Newsletter June 2009

Autumn booking open – early booking discounts available on many courses

Click on the links below for course information and details of how to book. There are early booking discounts for a limited number of applicants, and normal pricing will resume after 24 July.

Take advantage of early booking – go straight to on-line booking for all courses

Walking with the Earth Pilgrim
14 – 18 September
Earth Jurisprudence and Community Resilience: Learning from Africa
21 – 25 September
Biotecture in Practice: Building an earthship
5 – 16 October
Exploring Ethnobotany: Plants as healers
19 – 23 October
Closing Loops, Opening Minds: Educating for a greener future
2 – 6 November
Purpose and Profit: How holistic thinking can remake business
9 – 13 Nov
Growth and Consequence: Rethinking our economic future
23 – 27 November

Governance with Ecological Integrity

Where biomimicry seeks design solutions from the natural world, Community Ecological Governance (CEG) looks to Nature to derive human governance systems, built upon a foundation of ecoliteracy. How human communities have evolved their governance systems in keeping with Natural Law, is a topic soon to be brought to life in the second of our Earth Jurisprudence courses in September.

Paradoxically, the very peoples and cultures threatened by the globalisation of western development hold the ecological knowledge and wisdom that, when respected and nurtured, can restore their ecological, social and economic resilience which “development solutions” are actually serving to eradicate. This is where the concept of Community Ecological Governance is set to play such an important role.

The laws of the humans must be replaced with the laws of the land; for we must remember that we are not the owners of the land. Colin Campbell (Resurgence, July/ August 2009).

…we encourage community dialogues for elders to talk about and reflect on how we traditionally governed ourselves in relation to our natural environment. Mphatheleni Makaulule (Resurgence March/April 2008)

We will welcome visiting teachers: Mphatheleni Makaulule, community leader from South Africa; Liz Hosken, Director and co-founder of The Gaia Foundation; and Colin Campbell, a full-time sangoma – a practitioner of herbal medicine, divination and counselling – in South Africa, who co-runs a traditional training school and initiation center. Read more of this article…

Course details – Earth Jurisprudence and Community Resilience: Learning from Africa , 21 – 25 September, click here. Don’t forget the early booking discount.

Opening the doors for a Summer Celebration

This year, Schumacher College is hosting a Summer Celebration week. Whether you are an alumnus or someone wanting to experience Schumacher College outside of a formal academic setting, the week will give you the opportunity to enjoy a range of activities as well as time for relaxation and private study.

Starting on the 13th July participants can join sustainability-related talks at the international festival of words and ideas – Ways With Words. There will be tours of Dartington including The Agroforesty Research Trust site adjoining the Schumacher College grounds, the Estate gardens, sustainability activities on the Estate. Participants will have the chance to visit Dartmoor as part of a day on Gaia theory with Stephan Harding. Sessions on Gaia’s Kitchen include bread making and seasonal cooking.

The week is only £550 for all activities, talks, food and accommodation.
Further information on the Summer Celebration, 13 – 17 July

Walking with the Earth Pilgrim

It is nearly 18 months since the programme Natural World aired the beautifully filmed and narrated Earth Pilgrim with Satish Kumar. Since then, people have been visiting Schumacher College to join Satish on walks on Dartmoor and his discussion of the embodiment of the principles introduced on that programme. In the words of participants from this course: “An experience of a lifetime: not to be missed“; “wonderfully uplifting“; “A thank you from the bottom of my heart“.

A book by the same name will be published later this year by Green Books. In Earth Pilgrim: Conversations with Satish Kumar, Satish will draw on his personal experience and also his understanding of the spiritual traditions of both East and West. The book takes the form of conversations between Satish and others about the inner and outer aspects of pilgrimage.

For information about the course Walking with the Earth Pilgrim, in September.

Diploma in Sustainable Horticulture: Duchy College in partnership with Dartington Schumacher College

Through the Dartington Diploma in Sustainable Horticulture, Dartington is to revive its proud history of horticultural education, with a new course designed to equip growers with the skills necessary for 21st century food production.

As the economic recession deepens and the realities of climate change and oil depletion become clearer, the future for our current systems of food production looks in doubt and the question of how we will feed ourselves is a pressing issue that has been receiving increasing attention.

The course combines theoretical with practical education as students gain real-life experience working alongside three gardening projects on the Dartington Estate: the main gardens, School Farm and the forest garden around Schumacher College. Read more of this article…

Thomas Berry, 1914 – 2009

On June 1, the theologian Thomas Berry passed away peacefully at the age of 94. The following day, participants on our Small is Beautiful Revisited course remembered him at the morning meeting, with a reading from one of his books, The Great Work. One of those attending that course was from Genesis Farm, an ecological learning centre in the US set up by Miriam MacGillis and directly inspired by Thomas’s vision and wisdom.

Thomas taught at Schumacher College in November 1995, on a course entitled Ecology and Theology. I still remember the talk he gave at the Open Evening, when he described his childhood (he was the third of 13 children) as one of “benign neglect” which enabled him to spend hours roaming the fields and meadows around his North Carolina home. In particular, he remembered his experience of stumbling upon a lily-dotted meadow when he was about 11, and commented “Whatever preserves and enhances this meadow in the natural cycles of its transformation is good; what is opposed to this meadow or negates it is not good.” Read more of this article…

Biomimicry: why the world is full of intelligent design

We humans like to think we’re pretty good at design and technology – but we often forget that Mother Nature had a head start of 3.6 million years. Now, the way that geckoes climb walls, or hummingbirds hover, is at the centre of a burgeoning industry: biomimicry, the science of “reverse-engineering” clever ideas from the natural world…

…“Imitating natural systems is about trying to mimic the amazing effectiveness of ecosystems, where the waste from one system or animal is used as the nutrients for another,” says Michael Pawlyn, the director of a sustainable architecture firm and one of the designers of the Eden Project in Cornwall. “Often, by applying ideas from ecosystems you can turn problems into solutions that are better both environmentally and commercially…”

…This week, Pawlyn is lecturing on biomimicry at Schumacher College in Devon, which runs courses on the environment and sustainability. However, for those that can’t make the lectures, we’ve collected a few examples of biomimicry at its best….

Courses open for booking

Don’t forget, many autumn courses have early booking discounts available for a limited number of participants.

Science, Cosmology & the Future
29 June – 10 July
Summer Celebration: Land, people, ideas
13 July – 17 July
Walking with the Earth Pilgrim
14 – 18 September
Earth Jurisprudence and Community Resilience: Learning from Africa
21 – 25 September
Biotecture in Practice: Building an earthship
5 – 16 October
Exploring Ethnobotany: Plants as healers
19 – 23 October
Closing Loops, Opening Minds: Educating for a greener future
2 – 6 November
Purpose and Profit: How holistic thinking can remake business
9 – 13 Nov
Growth and Consequence: Rethinking our economic future
23 – 27 November
Click here to book your place(s) using our on-line booking system

Schumacher College
(E) admin@schumachercollege.org.uk
(T) +44(0)1803 865 934
www.schumachercollege.org.uk

Schumacher College is an initiative of The Dartington Hall Trust, a registered charity, bringing ideas on sustainability to life.

Schumacher College is part of the Dartington Hall Trust, a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and as a charity (company no. 1485560, charity no. 279756). Registered office: The Elmhirst Centre, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EL, UK.

Tel: 01803 865934