Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
This presentation gives an overview of Henry David Thoreau’s philosophy of sufficiency, which he developed and practised during his famous simple living experiment at Walden Pond (1845-47). Dr Alexander uses Thoreau’s life story to explore the question: How much is enough?
Instead of abiding by the separatist framing of Modernity, we should start repairing artificially broken interdependencies, learn the re-emergence of relationships, and regenerate ecosystems, and in that way give renewed meaning to what we already know.
With conversations about decolonising our institutions becoming more prominent, it’s important to remember that Thatcherism simply wouldn’t have triumphed in the UK without the defeat of another political vision then emerging from what was once among Britain’s most lucrative colonies: Jamaica.
Since the heyday of technological determinism in the 1960s, many authors have written eloquently about how developments in technology are more typically the outcome of particular social and economic arrangements.
‘Floods’ of migrants has the wrong connotations, but the weather and the tides are definitely changing and unless radical policy measures are taken we’re going to see large changes in human population distributions.
When the inhabitants of a certain neighborhood or complex of buildings manage to institute a radically different mode of collective co-existance, then the self-managed units, of which Castoriadis speaks, begin to emerge.
This post introduces the Reset series – a collection of briefings on lessons from the global pandemic on two vital areas for rapid transition: overconsumption and unnecessary travel.
From Preston and Barcelona, to Naples and Jackson, USA, the last decade has seen towns and cities undergo a reimagining of how we can make them, and their economies, work for local people and communities.
The end of growth and the ensuing long decline, which is already well underway in overdeveloped societies, will punch an enormous hole in the collective consciousness of the West.
All paths forward come back to the fact that democracy is not a spectator sport. The worst – but unfortunately not all – of the climate crisis is avoidable, but doing so will require system change with urgency.
Based on principles and practices of resource use reduction, sharing, conviviality, solidarity, and mutual aid, the Brisbane Tool Library can be considered a small-scale laboratory for a reorientation of society towards degrowth.
For decades, British households have been squeezed by a pincer movement of persistently low incomes on the one hand, and extractive business models on the other. Unless urgent action is taken on both fronts, another ‘lost decade’ looks all but inevitable.
