A Rootedness in Place
Confessions of an environmental consultant
Simone Weil wrote a line that I can’t seem to shake free from. It goes like this:
‘To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.’
Simone Weil, 1949.
Below is a reflective piece about my journey from environmental consulting to transformations research. What follows is a nature-inspired maxim around a story of individual change.
Rootlessness.
Five years ago I had a life that my younger self, a white kid from a public school in regional Australia, dreamt of. I took frequent overseas trips to obscure destinations and attained a resume that listed positive impacts on environmental and social issues alongside names of the world’s largest multinationals, the United Nations, and development banks. I’d developed the ability to hold intelligent conversations with urbanites on philosophy, art, music, and history. I could chameleon myself into fluency with the social codes of anyone and anywhere. I had foreign language skills and exotic belongings.
It was a deliberately modern and cosmopolitan existence- and I’d been training hard to enjoy it.
It leads to growth with displaced logic.
For most of my career, my role was to deconstruct processes of environmental complexity into understandable parts and then identify approaches that could avoid, or manage, the irrational ambitions of actors in our economy. The job, in essence, was to stuff a conceptually entangled mess into systems of sterile, logical simplicity. Why? Because it is according to the rules of a simplified, proxy and predictable estimation of Earth that we humans have based our thinking. It is in this hypothetical reality that we’ve set our rules and laws.
A process of cultural repacking indoctrinates us to conform. Advertising and entertainment machines strip away the colour and diversity our discussions, values, beliefs and practices until we think only within the bounds of Modernity. A set of subtle myths help outline our ambitions: the role of a government is to steer our economy, not our society; the role of a business is to produce value for shareholders, not for customers; the role of consumption is to consume resources, not to create wellbeing; and we must always remember that the economy will fuel our prosperity, and that humanity will invent our happiness.
In this system, rational conclusions have no place unless they can be rationalised within the rules of these overarching rules and myths.
Growth must be possible, and humanity infallible.
Causing chaotic misdirection.
For a while, this is how sustainability practitioners seemed to operate, and some of them still do: working toward the rules of a simple hypothetical Earth, Science can be used to confidently forecast environmental and social change, giving us all that is required to manage and guide our actions. Similar ideas propose that new technologies and market-based solutions can solve our major challenges. These ideas still hold sway, as they promise to address our major issues without confronting the need for endless growth. The problem, of course, is that it is the same type of thinking that created our predicament. The ideals of hubris, selfishness, and gluttony have made poor civilizational foundations in a finite world with a large number of humans. It is unlikely they will be proven useful in the next iteration.
The overarching assumption behind technological visions of sustainability is that humanity’s aspirations are separable from the rhythms of nature. This hallmark of Modernity is now an untenable premise and the casual assumption that insights from scientific assessment offer greater value than insights attained from any other source of knowledge or wisdom is no longer blindly accepted. There are many propositions in response- some argue that sustainable futures require widespread spiritual transformations, with varying specificity in the doctrine. Others propose an aesthetic shift in our appreciation of complexity and uncertainty. And a large group of advocates suggest that there is no single response- that we need a plurality of locally sustainable discourses. To this last group, success lies in agonism and diversity; a systems-based rebuttal to the simplifying influence of globalisation.
It is undoubtedly a moment of widespread cultural discontent. And whilst many discourses compete for influence in painting sustainable futures, the question remains — in what direction will we go? What is the work that matters?
Until we reconnect our pieces.
The dynamics of my work with companies has changed in recent years. I’ve come to see society as a theatre; a play that only goes to script if the cast decides to act accordingly. Meeting after meeting, the tone of my conversations has shifted. Against the backdrop of impacts from a rapidly changing climatic system, the tools of rational thought and argument now easily lay bare the contradictions of our economic system. The ‘burning platform’ is obvious. The need for change is clear.
Discussions of climate action have shifted from setting basic carbon targets to discussing regional cyclone paths and building standards; overlaying seasonal conditions and cropping options; and exploring pathways for deep socio-cultural change to foster landscape stewardship for fire risk reduction. A more mature conversation on climate change has remade nature as real. It has repositioned humanity and business in our geographical and physical world. I have found that in discussing these disconnects, many business leaders catch a new vision of themselves as humans. This new individual has agency and is not a passive cog in a system that can’t be changed. They talk more openly about their legacy, their family, and a new chapter in the role and responsibilities of business. This new chapter, we hope, will disregard the myths and mis-mechanics of our current socio-economic systems to reimagine how we can facilitate a civilisation based on socio-ecological connections and more-than-human perspectives. Up for grabs is reimagining our global civilization as an ethical and responsible influence on our (only) planet Earth.
And set them into place.
As my personal and professional journey continues, I’ve returned to Australia and rekindled my love for this country. I’ve also become engrossed in the sociological dynamics of sustainability. I wonder what drives different demographic groups to engage with sustainability, and what types of futures they envisage. Creative expressions and place-based narratives have become overarching themes for my research. I explore how we might make more progress on global issues if we explore them in the specific context of the places where we live.
This year, COVID-19 has ravaged communities across the world. The lockdowns in response have kept many of us much closer to home for much longer than we’ve been used to. It forced us to pay attention to our communities, the history, and context of our local area and helped deepened our love for the places where we live. One surprising outcome of this change has been how working from home has changed the way my colleagues have approached the Acknowledgement of Country in meetings. This practice acknowledges the lands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people where the meeting is held, and the elders past, present, and emerging as owners of that land, and (sometimes) the historical injustices that have impacted this relationship. Institutionalised statements used to be the norm- but they are giving way to increasingly personal and creative reflections. As meetings are held in home offices, the Institution’s pro-forma won’t do. People are having to do their own research, tailoring the discursive practice to reflect realities of where they live. The impacts are coming through as people go ‘off script’. Personalised stories are being woven in, opening discussions about colonisation and what kind of futures we personally want to see in our communities and landscapes. These personal journeys are mirrored in our shared public discourse- blockbuster books, public debates, and individual leaders have challenged popular visions of the past, seeding promising and compelling visions for the future. Through all these changes, one can feel a country maturing, re-exploring its potential based on a new view of its history, each other, and the places we inhabit.
Addressing complex issues of culture around the theme of place is, I believe, the next step in our transformation toward a better society at all scales- from personal reflexivity to global economics. Engaging our hearts and minds with the spaces and places that we love will be our way out of this mess. Embodied experiences and creative narratives are ways that we can explore those journeys in enough complexity that lets us pause, reflect and challenge our learned perspectives. The journey in Australia needs to address a suite of broad and layered ills, established over centuries of colonial policies and mindsets. It won’t be quick. However, if a document could draw these themes together and propose a structural pathway for progress, I believe the Uluru Statement from the Heart is the first place we should look.
If the work of colonisation and globalisation was to diminish diversity and difference, then the promise of place is one that recognises complexity and celebrates uniqueness. It is a purpose that I hope we can all discover as we navigate our way forward- united and different, culturally and historically situated, locally and globally connected.
