Rescuing civilization: Does the conservative/progressive rift pose an existential threat to humanity?

Simultaneously husbanding and equitably sharing multiple global common resources is the ultimate social challenge to humanity’s survival.  Today specifically, that means navigating the impending perfect storm of simultaneous climate change, soil destruction, and fossil fuel depletion. 

Why We Need a Small Farm Future

If we’re to bequeath a habitable and abundant planet to our descendants, a key part of that reappraisal involves rethinking the relevance of small farm or ‘peasant’ societies that are often dismissed for their ‘backwardness’ or buried under an unusable legacy of romanticism and nostalgia.

Degrowth resonates: a reflection on DegrowthFest 2020

Degrowth resonated with many people in our community. That is the remarkable result of DegrowthFest, for me. I am thrilled but not surprised that so many friends and neighbors were keen on this movement and idea that is so dear to me.

A sociological farmer speaks…and answers questions about a Small Farm Future

But what’s perhaps of greatest import are the points where our human self-conceptions confront the wider world – and here farming looms large. Since I’m hopeless at multi-tasking, how fortunate, then, that I’m a ‘former’ social scientist and a farmer, albeit improperly!

Some reflections on the difference between ‘Yes, but’ and ‘Yes, and’

While I entirely appreciate that ‘Yes, but’ has a role in holding those in power to account, it also suffocates and stifles and undermines. Just for those few moments, I allowed myself to imagine how our political debates might look if they had ‘Yes, and’ at their heart. I liked what I saw.