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Bioregions & the Commons: Becoming Citizens of Place in a Changing World with Isabel Carlisle

Tuesday February 18th
Doors & drinks 6.30pm; Talk starts 7pm

Bioregions, and bioregioning, are seeing a worldwide renaissance that offers a viable response to the polycrisis. How could this very old model of human organising become a template for the future?

Bioregion literally means ‘life region’ and from the earliest times our species has aligned itself with nature’s life-support systems of food, water, energy, shelter, plant medicines and materials for making, such as wood and stone. The agricultural revolution of the Neolithic, and more recently the industrial revolution, set up a metabolic rift between those life systems and human societies. We’re experiencing the consequences of that today.

Isabel Carlisle, co-founder of the Bioregional Learning Centre (BLC) in South Devon, will explore how bioregional organising could help build regional resilience and reinvent the idea of being a citizen of place.

In the same way that there would be no commons without commoning, ‘bioregioning’ is a relational practice that animates a region and addresses the impacts of geo-systemic change on natural and human-made systems. More than that, it’s about meeting the deep human need of belonging to place.

The rise in interest in the global and local commons and the fraying of our social, economic and governance structures are all putting air beneath the wings of the bioregional movement. Isabel will describe the establishment of bioregioning in places as far apart as Costa Rica, the Arctic and Cascadia in Western North America. She will detail the work of the BLC to create the infrastructure needed to establish bioregioning in South Devon (including the creation of a devolved citizen council, bioregional financing and other projects). She will argue that bioregions and bioregioning could help us gain the agency we need to start shaping our future.

Isabel’s talk will be followed by supper and discussion.

Kairos, 84 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4TG

Doors open at 6.30pm for drinks. Event starts at 7pm.

£8 Kairos Club Member, £15 Non-member, £10 Struggling financially, £20 Supporter. Food complimentary.

Before requesting a discounted ticket, please consider sincerely: Are you struggling to meet your basic needs? Would you have to make a genuine sacrifice to buy a full priced ticket? Do you have reduced earnings through a lifestyle choice or because you’re dedicating your time to unpaid work relating to the climate and nature crises?

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