eco-commons
a down-to-earth way-of-life
About eco-commons
Humans are by default commoners. We need each other and indeed, find meaning and purpose, in seeking the common good. It is our ancestral story told anew as a counterpoint to the dominant “free” market, consumerist story of the capitalist era. Supported by 21st century science we recognize that all life is interconnected and cooperative (biophilia). Human consciousness provides an unique window on this evolutionary wonder, this Great Mystery.
By organizing ourselves via eco-commons we can learn from the achievements and limitations of the modern/postmodern eras while embracing this emerging ecological age. This is our “great work” (Thomas Berry).
eco-commons: renewed way of seeing the world
Shifting from a Newtonian (mechanistic) to an integral eco-commons worldview we can find new descriptors and new stories to tell about ourselves. This story is less anthropocentric and more about the whole universe story. It moves from the old story of human domination to a more expansive and inclusive view of the world. Help us tell this new story.
eco-commons: co-operative economics
Over the last 4-500 years our economic life has benefitted greatly by various forms of state, capitalist, and market constructs. Unfortunately, as this era ends, we are witnessing extreme distress in the inequalities and its life-threatening manifestations. Fortunately, what is emerging is better for all: humans, all species, the planet. We can organize our economic lives in cooperative, peaceful ways; inclusive of all. An eco-commons lens helps describe this new economic way-of-life.
You’ll be surprised by how much is going on.
eco-commons: housing
We all need a place to live; to understand being home, to finding place. An eco-commons lens on being home offers a multitude of options. Ways to cooperate on financing, living arrangements, public and private spaces, and so on. Explore some ideas here.
eco-commons: urban
urban living (need picture of “fun” urban living –in the square?)
Most us now live in urban/suburban/exurban areas. With 8 + billion humans, we need to live this way. The challenge is to make it alive, wonderful, and sustainable. Lots of artful, public spaces (commons), as well as self-sufficient in energy, transportation, and food production. We know how to do this, we just have to do it.
eco-commons: rural
Like our misconstruing of urban life as dirty and oppressive, we need to redo our rural images. Instead of an escape from the urban, a complement to urban life. A place of wilderness, localist farms, and so on. Here is the opportunity to retell stories of how rural eco-commons life fits into planetary wellbeing.
eco-commons: food and drink
Good, healthy food and drink is both a necessity and a pleasure. Increasingly, we understand “we are what we eat” and so it profoundly matters that all share in this common good. Through an eco-commons lens we support local, organic, sustainable food production and raise food and drink to be one of the great pleasures of life.
eco-commons: spirituality
In this time of “great turning” (Korten) we can let go of our anthropomorphic images of the Great Mystery and explore new imagery. Often ancient images work well in this quantum physics era. Sometimes, new language emerges as we continue to revel in the beauty, wonder, mystery of it all. We learn to live in respectful, thankful ways as we explore eco-commons ways-of-life.
eco-commons: science
We live in a time of revolutionary scientific knowledge. We are moving beyond our mechanistic interpretations of the world to more intrinsic, energetic, integral ways of seeing everything. There is less arrogance about scientific achievement and more mystery in how it all works. All this allows for seeing the micro and macro elements of life as interconnected and cooperative – an eco-commons. It allows humans to tell new or renewed stories of this evolutionary wonder. As cosmologist Brian Swimme describes it: “we all are one.”
eco-commons: politics
The “polis” was a local, self-governing city-state back in the day. 21st century politics will have a lot to do with local, self-governing, democratic, eco-commons as we find again ways to organize ourselves that make sense to our differing contexts. We can share in global eco-commons values that appreciate our interconnectedness but also our differences. We can move from the centralizing ideas of the 20th century to appreciating our diversity and connection. See how this is happening.
Who are we?
Click here to find out more about the eco-commons collective.
Contact us
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