We Are the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For with Adam Greenfield
Thursday March 13th
Doors & drinks 6.30pm; Talk starts 7pm
We have together entered an epoch in which not merely the raw fact of climate-system collapse, but the second- and third-order consequences of that unfolding, threaten to undo the infrastructural, economic, political, social and even psychological systems that undergird everyday experience: a Long Emergency with radically uncertain prospects for the sustainment of any life we recognise, and no clear end in sight.
In this talk, based on his 2024 book Lifehouse: Taking Care of Ourselves in a World On Fire, Adam Greenfield explores ways in which we might organise ourselves to not merely survive this Long Emergency, but to do so in ways that uphold our fundamental commitments to dignity and justice.
We'll learn lessons from a number of communities that have faced down existentially hard times before, from the "survival programs" of the Black Panthers in the 1970s to the self-organised Occupy Sandy mutual-aid initiative, the solidarity networks of Crisis-era Greece and the large-scale, non-state society of Rojava.
We'll see how participants in all of these efforts experienced an expanded sense of possibility, purpose, and their own power; explore the reciprocal relationship between that power and the provision of mutual care; and finally weave these threads together in the book's culminating proposition: that we establish a network of the neighbourhood-based, self-organised and self-sustaining relief and recovery hubs called Lifehouses.
Adam'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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