Discovering Abundance within Scarcity
At Big Top Chautauqua on Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Presentation at 7:00 p.m.
This year we are pleased to be hosting Pie and Politics in collaboration with the Midwest Regional Collaborative for Sustainability Education’s Unconference. Four MRCSE Wise Elders will be present short talks on how we in community can discover abundance within the growing sense of scarcity in our world.
At Big Top Chautauqua on Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Presentation at 7:00 p.m.
This year we are pleased to be hosting Pie and Politics in collaboration with the Midwest Regional Collaborative for Sustainability Education’s Unconference. Four MRCSE Wise Elders will be present short talks on how we in community can discover abundance within the growing sense of scarcity in our world.
John Ikerd presents “Beyond Sustainability to a New and Better World”
To achieve sustainability, we must look beyond today's ecological and social challenges and envision a new and better world of the future that is possible, even if not quick or easy to achieve -- we must restore hope.
John Ikerd is a Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics at the University of Missouri, Columbia. John received his BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees in agricultural economics from the University of Missouri. He spent thirty years in various professorial positions at North Carolina State University, Oklahoma State University, University of Georgia, and the University of Missouri before retiringin early 2000. Since retiring, he spends most of his time writing and speaking on issues related to sustainability. Ikerd is author of Sustainable Capitalism, A Return to Common Sense, Small Farms are Real Farms, Crisis and Opportunity: Sustainability in American Agriculture and A Revolution of the Middle, http://sites.google.com/site/revolutionofthemiddle/. A more complete bibliography and wide selection of writings are available at http://web.missouri.edu/~ikerdj/ or http://www.johnikerd.com.
Jan Sanders presents “Building Creative Communities”
Shape a new future through the power of creative imagination. As we encourage participation and creativity we restore our sense of well-being, vibrant community life and the local economy.
Jan Sanders is the founder of PEOPLEnergy, an organizational and community development consultancy that serves a diversity of clients from corporations to non-profits and government Agencies. She also teaches Social Artistry™ programs internationally. She combines Social Artistry™ leadership curriculum with development themes, including HIV/AIDS, governance, community development and indigenous wisdom. Jan brings extensive expertise as a facilitator, program designer, project manager and trainer with 20 years international experience with the Institute of Cultural Affairs where she helped pioneer methods of wholistic community development, including twelve consulting assignments with United Nations Development Program. Contact Jan at [email protected] This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
David
Oates presents “Imagine: Each Other”
Imagination is more than a liberal-arts nicety: it's a matter of life and death. Imagine knowing that our fate is each other. Imagine realizing that our fate also swims with the salmon and grows with the trees. . .
David Oates writes about nature and urban life from Portland, Oregon. He is a poet and the author of City Limits: Walking Portland's Boundary (Oregon State 2006), and Paradise Wild: Reimagining American Nature (Oregon State 2003). He regularly hosts Wild Writers Seminars and teaches writing at Clark College (Washington) and at Marylhurst University (Oregon). As a writer and educator, David is continuously looking for ways to convey the new story of our environmental moment. His current work explores Resurrection Bioliogy—biology+spirituality+practical hopefulness and gittin-to-work! David sees Resurrection Biology as the joyous, determined environmentalism that will respond to the damaged world of the coming century. He has designed this workshop to help others join the movement.
Margaret
Swedish presents “Global Market and
Earth’s Limits: Headed Toward
Collision”
Global production and human consumption have reached levels far beyond the earth’s biocapacity. How do we avoid collapse and move towards a new sustainable way of life?
Margaret Swedish is the founder of Spirituality and Ecological Hope a project sponsored by the Center for New Creation. This project focuses on the moral, ethical, and spiritual implications for U.S. society of the ecological crises of our times and seeks to articulate a ‘spirituality’ (values, framework of meaning) for a new way of life that can support the earth community as it goes through a time of great upheaval, recreating the relationship between the human and the ecosystems of the planet in a mutually life-enhancing manner. For over 20 years Margaret led the Religious Task Force on Central America and Mexico (RTFCAM) and was editor of Central America/Mexico Report. RTFCAM provided resources and coordination for faith-based solidarity work in the US, collaborating with national religious institutional leaders and a broad grassroots network. Margaret recently published Living Beyond the ‘End of the World': A Spirituality of Hope, that explores the converging trends of ecological crises and the non-sustainability of the U.S. way of life while offering a spirituality for living beyond the ‘end of the world.’ Margaret is also a regular blogger on her Spirituality and Ecological Hope website asking "What values will shape the human journey now? What kind of human beings will we be as we face this crisis?