Imagine a world where money works differently. Where there's enough for everyone's needs, not their greed and where we work together for a life we all want. In this week's podcast, Jonathan Dawson, head of the Regenerative Economics program at Schumacher college explores how.
Jonathan Dawson, co-creator of the Masters in Regenerative Economics at Schumacher college, is a sustainability educator and a former President of the Global Ecovillage Network. He has around 20 years experience as a researcher, author, consultant and project manager in the field of small enterprise development in Africa and South Asia and before joining the College he was a long-term resident at the Findhorn ecovillage.
Jonathan is the principal author of the Gaia Education sustainable economy curriculum
www.gaiaeducation.org, drawn from best practice within ecovillages worldwide, that has been endorsed by UNITAR and adopted by UNESCO as a valuable contribution to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. He teaches this curriculum at universities, ecovillages and community centres in Brazil, Spain and Scotland. He has also adopted the curriculum to virtual format and teaches it through the Open University of Catalunya in Barcelona.
In this week's wide-ranging discussion, we explore the differences between the hard, mechanistic view of economics and the wider, more regenerative view that is based in moral philosophy. From there, we look at the ways we can change the stories we tell ourselves about value and worth and the ways we are moving forward in an ever-changing world.
Links:
Articles: DAWSON J.
Teaching Economics for the 21st Century, Resilience.org.
http://www.resilience.org/stories/2015-10-06/teaching-economics-for-the-21st-centuryDAWSON J.
Changing Stories: Using narrative to shift societal values, Resurgence (March, 2015)
http://newstoryhub.com/2014/08/changing-stories-using-narrative-to-shift-societal-values/DAWSON J.
A wave of disruption is sweeping in to challenge neoliberalism, Guardian, March 12, 2015
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/mar/12/disruption-challenge-neoliberalism-commons-political-systemBooks: Kate Raworth: Doughnut Economics
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Doughnut-Economics-by-Kate-Raworth-author/9781847941398Mariana Mazzucato: The Mission Economy:
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Mission-Economy-by-Mariana-Mazzucato-author/9780241419731Tim Jackson: Post Growth:
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Post-Growth-by-Tim-Jackson-author/9781509542529Kim Stanley Robinson: The Ministry for the Future (fiction):
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Ministry-for-the-Future-by-Kim-Stanley-Robinson-author/9780356508832Bill Gates: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster:
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/How-to-Avoid-a-Climate-Disaster-by-Bill-Gates-author/9780241448304TED TALK
Rupert Sheldrake (banned by TED)
https://youtu.be/JKHUaNAxsTg
What is Accidental Gods - The Thrutopian Podcast?
Another World IS still Possible. The old system was never fit for purpose - and now it's collapsing around us. So how do we co-create a Thrutopian future that we'd all be proud to leave as our legacy?
What stories can we weave of possibility? Of transformation? What happens if we commit to a world based on generative values: compassion, courage, integrity?
What happens if we let go of the race for meaningless money and commit instead to the things that really matter: clean air, clean water, clean soil - and clean, clear, courageous connections between all parts of ourselves, between ourselves and each other, between ourselves and the Web of Life - so that we can reclaim our birthright as self-conscious nodes in the web of life?
We can do this. Some of us already are. Every week on Accidental Gods we speak with the people who are living this world into being, courageous pathfinders who are exploring the emergent edge of inter-becoming.
As a species, we have all the answers, we just haven't yet crafted all the new stories and woven them into a future that works. We have the choice now - we can choose to transform…or we can face the chaos of a failing system.
Our Choice. Our Chance. Our Future.
Accidental Gods is a podcast and membership program devoted to exploring the ways we can create a future that we would be proud to leave to the generations yet to come.
Find the membership and the podcast pages here: https://accidentalgods.life
Find Manda's Thrutopian novel, Any Human Power here: https://mandascott.co.uk
Find Manda on BlueSky @mandascott.bsky.social
On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandascottauthor/
On FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/MandaScottAuthor