10 February – 1 March, 2013
Teachers: Vandana Shiva, Satish Kumar, Robert Chambers, Cormac Russel, Eve Annecke and Mark Swilling
This course is open for bookings for one, two or three weeks
‘Development’ as we know it, has been a one-size-fits-all process imposed upon the majority of the world’s citizens that has paid scant regards to the cultural, ecological and economic specificity of the great diversity of places affected.
It has focused on industrialisation and driven a global division of labour based on the false doctrine of comparative advantage, often at the cost of genuine human quality of life.
The process has been characterized by the degradation of human and non-human nature, huge disparities in wealth, and the continuous appropriation of the commons by capital.
Today, there is growing resistance to this model and the emergence of more regionally- and culturally-specific narratives as to what progress would genuinely look like in the different parts of the world.
This course provides an opportunity to explore the mosaic of development paths that are emerging and to acknowledge and celebrate the many cultural expressions of wealth and wellbeing. It is for anyone who cares deeply about making the world a better place, and is interested in how this manifests in the way we think about ‘development’.
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Week 1: Critiquing Development Today – Vandana Shiva and Satish Kumar
10 – 15 February, 2013
Vandana Shiva and Satish Kumar will give a sweeping and penetrating analysis of economic development today. Focusing on their home country of India, they will weave together myriad topics, from corporate appropriation of the commons to GMO’s, women’s independence struggles and the philosophy of radical activism. This is an extraordinary opportunity to spend a week in conversation with two of the world’s most important activists.
Week 2: Putting the last first – Robert Chambers & Cormac Russel
18 – 22 February, 2013
This week will focus on the core importance of popular participation in the emergence of culturally-specific development narratives. Robert Chambers from the Institute for Development Studies in Brighton, is a pioneer and giant in the field of putting the poor, destitute and marginalised at the centre of the processes of development policy. Cormac brings his experience in working with Asset-Based Community Development in many countries around the world.
Week 3: Just Transitions: southern perspectives – Eve Annecke and Mark Swilling
25 February – 1 March, 2013
This week explores what a ‘just transition’ would look like from a global South perspective, led by Eve Annecke and Mark Swilling, authors of Just Transitions: Explorations of Sustainability in an Unfair World. It will ask how developing countries can eradicate poverty via economic development, while addressing the challenges posed by global warming and dwindling supplies of clean water, productive soils, cheap oil, minerals and other resources as well as widening inequalities and the need to rebuild eco-systems services and natural resources.
This course is for anyone who cares deeply about making the world a better place, and is interested in how this manifests in the way we think about ‘development’.
Vandana Shiva
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Vandana Shiva is a philosopher, environmental activist, author and eco feminist. She is an author of more than 20 books including Biopiracy: the Plunder of Nature and Knowledge and Water Wars; Privatization, Pollution, and Profit.
She is one of the leaders and board members of the International Forum on Globalization, (along with Jerry Mander, Edward Goldsmith, Ralph Nader, Jeremy Rifkin, et al.), and a figure of the global solidarity movement known as the alter-globalization movement. She has argued for the wisdom of many traditional practices, and founded Navdanya (“nine seeds”), a movement promoting diversity and use of native seeds. She also set up the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology in her mother’s cowshed in 1997. Its studies have validated the ecological value of traditional farming and been instrumental in fighting destructive development projects in India . She is a member of the scientific committee of the Fundacion IDEAS, and was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1993.
Satish Kumar
Satish Kumar is a former monk and long-term peace and environment activist. He has been quietly setting the Global Agenda for change for over 50 years. He was just nine when he left his family home to join the wandering Jains and 18 when he decided he could achieve more back in the world, campaigning for land reform in India and working to turn Gandhi’s vision of a renewed
In 1973 Satish settled in the United Kingdom taking up the post of editor of Resurgence magazine, a position he has held ever since, making him the UK’s longest-serving editor of the same magazine. During this time, he has been the guiding spirit behind a number of now internationallyrespected ecological and educational ventures including Schumacher College. Read more
Click here to download his full biography
Click here to read about Resurgence, which Satish edits
Robert Chambers
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Since the 1980s, Robert has been one of the leading advocates for putting the poor, destitute and marginalised at the centre of the processes of development policy. Author of many books and articles, including Rural Development: Putting the Last First (1983, Longman), Robert popularised the now generally accepted need for community participation in all stages of the process of development. His current concerns and interests include professionalism, power, the personal dimension in development, participatory methodologies, teaching and learning with large numbers, agriculture and science, Seasonality Revisited, and Community-Led Total Sanitation.
Cormac Russel
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Cormac is Managing Director of Nurture Development and a faculty member of the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute at Northwestern University, Chicago. He has trained communities, agencies, NGOs and governments in ABCD and other strengths based approaches in Kenya, Southern Sudan, South Africa, the UK, Ireland, Canada and Australia. In January 2011 Cormac was appointed to the Expert Reference Group on Community Organising and Communities First, by Nick Hurd MP, Minister for Civil Society in the UK.
Eve Annecke
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Eve is the founding director of the Sustainability Institute in Stellenbosch, South Africa. She is co-founder of Lynedoch Development and the Lynedoch EcoVillage. She has worked for many years in organisational learning, with a special focus on process facilitation, dialogue and leadership. She is the co-author of Just Transitions: Explorations of Sustainability in an Unfair World (2012 UN University Press).
Mark Swilling
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Professor Mark Swilling is Programme Coordinator: Sustainable Development in the School of Public Leadership, University of Stellenbosch and Academic Director of the Sustainability Institute (www.sustainabilityinstitute.net). He is also Project Leader of the Centre for the Transdisciplinary Study of Sustainability and Complexity (known as the TsamaHub) (www.tsamahub.org.za). The TsamaHub is responsible for the delivery of a transdisciplinary doctoral programme.
Click here to read Mark’s full biography >>
Any One week £750
Any Two weeks £1,400 (Save £100 over weekly course price)
Three weeks £2100 (Save £150)
For further information about Schumacher College please see About the College
Click here to book this course via our on-line booking system >>
Click here to find out how to book by fax or mail >>
To provisionally reserve a place for 5 days, email us your contact details and the name of the course jane.pares@schumachercollege.org.uk
We will hold the place for five working days for reservations – three weeks before a course or earlier. After five days we will automatically offer your place to someone else if we have not received your application.
