Transformative Agency
Plea for a new turn to the Nordisk Bærekraft education — academic hands-craftsmanship.
WANTED: BRIDGE-BUILDERS, THAT CAN MAKE A LIVING FROM CLOSING THE GAP BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE AND TAKING ACTION.
In the past we believed in god for the knowledge we did not have. Nowadays we do not believe in the knowledge we have.
(Free citation of Villy Sørensen, Danish philosopher, in the 1970', confronted with unsustainability at that time).
The following thoughts came up in Iceland, as being part as student of the Nordisk Bærekraft education in 2016.
Through the ongoing education we meet leaders of different NGOs working in the field of sustainability. Specially the presentation of the leader of the Icelandic NGO Landvernd Guðmundur Ingi, a biologist, made me think:
why isn't there a education, or a title, for this kind of work? — and further, why couldn't the ongoing education been called an education for Transformative Agency, Transformative Pilot (referring to the the Danish Kaos Pilot education), Regenerative Agency, Nordic Transgression Pilot Network Education, or Change Pilot education — short a Nordic leader education, that builds upon the Nordisk Bærekraft structure?
One of those would be a title, I would like to have! You may say: just do it, call yourself a Transformative Agent. Yes, you are right.
The point is beyond my personal story. The objective with this invitation is to strengthen the common sense and community we have gained.
All the management competences, incorporating fund raising and leadership of an organisation with employees, Guðmundur learned by doing, as he pointed out.
This is, including myself, apparently nothing new in the field of passionate NGO work dealing with environmental issues and sustainability. It was the same case with the leaders we met in Oslo (1. session), concerning social projects. Søren Hermansen, the leader of Samsø Energiakademiet (2. session) is formally a farmer. Just make a round in our course — what is the professional background for our engagement and how did we come to where we are?
How can we strenghten the common sense we have gained?
When we talk about this engaged leaders we operate with mixforms like: activists, “ildsjæle”, facilitators, grassroots, … , often connected to unstable working conditions.
“We believe that Earth’s climate, environment and biodiversity is too important to be something we only work for as volunteers, after work hours. We’d much rather dedicate our total efforts and full creative force, to work for the cause.”
(Habitats)
What are the core abilities and competencies for this kind of pioneer transition work?
I suggest three basic abilities:
- To be able to identify a concrete local problem. To be able to point at the structures that limit a solution.
- To challenge the local power structures. To address the power system: economy and laws.
- To be able to create and propose alternatives.
In the following lines I will sum up some of the competence fields to be elaborated for such an education:
basic management of an organisation — transgression theory — fund-raising — ecological economy — transformative economy — law backgrounds in the sustainable field, international agreements, like ex. Århus Convention , GAP and the 17 FN goals— community building — future vision facilitation — knowledge about konsequences when it comes to changes of the socio-tecnical-regime — conflict solving — demography — collaboration knowledge with Nordic and International partners — ethics/justice and sustainability — multidisciplinary — philosophic/ art reflections, like ex. The Dark Mountain Manifesto — body work — anthropology — geography — psychology — rhetoric for transition — …
Some of these points are already part of the ongoing course.
We have not yet a professional training, that combines these abilities, neither a professional title.
We could take the education one step further, by adding and focusing on the tough dimensions of economy and law.
Let us create a framework to develop these bridge building abilities!
This proposition is an invitation to add further dimensions to the Nordic Bærekraft project and network, that has been running in 2015 and 2016.
It is meant to underline the need to develop the cross sectional and bridge building capacities to a professional dimension, in order to share knowledge and create a Nordic network dealing with the international goals and shape them in local operative contexts.
“If still more education is to save us, it would have to be education of a different kind: an education that takes us into the depth of things”
(Schumacher, written 1974, published 1997)
Literature, links:
Sterling, Steven, 2010. Transformative learning and sustainability: Sketching the conceptual ground.
„Transformative, transgressive social learning: Rethinking higher education pedagogy in times of systemic global dysfunction“, 2015, by Heila Lotz-Sisitka, Arjen Wals, David Kronlid and Dylan McGarry,
