Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The sustainability consultants Pooran Desai and Sue Riddlestone of the London based consultancy BioRegional suggest that we need to reconsider the scale of our production systems and create more locally self-sustaining communities in compact cities.
Generative transformation is really good stuff. I believe permaculture and generative transformation are meant to be together, just like orchid and wasp, legume and rhizobia, or carbon and nitrogen in the perfect compost. Indeed, I’d argue that generative transformation is in play when any permaculture project really shines.
Most of the component parts for ultra-light mobility ecosystems are on the table – from cargo bikes, to sharing platforms. Social and technical innovations are transforming relationships between people, goods, energy, space, and value.
Step by step, I can see little advances in people’s mentalities, or in local politics. For example, recently the Madrid council has received a UN Public Service prize for a collaborative free software platform called Decide Madrid. It is an excellent sign and means that our work and efforts working in the commons are important and can provoke social change.
A Federal Court of Appeal on Thursday struck down the Canadian government’s approval of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion, halting construction of the 1,150-kilometer project indefinitely.
For Syria, small-scale, autonomous farming offers a model of inspiration for the challenges that lie ahead in terms of weakened food security, the use of food as a weapon and the vulnerability of farming livelihoods. In the long run, planting it as an idea may well be the most important thing to do.
Bob Sampayan believes in the transformational power of beauty. Now in his sixties, Sampayan is the mayor of Vallejo, California, a primarily working-class city at the north end of San Francisco Bay.
Tuttle and its counterparts offer a model—a replicable and actionable approach—to mitigate the effects of food insecurity, and to encourage social interaction and active civic life.
We must honor our full humanity, especially the parts of ourselves that aren’t in alignment yet with our liberatory values. And part of honoring our humanity means honoring the humanity of others, even that of our enemies and oppressors.
Following an introduction by Gorenflo, in which he summarizes the background of the Sharing Cities movement, states its basic principles and assesses its significance, the book — a collaborative effort by fifteen people — provides over two hundred pages of case studies of local sharing economy projects in dozens of cities.
Mobility in the Netherlands is approached holistically within the urban fabric and in incorporated into how cities are more generally organized.
In California, there could not be a more relevant time to draw attention to the health of the open expanses of land surrounding our towns and cities.
