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  • WORKSHOP CO-EMERGING ECONOMIES 

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    Posted: 21 April 2021


    EXPLORING RADICAL PERSPECTIVES ON POST-ANTHROPOCENIC ECONOMIES

    CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: DEADLINE APRIL 12th


    21/22/23 April – From: 13:00 – 17:00 CET. (Online)
    Admission is free of charge.

    Do we need a new Economic Future? There is an emerging global awareness that our current free-market economic system is responsible for deteriorating environmental health and global warming. This threatens not only future human prosperity but may have existential consequences for all species.

    The current free-market Capitalist economic system relies on a constant need for economic growth, resource exploitation and profit taking, while deliberately ignoring the cost and impact of economic progress on natural systems. It promotes lifestyles based on unsustainable consumption and material gratification, whilst resulting in growing socio-economic inequality, environmental degradation and a loss of biodiversity.

    As humanity, we have reached a critical point where we need to reflect if we need to turn a new page as a global civilization. It means we need to examine our core values, aspirations, and behaviors. In essence, we need to reset our relationship with the planet and re-imagine different socio-economic possibilities.

    We would like to invite you to the Co-emerging Economies workshop where we will team up with multidisciplinary teams to creatively explore different economic possibilities and transitions.

    About the workshop
    Co-emerging Economies is an online storytelling workshop to inspire people and to unravel what could radical economic change look like. Participants will be invited to collectively develop and share ideas during this intense online session to co-develop narratives and ideas through fictional worldbuilding, speculative fabulation and interactive brainstorm sessions.

    During this workshop, we aim to contribute to two narratives in the co-emerging futures. We invite participants to co-develop two future directions inspired on the post-anthropocentric view; a perspective where the human identity is diffused into a larger eco-system. Here, we distinguish two fundamentally different sub-directions:

    Gaia is the eco-centric direction, in which we see ourselves as an integral part of the natural ecosystem (and not on top of nature). In Gaia we look for ways to live integrally embedded within natural biodiverse ecosystems. We need to imagine how we can create a socio-economic system that puts the health of ecosystems first and the needs of humans (as a species within such ecosystems) second. This means humans cannot act as the sole representative of nature, but we need to build new skills and awareness how to “listen” to nature and give freedom to ecosystems to evolve naturally. In nature cooperation and interspecies relationships are crucial for survival. We have to learn lessons from nature and work towards cultures and societies that are inclusive of all species. This exploration will confront us with many questions, for example: “What does the term economy mean in the context of a natural ecosystem”

    And Etheria is the sentio-centric direction, in which we value intelligence (sentience) as the ultimate virtue. Up to know, biology was the main carrier of sentient development, but we now see that machine intelligence is developing at a far more rapid pace, which can render biological beings as a lesser species in the future. In this economic stream we aspire to become part of a larger post-human (post-biological) emerging intelligence enabled by a fusion of ever-expanding and evolving human and machine intelligence. This view largely detaches us from nature and the need for any biological systems. If humans eventually supersede the biological format and thrive as a intelligent beings in a digital format, it largely obviates our dependence on biological resources. It is rooted in concepts such as sentience and intelligence and revolves around themes such as identity, existence and mortality. This theme will raise very interesting questions such as: “What does the economy mean for an intelligent society functioning in a digital format”.

    Thought leaders
    To ensure a well informed and critical approach, Godelieve Spaas and Lisanne Buik will lead the workshop groups, each from their own background, perspectives and professional practice. Lisanne Buik is a multidisciplinary artist and futures designer operating at the intersection of ecology, technology and spirituality. In her speculative installations, films and publications she combines emerging science with ancient wisdom to explore the shift from the age of the machine into a new age of symbiosis between nature, non-human species, humans, and technology. During the workshop, Lisanne will critically distil the promises and the pitfalls of the Etheria narrative. Godelieve Spaas is a professor in new economy at Avans University of applied science. She is researcher, practitioner and creator of new ways of entrepreneurial organizing where ecology, society, economy all benefit from and interact seamlessly with each other. Godelieve is invited to guide the Gaia narrative during the workshop.

    Application deadline APRIL 12th.
    To join the workshop, we kindly ask you to apply via the Google Form. Please state 1. Why you would like to join; 2. How this connects to your background or professional practice and interest 3. Which future streams (Gaia /Etheria) has the most resonance with you. We will do our best to select your first preference of choice. Prior to the workshop we will share a reading list, which allows participants to prepare for the workshop.

    About Co-emerging Futures
    The workshop Co-Emerging Economies is inspired on the model Co-Emerging Futures developed by Reon Brand from Philips Design, which aims to map the key streams of societal change transforming our world. With the decline of global leadership and governance, diverging worldviews are emerging that are shaping narratives, investments and cooperation into different future economic directions. Brand highlights how these future narratives steer towards a society in which major ethical dilemmas will need to be faced, taking into account developments in human evolution, science and technology, as well as a shift in thinking towards the notion of value.

    Read and download the full workshop program here

    For questions related to this workshop, please contact us via: Loreto@baltanlaboratories.org

    This workshop is developed by Baltan Laboratories and Philips

    Educational partner: Avans University of Applied Sciences

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