Hi, Jim nice to e-meet you! I strongly resonate with the need to imagine what a better future might look like. This actually came up a couple of times in this CoSphere interview with Allie Rougeot. I think what's so critical to this task is ensuring that everyone's voices are included/represented, so it's a better future for all people. I also imagine a large role for people who are creatives, as well as science in building this vision. E.g., research on how different urban spaces foster human well-being can help to inform the kinds of urban communities we aspire towards. I'm looking forward to seeing what you've written here. If possible, would you be able to re-share the link - it doesn't seem to be working for me?

Ooo, great - thanks for sharing these!

What kind of political podcasts do you listen to, Meg?? Any around environmental or social policy?

Claire! I've been thinking a lot about these areas too - particularly co-management and knowledge co-production. We should actually have a chat about it some time, if you're interested. :) It's come up for me as I've been thinking about the participation of local Indigenous peoples in the EIS for the grizzly restoration project in the North Cascades. In two ways: First, how can we move beyond an emphasis on improving participation (which is rarely meaningful) towards true co-governance and Indigenous-led environmental governance, and what would this look like (the former at least)? As well, I've been pondering how I can possibly research and speak on these things as a white, uninvited settler on stolen Indigenous territories. I can't, really, but I'd hope to find a way to amplify Indigenous voices and push for this shift, through research.

Awesome :)

I actually loved the discussion of post-growth economics in that book by Kate Raworth! My understanding of their perspective is that it's not necessarily that we need degrowth, but to transform our economies such that, regardless of whether or not they grow, our societies continue to thrive. In other words, it's about removing our emphasis on growth as the goal, and designing our economies to directly achieve what we really want - healthy and flourishing communities! I've honestly struggled to find real world examples of how we can do this or what these changes look like in practice. Tim Jackson has some work in this area that is super interesting, though. This part from their paper is super relevant to CoSphere and the lever and leverage points framework, actually: "structural change must lie at the heart of any strategy to address the social logic of consumerism. And it must consist in two main avenues. The first is to dismantle the perverse incentives for unproductive status competition. The second must be to establish new structures that provide capabilities for people to flourish — and particularly to participate meaningfully in the life of society — in less materialistic ways. Achieving this means finding new ways for meeting the desires and aspirations that are now met through commoditized materialistic consumption. One way to achieve this is through investment in public amenities and spaces that create opportunities for leisure and self-development. An equally important, complementary strategy lies in strengthening communities and building strong social ties that enrich human life without enlarging our ecological footprint." (Jackson, 2011) Jackson also looks at policies that might reduce our dependence on growth - i.e., what changes we could make so people don't suffer if an economy's growth is stagnant (see the book "Prosperity without Growth - The transition to a sustainable economy" if you're interested). I think some of the changes were more values-based, while others were related to policies and taxation - e.g., a move away from taxation on labour towards other things, such as labour, could help. My memory is failing me a bit, but I was impressed at the concrete policy solutions identified that could potentially help. Definitely a lot more I hope to understand on this topic!