Changemakers

Fay Weller, Mary Wilson

Description

The guidebook for ordinary people who want to create a new society now rather than wait for a pie-in-the-sky future.

• Authors are leaders in community social change and sustainability
• Fay Weller is a sustainability expert with an interdisciplinary PhD from the University of Victoria. She studied the 'how' of transformative change using the Gulf Islands, B.C. as her research area.
• Mary Wilson has a PhD in curriculum theory and a MA in educational studies
• A practical guide to social change and transformative learning
• Uses storytelling as the key tool for social change and education
• Real life stories of how ordinary people work together to change the world
• Stories of despair, economic decline, globalization, corporate control and climate change are transformed into new stories of success through small actions, community development and local economic growth
• Allows readers to see themselves as transformers
• Guides the reader through personal transformation that leads to societal change
• Organized into three sections: what is transformative change, examples of projects, and a mini-workshop guide

Audience

• Social change activists, community builders, educators, economic development programs, sustainability leaders, transition town groups, faith-based groups engage in social change

International Market

• Authors have helped create a land ownership structure, the first of its kind in Canada, that designates a body of land as a "commons" based on the UK historical commons

The guidebook for ordinary people who want to create a new society now rather than wait for a pie-in-the-sky future.

With every news report, the world seems to be careening off the rails. It's all too easy to slip into despair waiting for co-opted, self-serving governments to act.

Hope and action is the antidote. We each hold the power to make personal changes that can drive local changes and cascade into large-scale social transformation. This is the guidebook for ordinary people who want to create a new society now.

The first section explores the idea of transformative change – what it is, what difference it makes, and how it is connected to learning.

From creating a citizen-powered community bus service, to winning the right to local food, to women hand-sculpting their own houses, the second section explores powerful stories of everyday people who have challenged traditional understandings and transformed their lives, their communities, and wider society.

In the final section, the authors provide a workbook to guide people, wherever they are, through the process of catalyzing change.

We all have the power to create a more just and ecological society. We all have the power to be changemakers.

Fay Weller is a community organizer, homesteader, researcher, and artist with a PhD. focused on social transformation. She and her partner live on Gabriola Island, BC, with two sheep and numerous chickens.

Mary Wilson is a facilitator, researcher, instructional designer, and activist with a Ph.D. in education. She and her partner live on Gabriola Island, BC where they are restoring a home, developing a permaculture food forest, and building an engineless catamaran.

Preface

SECTION A: CHANGEMAKING
1. A Tale of Egg and Agency

2. Transformation

3. Learning Change

4. The How of Change

SECTION B: STORIES AND REFLECTIONS
5. Sowing the Seeds of Change
      Thinking about Food Systems
      Changemakers' Food Stories

6. Walls and Roofs
      Thinking about Shelter
      Changemakers' Shelter Stories

7. Moving Forward
      Thinking about Transportation
      Changemakers' Transportation Stories

8. There is No Away
      Thinking about Waste
      Changemakers' Waste Stories

9. People Power
      Thinking about Energy
      Changemakers' Energy Stories

10. Cooperative Economics
      Thinking about Economics
      Changemakers' Economic Stories

11. From Analysis to Activism

SECTION C: CHANGEMAKERS' MANUAL

Introduction
      Session 1: Transformative Spaces
      Session 2: Learning Change
      Session 3: The Genesis of Ideas
      Session 4: From Spark to Action
      Session 5: Cross Purposes and Spirals
      Session 6: Linking with other Changemakers
      Session 7: Societal Change

Facilitation Techniques

References
Index
About the Authors
About New Society Publishers

Sujets

• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• PHILOSOPHY
• Political opportunity
• Workbook
• GUIdebook
• Buddhism
• ACTION
• Community organizing
• General officer
• Social sciences
• General
• Hope
• Social

Informations

• Publié par: New Society Publishers
• Date de parution: 05 juin 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781771422635
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Praise forChangemakers

Lots of us would like to stop global warming and en dless war, end poOerty, saOe the enOironment, etc. But none of us seem able to get it done. What can we do? Weller and Wilson show that we can change ourselOes: how we liOe, what we eat, where we gather, how we interact. And out of many little personal changes may come bi gger changes—within our families, communities, and the world beyond—leading to different, better outcomes.

—Dmitry ÔrloO, author,Shrinking the Technosphere

Fay Weller and Mary Wilson haOe written an inspiring book about how indiOiduals can take actions that lead to transformatiOe social change. From the first rousing story about Anna and her efforts to deal with an inane restriction on selling fresh eggs, to a description of how personal change occurs, through a wide-ranging collection of personal stories about people taking action in their communities, this is a stimulating book ab out how all of us can contribute to compassionate and positiOe change.

—Peter Robinson, former CEÔ of the DaOid Suzuki Fou ndation

Changemakersis an accessible call to action for eOeryone. If we’re going to find ourselOes out of the ecological cul-de-sac that we find ourselOes in, this is one more call to mobilize eOeryday life.

—Am Johal, Director, SFU’s Vancity Ôffice of Community Engagement, SFU Woodward’s Cultural Unit

In turbulent times, we need threads of hope from which to weaOe our conOictions into actions. If you want a guide to such action, one that is hopefu l, inspiring, and practical, look no further. You haOe found it.

—Dan Pratt, 3M National Teaching Fellow, Professor Emeritus & Senior Scholar, Centre for Health Education Scholarship, Faculty of Medicine, UniOersity of British Columbia

This is a book that traces the path from here to there: from the indiOidual to the wider world and from the noxiousness of the present to the possibil ities of the future. It does so through the stories of people in island communities who make small changes with big implications.

—Warren Magnusson, author, Local Self-Government and the Right to the City, Politics of Urbanism, andThe Search for Political Space

Copyright © 2018 by Fay Weller and Mary Wilson. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh. Cover image © iStock (455586275).

Printed in Canada. First printing May, 2018.

This book is intended to be educational and informative. It is not intended to serve as a guide. The author and publisher disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk that may be associated with the application of any of the contents of this book.

Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part ofChangemakersshould be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below. To order directly from the publishers, please call toll- free (North America) 1-800-567-6772 or order online atwww.newsociety.com

Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to

New Society Publishers P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada [phone]

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Weller, Fay, 1958–, author

Changemakers : embracing hope, taking action, and transforming the world / Fay Weller and Mary Wilson.

Includes bibliographical references and index. Issued in print and electronic formats. ISBN 978-0-86571-875-3 (softcover).— ISBN 978-1-55092-668-2 (PDF).—ISBN 978-1- 77142-263-5 (EPUB).

1. Sustainable living. 2. Human ecology. 3. Social ecology. 4. Social change. 5. Transformative learning. I. Wilson, Mary, 1958–, author. II. Title.

GE196.W45 2018

640.28’6

C2018-901327-3

C2018-901328-1

New Society Publishers’ mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision.

Contents

Preface

SECTION A: CHANGEMAKING

1. A Tale of Egg and Agency

2. Transformation

3. Learning Change

4. The How of Change

SECTION B: STORIES AND REFLECTIONS

5. Sowing the Seeds of Change

Thinking about Food Systems

Changemakers’ Food Stories

6. Walls and Roofs

Thinking about Shelter

Changemakers’ Shelter Stories

7. Moving Forward

Thinking about Transportation

Changemakers’ Transportation Stories

8. There is No Away

Thinking about Waste

Changemakers’ Waste Stories

9. People Power

Thinking about Energy

Changemakers’ Energy Stories

10. Cooperative Economics

Thinking about Economics

Changemakers’ Economic Stories

11. From Analysis to Activism

SECTION C: CHANGEMAKERS’ MANUAL

Introduction

Session 1: Transformative Spaces

Session 2: Learning Change

Session 3: The Genesis of Ideas

Session 4: From Spark to Action

Session 5: Cross Purposes and Spirals

Session 6: Linking with other Changemakers

Session 7: Societal Change

Facilitation Techniques

References

Index

About the Authors

About New Society Publishers

Preface

Where are we going?

And what am I doing in this handbasket?

—A FAVORITE FRIDGE MAGNET SAYING

Our world seems beset by crises. For us, climate change is the defining issue of our time—but we know many intelligent people who point to the refugee crisis, war, poverty, human rights atrocities, pollution of all sorts, and the ongoing struggle against totalitarianism asthe primary problem we all face. And although this is an exhausting list, it is not an exhaustive one.

Even if we don’t feel like we’re all going to hell in a handbasket, it is easy to feel despair in the face of these vast, interlocking problems.

We began this book because we were looking for reasons to choose hope over despair. We find these reasons in the stories of transformation and learning that we share here, and in the idea of transformational learning as a way of moving through the crises that surround us.

What we have realized is that neither hope nor desp air is sufficient, and neither is entirely relevant. Both hope and despair are emotions that a re focused on the future rather than the present. The process of building a society that is based on compassion and care for the Earth and all its beings, human and otherwise, is not something that can happen only in the future. It can and must happen now. And, fortunately, for the sake of our collective future well-being, itis happening now. In this book, we explore the stories and experiences of individuals who are living as if the world is changing into that compassionate and caring society and, by so doing, are changing the world.

In exploring these people’s stories, we are not advocating a response to climate change or any of the other issues that stop with the personal; what we are advocating is an acknowledgement of the central importance of personal change and learning in changing our world. Because all changes are initiated by people—be they individual, community, corporate, or broader changes— all change is, in part, personal change. The people we write about here have found ways to maintain hope while acknowledging despair, and to build lives based on integrity and concern for the Earth and its inhabitants. As they have done this, they have begun to challenge and change the stories and structures that support the world as it is—and perhaps change other people’s stories as well.

We are writing from Canada’s Gulf Islands, and many of the stories we share come from the Gulf Islands too. We are located in the southwest corner of British Columbia, just north of the San Juan Islands in the United States of America. H owever, while the majority of stories are from the islands, they could happen anywhere. They are tales of ordinary people embracing hope, taking action, and transforming the world.

We start our book with a section we call Changemaking, beginning with a story about eggs. In the second chapter, we talk about transformation—what we mean by it and how it comes about. The third chapter talks about ways we learn. In the fourth chapter, we discuss how transformation and learning can come together to create value-driven change at the individual, community, and societal levels. In Section B, Stories and Reflecti ons, we hear from people as they tell their stories of transformation. We hear how change has happened through people’s experiences with food, shelter, transportation, waste, energy, and economics. Each chapter is introduced with a quick overview of the issue addressed in various ways in the stories. The stories are followed by our reflections. The final chapter in this section provides a discussion about the path forward. The book closes out with our Changemakers’ Manual, proposed as a guidebook for anyone, anywhere who wants to be part of co-creating a new society.