Reinventing the Commons:
Designing Social Ecosystems for
Local Stewardship & Planetary Regeneration
A Friday evening public talk and two-day workshop
With Dave Jacke and David Bollier
Montague Common Hall ("Grange"), Montague, MA
• Public Lecture: Friday, Nov. 9, 2018, 7-9 PM: $12 @ door or $10 in advance.
• Weekend Workshop: Fri-Sun, Nov. 9-11, 2018: $180-$250 sliding scale,
scholarships available. Preregistration required.
Sponsored by Dynamics Ecological Design.
For more information:
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
603-831-1298
Despite all its benefits, more and more of us recognize that the dominant
capitalist economic model based on the short-term self interest of a privileged
few degrades both the social systems and the ecosystems upon which we depend.
What feasible alternatives exist? This workshop explores the tangible
potential of the commons as a practical and fair system of local provisioning,
governance, and culture for transforming society and healing damaged ecosystems.
From early in human cultural evolution until only a few centuries ago, the vast
majority of resources were held and managed in common. Defined groups of
people formed agreements about how to share and manage specific resources, from
woodlands and farm fields to pastures and water—and they managed those
resources sustainably for generations. It took the privateers hundreds of
years to consolidate control of state and market structures so they could
dismantle the commons systems of Europe and then the rest of the world. The
unbridled privatization and commoditization of commons that began the
Industrial Revolution continues today, with catastrophic results for planetary
ecosystems and social well-being.
Reinventing "commoning" can begin counterbalancing these market and state
forces, and regenerate the social and ecological wealth that is our collective
heritage. Commons systems provide human-scaled social structures for shared
resource management and nurturing community. They foster regenerative
stewardship, ethical long-term relationships, and the common good. Commoning
requires cultures of skillful social negotiation and coordination, and the
development of trust and shared purpose. The question is: How can we
consciously, creatively, and practically adapt and reintegrate practices and
patterns of commoning into our modern cultural contexts? This evening talk and
participatory two-day workshop will engage that question.
The 2-hour Friday evening public talk will introduce the essence of the
problems we face and how commoning can help us respond. We'll also explore
some of the history, principles, and concepts of commoning as a new and old
social form, and examine a few case studies of commons systems that can inspire
and offer us practical direction. You can register for the Friday evening talk
by itself and come away with new eyes, hope for a better future, and sense of
how we might get there.
The Saturday-Sunday workshop will include and build on Friday evening's talk
through lectures, discussions, exercises, and case studies in an environment
fostering co-learning and co-creation. How do principles of ecology and the
commons converge? What do commons systems entail philosophically and
experientially, and imply politically and culturally? What contemporary,
cross-cultural examples exist? We'll also engage with designing commons
systems on a four-acre homestead where the owners aim to share their land with
a community of people in a practical, functional, and ecological manner.
Workshop leaders Dave Jacke and David Bollier will combine forces and ideas
with participants to see what we can learn together as we reinvent commoning
here and now.
You can attend the Friday night talk by itself, or come for Friday night and
the Saturday-Sunday workshop as a package.
To register, either send checks to:
Dave Jacke
33 E. Taylor Hill Road
Montague, MA 01351
OR register through Brown Paper Tickets (fees apply) at:
ReinventingCommons.brownpapertickets.com
<http://reinventingcommons.brownpapertickets.com/>
Contact Dave for information about scholarships.
Bios:
Dave Jacke has studied and practiced ecological culture design since the
mid-1970s. Since writing the now-classic tome Edible Forest Gardens with Eric
Toensmeier, he has come to firmly believe that we must spend at least as much
time designing ecological human social structures as ecological landscapes.
Dave's research on ancient land use in Britain led him to appreciate the long,
close relationship between commoning and land management practices like
coppicing, both of which will likely become essential in the near future.
Independent scholar, activist, and blogger David Bollier focuses on the commons
as a new paradigm of economics, politics, and culture. He works primarily as
co-founder of the Commons Strategies Group, an advocacy/consulting project, and
as Director of the Reinventing the Commons Program at the Schumacher Center for
a New Economics in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Bollier has written or
edited eight books on the commons, including Think Like a Commoner: A Short
Introduction to the Life of the Commons (2014) and, with co-editor Silke
Helfrich, Patterns of Commoning (2015). He and Silke are currently finishing
Free, Fair and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the Commons, due out later this
year or early next. David lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, and blogs at
Bollier.org <http://bollier.org/>.
-------------
Dave Jacke
Dynamics Ecological Design
33 E. Taylor Hill Rd. • Montague, MA • 01351
603-831-1298 • [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
Visit www.edibleforestgardens.com <http://www.edibleforestgardens.com/> for
information on or to purchase my award-winning two-volume book, Edible Forest
Gardens.
Mark Krawczyk and I are now writing a new book on Coppice Agroforestry! Find
out more at
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coppiceagroforestry/dave-and-mark-write-a-coppice-agroforestry-book
<http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coppiceagroforestry/dave-and-mark-write-a-coppice-agroforestry-book>
and support our effort by sending a check to the address above—we will honor
the same rewards listed on the kickstarter website for any donations sent now.
It is not the strongest species that survives,
nor the most intelligent,
but the one most responsive to change.
Charles Darwin, summarized
by Leon Megginson, as paraphrased
by the Telephone Game.
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