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Seminar 1:
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The overlapping economic, environmental, and cultural crises of our times can seem overwhelming. They can seem like challenges so great and urgent that they have no solutions. But rather than sticking our heads in the sand or falling into despair, we should respond with defiant positivity and try to turn the crises we face into opportunities for 'civilisational renewal'. During the year of 2015 a small community formed on an emerging ecovillage in Gippsland and challenged themselves to explore a radically 'simpler way' of life based on material sufficiency, frugality, permaculture, alternative technology and local economy. This documentary by Jordan Osmond and Samuel Alexander tells the story of this community's living experiment, in the hope of sparking a broader conversation about the challenges and opportunities of living in an age of limits. The documentary also presents new and exclusive interviews with leading activists and educators in the world's most promising social movements, including David Holmgren (permaculture), Helena Norberg-Hodge (localisation), Ted Trainer (the simpler way), Nicole Foss (energy and finance), Bill Metcalf (intentional communities) and Graham Turner (limits to growth).
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is a Research Fellow with the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute and a lecturer with the Office for Environmental Programs. He teaches a course called 'Consumerism and the Growth Paradigm: Interdisciplinary Perspectives' in the Masters of Environment stream. His most recent book is an edited collection called 'Simple Living in History: Pioneers of the Deep Future' (2014). He is also author of 'Entropia: Life beyond Industrial Civilisation' (2013). His research interests include the limits to growth, post-growth and degrowth economics, sustainable consumption, the social implications of climate change and peak oil, and transition strategies.