Gaia Education Design for Sustainability:
Week 2 - Economic Design

Jonathan Dawson

20–26 October 2012



Shifting The Global Economy Towards Sustainability

The urgent need is to make the shift from the current situation where ecology is a subset of economy, to one in which economy is a subset of ecology.

Topics include:
How the current economic system has evolved
What impacts it has on people, communities and the Earth
Visioning of a more just, equitable, resilient and sustainable global economy
Identifying leverage points for transforming the global economy
Transitional paths towards a new global economy


Making Money Our Servant Rather Than Our Master

Far from being a neutral lubricator of economic activity, the way that money currently works is a major driver of our unsustainable, growth-dependent economies. We will explore how money currently works and how to make it our servant rather than our master.

Topics include:
Exploration of how money works and the various impacts of the current monetary system
Exploration of how money systems (global and local) could be reformed to encourage greater equity and sustainability
Theory and practice of community and complementary currencies
Exposure to Findhorn's community currency and bank
Examples of successful community-based money initiatives from around the world


Right Livelihood

An exploration of the values underlying our economic activities and decisions; of the ways in which individual and community quality-of-life can be unhooked from material consumption; and of how values-based choices can help us move towards more satisfying and sustainable lifestyles.

Topics include:
Bringing economic behaviour into greater alignment with values
Voluntary simplicity and sustainable abundance
Sustainable contraction
Alternative well-being indicators
Exposure to community members who have chosen to downsize and simplify their lives

Rebuilding Local Economies

Social enterprises have as their principal aim not the maximising of profit but the delivery of social and/or environmental benefits that will enrich the communities in which they are based.

Topics include:
Identification of local income- and employment generating activities
Exploration of how we can use enterprises to meet many of our communities' social and environmental needs
Review of existing social enterprises in ecovillages around the world
Tools for building vibrant local economies


Legal and Financial Issues

While these questions may seem technical, their answers reflect your community's basic values . . . Does this legal entity inherently support your community's vision, mission and values? Does it support your ownership, financing and decision-making structure?"

Diana Leafe Christian


A review of the various legal, ownership and financial options available both for ecovillages and social enterprises within them.

Topics include:
Overview of financial and legal issues to be taken into consideration when launching and managing social enterprises and ecovillages
Feasibility studies and business plans
Different forms of capital, their uses and how to raise them
Successful fund-raising
Creating abundance

The Gaia Education Design for Sustainability has been introduced to complement, correspond with, and assist in setting a standard for the United Nations' Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005-2014.

Please complete the Application Form and Enrolment Questionnaire to book online.
Send an email to

Fees
Income related price for Week 2 only (click here for more information): £495 / £545 / £695

Income Related Pricing

We want to ensure that our courses are accessible to people with diverse financial means. When you book, please choose the low, medium or higher price listed for your programme, based on your personal income and keeping in mind that paying the lowest price covers only basic costs, while paying the medium and higher prices will allow this centre to develop and grow. Limited bursary funds are available if you cannot pay the lowest price, please see how to apply. You can also contribute to our bursary fund when you make your booking.


For the full four-week programme: £1735 / £1925 / £2395

Fees include tuition, accommodation, vegetarian meals and field trips.

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Findhorn's EDE course teaches holistically - from the heart and the head. The different facilitators presented from a place of optimism and love of their work. I was inspired by the other participants as much as from the wonderful presenters. I left the EDE month-long course with a huge number of new skills, new friends around the globe, and most importantly, a sense that a more gaia-centered civilisation is not only possible, but is happening already. I am honoured to have been a part of such a rich programme and to help spread the word.

Miranda Loud, Rialto Art Inc, USA

For me, the month I spent at Findhorn for the EDE was incredibly powerful. Well-presented, empowering, motivating, it gave me a wide array of tools, facts, excercises, rhetoric, personal empowerment, process and practice to take the message of sustainable living out into the world. Gandhi said 'Be the change you want to see in the world', I feel that having completed the EDE I really can.

Annie Palone