Mar 27, 2020
Time to re-design our future together!
The Gaia Education’s Design for Sustainability online course
I have written about the about the amazing work and course of Gaia Education before.
Yes, I am biased! I have many close friends in the global community of ‘Global Ecovillage Educators for a Sustainable Earth’ (or GEESE) and I am part of that flock. I have been linked with Gaia Education ever since I learned about the initial ‘Ecovillage Design Education’ (EDE) curriculum when it was launched at the 10th anniversary conference of the Global Ecovillage Network at the Findhorn ecovillage in 2005.
Since then, I attended the first ever Training of Trainers and version of this course held in 2006 at Findhorn as part of my post-doctoral research fellowship, and I joined that community in 2007, both Findhorn and Gaia Education. I helped to run the first EDE in Thailand in 2007 and have taught on many of them in Scotland and helped to organise a training here on Mallorca in 2011 that has been a fertile incubator for many amazing projects still going on. I also wrote the new version of the Worldview dimension in 2012 and of the Economic Design dimension in 2016, when I also revised and edited the current versions of the Ecological Design and Social Design dimensions.
Between 2015 and 2019 I worked as Gaia Education’s ‘Head of Design and Innovation’ and developed the SDGs Flashcards and Training of Multipliers with the team. The cards have been enthusiastically taken up by UNESCO and with their help have now been translated into Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and more recently with Ashoka Austria into German. Last year I stepped back from my role and now I continue to help promote and support Gaia Education’s important work around the world, and am actively weaving new partnerships and collaborations with and for them.
I am writing this post to let you know that there is still time to sign up for the Economic Design Dimension that started this week. For those of us lucky enough to “only” be stuck inside their homes under the COVID 19 lockdown, this might be the opportunity to do some deeper learning and reflecting to prepare ourselves for what John Liu has called “the great work of our time” with regard to the UN Decade for Ecosystems Restoration. Gaia Education’s curriculum and material goes further than that even. It prepares us and supports us to play an active role in the ‘redesign of the human impact and presence on Earth’.
Below you will find some articles offering more detail about the work and courses of Gaia Education, along with a few examples of what kind of material you will have access to on the course. I personally know of no better course to start with if you are interested in learning about and gaining skills in ‘whole systems design’ for a sustainable, regenerative and thriving future for your community, your bioregion and humanity and life as a whole.
Take a look! May it serve!
About the Economic Design Dimension enrolling now!
“An increasing amount of people know that our current economic system is no longer sustainable, yet awareness of viable alternatives is spreading slowly. Our aim is to give you a better understanding of those alternatives and the true meaning of economy and wealth. Participants will learn about existing systems and tools that are useful, and will explore what it might take to re-design those that have proven dysfunctional.”
— Gaia Education
Here are some tasters for the different dimensions. You can start with any of them and do them individually and then slowly work your way through all of them and the Design Studio to come out as a Gaia Education Certified Trainer.
Social Design Dimension
Ecological Design Dimension
Economic Design Dimension
Worldview Dimension
Never has there been a better time and a more urgent need to create a more resilient and participatory future by turning our attention to the redesign of our economic systems. If you feel stuck or uncertain about what you can do and want to take part in this redesign, our e-learning programme is for you.
— Gaia Education
More about the SDG Flashcards:
Registration for the Economic Design Dimension is still open until Sunday, 29 March 2020!
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Daniel Christian Wahl — Catalyzing transformative innovation in the face of converging crises, advising on regenerative whole systems design, regenerative leadership, and education for regenerative development and bioregional regeneration.
Author of the internationally acclaimed book Designing Regenerative Cultures
