Webinar Description
In a time of disintegrating certainties, many of us have big questions: "How should we live?", "What work should we do?", "How can we help ourselves and each other?".
This free webinar is an opportunity to dig deeper into the nourishing work of the late Dr. David Fleming, author of Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy. Already a key influence on thinkers and activists in Europe, his compelling, entertaining, and powerfully-different vision for a post-growth society is currently attracting great interest around the world. Based in rediscovering the play, humor and rootedness of a rich culture, his work is also the subject of the forthcoming film The Seed Beneath The Snow, slated for release July 2018.
Fleming's work takes us back to bedrock, highlightling that "most of human history was bred, fed and watered by another sort of economy. But the market has replaced, as far as possible, the social capital of reciprocal obligation, loyalties, culture and traditions with exchange, price and the impersonal principles of economics."
Now is the time to repair and restore the atrophied social and ecological structures on which most human cultures were built - not only because we miss them dearly, but also as an absolute practical priority, for they are the only basis for a nourishing and cohesive society that might survive the turbulent times to come. This work could become the story of our times, and living it imbues our days with joy and meaning.
Both of our presenters - Shaun Chamberlin and Helena Norberg-Hodge - knew David and will be able to speak to the nuances of his work, and the controversial, fertile areas where they didn't always agree! We'll also see short clips from Fleming himself - a very entertaining speaker!
(This webinar is joint Local Futures / Transition US event)
Presenters
Shaun Chamberlin has been involved with the Transition Network since its inception, co-founding Transition Town Kingston and authoring the movement's second book, "The Transition Timeline." He is managing director of the Fleming Policy Centre, former chair of the Ecological Land Co-operative, and has spoken at venues ranging from Occupy camps to parliaments. In exploring the cultural narratives charting society's course forward, he has written for or edited a diverse range of books, magazines, academic journals, and other publications, including co-authoring a significant UK All Party Parliamentary report with his close friend and regular collaborator, David Fleming. His website is www.darkoptimism.org.
Helena Norberg-Hodge: Author and filmmaker Helena Norberg-Hodge is the founder and director of Local Futures. A pioneer of the ‘new economy’ movement, she has been promoting an economics of personal, social and ecological well-being for more than thirty years. She is the producer and co-director of the award-winning documentary The Economics of Happiness, and is the author of Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh, described as “an inspirational classic”. She has given public lectures in seven languages, and has appeared in broadcast, print, and online media worldwide, including MSNBC, The London Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Guardian. She was honored with the Right Livelihood Award (or ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’) for her groundbreaking work in Ladakh, and received the 2012 Goi Peace Prize for contributing to “the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide.”
More about Local Futures: Local Futures’ mission is to protect and renew ecological and social well being by promoting a systemic shift away from economic globalization towards localization. Through its education-for-action programs, Local Futures develops innovative tools to catalyze strategic change and collaboration within the new economy movement, at the community and international level.