Join us for our first Govan Together learning event of 2012. Pat Kane joins us for a talk, a shared meal, and a space for convivial discussion.

Radical Animal: how do we balance human nature, innovation and the challenges of climate change?

Tuesday 31st January 2012 17.30-20.30

The Pearce Institute, 840-860 Govan Road, Govan,, G51 3UU

The reality of climate change is now incontrovertible – but the facts still don’t seem to sufficiently register with the ordinary citizen, worker and consumer. Our language of societal progress is still essentially understood as consumption-led growth, and our current economic slump fixable by a restoration of retail confidence.

We need to examine how the thirst for novelty and innovation, deep rooted in human nature, can be redirected from status consumption to something more active, fulfilling and planet-friendly. Pat Kane will use his 10 years of inquiry into the power and potential of play to give some indications about how this might be done – turning the “radical animals” that we are in a different direction.

About Pat Kane:

Pat Kane, 47, is a musician, writer, activist and father. He is the author of 2004′s The Play Ethic (www.theplayethic.com), and his forthcoming “book-net” is Radical Animal: Innovation, Sustainability and Human Nature (www.radicalanimal.net) Pat consults to organisations and communities about the power and potential of play. He is also still one-half of Scottish pop group Hue And Cry (www.hueandcry.co.uk), whose 10th studio album, Hot Wire, is out in March.

Pat’s Guardian article on Radical Animal: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/26/green-consensus-versus-consumerism

Tim Kasser : A Revolution of Values: Materialism and its alternatives from stuart Platt on Vimeo.

On Monday 12th Dec 2011, CHE welcomed psychologist Tim Kasser to speak as part of our Govan Together learning series on ‘A Revolution of Values: Materialism and its Alternatives’. Filmmaker Stuart Platt recorded the event for us. Enjoy!

More information about Tim Kasser: Tim Kasser, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of Psychology at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. He has authored numerous scientific articles and book chapters on materialism, values, ecological sustainability, and quality of life, among other topics, and is also the author of three books, including The High Price of Materialism (MIT Press, 2002). Tim works extensively with a variety of activist and civil society organisations that protect children from commercialisation, that promote ecological sustainability, and that encourage a more “inwardly rich” lifestyle than what is offered by consumerism.

Centre for Human Ecology and Govan Together present:

A Revolution of Values: Materialism and its alternatives

Monday 12th Dec 1900-2100

Join us for another stimulating evening in our winter learning series. In the runup to Christmas, we’re exposed to more and more advertising, encouraging us to spend our way to happiness. Our guest speaker, Tim Kasser, will present evidence for the high price of materialism and explore alternatives of what really makes a merry Christmas.

Tim Kasser, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of Psychology at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. He has authored numerous scientific articles and book chapters on materialism, values, ecological sustainability, and quality of life, among other topics, and is also the author of three books, including The High Price of Materialism (MIT Press, 2002). Tim works extensively with a variety of activist and civil society organisations that protect children from commercialisation, that promote ecological sustainability, and that encourage a more “inwardly rich” lifestyle than what is offered by consumerism.

Light refreshments provided. Entry by donation.

The Centre for Human Ecology and Govan Together present: An Evening with David Abram

David Abram is a cultural ecologist and environmental philosopher who lectures and teaches widely on several continents. He is the author of Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology (Pantheon, 2010), and The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World (Vintage, 1997). Hailed as “revolutionary” by the Los Angeles Times, as “daring” and “truly original” by Science, David’s work has helped catalyze the emergence of several new disciplines, including the burgeoning field of ecopsychology. Named by both the Utne Reader and Resurgence as one of a hundred visionaries transforming contemporary culture, he’s been the recipient of various awards and fellowships, including the international Lannan Literary Award for nonfiction. David’s essays on the cultural causes and consequences of environmental disarray are published in numerous magazines, scholarly journals, and anthologies. Co-founder of the Alliance for Wild Ethics (AWE), he lives with his family in the foothills of the southern Rockies.

Join us for an engaging, deep, wide-ranging evening with David, as part of our Govan Conversations learning series.

Entry is by donation, and includes a shared meal provided by LEGUP.

“Speculative, learned, and always ‘lucid and precise’ as the eye of the vulture that confronted him once on a cliff ledge, Abram has one of those rare minds which, like the mind of a musician or a great mathematician, fuses dreaminess with smarts.”
—The Village Voice

“Prose as lush as a moss-draped rain forest and as luminous as a high desert night. . . Deeply resonant with indigenous ways of knowing, Abram lets us listen in on wordless conversations with ancient boulders, walruses, birds, and roof beams. His profound recognition of intelligences other than our own enables us to enter into reciprocal symbioses that can, in turn, sustain the world. Becoming Animal illuminates a way forward in restoring relationship with the earth, led by our vibrant animal bodies to re-inhabit the glittering world.” — Orion