature, the economy, work, wealth, money, wellbeing, technology and afford us an understanding of the larger living system. Systemic constellations can bring greater awareness of relationships, entanglements and patterns between inanimate objects and the animate world.

The format is an embodied and a reflective experience, and is participatory and inclusive. The systemic constellation will involve the felt experience of selected elements within a system. Participants will listen and pay attention to their bodily sensations, feelings and direct knowing, to access information about the relevant systemic roles bringing insight and guidance to see the whole from a new perspective.

Jax Wechsler is a trauma-informed strategic designer, regenerative practitioner, educator, and coach. She is passionate about systems change, inner development and enabling better futures for individuals, society and the planet. She sees inner development as a requirement for humanity to co-create a flourishing future. She has studied Regenerative Development, Non Violent Communication, Neuroscience, Somatic Coaching and Systemic Constellations.

 

Samantha Wittenberg

Offers and Needs Market

A guided process with roots in ancient indigenous cultures, where people meet to identify and exchange passions, knowledge, skills, resources, opportunities, and needs. From finding someone to collaborate on a project, to seeing a need for your services in a particular organisation, engaging a professional service or a tutor, the opportunities are endless! But it’s not all about trade, it’s about the kind of human connection that makes us feel rich and abundant, just because we are alive…. We all have passions, resources, skills, services, knowledge and opportunities that we can share with others. And we all have things we need.

Why am I passionate about the Offers & Needs Market? I see this as one of the ways to empower myself and my community to take charge of our economic autonomy, creating new economies that are on a human scale, equitable and localised. This market allows us to give and receive in balance, and allows diverse people to easily connect, leading to increased well being. Want to know more?

Samantha Wittenberg is passionate about facilitating human communication, connection and exchange and cares deeply about localising our economies. She combines these skills by facilitating and organising in groups that value permaculture ethics (People care, Earth care, Fair shares) for example the Community Exchange System, Local Exchange Trading Systems and Offers & Needs market. She lives in Central Victoria.