Our upcoming events

We run conferences, workshops and seminars both in-person and online. We rely on our fellows to offer workshops.

Tuesday 28th November 2023 ~ 10AM

Planet Local Summit

The summit in September brought many people from around the world to Bristol.

In this online workshop, we will give some thoughts and impressions of the event and dig further into some questions and tensions that surfaced during ‘Planet Local’.

  • Can you have a global movement for localism? What might that look like?
  • What are the tensions between levels – local, regional, national, and international?
  • Could there be synergies between these levels?
  • What are the issues around supporting indigenous livelihoods and knowledge?
  • How do these link to decolonization agendas?

And many more issues……

Of particular interest from the institute’s point of view, we will consider some of the issues that overlap with our ‘Small is Disruptive’ conference earlier this year………..leading towards our follow-on events planned for next year.

Tuesday 12th December 2023 ~ 11AM

New Economy Transitions: Essential for systems transitions in food, water, energy

This talk will draw on recent work by the Schumacher Institute reviewing transition literature and practice. Transitions in the areas of food, water, energy and so on…will be presented as essential to reduce societies’ biophysical impacts and to bring in regenerative technologies and practice to help deliver sustainability goals. The concept of systemically linked Co-transitioning will be introduced, placing this is the wider landscape of the increasingly pressurised dominant model of development. The talk will identify how issues of economy, governance and law can act as enablers or blockers to the transitioning of key sectors of the economy. 

 

The discussion will also how considering changes to new economy thinking and practice as ‘transitions’ might potentially contribute to a better understanding of the broad field of new economy. This will include implications for strategy to progress these agendas, particularly using systems approaches and communications.

Tuesday 12th December 2023 ~ 4PM

Systems Thinking, Hope, Meaning and Spirituality

As adaptation to climate change, food security and other issues becomes urgent, it’s clear that community-scale adaptation will be crucial. But where are the templates, processes, role models, and enabling networks? 

The workshop is intended for community groups, individuals, and organisations involved with community resilience, including NGOs.One aim is to help community groups to see how they can engage with and benefit from statutory frameworks, such as the Local Resilience Forums. As a catalyst for our exploration, we’ll use Whatever Next: Risk Review – UK 2030, a new research report produced by Schumacher Institute and commissioned by Seeding our Future.

Apply for a place – please send us your name, location, what community group(s) you are involved with, and any specific aspects of community adaptation that you would like to explore. Email to info@schumacherinstitute.org.uk 

Tuesday 16th January 2024 ~ 4PM

How holistic management is delivering positive agro-ecological outcomes globally

This session, delivered by Dr Henry Russell of Russell Regen, will explore how “Holistic Management” has been (and continues to be) developed and applied over the last seventy years to restore the world’s grasslands and improve the four ecosystem processes of water cycle, mineral cycle, biodiversity and plant energy capture in farm settings. Central to the success of this approach is the recognition that a farm (being part of Nature) is inherently complex and therefore mechanistic approaches to farming leads to unintended consequences, which we have seen since the ‘Green Revolution’ post-World War II. Instead, Holistic Management is a framework for decision making in complex environments with a crafted “Holistic Context” at its core as well as flexible financial and grazing plans, and a robust ecological outcome verification measurement approach to carefully observe how land is responding to different management approaches.

Email to marsha@schumacherinstitute.org.uk 

If you would like to run a course with the Schumacher Institute, drop us a message!