Speakers

Stairway to Hiatus

Abstract

It is when we realise that our journey through Hiatus - humanity’s first major collective step towards getting the climate emergency under control - also can lead to an increased sense of wellbeing and quality of life, that the turning of the tide suddenly begins to pick up speed.

Bio

Mik was one of the original founders of the movement to declare a climate emergency. A strong environmentalist, he is a public radio broadcaster from Geelong (since 2013 host of more than 350 hours of sustainability programs on community radio 94.7 The Pulse and in Denmark as a host on national radio shows from 1992-2003. He is co-founder of Geelong Media, a digital communication web design bureau. He founded websites such as www.climateemergencydeclaration.org and www.climatesafety.info

Concurrent Session 4: Multi-stakeholder Cooperatives

Abstract

Food Next Door uses a multi stakeholder co-operative model to match under-utilised farmland with landless farmers to support small-scale regenerative farming, growing diverse crops and engaging people from diverse backgrounds to supply food to local households. The presentation is a short video produced by Dr Sidsel Grimstad and includes FND’s CEO Deb Bogenhuber’s brief explanation of how their multi-stakeholder co-operative works. After the 11 min video, Deb, Sidsel and Ann will be available for a short Q&A.

Concurrent Session 5: Limited Equity Housing Models

Abstract

The dominant type of co-operative housing in Australia is the rental co-operative, used to deliver mainly social housing to those on low incomes. There are other examples of co-operative housing, mainly associated with cohousing and intentional communities. This presentation provides an overview of the limited equity housing co-operative model – and its potential as an intermediate tenure, for those who are not eligible for social housing, but cannot afford home ownership. Currently the only option for most in the ‘missing middle’ is private rental, which is not suitable for those seeking long term tenure and some chance of accumulating wealth. The presentation will consider the LEHCs pros and cons and what is needed to have it recognised as a mainstream tenure option.

Bio

Ann Apps is a lecturer in the Law School at University of Newcastle Law School where she teaches Contracts, Corporate Power and Social Responsibility and Co-operative Law and Governance. She is currently undertaking her PhD, researching the impact of regulation on co-operatives in Australia.  Ann is a member of the ICAs Co-operative Law Committee, and is currently engaged in a pro bono project with ICA-Asia Pacific to build a regional framework for co-operative law for South Pacific nations. Ann is a lawyer, but she is not currently a practising solicitor, so is unable to provide legal services, however she is always happy to engage in discussions about co-operative governance and the operationalisation of co-operative principles.

Intellectual Property

Abstract

Rather than protecting the inventor in the back shed, or the writer in the garret, Intellectual Property laws (Patents, Copyright and so on) nowadays are abused by powerful corporations for their own ends, intruding into our living and stifling the creativity we might all benefit from. It is nowadays worse than it was a few decades ago - there is newly emerging technology for corporations to abuse, at the same time as there is increased "democratisation" of creativity. I outline these issues, particularly from a Pirate Party Australia perspective.

Bio

John August is currently treasurer of the Pirate Party of Australia, and has previously been Vice-Chair and Committee member, having stood for election several times in the NSW seat of Bennelong and also in the upper house. He has been long fascinated with economics and intellectual property, along with their abuses.

Sociocracy in action at Narara Ecovillage

Abstract

A short presentation with slides introducing Narara Ecovillage (NEV) and explaining our experience using sociocratic practices to make decisions and get work done in a complex legal and financial environment, and build community in the process.
NEV is a co-operative of approximately 140 individuals, building an intentional community on the NSW Central Coast. The development is self-funded and mostly volunteer driven, so it is reliant on members maintaining high levels of engagement, trust and enthusiasm. Sociocratic governance practices and values have been crucial, supporting our project at a practical level and also in building a strong, resilient community.

Bio

Liz Bassett is a high-school and adult educator, and a champion of sociocracy at Narara Ecovillage.

Trust and the sharing economy - can globalised models gain local acceptance?

Abstract

The success of online platforms such as Airbnb and Uber stems largely from their ability to make strangers trust one another. Activities once seen as risky, such as staying in a stranger's house or getting in their car, have become normalised through the trust generated by online platforms that allow users to view and rate one another. However, conflicts with local communities and businesses affected by these "disruptors" have also created mistrust that threatens the "social licence" of these "sharing" platforms.

This presentation focuses on recent stakeholder research into home-sharing to identify the factors determining whether a new disruptor gains (or fails to gain) a social licence to operate. Our research suggests that social licence frameworks developed in other industry sectors, such as mining, forestry and renewable energy, are broadly applicable to home-sharing in NSW, with trust influenced by a company's processes, confidence in government regulation and how fairly the costs and benefits are distributed. However, key differences around home-sharing include the evolving nature of the sector, its ability to go "under the radar" in some situations and the diverse sub-communities it affects. Moreover, the need for localised strategies to build social licence was identified strongly by research participants. Can globalised business platforms and statewide regulations ever deliver these localised solutions or is a different approach required to build a new economy based on true sharing and trust?

Bio

Dr Alex Baumber is a Senior Lecturer in Transdisciplinary Innovation at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). He has over 15 years research experience in rural land use issues, including work on the social licence of controversial practices such as bioenergy cropping, plantation forestry and wildlife harvesting. His participatory action research approach seeks to engage local communities in identifying and addressing issues of importance to them. More recently he has applied this research approach to other emerging technologies and practices including the sharing economy.

This presentation draws on work undertaken with Dr Moira Scerri and Dr Stephen Schweinsberg of the UTS Business School. Moira is a Lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain Management while Stephen is a Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Management with a particular focus on the tourism sector. Their work has recently been published in the journal Technological Forecasting and Social Change and Alex’s other work has appeared in the Journal of Environmental Management, Ecosystem Services, Rural Society and Environmental Science and Policy.

Contextual economics: nesting static in process

Abstract

This paper examines a shift to contextual economic theories reflected in the New Economy movement, and corresponding shifts in modes of thought and metaphysics. Drawing connections between the work of Alfred North Whitehead, Arran Gare, Herman Daly, Julie Nelson, Kate Raworth and George Monbiot the paper interrogates the relationship between two modes of thought—static and process thinking—in their application to economics. By nesting static thinking within process thinking, this perspective: locates the economy as a subsystem of societies and ecosystems; replaces the basic economic unit of homo economicus with people-in-communities; and redirects economic policy-making from GDP growth to improvements in wellbeing. These shifts in economics and metaphysics are foundational to a new political narrative poised to replace neoliberalism and go beyond social democracy. This narrative has the potential to engage people from across the political spectrum in what Monbiot calls a “politics of belonging”. This paper establishes the value of process thinking and process metaphysics in enabling a new economics and politics for a peaceful, just and ecologically sustainable future. Key words: new economy, process philosophy, economics in context, Doughnut economics, feminist economics, ecological economics, political of belonging.

Bio

Juliet is a PhD candidate in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney. Her research Process Thinking and its Application for a Sustainable Future explores the contributions of process philosophy to mitigating the climate crisis. Juliet is also a Teaching Fellow at the University of Sydney, and has previously worked as a lecturer at Lenoir Rhyne University, North Carolina.

Alan Watts' essay Wealth Versus Money as the philosophical basis to MMT

Abstract

This talk could be seen as a personal history of my interest in new economics.

When I first read this Watts essay in 1973 - it was like a lightning bolt had struck.

In the essay Watts speaks of how we confuse money - an abstract measurement of wealth - with the actual reality of the wealth itself, and the insanity of this situation. He says, to think we can't do something because we don't have enough money is like a builder saying they can't build because they don't have enough centimeters.

When I came across Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) a few years ago, I recognised they were saying the same thing - that money is not a real constraint. MMT has given me language to speak about Watts' insights, that 45 years later still have important insights to offer the new economy movement.

Seeing MMT through the lens of Alan Watts' ideas, I notice that MMT economists mostly come from the conventional economic paradigm and could still break through to develop their theories further.

Bio

Michael Berney has had a passion for alternative economics since the 1970s. During the 1990s he edited and wrote for Economics for the Global Good, a journal for members of TOES (The Other Economic Summit) and ERA (Economic Reform Australia). He writes a blog called Unemployment is Good - about technological unemployment.  He ran the Blue Mountains Community Exchange System for many years and is a member of the Inner Dimensions and Healthy Cultures NENA hub.

Mapping the Wealth of Assets in our Communities

Abstact

Come and learn how Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) is a powerful approach to community work that focuses on discovering and mobilising the social, physical and economic resources already present in a community. Explore how facilitating interactive workshops and group processes is good sense when bringing stakeholders together to create innovative solutions.
You will leave with practical tools & skills on how to:

• Focus on assets rather than deficiencies
• Develop an asset map
• Increase confidence in hosting group processes
• Discover how to form "good" questions
• Explore group dynamics

Bio

Dee Brooks, Jeder Institute
ABCD & Art of Hosting Practitioner, Intentional Nomad
BSocSci (Community Development), Grad Dip Social Innovation (Social Entrepreneurship), Dip Community Services (Youth Work), Dip Journalism (Freelance)

Through her down-to-earth style, Dee brings people together in dynamic ways to realise and engage the full potential of their networks and communities. Over 20 years, her work has inspired people at hundreds of events and workshops worldwide where she offers community engagement and development training and also provides professional co-design, facilitation and keynote addresses for conferences, forums and events.

Dee is an Intentional Nomad who has traveled and worked in over 20 countries. Based on two decades of grassroots work, Dee’s background is in youth work, community-based research and community-university outreach and she is a firm believer in the power of tapping into the collective wisdom of a community to strengthen and build on what’s already there.

ABCD Asia Pacific Network co-founder
ABCD Institute International Faculty member
IACD Oceania Director
ABCD in Action Steward
Art of Hosting Host and trainer
The Unconference co-founder
Flow Game Host
DRUMBEAT Facilitator

The Ediblescapes model of social solidarity economy in urban agroecology food production

Abstract

EdibleScapes would like to present a video demonstrating how circular economy have enabled growth edible gardens and how we have been able to harvest food and donate it to the local food bank emergency services. EdibleScapes Fertiliser is produced with local vegetables, fruit and kitchen scraps diverted from going into landfill. Trading EdibleScapes Fertilisers enables two outcomes; city growers can use the fertiliser to enhance their edible garden production and EdibleScapes is able to create income to cover the running costs of the EdibleScapes public demonstration garden and the Edible Garden Promoters Program (EGP), a volunteer training program. This program gives underemployed Gold Coasters a meaningful, valuable, social activity that also benefits the local community experiencing food insecurity with fresh, healthy organic food. Additionally, the Edible Garden Promoters (EGP) program is increasing urban agroecological food production capacity by empowering participants to replicate and share their knowledge through communal and home-based demonstration edible gardens and to expand the program throughout the city. In this way, EdibleScapes are building a model of social solidarity economy in urban agroecology food production.

Bio

EdibleScapes exists to support and promote hands on, educational programs directed at a community based, environmentally sustainable, food production and distribution that will lead to a more food secure, food resilient city, ultimately enabling healthy food to become more accessible to vulnerable people and more affordable for the population.

Protected Habitat Farmers Mutual

Abstract

Bio

Rohan leant his trade across 20 years in financial markets - currencies, commodities, credit and equity markets. Over the last 10 years, he had been working in co-operative and community sector - focusing on funding and tech that can unlock the value being created.

Moving Australia to a Regulated Commons Economy

Abstract

This paper outlines the difference between the current economy and a regulated commons economy. It describes the operation of a regulated commons economy and outlines how to construct it. A commons economy will keep GDP stable while increasing investor returns and decreasing costs to consumers. Introducing it will cause little economic or social disruption. It will result in a doughnut economy as consumption systems optimise cost within global limits and constraints.

Bio

Kevin Cox has spent his working life designing, building, modelling and operating complex adaptive systems. The last twenty years has been spent understanding and experimenting with economic and social systems with unpredictable human behaviour in the small, but with stability in the large.

Engaging the Resistance with Cooperatives

Abstract

A double entendre to be sure, exploring both the power of the cooperative to undermine the Empire, and our cultural resistance to shared wealth and co-creative power. This is part presentation, part questionnaire, part inciting those with the will to join in and make a difference. Introducing Earthworkers’ new education being piloted at Jesuits Community College, a Coops 101 pre-accredited training that shares the human skills of making cooperative dreaming real. From Consensus tools to conflict preparation, cooperative business planning to co-management strategies, engaging and sharing some hard-earned tacit knowledge from the making of Redgum Cleaning cooperative. Also, asking the room/conference to participate in a survey about our cultural resistance to cooperatives, attempting to understand the slow uptake in this country compared to the US and the UK. Framing our cooperative present, with some history we may need to consider when calling in our future. Everyone that participates in the survey will be rewarded with the results at the end of the conference.

Bio

Katherine Cunningham: During her Bachelor of Business in Entrepreneurship from RMIT, she never heard the word cooperative spoken, although she always knew there was another way to build wealth, collectively. She has spent the last three years with Earthworker, assisting where she can in that space between activism and business.

Collaborative Housing and the New Economy in Australia

Abstract

‘Australia’s housing system is broken’ argues the alliance of not-for-profit housing groups behind the ‘Everybody’s Home’ campaign. There is a severe lack of affordable housing1, there is declining trust in the quality of the speculative housing construction industry2, and the energy efficiency of Australian homes is lagging behind international standards3. In addition, loneliness and social isolation are increasingly important issues in Australian communities4, and the growing and ageing population will place strain on the existing housing stock5. There are serious questions about whether the existing housing system is suitable for creating flourishing, sustainable communities. Collaborative housing is a broad term for a variety of housing models that are shaped by the people who’ll live there and are specifically designed to encourage social connection and be more affordable. Research to date has found potential to deliver affordability, wellbeing, social inclusion and other benefits6. Collaborative housing is well established in parts of Europe and the United States, yet while interest is growing in Australia, it still remains a niche segment of the housing market. This presentation will discuss the role that collaborative housing can play in supporting more sustainable and equitable housing in a New Economy in Australia. It draws on the knowledge of the Cohousing Australia group as well as findings from two UTS research projects that explored collaborative housing in NSW7. This presentation will share the collaborative housing model typologies explored in the research, current barriers for collaborative housing development and identify strategies to overcome them in the Australian context.

Bio

Matthew Daly is a sustainability researcher at the University of Wollongong. His research focuses on how to improve Australia’s building stock so it is more energy efficient and better satisfies the needs of the people who use it. He was part of the UTS team behind the www.collaborativehousing.org.au resource, and has been a committee member with Cohousing Australia for the last 4 years. Matt will be supported by other members of the Cohousing Australia committee (details TBD)

Beyond MMT: Fixing the rest of the economy

Abstract

What if the economy worked for us, and the planet? Helped instead of subverted? To achieve that, reforms need to go well beyond MMT. Commercial banks need strong regulation, they create far more money than central banks, and they drive booms and crashes. Markets cannot be left untended, their incentives need to be managed. Financial markets trade about 50 times faster than the real economy needs - the profit needs to be taken out of speculation. Good forms of collective ownership can ensure wealth flows more fairly to all those who help to create it. We can have a far more stable, fair and sustainable economy if we want to create it.

Bio

Dr. Geoff Davies is a scientist, author and commentator. He has been exploring economics for over twenty years and commenting on society for longer.  He is a retired Senior Fellow (now a Visiting Fellow) in geophysics at the Australian National University. He is the author of, among others, The Little Green Economics Book (BetterNature, 2018), Desperately Seeking the Fair Go (BetterNature, 2017), and Economy, Society, Nature (World Economics Association, 2019). He has authored over one hundred scientific papers and two scientific books, and has a Hirsch index of 42. http://betternaturebooks.net.au

How to Avoid the Australian Debt Trap: Making Cents of Money

Abstract

A trivial pursuit style game with storytelling about 4 Australians/families who have economic challenges and the solutions we can put in place to help Australians like them build a better future.

Bio

Barry Disch, Acupuncturist and Critical Thinker and member of the Public Banking Institute.

"What do people do all day?" A look at the economy of 2040 through the eyes of a children's book.

Abstract

In September the NENA community participated in a new project from the Museum of Futures. This project asked 10 online communities to think about how the world might pivot in a new direction due to the covid-19 pandemic. The answers given by the NENA community were translated into a beautiful children's book written by Claire Marshall and illustrated by Rocco Fazzari.

This book is now one of the featured exhibitions of the Musej of Futures: Pandemic Pivots exhibition. In this talk Claire and Mel will discuss the ideas behind the Museum of Futures, unveil NENA's contribution to the Pandemic Pivot exhibition as well as give everyone a tour of the virtual gallery.

Bio

Rocco Fazzari is an independent multimedia artist and video producer.

Rocco graduated from the South Australian School of Art, with a credit in drawing; he has been working as a committed professional artist since graduating in 1981.

He lived and worked in Adelaide and Canberra before settling in Sydney in 1988, and his illustrative work has been published in the Fairfax press for the past 20 years, as well as in Rolling Stone magazine and American Sports Illustrated among many others

People power, co-ops, local monetary systems and other brilliant ways to create a thriving economy.

Abstract

The old world is failing. Its ideology is flawed and we need new ways of living which are run by the people, for the people. Luckily you don’t have to ‘re-invent the wheel’ because a lot of these concepts have already been implemented in towns and cities around the world and all you have to do is evaluate what can be improved in your locality - then use the existing concepts. For example, a flourishing economy is possible if you create a local monetary system, such as Bristol Pounds, which can work alongside, or outside the old financial system. This creates jobs and allows more people to have an income. Then you can look at your food, water and power supply and start things such as community gardens, schemes to help local farmers, and you can even form a local power company like Brixton, London, where people raised money to buy solar panels to make their own energy. If you want to buy local you can start a co-op where the locals own shares and can work in the business e.g. a lavender farm in Mexico and Norco dairy co-op in Northern NSW. There are so many exciting projects which need to be shared with everyone.

Bio

Karen Fiala is author of 'AlterQuest - The Alternative Quest for Answers' and 'The AlterQuest Blueprint'. Her passion is thinking outside the box, finding existing people-power concepts and teaching others so that everyone can survive and thrive in these upcoming times by creating a new type of civilization. www.alterquest.org (Website under construction).

Reciprocity, Gifting and Relationship - Using Contemplation to deepen the Conversation

Abstract

As an essential part of our lives throughout history and also the, mostly hidden, foundation of current economies, could strengthening and widening non monetarist transactions be key to a new economy of caring, sharing and localisation. In Australian pre-colonial culture such principles held together the fabric of society. Is there space within todays talk of new economies to include this new(old) system and if so, how could it be integrated to complement and perhaps hold in check new monetary systems as they emerge. Following a short 5-minute introduction we will use an amalgamation of a Theory U tool with the Circle Way process to draw on group wisdom and explore this theme further. Using rounds where first we each share an idea, a question or an experience with the group then moving into silence for 3 minutes, we allow these gifts to settle in our minds and bodies. In the second round we’ll report back any inspiration or insight gained during the pause then go into a free flow dialogue.

Bio

Joy is founder of Peace Valley - Australian Bush Retreat a deliberately simple camp where she embodies the principles of a gifting economy and simple living in harmony with the land, inviting others to join her there. She believes the necessary societal change can only occur if we each live it. She is working both locally with the Githabul family, nationally as part of a women’s leadership circle and internationally with Walking the Land, Climate Change and Consciousness and Mindfulness without Borders, Theory U at MIT.

Bio

Scotty Foster Is a solar powered, radio broadcasting, organic growing, co-operative creating, earth and people protecting lunatic worker from Canberra, Australia. A solar electrician, his real work is done through the community groups CoCanberra and NENA, the Pre Power Co-op System, community radio2XX and the Align in the Sound podcast.

City Commoning for a New Economy: A More-than-Human Perspective on Collaboration and Urban Governance

Abstract

Urban renewal and urban regeneration have been perpetual and world-wide efforts since the early 20th Century. Surprisingly, the aspirational goals of achieving liveable, equitable, and sustainable cities have not changed and arguably, have not been achieved yet. This presentation is concerned with this paradox, and proposes a city commoning approach in support of establishing a new economic framework in the city. Theorising collaborative decision-making, the talk is broken into three parts dealing with a social, an economic, and an environmental dimension of urban regeneration. First, we argue for a dialectical approach to collaborative decision-making and an ongoing commitment to community engagement. Urban governance is often prone to attracting polarised views, which can be more easily deflected into a creative third alternative using dialectics. Second, we revisit Ostrom’s eight commoning principles, to propose a shift from urban commons as passive resource to community commoning as ongoing activity and commitment. Third, sustainability is often limited by human comfort and convenience. Yet, the imperatives of climate action render a human-centred paradigm increasingly untenable. We propose a more-than-human perspective on urban regeneration that recognises the intricate entanglement and dialectical relationship to dissolve binaries such as people vs nature, urban vs rural, and human health vs planetary health. We bring these three dimensions together to discuss implications for collaboration and urban governance and to call for a city commoning approach to building a new economy.

Bio

Marcus Foth is Professor of Urban Informatics with the QUT Design Lab in Brisbane. Over the past decade Marcus has consistently focussed on the philosophical and societal issues and challenges of sustainability. More recently, he has critiqued predominant, technocratic concepts of the ‘smart city’ built upon conventional STEM and data science approaches and proposed a post-anthropocentric and more-than-human approach to their design. He argues strongly for the importance of a HASS (humanities, arts, social science) perspective grounded in Indigenous epistemologies and planetary health. He has built these perspectives into his contributions to current debates around infrastructuring in participatory design, which extends discourse around concerns of scale, impact and institutioning.

Hey Fritz Peer to Peer item hire workshop

Abstract

Hey Fritz is a peer to peer item hire startup aimed at reducing waste and CO2 emissions by banding together to make better use of what we have. This workshop is to explore what problems peer to peer item hire can solve for both individuals and groups, and the features people want to make this viable. Participants can also test an early prototype of the Hey Fritz platform. This workshop is for individuals interested in peer to peer item hire, or for groups and organisations interested in renting, or lending items they have (e.g environmental organisations, clubs, uni groups, community organisations, renting of props between drama groups, initiatives to lend items before people buy them (e.g the Canberra SEE Change initiative to lend electric bikes to members to encourage them to buy one as an alternative to a second car), etc.

Bio

Mick Fritschy, Founder of Hey Fritz, is passionate about reducing waste and CO2 emissions through making better use of what we have. Mick´s strengths are in collaborating and connecting with people to help solve problems together. Mick started work on Hey Fritz in December 2019. Mick is working with a Data Expert, and an ANU PHD Data Analyst to develop the platform, and associated app.

Aligning to become vastly more influential

Abstract

Personally, I want the environmental-progressive movement to win. Like you, I want us to successfully evolve a society that takes care of people and the planet. To do that - let's lift our game!

In this session we will discuss ways to amplify our collective influence. Two breakthrough ideas will be offered. One is to champion a shared overarching goal, even as we continue with our specific missions. Currently the public hears a cacophony of messages from us - how bewildering!

The other is to affect mainstream thinking by inspiring the members of the millions of environmental and progressive groups to act as thought leaders and citizen-educators - which is to say, we mass produce conversations that enable people we know to think about systemic change. Kitchen Table Conversations is a tool for this.

The goal is to inspire a thoughtful mainstream commitment to doing everything required to pull out of our current ecological nosedive.

Bio

Andrew Gaines is the instigator of Inspiring Transition, a platform that supports citizen-educators. He integrates insights from sustainability, engineering, the neurology of improving brain functioning, psychotherapy, design thinking and marketing.
Professionally Andrew is a Feldenkrais practitioner, creativity trainer, and a psychotherapist. Andrew's books include Kitchen Table Conversations, Creativity Games, and Inner Work.
Andrew's TEDX talk on Transitioning to a Life-Affirming Culture is here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4gJvL3y4oQ].

Concurrent Session 2: Warm Data Lab: What is health in a Changing World?

Abstract

Join in a Warm Data lab (a systems approach developed Nora Bateson) to explore this question in the context of the new economy to help us make transcontextual sense of how we understand health in this changing world.

Concurrent Session 5: Permaculture: myceliating cultures of regeneration in the New Economy

Abstract

Regeneration of our food system at every scale is the heart of our collective global regenerative project. Cultivating a rich tapestry of resilient communities that myceliate and enrich one another is the permaculture imperative - condensing for ecological footprint of human activity. What are the new edges of the global web of permaculture action? How can permaculture compost and make fertile the ground for [pr]activism and new perceptions?

Bio

Morag Gamble is a global permaculture and ecovillage ambassador who mentors new permaculture educators on 6 continents including youth, women's groups, refugees, farmers, first nations people, urban designers, academics, artists and more. She hosts the global Permayouth and leads the Ethos Foundation - a permaculture charity.

A new community marketplace - created by community, for community – in care of place.

Abstract

Let's see the challenge of our uncertain times as an opportunity to build our communities' resilience! Imagine a simple guided process, proven to practically introduce the new economy- especially to those not in the know.

All of us have an amazing palette of gifts. Most of us don't see our value.

When we tap into our wealth of offers and recognise that we can fulfil up to 80% of each other’s' local community needs, we embark on a shared journey. We reshape ourselves and our relationships, our economy, the very way we do life.

In the Offers and Needs Market (OANM), community members come together to identify and exchange their passions, knowledge, skills, resources and needs.  Members control exchange terms- not a system. Through the collaborative and structured OANM, communities have uncovered what they thought was impossible; basic care and practical support, while dramatically increasing local sourcing of goods and services. Participants have found employment and places to live, started new businesses, located items of need, and initiated significant friendships. The process is proven to boost self-esteem and trust within communities: real tangible wellbeing of all. For NENA conference, we craft a 50-minute OANM workshop taster, aiming to conduct a full 2-hour market post the conference.

Bio

Juli Gassner is co-founder and co-ordinator of Wildspace, a multi-age community learning- teaching place.  She passionately supports local communities to see the formidable strength they have; the resilience it is in their power to build. She has worked with Australian and New Zealander communities for 30 years – in schools, community and youth centres, activist groups and with religious/ spiritual collectives.

Ways to hear many voices: Facilitation techniques for People’s Assemblies

Abstract

As we discuss how we can create the futures that we seek, the way that we have the conversations, should match those futures. People’s Assemblies are simply a way for a group of people to discuss issues or make decisions collectively. This experiential session will share and model a few ways to have conversations so that all views are heard, people feel more comfortable to contribute and even to share ‘different or minority’ views. You’ll leave with a few techniques that you can play with (or use) straight away. Please note that this is just a taster of a few tools and not an actual Assembly.

Bio

Pru Gell Pru is a mum of two small kids who lives on Wadawurrung Country. Pru uses her 15 years of design and facilitation experience, to work with diverse views and people, to forge futures that are in service of life as we go through our deep transitions. Her practice draws on age old and fresh new ways of visioning and holding dialogues and she coaches people in how to facilitate using these tools.

On the couch with permaculturist Rosemary Morrow: EnVisioning a regenerative accounting

Abstract

Purpose - What could happen when you place an internationally renowned ecosystems strategist, permaculture designer, informal educationalist on the couch with an ex-banker, ex-accountant turned numbers-questioner to discuss 'EnVisioning' Value? This paper challenges the current accounting value system to mobilise accounting scholarship towards transdisciplinary spaces.

Design/methodology/approach – The critical reflections are the result of a thought-provoking performative dialogue held at the 2018 Australasian Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (A-CSEAR) conference between Rosemary Morrow, a permaculturist internationally renowned for her ecosystems design skills, and Thomas Kern, a community leader who pivoted from a successful career in banking and academia to preserve nature and build community resilience.

Findings – The findings highlight the urgency of opening to multiple values and their integration into accounting. Accountants can see integration by holding space for transdisciplinary experiences. This includes actively listening, remaining silent, use of body language, being able to cope with complexity, and developing a curiosity about where other views come from. The performative dialogue recognises that regenerative accounting can assist in overcoming the idea that accounting and nature ontologically exist as mutually exclusive categories.

Originality/value – This study uses the transdisciplinary framework, of permaculture, to rethink value integration in accounting. Moreover, the idea of regenerative accounting supports social and environmental accounting to realise that accounting must restore and regenerate nature.

Bio

Dr. Alessandro Ghio is a Lecturer in Accounting at Monash Business School. Alessandro's research interests involve investigating key characteristics of the accounting profession. Alessandro has an in-depth knowledge of LGBTQI issues having published about diversity in the accounting profession. He regularly presents his research in Australia, Europe, and the U.S. He co-organized multiple times for ESSEC Business School (Paris, France) the "LGBTQI Day in Business".

Abstract

Bio

UBI and Reinventing Work for a Regenerative Economy

Abstract

If the New Economy is to be regenerative rather than extractive, how will we need to reinvent our existing notions of labour? The mythology of labour is fundamentally linked with extractive industries - men in hi vis digging up and cutting down, concreting and paving. People in the old economy are conceived of as "workers" and "consumers", with their economic role embedded in the productivist, extractivist economic structure. Indeed, the very notion of work is characterised by an extractive relationship, where workers have no choice but to sell their labour in order to survive.

This panel will explore how a Universal Income could provide a tool to reinvent work as regenerative rather than extractive. Jane Goodall will discuss how a UBI effectively values a broader array of practices of participation and contribution, as we envisage an economic future in which recycling could become the most diverse and essential component, and we learn again to work for each other rather than the profit driven enterprises of the corporate world. Loriana Luccioni will examine how a UBI could be designed to suit a post-productivist society, supporting people to engage less in consumeristic, material activities. Tim Hollo will look at how, by disentangling labour from the capacity to survive and by creating space in people's lives, UBI can end the extractive nature of labour and cultivate a regenerative approach to work.

Bio

Jane R.Goodall is Emeritus Professor with the Writing and Society Research Centre at Wester Sydney University. She has written on basic income and related issues for the NENA Journal, Inside Story, BroadSheet and Independent Australia. Her most recent book is The Politics of The Common Good.

Bio

See Mary Graham’s profile on The Black Card website.

Engaging customers to build the new economy and create novel solutions for climate change

Abstract

With the strong proliferation of knowledge available to us via the internet and issues of civil and social issues becoming more transparent. Consumers are more informed than ever before. And they don’t just want to ‘buy stuff’ they want businesses and brands that support causes they care about. At World’s Biggest Garage Sale we take that one step further. Not only does our business model have social and environmental impact embedded within its framework. We provide spaces for our customers to learn and engage with products in order to renew and repair. Our makerspace allows us to educate customers about how to repurpose, repair and reuse products to keep them out of landfill, and also gives them opportunities to develop real hands-on skills which they can take back into their homes and communities. This is all in addition to our warehouse which has high-quality products for sale! By engaging our customers on three separates but all inter-related levels we give them the resources, tools, and skills to change their consumption to a more sustainable framework and lead a responsible consumption revolution to combat climate change. This presentation will explore how to engage customers in building the new economy together, in unison with businesses led by impact and a drive to leave the world better than how we found out. Engaging customers in education, useful skills and actionable insights are one way we can combat the negative externalities associated with current take-make-dispose consumption, and enact Sustainable Development Goal 12: Sustainable consumption and production.

Bio

Yasmin Grigaliunas, CEO and Co-founder of the World’s Biggest Garage Sale (WBGS), is on a mission to turn Australia’s circular economy aspirations into reality while at the same time providing social good. In 2017 she ditched a lucrative salary to commit full-time to her role as CEO and Co-founder of WBGS, a Brisbane based organisation designing solutions to commercialise the circular economy through the activation of dormant goods for good. She is living proof that we can make a positive impact on people’s lives and the future of the planet through the events and experiences we create.

Concurrent Session 4: Multi-stakeholder Cooperatives

Abstract

Food Next Door uses a multi stakeholder co-operative model to match under-utilised farmland with landless farmers to support small-scale regenerative farming, growing diverse crops and engaging people from diverse backgrounds to supply food to local households. The presentation is a short video produced by Dr. Sidsel Grimstad and includes FND’s CEO Deb Bogenhuber’s brief explanation of how their multi-stakeholder co-operative works. After the 11 min video, Deb, Sidsel and Ann will be available for a short Q&A.

Concurrent Session 5: Limited Equity Housing Models

Abstract

The dominant type of co-operative housing in Australia is the rental co-operative, used to deliver mainly social housing to those on low incomes. There are other examples of co-operative housing, mainly associated with cohousing and intentional communities. This presentation provides an overview of the limited equity housing co-operative model – and its potential as an intermediate tenure, for those who are not eligible for social housing, but cannot afford home ownership. Currently the only option for most in the ‘missing middle’ is private rental, which is not suitable for those seeking long term tenure and some chance of accumulating wealth. The presentation will consider the LEHCs pros and cons and what is needed to have it recognised as a mainstream tenure option. 

Bio

Dr. Sidsel Grimstad, is a lecturer and researcher in the Newcastle Business School at the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. She has been the Program Convener for Australia's only postgraduate degree in co-operatives which has been offered online the last 4 years. She designed and delivered the introductory course on co-op organisation and management, which included the values, principles and theories that explain why co-ops are so resilient. Sidsel is involved in an ARC research on housing co-operatives that will look at the social and economic value of cooperative housing in order to document how it can be an affordable housing model. She is also doing research on co-operatives role as intermediaries for eco-innovation and SDGs, which is based on findings from her PhD which examined environmental behaviour among small agriculture-based tourism clusters in Norway and Australia. Together with Ann Apps and Lyb Makin she is exploring what are the barriers to co-operative formation in the agricultural and housing sector in Australia. Sidsel is also involved in compiling a research book on co-operatives in the Asia Pacific. She has a past experience working in agricultural and environmental policy-making in Norway (her mother country) and has published on the history of the Norwegian Commons. She has also worked in the UN and led institutional collaboration programs between African and Norwegian Universities. She is on the advisory Board of Food Next Door Coop, in Mildura, Victoria.

Money in the New Economy

Abstract

Our natural, human, technological, organizational and knowledge resources provide our collective productive capacity. Perhaps 50% or more of human activity takes place via 'in-kind' contributions (care in the home, volunteering, amateur activities, etc). Yet, only activity in the 'paid economy' is formally recognised as 'adding value', mostly in the form of GDP - whether it adds to subtracts from 'well-being'. Within the ‘paid’ economy, nothing gets made or done without money. Money is paid to recognise your contribution to the supply of goods and services. It also provides the means to consume what’s produced, as you spend your earnings. It follows that, in the absence of any sharing, collectively, everyone in the production process can consume all that they produce, leaving nothing for those outside the process: our young, sick/disabled, old, their unpaid carers and those between jobs. People outside the process get a share of our output via family, welfare, charity and crime, resulting in destitution for many. This proposal looks at how we may create and allocate money in ways that better serve our individual and collective needs so that we maximise the value of our output while ensuring everyone has at least a minimum standard of living.

Bio

40+ years in business. Recently, working with stakeholders to develop the Governance Framework for the 3D Digital World to achieve better Real-World decisions more quickly, at less cost and lower risk, while maintaining privacy, security and trust. In parallel, researching and writing about economic systems governing money, tax and banking.

Commoning the City: Using the Collective Wisdom of the Crowd to Move Beyond Disciplines, Sectors and Ego

Abstract

This panel aims to contribute to the conference question of which tools, processes and leveraging practices we find most useful for building the new economy, with reference to the networks, collaboration and cross-pollination involved in the experience of the Sydney Commons Lab during 2019 and 2020. The Sydney Commons Lab is a growing network of researchers and advocates, focusing on community wealth building and alternative models for just and sustainable local economies. By telling stories, building connections, and contributing to policy development, the Lab works to recognise, reframe and support more commons-based, peer-to-peer and localised new economy models. Working together with local government, anchor institutions and citizen-led initiatives across sectors, the Sydney Commons Lab can be seen to challenge traditional tendencies in the context of urban policymaking, advocacy and activism. Reflecting on their collective work within the Lab, five panellists will describe ways that Commoning the City has required new and multidisciplinary approaches to apply ideas across sectors, leaving behind silo-mentalities and personal egos. 

Bio

Jodie Hampson is an advocator for a solidarity economy with a background in community engagement, social planning and social research and social enterprise. Jodie has led numerous major community policy, strategy and capacity building projects, including currently ‘The Sharing Tree’, a community currency enabling positive ageing-in-place. She is also a UNSW Scientia PhD candidate, researching platform cooperative governance with the aim of contributing to a more holistically sustainable model for the sharing economy.

National Banking to Save Australia

Abstract

As the global economy approaches a catastrophic collapse and the world's central banks attempt to establish a one world currency, Samuel Hansen explains how a National Bank could preserve our national sovereignty and finance Australia's economic recovery. 

Bio

Samuel Hansen is an independent writer and filmmaker from Sydney, having recently released his first film "The Battle for the Bank: Australia's Struggle for Monetary Sovereignty." He spends his time researching global economics and advocating for national sovereignty over our banking system.

Opening the Circle: diverse economies, social Justice and circular economies (Circular economy for the community)

Abstract

The 2017 decision by China to ban imported recyclable materials can be seen as a moment that generated a global waste crisis, or as an event that laid bare the way in which responsibility had long ago been abdicated in countries like Australia.  What would a responsible relationship with waste look like?  The Circular Economy (CE), offers one answer to this question. It has emerged as a key strategy for reform, and involves the development of systems that limit waste and environmental exploitation and maximise the use, value and flow of resources for as long as possible. Does the CE in Australia represent a significant opportunity to reshape economies and waste or do current framings of the CE ultimately support business as usual?  In this presentation we offer a few thoughts on a new engaged-research project focused on opening the "circle" of the circular economy.  Our objective is to use this short presentation as the basis for a conversation around the following questions:

• What role leadership role can be existing social enterprises and community based organisation play in shaping the circular economy?
• How might other shared concerns like work-place democracy, dignity and safety play in shaping the circle?

Bio

Stephen Healy is a geographer and a Senior Research Fellow at the institute for Culture and Society, University of Western Sydney. His engaged research is informed by marxian, feminist and psychoanalytic theorizations of social transformation.  He is co-author of Take Back the Economy: An Ethical Guide for Transforming our Communities with J.K. Gibson-Graham and Jenny Cameron.  His works have appeared in Geoforum, Antipode, Emotion Space and Society, Environment and Planning D, and the Annals of the American Association of Geographers. He is a founding member of the Community Economies Collective, and an editorial board member or the Journal Rethinking Marxism.

UBI and Reinventing Work for a Regenerative Economy

Abstract

If the New Economy is to be regenerative rather than extractive, how will we need to reinvent our existing notions of labour? The mythology of labour is fundamentally linked with extractive industries - men in hi vis digging up and cutting down, concreting and paving. People in the old economy are conceived of as "workers" and "consumers", with their economic role embedded in the productivist, extractivist economic structure. Indeed, the very notion of work is characterised by an extractive relationship, where workers have no choice but to sell their labour in order to survive. This panel will explore how a Universal Income could provide a tool to reinvent work as regenerative rather than extractive. Jane Goodall will discuss how a UBI effectively values a broader array of practices of participation and contribution, as we envisage an economic future in which recycling could become the most diverse and essential component, and we learn again to work for each other rather than the profit driven enterprises of the corporate world. Loriana Luccioni will examine how a UBI could be designed to suit a post-productivist society, supporting people to engage less in consumeristic, material activities. Tim Hollo will look at how, by disentangling labour from the capacity to survive and by creating space in people's lives, UBI can end the extractive nature of labour and cultivate a regenerative approach to work.

Bio

Tim Hollo is Executive Director of The Green Institute, where he leads research on ecological politics, Rights of Nature, Universal Basic Income and more. He is a Visiting Fellow at ANU's School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), and his first book, An Ecologist Manifesto: How To Survive and Thrive in the 21st Century, will be published in early 2021. He was previously Director of Communications for The Australian Greens, a campaigner and board director at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, and founded Green Music Australia.

From celebrating diversity to commoning new economy alternatives

Abstract

This will be a 15 min presenation of a research article that argues for the necessity of drawing inspirations from the historical reality of commons and communing movements in order to overcome the dilemma of establishing convergence among diverse initiatives in the new economy. The paper outlines a conceptual transition in our understanding of the commons and commoning as potentially transformative alternative practices, resources or spaces to creating the institutional bases for integrating the new economy alternatives into meta-ideological projects. There are many ideas that we can learn from the commons paradigm for commoning post-capital alternatives. However, the commons paradigm itself suffers from a number of limitations when it is seen as a potential core for integration. The paper will also address these limitations and how to overcome them.

Bio

Dr. Hosseini is the founder and principal investigator of UON Alternative Futures Research Network (AFRN), Co-founder of a Community Project (NENA Newcastle/Hunter Hub), Co-founder and chief editor of Common Alternatives initiative, a leading international team/website engaged in studying post-neoliberal, post-capital, post-carbon, progressive alternatives. A growing number of post-graduate and undergraduate students cooperate with him by contributing to the initiative to promote public awareness of post-capitalist ideas.

Concurrent Session 1: The New Economy and the Catholic Church

Abstract

In recent years Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church has called for a New Economy, implying not just a change in attitude and values but a change in economic structures. He instigated the conference, "The Economy of Francesco", gathering young economist along with world leading economist "interested in a different kind of economy: one that brings life not death, one that is inclusive and not exclusive, humane and not dehumanizing, one that cares for the environment and does not despoil it."

This presentation reviews the reasons for this radical change, the basic ethical principals upon which the rules should rest and the immediate steps that can be taken to progress towards this New Economy. The presentation will encompass a global perspective, briefly outlining the efforts being made to deal with global structural injustice, financial integrity (particularly in the extractive industries), international indebtedness and caring for the environment. It will include and evaluation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Concurrent Session 3: The New (Steady State) Economy and Junior High School Education

Abstract

There is serious unease within our school populations. While the Climate Crisis is causing a more obvious one, there is a growing realisation there is a deeper underlying cause of that crisis, namely the implied belief that infinite economic growth is possible on a planet of finite resources.

This presentation will introduce a series of nine online Moodle lessons that slot neatly into the Year 9 - 10 section of the Science Syllabus. The lessons cover basic ecological concepts that have been taught for decades, but establish the link between the economic system and the wider ecosystem.

The lessons include a clear explanation of a steady state system and
conclude with an outline of the changes that will mark the features of the steady state economy and our progression towards both a stable ecological environment and stable economic system.

Bio

Phil Jones is a high school Science teacher. He is an activist on social justice issues and is presently the convener of a network of Catholic Parish Social Justice Groups in the Diocese of Broken Bay. He is an active member of the NSW Chapter of the Centre for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy. He was a contributing author to the book, "Positive Steps - To a Steady State Economy".

A business model that supports fair sharing and collaboration

Abstract

The Narara Ecovillage Co-operative is exploring the use of a novel business model to establish its three business divisions on food, accommodation and education. Since the ecovillage aims to become a model of sustainable living, we are wanting to use a business model that truly respects and puts into practice social, ecological and economic sustainability. We are looking to use a social enterprise model based in part on the FairShares https://www.fairshares.coop/ model by Rory Ridley-Duff and the FairShares Commons model by Graham Boyd https://graham-boyd.biz/fairshare-commons/. We propose to trial a modified version of these models with our education division (Collective Know-How) using a fair distribution of takings from running educational events, and shared decision-making amongst multiple stakeholders. If successful, we would use this model with our accommodation and food businesses, potentially creating a local ecosystem of regenerative fair shares businesses at the ecovillage. We would like to network with other businesses in the region that may have experience with or be interested in trialling similar multi-stakeholder models. Trialling this model may attract support from the FairShares Association and FairShares Commons group. This discussion session (20 min) would include a presentation of our plans and underlying concepts (20 min), and then be open for discussion and feedback from participants (30 min).

Bio

Rafaele Joudry is a successful small business owner and an active member of Narara Ecovillage. She has a keen interest in fair, inclusive self-governance processes and a passion for creating alternative enterprise models that will safeguard the planet and community. She is actively testing such models at Narara Ecovillage, as well as in her own business.

Interactive Workshop on Degrowth and Full Employment—An MMT Perspective

Abstract

The paper engages with three separate theoretical trajectories: (i) political economy (Classical, as opposed to Neoclassical and Austrian); (ii) divergent notions of sustainability within Ecological Economics; and (iii) the development of cybernetic approaches to planning within the Soviet Union. While it is difficult to do justice to all three, I endeavour to explain how components drawn from each (Classical notions of reproduction pricing which feature in national income accounting, planning with shadow prices constructed on the basis of labour values; and the use of input-output analysis by industrial ecologists) can be gainfully brought together with a view to informing public policies that are designed to achieve both full-employment and sustainability.

Bio

James Juniper is an economist and a conjoint academic in the Newcastle School of Business. Before entering academic life in 1990, James worked as a researcher and project officer in both the Commonwealth and State Public Services as well as for the United Trades and Labor Council in South Australia His research interests include Post-Keynesian Macroeconomics, Continental Philosophy, Environmental and Economic Modelling, and the Digital Economy. In 2018 he published a Routledge Research Monograph on “The Economic Philosophy of the Internet of Things”. He is an Associate of the Centre for Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE) at the University of Newcastle and has supervised PhD research on Modern Monetary Theory and Stock-Flow-Consistent Macroeconomic Modelling.

Creating new (musical) stories for the new economy

Abstract

Any new desired future will be contested and cannot be pre-determined. Yet, it is clear the direction of change is powerfully influenced by the available cultural stories, from small scale local practices to world views and those rooted in metaphors and myths.

My interest is in distilling the sorts of new stories that will contribute to a narrative shift; at the practical level as well as world views and metaphors. I think of this as creating meaningful space for discursive change, reflecting positive new opportunities and ways of thinking and being that are likely needed as we collectively work to create a different future.

I am a writer and musician with each practice informing the other. For this conference I will share how I approach creating stories, give some examples of these stories, and then illustrate with some music. It might even be fun!

In this little chat I will share some of the things I have learnt from my 'artistic practice' in creating music, but also highlight a role art, including music, can, and I think must play in creating an alternative future.

Bio

Dr. Simon Kerr is a musician, creator of the multimedia eco-music show 'Music for a Warming World', and an Honorary Research Fellow at La Trobe University in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and engaged with the Academic Climate Networks at La Trobe. He has a PhD in environmental philosophy and political ecology and taught at Lincoln University in New Zealand for some years. He also run a Melbourne based Musicians' Climate Crisis Network. He regularly experiences solastalgia and constantly strive for courage in face of the climate and ecological crises. He does have a Thoreau t-shirt, which helps a little!

City Commoning for a New Economy: A More-than-Human Perspective on Collaboration and Urban Governance

Abstract

Urban renewal and urban regeneration have been perpetual and world-wide efforts since the early 20th Century. Surprisingly, the aspirational goals of achieving liveable, equitable, and sustainable cities have not changed and arguably, have not been achieved yet. This presentation is concerned with this paradox, and proposes a city commoning approach in support of establishing a new economic framework in the city. Theorising collaborative decision-making, the talk is broken into three parts dealing with a social, an economic, and an environmental dimension of urban regeneration. First, we argue for a dialectical approach to collaborative decision-making and an ongoing commitment to community engagement. Urban governance is often prone to attracting polarised views, which can be more easily deflected into a creative third alternative using dialectics. Second, we revisit Ostrom’s eight commoning principles, to propose a shift from urban commons as passive resource to community commoning as ongoing activity and commitment. Third, sustainability is often limited by human comfort and convenience. Yet, the imperatives of climate action render a human-centred paradigm increasingly untenable. We propose a more-than-human perspective on urban regeneration that recognises the intricate entanglement and dialectical relationship to dissolve binaries such as people vs nature, urban vs rural, and human health vs planetary health. We bring these three dimensions together to discuss implications for collaboration and urban governance and to call for a city commoning approach to building a new economy.

Bio

Steven Liaros is a town planner and author of ‘Rethinking the City’—an exploration of the historical ideas that underpin the organisation of cities—showing how these ideas are being transformed by the Internet. With qualifications in civil engineering, town planning and environmental law, Steven is currently undertaking a PhD research project at the University of Sydney's Department of Political Economy. The project aim is to create a new model for regenerative land development based on the principles of the circular economy and as an organisational principle for building resilient and globally connected, local communities.

UBI and Reinventing Work for a Regenerative Economy

Abstract

If the New Economy is to be regenerative rather than extractive, how will we need to reinvent our existing notions of labour? The mythology of labour is fundamentally linked with extractive industries - men in hi vis digging up and cutting down, concreting and paving. People in the old economy are conceived of as "workers" and "consumers", with their economic role embedded in the productivist, extractivist economic structure. Indeed, the very notion of work is characterised by an extractive relationship, where workers have no choice but to sell their labour in order to survive. This panel will explore how a Universal Income could provide a tool to reinvent work as regenerative rather than extractive. Jane Goodall will discuss how a UBI effectively values a broader array of practices of participation and contribution, as we envisage an economic future in which recycling could become the most diverse and essential component, and we learn again to work for each other rather than the profit driven enterprises of the corporate world. Loriana Luccioni will examine how a UBI could be designed to suit a post-productivist society, supporting people to engage less in consumeristic, material activities. Tim Hollo will look at how, by disentangling labour from the capacity to survive and by creating space in people's lives, UBI can end the extractive nature of labour and cultivate a regenerative approach to work.

Bio

Loriana Luccioni is a PhD student at The University of Queensland. She completed degrees in Psychology, Sociology, and a Master in European and Comparative Social Policy at the LSE, where her dissertation on Discourse and the construction of Human Needs in Social Policies, was awarded the 2013 Titmuss Prize. Following a brief collaboration as independent researcher with the Policy Innovation Hub at Griffith University, she is now investigating the Cultural feasibility for the implementation of a UBI in Australia.

Abstract

Bio

"What do people do all day?" A look at the economy of 2040 through the eyes of a children's book.

Abstract

In September the NENA community participated in a new project from the Museum of Futures. This project asked 10 online communities to think about how the world might pivot in a new direction due to the covid-19 pandemic. The answers given by the NENA community were translated into a beautiful children's book written by Claire Marshall and illustrated by Rocco Fazzari. This book is now one of the featured exhibitions of the Musej of Futures: Pandemic Pivots exhibition. In this talk Claire and Mel will discuss the ideas behind the Museum of Futures, unveil NENA's contribution to the Pandemic Pivot exhibition as well as give everyone a tour of the virtual gallery.

Bio

Claire Marshall is an award-winning creative whose work melds story-telling, futures thinking and experiential learning. She is the founder of If Labs, a company that explores our imagined futures. Her latest work is the Museum of Futures a exhibition exploring our futures with climate change. In 2020 she was invited to create a new exhibit of the Museum of Futures for the Emerge Festival run by Arizona State University. She is an experienced speaker and facilitator, and has presented at conferences all over the world. She has developed a series of games including 'Wish for the Future' with Dr Ele Jansen which has been played by organisations including UNESCO and Google. She has run workshops in Blockchain, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Journalism. She lectures for the Faculty of Trans-disciplinary Innovation at the University of Technology Sydney in experiential futures and futures thinking.

bHive Coop - helping your local new economy thrive

Abstract

bHive Cooperative Bendigo has just launched its first platform "Villages" in Bendigo. Villages brings neighbours and communities together to build a sense of belonging and share stuff and skills. Around Villages bHive will build local cooperative sharing enterprises. At NENA, we'll show you how the bHive model can be replicated in local places everywhere from February 2021, with Villages building a thriving community movement and an economic engine to light a fire under all of your brilliant new economy ideas.

Bio

Ian McBurney is a Co-Founder, Director and the Executive Officer of bHive Cooperative Bendigo, a local community wealth building model for towns everywhere that starts with neighbours, belonging and sharing stuff and skills.

With his business Live ecoLogical, he has worked across health, manufacturing and social sectors, schools, state government and 60 local governments in four states and two countries as an ecological sustainability educator, entrepreneur, facilitator, speaker, MC and author.

Ian spent 5 years in the early 2000s at Vox Bandicoot in Melbourne, delivering the famous environmental theatre program to ten thousand students, workplace culture change training to six thousand staff in local government and manufacturing. Ian was responsible for the expansion and delivery of the Sustainability Street Approach to over 40 local governments around Australia, and cofounded the Bendigo Sustainability Group in 2007, Bendigo – A Thinking City in 2012 and the Synergize CoWorking Hub in 2013. He published Talking ecoLogical in 2014.

You can find him on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or at www.ianmcburney.com

Business for a world with a future

Abstract

Buckminster Fuller said don't try and change the existing system. Build new models that make the existing system obsolete. A Syntropic Enterprise is one that applies the laws of nature to enterprise design, human co-ordination, governance, accounting, provisioning, leadership, all for a world with a future.

Bio

Christine McDougall is the Chief Steward of Syntropic World, a global community of practise dedicated to supporting Syntropic Enterprises to become business-as-usual. Christine has been an applied student of Buckminster Fuller for over 30 years. She has created enterprises using the principles of Syntropic World that has enabled diverse teams to co-create extraordinary outcomes entirely self-managed and without a single human upset, all with their eyes cast on the 100 + year horizon. This includes tools such as Synergistic accounting, where value is considered in 12 domains, and the Trust Manifesto, an enterprise architecture that gives sovereign choice in how we show up for the project or enterprise. The Syntropic Enterprise Masterclass has graduates in 16 countries.

On the couch with permaculturist Rosemary Morrow: EnVisioning a regenerative accounting

Abstract

Purpose - What could happen when you place an internationally renowned ecosystems strategist, permaculture designer, informal educationalist on the couch with an ex-banker, ex-accountant turned numbers-questioner to discuss 'EnVisioning' Value? This paper challenges the current accounting value system to mobilise accounting scholarship towards transdisciplinary spaces.

Design/methodology/approach – The critical reflections are the result of a thought-provoking performative dialogue held at the 2018 Australasian Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (A-CSEAR) conference between Rosemary Morrow, a permaculturist internationally renowned for her ecosystems design skills, and Thomas Kern, a community leader who pivoted from a successful career in banking and academia to preserve nature and build community resilience.

Findings – The findings highlight the urgency of opening to multiple values and their integration into accounting. Accountants can see integration by holding space for transdisciplinary experiences. This includes actively listening, remaining silent, use of body language, being able to cope with complexity, and developing a curiosity about where other views come from. The performative dialogue recognises that regenerative accounting can assist in overcoming the idea that accounting and nature ontologically exist as mutually exclusive categories.

Originality/value – This study uses the transdisciplinary framework, of permaculture, to rethink value integration in accounting. Moreover, the idea of regenerative accounting supports social and environmental accounting to realise that accounting must restore and regenerate nature.

Bio

Associate Professor Nicholas McGuigan is an Innovator, Instigator and Disruptor within the Monash Business School. He has a passion for accountability where he co-instigated The Accountability Institute – a progressive platform with an aim of fostering collaborations between art, science, technology and economics, bringing these fields into conversation to create a new language of accountability. Nick is the Director of Equity, Diversity and Social Inclusion across the Monash Business School and instigated their newly created Artist­-In-Residence program, conceptually designed the world's first ever accounting perfume and is working on a project of Regenerative Accounting.

Demonstrating impact: The Substation33 experience

Abstract

Substation33 is a social enterprise based in Logan, Brisbane (https://substation33.com.au/) that was established in 2013. It develops new uses for e-waste based on circular economy principles. Through its activities it empowers people from a broad range of backgrounds and contexts to develop employment skills in a supportive workplace, through using problem solving to develop innovative commercial products. It uses its multiple activity strands to effect positive environmental, social and economic change. Substation33 has won a number of awards and is a dynamic and engaged actor in its region and industry sector.

In 2020, The Yunus Centre at Griffith University (YC) was engaged by Substation33 to work with them to co-design an Outcomes Framework and Monitoring System, to improve and strengthen how outcomes are demonstrated and communicated. This paper provides a summary account of project outputs, and discusses some of the challenges that overly simplistic narratives around ‘results’ raise when the business model is designed around diverse pathways and to support incremental change. By sharing learning from the project, the aim is to contribute to understanding amongst new economy initiatives and organisations of how more relevant reporting and monitoring methods can strengthen approaches to delivering on impact (environmental, social, economic) objectives.

Bio

Joanne McNeill is a Senior Lecturer, Impact Innovation (Research and Learning) at The Yunus Centre, Griffith University. Her research and professional experience engage with diverse economies and social innovation eco-systems – around social procurement, financing, legal structures, capacity building and demonstrating impact. She is a Founding Director of the Community Economies Institute and has been a Churchill Fellow since 2008.

Commoning the City: Using the Collective Wisdom of the Crowd to Move Beyond Disciplines, Sectors and Ego

Abstract

This panel aims to contribute to the conference question of which tools, processes and leveraging practices we find most useful for building the new economy, with reference to the networks, collaboration and cross-pollination involved in the experience of the Sydney Commons Lab during 2019 and 2020. The Sydney Commons Lab is a growing network of researchers and advocates, focusing on community wealth building and alternative models for just and sustainable local economies. By telling stories, building connections, and contributing to policy development, the Lab works to recognise, reframe and support more commons-based, peer-to-peer and localised new economy models. Working together with local government, anchor institutions and citizen-led initiatives across sectors, the Sydney Commons Lab can be seen to challenge traditional tendencies in the context of urban policymaking, advocacy and activism. Reflecting on their collective work within the Lab, five panellists will describe ways that Commoning the City has required new and multidisciplinary approaches to apply ideas across sectors, leaving behind silo-mentalities and personal egos.

Bio

Bronwen Morgan is a socio-legal scholar of new and diverse economies, especially those affiliated with solidarity and the creation of a commons. She has explored these in energy, food, water, and new kinds of lawyers. She is energised by the challenge of finding ways to use technical expertise to support democracy and conviviality.

Democracy (M)otherwise

Abstract

This presentation focuses of the role of racialised and feminised women in movement from Newcastle to Cali, to Fortaleza to think from these practices of politicising social reproduction and centering an ethics of care and reciprocity what this might mean for our re-imaginings and re-enfleshing of a pluridiverse democracy.

Bio

Sara C. Motta is a mother, storyteller, poet, activist-political theorist, popular educator and convenes the Politics Discipline at the University of Newcastle, NSW. Sara has worked for over two decades with communities in struggle forging emancipatory and decolonising pedagogical and epistemological practices and resistances/re-existencias in, against and beyond patriarchal capitalist-coloniality in Europe, Latin America and Australia. She has published widely in academic and activist-community outlets and her latest book (2018) Liminal Subjects: Weaving (Our) Liberation (Rowman and Littlefield) winner of the 2019 best Gender Theory and Feminist Book, International Studies Associate (ISA).

Original Economy

Abstract

First Nations Peoples of this continent which we today call Australia, are the oldest living cultures on the planet. Our original ways of living sustainably and thriving for thousands of years, have always been on offer to share for the greater good of humanity. If only that was understood. Whilst our shared colonial history on this land has caused trauma and dislocation, our ways of being, our ways of knowing, our connection to country and spirit of place creates balance of the Human World, Physical World and the Sacred World. Our original ways, our original economic practises hold the keys to future for all humans and the planet.

Bio

Susan Moylan-Coombs, Woolwonga, Gurindji, NT established the Gaimaragal Group to lead social change, create social impact by bringing together like minds and like spirits. We believe the philosophies and teachings of the Original Peoples of this land, the way of life that has sustained us for tens of thousands of years, is worth sharing, and in doing so, create a new story of connection and wellbeing for all Australians.

Joining the dots: from local to translocal and intercontinental, networking the future

Abstract

Building a new economy, through practices and policies, is necessary and goes beyond borders. As an intercontinental network promoting Social Solidarity Economy, RIPESS strives to bring grassroot, local and international public institutions, cooperative and social enterprises and existing networked initiatives together, as many of today's systemic critical issues go beyond the local or national. A translocal and global movement of networking systemic alternatives is on the rise and we need to build it together. The panel will reflect on how to interact with NENA and its sectoral hubs.

Bio

Jason Nardi (RIPESS Europe) and representatives of the Ripess network from each continent.

Smart grid responses to crises in communities

Abstract

The record-breaking bushfires Australia experienced in summer 2019/2020 were more intense and longer lasting than ever before. With the bushfires causing large-scale destruction and chaos, impacted communities are now calling for improved disaster resilience. East-Gippsland in Victoria in particular was badly affected. During the fires, communities located at fringes of the electricity grid saw long interruptions to their supply, disabling access to essential services. An emergency smart-grid concept for disaster relief centres emerged as a grass roots idea and is now being explored by communities with the support of Government agencies. The smart-grid aims to ensure access to reliable, affordable and clean electricity for the community, with the ability to continue this role during periods of crises. A combination of desktop and empirical research explores this concept for East-Gippsland and other smart-grid responses to crises in communities. International examples of these offer relevant knowledge and stakeholder experience, informing domestic decision-makers about possible drivers and barriers. Case studies include New Zealand, India, California and Greece. Smart-grid uptake is largely driven by community needs, at the small-scale, and utilities’ economic losses at larger scales. Smart-grids offer more than an innovation opportunity, they build the social, political and economic structures that create resilience.

Bio

Dr. Sarah Niklas is a Research Consultant at the Institute of Sustainable Futures, UTS. Sarah sees renewable energy as part of a holistic approach towards ecological and social sustainability. Currently, she works on projects promoting the adoption of and investments in renewable energy and explores employment opportunities emerging from this development.

Sustainability and Entrepreneurship: Financial literacy Among Migrant African Women Entrepreneurs (MAWEs) in Regional Queensland (Australia)

Abstract

A discussion of aspects of the impact of financial literacy among migrant African women; the enablers and barriers they encounter in establishing and sustaining new businesses in regional Australia. Long Description: Financial literacy is fundamental to social integration, especially for migrants displaced from their home countries due to political, economic, and environmental disruptions. Women tend to bear much of the burden for re-establishing their families in a new country. The survival strategy of MAWEs aims to avoid poverty and the discrimination that can be encountered in the mainstream labour market. Financial literacy benefits the individual and contributes to economic stability, and building sustainable communities that are accepting of migrants. Entrepreneurs need regular and profitable employment. Participants in this study knew how to budget money, but low levels of financial literacy are a barrier to achieving economic and social inclusion. In regional Australia, MAWEs represent a growing proportion of the self-employed, and many are now opting for autonomy and the return on investment that business ownership promises. Women in small enterprises help others to integrate into Australian culture and society and become economically self-sufficient.The presentation discusses the importance of financial literacy in building sustainable communities; improving management of personal and household finances, enabling women to choose and access appropriate support services and products. It is a key to acquiring financial knowledge and making responsible investment choices essential to long-term entrepreneurial success.

Bio

Jane Njaramba is a PhD candidate at Graduate Research School, College of Arts, Society and Education, James Cook University, Australia. Her research interest is in expanding knowledge of commercial education, management, tourism and services, with a particular focus on researching the experiences of migrant women entrepreneurs in small businesses. Jane’s current project is entitled: Understanding small business entrepreneurship among migrant African women in North Queensland: A feminist study of lived experience, motivation, and learning.

Concurrent Session 2: Far More Beautiful: Kitsungi for the World

Abstract

As a species, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment of choice. It is an existential moment: we know that extractivism is unsustainable, that we're in overshoot, that old systems are breaking down while new ones are far from clear. It is an exponential moment: our technological developments are accelerating logarithmically, well beyond our capacity to process them socially. And it is an experiential moment: we are feeling, deeply, our common humanity and planet being challenged by unrelenting waves of more and more massive change.

In a world as full of polarised narratives and speculative noise as ours has become, getting to understanding, to real sensemaking, has become next to impossible. What is really happening? What should be done? It appears that we are becoming ever more separate from each other, and that our social discourse has become more disconnected and discordant than we could have ever imagined.

How can we possibly make wise, compassionate choices, at this crucial moment in our evolution, given the seemingly shattered, senseless state of the world?

The truth is, we absolutely can.

This interactive session is a call to harmony. It is an invitation into practices that help us to see with new eyes, to hear with new ears, to sense each other and our world in new ways. Together we will begin to explore

How do we get beyond our brokenheartedness?
What is the unconscious, unquestioned assumptions that are getting in the way of our thriving?
How do we build bridges rather than walls between us, and keep the passageways open?
How might we move from our present rivalrous, win/lose gameboards to life-affirming, continuous play ones?
How can we become the responsible stewards we know we're meant to be?
How do we come together to collaborate in the real world, nurture our collective intelligence, and stay meaningfully connected?

Transforming our culture from one of brittle fragility to one of supple resilience is like changing our own character: it's an inside job. It starts with opening our minds to each other, then our hearts. Like the Japanese practice of kintsugi, mending the broken pieces can be done in such a way that the resulting work of art is far more beautiful than the so-called "perfect" original.

Plenary Session 4: SkillsVentory! Revealing Our Deeper Gifts

Abstract

This is all about capacity-building, but not in the usual sense—and we go about it in a much more engaging way! The SkillsVentory is a playshop during which we discover one anothers' gifts; and in the process rediscover our own hidden and/or dormant ones.

As we increasingly shift our focus to serving and taking action in our local bioregions and communities, we all too often forget all that we have to contribute. (Most of it we take for granted, and figure everyone has themselves. Not so!)

This experience is designed to inspire us to rethink what value we—and our friends, neighbours and colleagues—bring to the table.

Bring a journal, a pen and your sense of humour.

Bio

JP is a humanitarian and planetarian, presently living at the intersection of disruptive technology, global culture, earth regeneration, and inner transformation. http://www.infinitesolutions.org

Combined Solutions for Sustainable New Australian Economy

Abstract

Unfortunately, solutions have to come through parliaments at all levels of government from community Party Politics has failed Australia All the Economic and Social crises are linked and all can be solved with ONE combined Economic project I believe that concentration on one or more single topic in favour of others weakens the prospect of overall economic change by allowing dissenting arguments concentrated negative focus on a single one of the topics. Building a New Economy Structure in Australia is now essential to address critical local and global inequalities. We urgently need to steer citizens towards a fairer, richer and greener Australia, in an equitable way. My presentation, I will refer to the global think-tank "The Trans National Institute" including reflections from the renowned political scientist and social activist, Susan George. She defined the critical global economic parameters under four headings, which I list here in their perceived Australian order of political importance: they are.1) Finance, 2) Economy, 3) Society, 4) The Planet.

Australia's NEW ECONOMY needs to reorder to this 1) The Planet, 2) Society, 3) Economy, 4) Finance. My presentation will address Australia's worsening inequalities in the social and economic divides with policy and policy implementation strategy solutions most relevant to Australia with an ideology of "for the greater good". I will Propose new but historically proven economic activities which address, immediately and proactively Australia's self-destructive obsession with the property market. Proposals which install low-cost household sustainable energy, stimulate a more equitable banking system and a consumer-led economic recovery while condemning the self-perpetuating political class and bureaucracies that have abrogated their elected responsibilities to care for all Australian citizens equally. Central to my conclusion is the reality that policy suggestions in Australia are abundant and predominantly proffered from faction divided political parties and vested business interests. In a race for power and profit with an isolating "Treasury View" of all parts of the economy, these forces have eroded the benchmark ideals for equality and citizens greater good. Therefore, just establishing another policy direction statement on its own is not constructive (it rates only as another list that governments can shelve like the Ken Henry Taxation review and Gonski and thousands of other good suggestions). Our policy recommendations must include a detailed implementation strategy that has a political and financial advantage for the government of the day. History shows that implementation of any plan, that will equitably develop Australia's economy also has to financially improve the status of a majority of citizens, not just the elites. I will demonstrate the best way to achieve this in Australia showing the common solutions linking property matters with sustainable energy production. I will expose the need to link the solutions to housing and rental affordability, high living costs, job creation and the finance industry with one major infrastructure project a project is to make every private household self-sustaining with rooftop and battery solar systems. The timing is right as the "trickle down" economic system is now self-destructing, and we need to revert to the household as the financial foundation for stabilising and strengthening foundations for a new "avalanche upwards" economic system.

Bio

Gary James Pead, 67. Married, four children. Born in Canberra has lived in Mudgeeraba since 1998. Has such a broad and practical experience across the wider Real Economy and government it is necessary to view the successes of our history to succeed with change He worked eight years as a Property Valuer in the Taxation Department Commonwealth Public Service in Canberra. After that, with a strong entrepreneurial bent, he embraced the private enterprise sector and was always self-employed in the Property Industry in Australia and overseas. In the property industry from the beginning he advocated changes to kerb the excesses and exploitation within the industry, particularly excessive commissions and exploitation of retail tenants. Gary served on the Queensland board of the preeminent global property institution RICS (The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. (Note: The Australian Property Institute API merged into RICS just last week). Gary’s continues to demonstrate his commitment to achieving fairness and equality for all citizens having presented himself seven times as a candidate for election to public office at all levels of government. His coal face contributions to the local, state and national community are by active participation, in firefighting in the Rural Fire Brigade, Surf lifesaving Patrols, Community and Heritage Associations, as a Leader in the global Climate Reality Project, as director for Indonesian Rainforest Foundation he is currently active with all the current anti-Coal activist groups (too many to list, including ACF, 350.org, etc.) Gary introduced and established the first discount supermarket stores into Canberra breaking the Coles Woolworths dominance he has worked under Fair Rent Legislation and watched as unbridled greed and profit gouging destroyed the most essential commodity of our society Housing ownership and rental. He rates his greatest achievements as surviving as a small business man in dire economic times while successfully bringing up four children next to his substantial involvement in protecting the Springbrook National Park and it’s re classification to a World Heritage listed park, a protection fights which he warns remains current. Gary still holds his Valuers licences is semi-retired from the property industry but continues to be very much a hands-on activist, concentrating on the reality of creating effective change in the lead-up and during the coming Queensland election.

Abstract

Bio

Plenary Session 2: Commoning the City: Using the Collective Wisdom of the Crowd to Move Beyond Disciplines, Sectors and Ego

Abstract

This panel aims to contribute to the conference question of which tools, processes and leveraging practices we find most useful for building the new economy, with reference to the networks, collaboration and cross-pollination involved in the experience of the Sydney Commons Lab during 2019 and 2020. The Sydney Commons Lab is a growing network of researchers and advocates, focusing on community wealth building and alternative models for just and sustainable local economies. By telling stories, building connections, and contributing to policy development, the Lab works to recognise, reframe and support more commons-based, peer-to-peer and localised new economy models. Working together with local government, anchor institutions and citizen-led initiatives across sectors, the Sydney Commons Lab can be seen to challenge traditional tendencies in the context of urban policymaking, advocacy and activism. Reflecting on their collective work within the Lab, five panellists will describe ways that Commoning the City has required new and multidisciplinary approaches to apply ideas across sectors, leaving behind silo-mentalities and personal egos.

Plenary Session 5: What is the role of learning in a 'next economy' and how can we best prepare our young people for uncertain futures?

Abstract

Our current education system built to support an industrial economy and is in many senses no longer 'fit for purpose' for a generation of young people who will live in a very different future (economically, environmentally, socially and technologically) to their parents and grandparents. What are the skills and competencies young people will need in a new economy and how has the role of learning changed? What can we learn from other cultures and worldviews about the role of experiential and transformational learning to develop resilience and wellbeing?

These are questions to be explored by a transdisciplinary panel of health and education practitioners who are working at the front line of learning in a rapidly transforming economy.

Bio

Monique is a researcher, lecturer, philosopher and catalyst working across the fields of education, leadership and new economy. Monique has been leading change as a founding member of The Grove, Sydney Commons Lab and as a board member of NENA. She is undertaking a PhD at UTS Faculty of Trandisciplinary Innovation researching resilience and experiential learning for young people. Monique has held leadership roles in innovation and entrepreneurship at UTS and the ABC.

Abstract

Bio

José Maria Ramos has been a foresight researcher and practitioner for the last 20 years, is Senior Consulting Editor for the Journal of Futures Studies and is Senior Adjunct Professor at the University of the Sunshine Coast. He has taught and lectured on Futures studies, public policy and social innovation at the National University of Singapore (Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy), Swinburne University of Technology (Australia), Leuphana University (Germany), the University of the Sunshine Coast (Australia) and Victoria University (Australia).

He has over 60 publications in journals, magazines and books spanning economic, cultural and political change, Futures studies, public policy and social innovation. He has also co-founded a number of civil society organizations, a social forum, a maker lab, an advocacy group for commons governance, and a peer to peer leadership development group for mutant futurists.

He holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature, a Masters degree in Strategic Foresight and a Ph.D. in critical globalisation studies.

Of Mexican ancestry, he was born in Oakland, California and grew up in a very multi-cultural suburb of Los Angeles. After living in Japan and Taiwan, where he studied Japanese and Mandarin, he moved to Melbourne, Australia to be with his wife, De Chantal. They now live in Central Victoria with their two children, son Ethan and daughter Rafaela. He has a passion for the coupling of foresight and action, alternative globalisations and writings and research on cosmo-localization. This line of work connects him to the truth that we are all brothers and sisters inter-dependent on our planet and each other for our survival and wellbeing - our shared commons.

He is a director with Ethical Fields.

Democracy Reimagined: Experiments in deliberation around the world

Abstract

In this brief introduction to the concept and history of deliberative democracy, Sonia Randhawa from the Coalition of Everyone will show us how collaborative decision making can enable community and policy-led change. Find out what has worked elsewhere and how processes like People’s and Citizens’ Assemblies can help reignite democratic processes.

Bio

Dr Sonia Randhawa is a co-founder of the Coalition of Everyone, a non-profit, for-purpose social enterprise that works to unblock key political obstacles to climate action through deepening democracy. She has a background in journalism and media democratisation, working with community groups and policy-makers in Asia.

Towards a next economic narrative for Australia

Abstract

An economic narrative of neoliberal capitalism dominates political and cultural discourse in Australia and around the world, shaping our institutions and daily practices. This narrative is committed to endless economic growth and frames free markets, competition, small government and private ownership of capital as key strategies for achieving such growth. It defines nature as a commodity to be freely exploited and ignores degradation of the Earth when measuring economic activity. As a result, neoliberal capitalism supports the destruction of nature and other commons. Australia urgently needs an economic narrative that positions genuine human wellbeing and regeneration of ecosystems as central economic goals. Around the world, narratives are emerging that prioritise these goals, including degrowth, Buen Vivir, post-capitalism, the wellbeing economy and doughnut economics. There is a lot of common ground across these ‘next economy’ narratives but much thinking still to do about how these narratives can displace neoliberal capitalism in diverse contexts. This meeting of the NENA Narratives and Storytelling Hub will explore what a uniquely Australian next economic narrative may look like. How might Australian values such as mateship, the fair go and love of the great outdoors contribute to such a narrative?

Bio

Chris Riedy is Professor of Sustainability Transformations at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney. He uses sociological and political theory, narrative theory and futures thinking to design, facilitate and evaluate practical experiments in transformative change towards sustainable futures.

Reclaiming the Public Good

Abstract

Creating the public good means making decisions that prioritise the needs of people and planet rather than the wants of money and markets. It means ensuring that the things we decide are important are available and accessible where they are needed, regardless of whether or not they turn a profit.
Public good can be physical (things like hospitals, schools, sewerage systems), contextual (things like a safe climate, democracy), or about capacities and opportunities (things like time, community, culture and imagination).

Australia reMADE has been talking with individuals and organisations about the meaning of the public good, what public goods people want available to them and their communities and who should provide them. In this presentation Millie will share some of the findings and invite people into the next phase of the project!

Bio

Millie is the National Coordinator for Australia reMADE, a network of civil society leaders promoting a vision of the country we're aiming for, and the systems change needed to create it.

Millie has a teaching and qualitative research background and has worked in and around universities for over fifteen years. She is passionate about supporting people to translate ideas into action and helping them to learn to lead from where they are.

Millie is also a carer for her family and community and is passionate about acknowledging this as a valid, valuable and legitimate use of her time.

Urban agriculture and the new economy

"What do people do all day?" A look at the economy of 2040 through the eyes of a children's book.

Abstract

In September the NENA community participated in a new project from the Museum of Futures. This project asked 10 online communities to think about how the world might pivot in a new direction due to the covid-19 pandemic. The answers given by the NENA community were translated into a beautiful children's book written by Claire Marshall and illustrated by Rocco Fazzari. This book is now one of the featured exhibitions of the Musej of Futures: Pandemic Pivots exhibition. In this talk Claire and Mel will discuss the ideas behind the Museum of Futures, unveil NENA's contribution to the Pandemic Pivot exhibition as well as give everyone a tour of the virtual gallery.

Bio

Mel is a Sydney-based futures designer, UX/digital producer and curator.

Mel is a co-curator (alongside Claire Marshall) of the latest Museum of Futures exhibition, Pandemic Pivots, and a futures designer at Reframeable and Action Foresight. Mel is also a casual academic for several futures subjects in the Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation at UTS. She's a 2020 NextGen Foresight Practitioner Fellow and holds a Master of Strategic Foresight from Swinburne.

Commoning the City: Using the Collective Wisdom of the Crowd to Move Beyond Disciplines, Sectors and Ego

Abstract

This panel aims to contribute to the conference question of which tools, processes and leveraging practices we find most useful for building the new economy, with reference to the networks, collaboration and cross-pollination involved in the experience of the Sydney Commons Lab during 2019 and 2020. The Sydney Commons Lab is a growing network of researchers and advocates, focusing on community wealth building and alternative models for just and sustainable local economies. By telling stories, building connections, and contributing to policy development, the Lab works to recognise, reframe and support more commons-based, peer-to-peer and localised new economy models. Working together with local government, anchor institutions and citizen-led initiatives across sectors, the Sydney Commons Lab can be seen to challenge traditional tendencies in the context of urban policymaking, advocacy and activism. Reflecting on their collective work within the Lab, five panellists will describe ways that Commoning the City has required new and multidisciplinary approaches to apply ideas across sectors, leaving behind silo-mentalities and personal egos.

Bio

Inka Santala is an urban geographer interested in the perception of agency and the dynamics of social change in cities. Her current PhD research explores the visions and practices associated with Sharing Cities, aiming to understand the subjectivities and capacities embedded in community-based sharing. Inka is also a co-founder of the Sharing Map and a collaborator in the Sydney Commons Lab.

Demonstrating impact: The Substation33 experience

Abstract

Substation33 is a social enterprise based in Logan, Brisbane (https://substation33.com.au/) that was established in 2013. It develops new uses for e-waste based on circular economy principles. Through its activities it empowers people from a broad range of backgrounds and contexts to develop employment skills in a supportive workplace, through using problem solving to develop innovative commercial products. It uses its multiple activity strands to effect positive environmental, social and economic change. Substation33 has won a number of awards and is a dynamic and engaged actor in its region and industry sector.

In 2020, The Yunus Centre at Griffith University (YC) was engaged by Substation33 to work with them to co-design an Outcomes Framework and Monitoring System, to improve and strengthen how outcomes are demonstrated and communicated. This paper provides a summary account of project outputs, and discusses some of the challenges that overly simplistic narratives around ‘results’ raise when the business model is designed around diverse pathways and to support incremental change. By sharing learning from the project, the aim is to contribute to understanding amongst new economy initiatives and organisations of how more relevant reporting and monitoring methods can strengthen approaches to delivering on impact (environmental, social, economic) objectives.

Bio

Tony Sharp is the founder of Substation33 and eight years on, still oversees to day to day operations. Tony's passion is getting people involved in any way they can, he loves building teams and getting people of varied disciplines working together on projects that they would never have attempted otherwise. He is driven by the constant change and growth that Substation33 experiences year-on-year.

Letters from the future: Building inner Transition and resilience

Abstract

We are now in a world where challenge and potentially traumatic events don't occur as rare events followed by long stretches of ‘normality’, but are linking together to form a trauma narrative. This challenge our individual and collective ability to stay resilient and bring about the sort of ecologically regenerative future that we desperately need. So how do we stay positive, stay grounded and take personal and collective energy from the ability to work towards the future we want? In this workshop we will use the tools of resilience building and Inner Transition (from Transition Towns) to start to explore how we can develop the resilience that we will need to build strength and cohesion from challenge and use positive visioning to enhance the narrative of the future that we want to produce.

Bio

Paul believes, quite simply that we’ve been sold a future that is killing us! But Paul is also an optimist so has been heavily involved for many years in Transition Towns, Permaculture and a range of other groups and organisations to help bring the dream of an ecologically regenerative and socially just future to reality. Paul merges a career in education with his work as a facilitator, permaculture designer and educator to support people clarify their purpose, find their passion and balance inner and outer transition to towards the world we want. Paul runs Growing Spaces, a business dedicated to supporting community groups through facilitation and education and is also the convenor of Transition Australia, the national hub of the Transition Towns movement. He is particularly passionate about how we build resilient communities through connection and by developing systems of interdependence, engagement and action that don't replicate the systems and thinking that are causing the problems but find ways to bring creative, innovative and collaborative local solutions to global problems.

How to Avoid the Australian Debt Trap: Making Cents of Money

Abstract

A trivial pursuit style game with storytelling about 4 Australians/families who have economic challenges and the solutions we can put in place to help Australians like them build a better future.

Bio

Dr. Marie Shieh, GP and reluctant armchair economist and member of the Public Banking Institute

She moved to Australia from the U.S. 5 years ago and are happy members of the community of Port Stephens.

High time for a new paradigm: putting people first in the Australian NFP sector

Abstract

Beginning in the 1980s, and to its detriment, the Australian not for profit (NFP) sector has progressively embraced the values and rhetoric of neo-liberalism, to the point where alternative viewpoints are now seldom heard. In doing so, the sector has arguably abandoned its underlying purpose, to support and engage with the community – the Australian people. Strongly dependent on government grants or philanthropic largesse for resources, NFPs have with some exceptions become tools of government, focused on service provision and offering few plausible solutions to critical issues such as climate change, inequality or injustice.

It need not be so. The NFP sector can start to challenge existing neo-liberal orthodoxy by developing a new guiding paradigm, based on people-centred principles such as communalism and collectivism. The social and solidarity economy model, all but ignored in Australia, is just one of many alternative approaches available. More broadly, by connecting closely with those exploring new perspectives for Australia’s economy and society, the sector can play a vital role in providing capacity and expertise to popular, non-government initiatives across a broad range of fields.

This presentation examines ways in which an NFP sector newly refocused on people can contribute to transforming Australia’s economy and society.

Bio

Fionn Skiotis has worked in the NFP sector for over 30 years, in Australia and internationally, across several fields including housing, disability and human rights, and in staff, management and governance roles. He is currently a Community Member of the Victorian Mental Health Tribunal and Chair of Community Housing Ltd.

Demonstrating impact: The Substation33 experience

Abstract

Substation33 is a social enterprise based in Logan, Brisbane (https://substation33.com.au/) that was established in 2013. It develops new uses for e-waste based on circular economy principles. Through its activities it empowers people from a broad range of backgrounds and contexts to develop employment skills in a supportive workplace, through using problem solving to develop innovative commercial products. It uses its multiple activity strands to effect positive environmental, social and economic change. Substation33 has won a number of awards and is a dynamic and engaged actor in its region and industry sector.

In 2020, The Yunus Centre at Griffith University (YC) was engaged by Substation33 to work with them to co-design an Outcomes Framework and Monitoring System, to improve and strengthen how outcomes are demonstrated and communicated. This paper provides a summary account of project outputs, and discusses some of the challenges that overly simplistic narratives around ‘results’ raise when the business model is designed around diverse pathways and to support incremental change. By sharing learning from the project, the aim is to contribute to understanding amongst new economy initiatives and organisations of how more relevant reporting and monitoring methods can strengthen approaches to delivering on impact (environmental, social, economic) objectives.

Bio

Tiffany Smith came to Substation33 for her Griffith University Social Work placement and never left! Her part-time role is varied, ranging from helping people transition to employment though to application writing, mentoring, and delivering training.  Her interest is in empowering individuals to develop resilience and improve communication so they can engage in training or enter the workforce with confidence – and she loves how Substation33 provides a platform to make that happen. When not at Substation33, Tiffany works as a Psychotherapist with a goal to become an accredited Mental Health Social Worker.

Abstract

Bio

BSc, BMath (Hons)

What role does a bank have in the complementary (local?) currencies?

Abstract

Discussion of different monies (LETS / TimeBanking / negative interest money) and what role is there for a financial institution.

What change to government rules would allow community to be financially robust, with economic polyculture, through any future GFC?

Bio

Andrew is an active member of HunterLETS (Local Exchange Trading System); a member of TimeBanking; member of NENA Newcastle Community Banking group. Andrew was a former Chairman of the Hunter Region Branch of United Nations Association of Australia (NSW Division) inc., and a board member of the Esperanto Federation of NSW. He gained his Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) in 2000 under Andrew Murdoch.

The Prospect of a Green New Deal

Abstract

The currently severe environmental and economic problems require major changes in public policy as well as challenges to vested interests and prevailing ideologies. A 'Green New Deal' has been proposed as a way forward, combining the creation of 'green jobs' with policies for a 'just transition' to a more sustainable and equitable future. Is it a viable program of radical reform? What are its possibilities and prospects in the Australian context?

Bio

Frank Stilwell is Professor Emeritus in Political Economy in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney. He is a well-known critic of conventional economics, and an advocate of alternative economic strategies for social justice and ecological sustainability. He has written a dozen books on political economic issues and co-edited half a dozen others. His latest book is The Political Economy of Inequality (Polity Press, 2019). He is also the coordinating editor of the Journal of Australian Political Economy, Vice President of the Evatt Foundation, an executive member of the Council for Peace with Justice and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

Commoning the City: Using the Collective Wisdom of the Crowd to Move Beyond Disciplines, Sectors and Ego

Abstract

This panel aims to contribute to the conference question of which tools, processes and leveraging practices we find most useful for building the new economy, with reference to the networks, collaboration and cross-pollination involved in the experience of the Sydney Commons Lab during 2019 and 2020. The Sydney Commons Lab is a growing network of researchers and advocates, focusing on community wealth building and alternative models for just and sustainable local economies. By telling stories, building connections, and contributing to policy development, the Lab works to recognise, reframe and support more commons-based, peer-to-peer and localised new economy models. Working together with local government, anchor institutions and citizen-led initiatives across sectors, the Sydney Commons Lab can be seen to challenge traditional tendencies in the context of urban policymaking, advocacy and activism. Reflecting on their collective work within the Lab, five panellists will describe ways that Commoning the City has required new and multidisciplinary approaches to apply ideas across sectors, leaving behind silo-mentalities and personal egos.

Bio

Tirrania Suhood is the founder of InCollaboration, a social change agency focused on strategic partnership building and ecosystem-building for transformational change. InCollaboration has been the lead catalysing organisation for the Sydney Commons Lab. With Tirrania as convenor she has paid attention to relationships as she has brought people and organisations together for collaborative impact.

The Power Behind Untold Stories

Abstract

As change makers we know the importance of telling our own story. But it can be just as important that we tell the untold stories – particularly those relating to how power and systems work. Unnamed, these can be portrayed as 'natural' or 'uncoordinated' leading to misdirection and falsity in attributing cause and describing impact. Unmasking makes system activities accessible, de-constructable and ultimately changeable. Please join me for an exploratory discussion of how we better unravel so that we can reMAKE.

Bio

Louise Tarrant is a lifelong unionist and spent many years with United Voice, now known as the United Workers Unions (including as National Secretary). Louise is currently Chair of the Australia reMADE Secretariat, Deputy Chair of the Greenpeace Asia Pacific Board and a Director of the Climate Action Network (CANA) Board.

Abstract

Bio

Art as an economic proposition

Abstract

What will it take for artists to be considered part of the mainstream economy? This paper traces the relationships between the arts and economics since the1950s as discussed in economist/politician Marilyn Waring's video 'GDP measures the wrong things. Here's something better' Can we map a creativity ecosystem in which cross disciplinary critical thinking based on whole systems design centres social, spiritual and economic life? Possessing a ‘critical spirit’ does not mean being adversarial but having a ‘probing inquisitiveness, a keenness of mind, a zealous dedication to reason, and a hunger or eagerness for reliable information’ (Facione, 2011) A place based creativity ecosystem would ground the arts in whole systems design; the spirit of the land valued in relationship with bird life, water management, cultural rituals, law/lore, food production, climate, new technologies, bush fires, Covid 19. The Arts, no longer just an add on to daily working life (ground to a halt with Covid 19!) will be along with the sciences, at the centre of what people need to create for their future out of their human spirit, exchanging these skills and products in local markets, expanding to regional, national and global exchanges.

Bio

Catherine van Wilgenburg is a Visual Artist collaborating in the Chain of Ponds Collaboration transforming Moonee Ponds Creek, Melbourne from a concrete channel to a natural waterway. A Director of Living Colour Studio Art & Architecture, her practice crosses volunteerism, contracts, sessional employment in commissions, teaching, lecturing and exhibitions.

Veganism in the New Economy

Abstract

The destructive, outdated, anthropocentric worldview and belief system has been driving an illusion of separation between humans and the rest of the natural world. This has led to rampant and unquestioned exploitation of non-human animals and speciesism. Our insatiable appetite for meat, eggs, and other animal products results in 70 billion land animals being killed each year, with the best excuses for doing so being taste, convenience, and culture. This is having a massive impact on the lives of animals, human health and the overall health of our planet. If we are to create a fairer, less violent, kinder and more compassionate world then our exploitation of animals for the purposes of profit must be questioned. With the UN urging for a global shift towards a plant-based diet, the profound impacts of the animal agriculture industry slowly emerging, and the benefits of plant-powered living being realised across the globe, it’s time that we embrace the rise of Veganism. We must transform our culture, our society, our economy and embrace a plant-powered paradigm for the benefit of all members of the Earth Community.

Bio

Scott is an Environmental Scientist with qualifications in Law, a passionate Educator and advocate for Earth Justice and Animal Rights. Scott has recently wrapped up a year of political campaigning, having represented the Animal Justice Party as a candidate in both the State and Local Government elections in Queensland. On a mission to create a world that acknowledges and upholds the rights and interests of all members of the Earth Community, Scott promotes transformations of governance systems, law, society and culture based on ecocentric beliefs and philosophies.

Concurrent Session 4: Exits and the New Economy

Abstract

Australia has an ageing population - thanks boomers.  We also have an ageing population of business owners. These business owners are often too small for an IPO (ASX listing) or not attractive for a trade-sale for a variety of reasons like too small, too undifferentiated etc. but these are the small businesses that drive and employ within the community and economy. A ‘Community Exit’ is alternative solution to IPO and Tradesale that gives owners an ‘exit’ whilst simultaneously being a pathway to community wealth building. The opportunity for a community to have an actual ownership stake and governance stake (not just lip service) in the businesses they buy, work and support is a New Economy opportunity of significant scale.

Concurrent Session 5: Community Wealth Building In Practice

Abstract

There’s an increase in interest about Community Wealth Building, but what’s it mean in practice? This session will include an overview of the Community Wealth Building models on offer - of which there are many - and showcase them with examples. There’s also information and examples of employee ownership, equity crowdfunding, trusts, social procurement and new businesses that provide pathways for stakeholders to have an actual stake

Bio

Andrew Ward is currently:

• Managing Director of Ethical Fields
• Treasurer of the New Economy Network of Australian (NENA)
• Co-Founder and Director of Incubator.coop
• Independent Director of Crowd Funding Institute of Australia (CFIA)
• Director of HenHouse.coop
• Director of Wattle Street Ventures

Andrew can assist you with:

• Formation of co-operatives – communicating the business model and benefits.
• Member engagement
• Business planning
• Financial management/reporting, performance measurement and other value reporting
• Fundraising and farm advocacy – including supporting co-operatives to access capital

Andrew Ward was raised in and around Moree (NSW).  He commenced a Horticultural Science degree in 1998, but dropped out to pursue a business venture.  His family and friends remain in Agriculture and associated industries.

Harnessing our Powers: Regenerative and Renewable sources driven from within our communities and tapping into our vital capacities for innovation and enterprise.

Abstract

As social beings, capable of complex cooperative and competitive activities, we can, and do (in our democracies) explore and debate what we want for our society/communities and in doing this we can affirm our respect for the natural world on which we all depend. We know within society many goods and services are shared within communities; some exchanges involve prices and calculating costs, but many do not. We know charities, ‘not-for-profits’ are vital elements to our social fabric. Local community and cultural identity are integral to how and why we cooperate and value our exchanges, often without price being solely or strictly relevant to how we value such activities. Humanities exchange of services and/or our care for one another and for our fellow creatures are consistent themes we are engaged in. Since such exchanges are often voluntary and not usefully measured, or measurable, their prices or costs are not particularly relevant. Hence quantitative analysis and descriptions will not do the job needed when we come to form what we hope are useful views of what our economy actually is and what we can be achieved within it. These apparently non-commercial facets of our economy (e.g. the regenerative Sharing economy, gifting and volunteering, etc.) do not fit within neoclassical theory or within the Neoclassical Economic (i.e. NCE) models of our economy. If costs and prices are not formally quantifiable with respect to such facets of these real exchanges that facilitate mutual benefits, they are not measured in the GDP. Hence NCE does not describe what is! As a consequence, harnessing those broader elements (regenerative elements) that make up our exchange activity (a wider appreciation of what consists of commerce) our contributions that support our families, communities and their economies, are key to grasping how we can transition to a sustainable society and its economy. Further access to renewable technologies, both in regional and urban contexts where local enterprises can innovate and use renewable technologies and our great tradition of innovation, can revitalize our economy, and steer us away from the "endless growth" policy fantasies (Neoliberal contaminated policy aims). We can embrace those broader regenerative aspects of our community's diverse, rich and creative talents. We can develop new industries and value add to existing ones, using appropriate technologies. These are all proven avenues that we can harness to grasp a better future and develop a thriving new economy grounded in culturally healthy practices, as we create what can be a steady state economy.

Bio

Matthew K Washington holds a MA hons from Sydney University in Philosophy and a Masters of Taxation from the University of NSW. His ATO compliance work involved reviewing, auditing, undertaking economic analysis of large multinational corporations. An appreciation of vital aspects of enterprise and useful commercial practice was obtained.

A business model that supports fair sharing and collaboration

Abstract

The Narara Ecovillage Co-operative is exploring the use of a novel business model to establish its three business divisions on food, accommodation and education. Since the ecovillage aims to become a model of sustainable living, we are wanting to use a business model that truly respects and puts into practice social, ecological and economic sustainability. We are looking to use a social enterprise model based in part on the FairShares https://www.fairshares.coop/ model by Rory Ridley-Duff and the FairShares Commons model by Graham Boyd https://graham-boyd.biz/fairshare-commons/. We propose to trial a modified version of these models with our education division (Collective Know-How) using a fair distribution of takings from running educational events, and shared decision-making amongst multiple stakeholders. If successful, we would use this model with our accommodation and food businesses, potentially creating a local ecosystem of regenerative fair shares businesses at the ecovillage. We would like to network with other businesses in the region that may have experience with or be interested in trialling similar multi-stakeholder models. Trialling this model may attract support from the FairShares Association and FairShares Commons group. This discussion session (20 min) and then be open for discussion and feedback from participants (30 min).

Bio

Dr Eilean Watson is a pioneer member of the Narara Ecovillage and is passionate about establishing the education enterprise. She has an interest in learning, teaching and research, systems thinking and transdisciplinary approaches, and sustainable living practices. Her background is in medical education, information systems design and biomedical sciences.