Tuesday 28th February 17.30-20.30

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

From the streets of Govan to the shores of Hebridean islands, communities are facing the challenges of building resilient and resourceful futures in the face of economic uncertainty and climate change. But what can urban and rural communities learn from each other, and what are the unique challenges that each face?

Ruth Little will be sharing her perspectives on these and other issues. A teacher, writer, former academic and literary manager of the Royal Court Theatre, Ruth travelled on a sailing boat across 19 Hebridean islands with Cape Farewell, a project set up 10 years ago to bring artists and scientists together to develop a cultural response to climate change– connecting with their communities through a series of meetings, meals, ceilidhs, sharing of work, and intensive and extensive dialogue.

Joining Ruth is Canadian Gaelic singer Mary Jane Lamond from Cape Breton’s Highland Village, where they’re developing a series of community-led initiatives around Gaelic language and culture, with an emphasis on participation, living tradition, skills development and story.

After a shared convivial meal provided by LEGUP, we will continue the discussion with an invited panel including local people involved in projects connecting community resilience, arts and sustainability…. and maybe even a song or two!

Presented by Govan Together

Pat Kane from Stuart Platt on Vimeo.

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.

January 2012 sees the publication of a major new human ecology textbook with a distinct CHE flavour. The book, Radical Human Ecology: Intercultural and Indigenous Approaches, published by Ashgate, is co-edited by CHE fellow Alastair McIntosh and contains chapters from former CHE director Ulrich Loening and CHE graduates and fellows Gerri Smyth, Iain MacKinnon and Nick Wilding. Alastair McIntosh explains:

The twenty or so contributors are international, over half of them women and an equal proportion from groups that might be considered indigenous/marginalised. The CHE contributions focus considerably on teaching human ecology in our experience and what it was like to have gone through the CHE course and then to apply it. The downside is that being an Ashgate research collection book of nearly 500 pages hardback, it is priced at £80 (£60 on Amazon). As such, it will be beyond the reach of many of those for whom it was written, but it would be really helpful if you could urge your library to consider buying it.

From the foreword by Richard J. Borden, Rachel Carson Chair in Human Ecology, College of the Atlantic and Society for Human Ecology:

“Below the clamor of a bustling world, this volume imparts the seeds of a radical alternative for human ecology. They lie beneath the surface: amid the whispered voices at the margin, in the praxis of traditional spirituality, along the dusty road of post-modernism, and from the ivy halls of science. This is not the human ecology of a prehistoric fireside or an academic symposium. It is an unconventional and timely pedagogy of hope”

Collaborating for Change: Communicating Across Differences to Unleash Energy & Resourcefulness

A series of training workshops for individuals and organisations based in Govan.

Organised by Govan Together with support from Climate Challenge Fund.

Introductory sessions – Friday 27th Jan or 10th Feb, 9.30-12.00
Followed by 3 day-long workshops:
Friday 24th Feb, 30th March and 27th April – 9.30-4pm
All at the Pearce Institute, 840 Govan Road, G51 3UU

All workshops are free. No commitment to all three is required. However attendance to the full day on 24th Feb is required to attend the following two. Places are limited to 20 and will be allocated in priority to people and organisations based in Govan. People not located in Govan can apply. You’ll be put on a waiting list and contacted if spaces are available. To register, please send an email to mail@verenenicolas.org indicating number of spaces required, name of the organisation (if applicable) and how many of the workshops you think you can commit to.

Workshop description:

In times of shrinking resources, our efforts to make Govan a resourceful and vibrant place requires we work more effectively together, foster a culture of dialogue, and achieve things at the same time as get on with people we work
with.

This series of workshops will equip you with tools to use in challenging conversations. You will:

• Learn to speak your trust and still stay in connection;
• Transform challenges into opportunities for collaboration;
• Be better equipped to know what to say in difficult conversations;
• Facilitate meetings more skilfully;
• Give and receive feedback without criticism;
• Be more able to foster trust, willingness and creativity among teams;
• Less often leave things unsaid and therefore feel re-energised in life and at
work.

The workshops will be collaborative at heart. Examples brought by participants will form the core of our work together and the basis of universal principles that will be applicable across workplaces and real life situations.

(Words inspired by “collaborating for change”, a course run by Miki Kashtan via BayNVC, www.baynvc.org)

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

Applications are now being accepted.
The course will comprise of three taught weekends:
27/28/29^th April,
23/24^th June
15/16^th September 2012. More below.

What is Ecopsychology?

Fundamentally, ecopsychology is about the reciprocal interdependence of human life and the rest of the natural world, sometimes referred to as the non-human or more-than-human world. However, ecopsychology can also been seen as a location for articulation of a number of hopes and fears about the state of the planet and the ecological crisis in which we currently find ourselves. Ecopsychology argues that this crisis is not just about consumerism, capitalism, ecological denigration, species extinction and over population, to name but a few concerns, it is a crisis of thought and feeling in relation to how we understand our place in the complex ecological web of interdependence that goes to make up our existence.

Ecopsychology is not just for psychologists, it is for all of those who feel driven to address these issues and see the importance of the links between mind, nature and society. It can be seen as a depth psychology as it is concerned not just with thought and behaviour, but much deeper spiritual and existential questions that call out to be addressed at this time in our history. Its premise is that we need to understand our egocentric way of being in order to move forward to a much more holistic and interdependent ecocentric way of being. In so doing understanding that we must hold the planet and all who live in it with care, compassion, respect and love.

Ecopsychology course outline

The course is based on a co-operative inquiry model and as such aims to become a relational and participative on-going spiritual practice for those who attend. Through a holistic experiential learning approach including individual learning contracts, the use of peer groups and peer and self assessment, the course aims to honour individual differences, encourage student-led learning, facilitate transformative experiences and build a lasting community of inquiry, support and practice.

The course consists of three weekends of attendance with the first being held on a residential basis in order to facilitate a culture of trust in the formation of the group.

Who is it for?

This course is aimed at anyone who questions the wisdom of modern day customs and culture, who seeks to explore the relationship between the human and more than human worlds or who yearns for a holistic engagement in questioning what it is to be both human and humane. It is designed to facilitate a personal transformation from an ego-centric towards an eco-centric self and to allow for engagement to take place through experience, creativity, critical thinking and practical application.

Course dates and venues

The course will be held over three weekends spanning six months in venues that are held in stunning natural surroundings. The weekends are spaced to allow ample time in between for personal exploration and peer group inquiries which are rooted in the place where everyday life is lived rather than in some remote location inaccessible to daily living.

April 28/29^th 2012 - The first weekend will be a residential camping adventure in order to give the group time and space for getting to know one another and fostering a feeling of trust and group cohesion. The venue is set in the ancient splendour of Powder Mill Wood near Battle in East Sussex and includes indoor spaces in a green roofed roundhouse and a spacious and peaceful yurt and outdoor spaces around a large fire pit or in a secluded labyrinth. Participants will be required to provide their own tents and equipment though some will be available to borrow with lengthy advanced notice. (click images to enlarge)

23/24^th June and 15/16^th September 2012- The second and third weekends will be held between the hours of 10am and 6pm in the award winning eco-building, Earthship Brighton which is set in the 200 hectares of Stanmer Park and surrounded by 17 acres of organic farm land and the South Downs National Park. These are non residential weekends and participants will be expected to find their own accomodation if required. Further details on directions and provisions will be provided upon registration for the course.

Cost

The cost for the course is £600 including workshops and fees. Food is included on the first residential weekend as we will be living and cooking together. The subsequent weekends will work on a bring food to share for lunch basis but will include tea/ coffee and biscuits for breaks. Terms and methods of payment will be made available upon registration for the course.

Application Process

In order to register for the course, a short application will need to be made. We would like you to write a personal statement (no more than 1000 words) that addresses these questions:

* Why are you interested in ecopsychology?
* How might you apply what you learn about ecopsychology on this course to your everyday life?
* What life experience do you feel you bring to this course?

Please send your application and/or any questions to info@che.ac.uk

Applications will be accepted on a first come first served basis and there will be a minimum number of participants for the course to be run. The maximum number of participants is 12.

Apply early to ensure a place on the course.

Professional Development

This is a professional development course delivered by the Centre for Human Ecology which has been providing post graduate education in subjects concerned with the relationship between human beings and the natural environment for the past 40 years. If you are an accredited psychotherapist or other professional in need of Continuing Professional Development hours, this course counts for up to 40 hours of CPD.

Facilitators

The course will be facilitated by Jane Glenzinska & Alun Hughes. For more information click here.