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What is the nature of societal transformative change? When are people willing to go along a transformative change process and when and why do they resist? These questions have been guiding me in my research journey thus far, aiming to better understand the ‘roots’ of transformative societal change towards a more sustainable world.
Looking back I feel I was initially guided by tiny clues and insights from personal experiences during a more difficult period in my life, classically located near the end of my university studies and the beginning of my ‘adult’ life. I suddenly experienced that in the wake of uncertainty, choices to be made, new beginnings and things coming to an end, I became anxious, overwhelmed and insecure. Looking back, this period of change was difficult and confronting: I had to face parts of myself that had been somehow safely tucked inside during my relatively smooth childhood and young adultery when life was relatively clear, simple, straightforward and protected. I went to see a therapist for a year or so and started ‘self-therapy’ (something Giddens recommends to every person living in ‘late-modernity’1). The lifelong process I started than, began with becoming aware or mindful; looking at my own thoughts, emotions and the bodily sensations accompanying them and questioning their origin. Then, I started to understand that these stories in my head and the current circumstances in my life do not need to define me. Following this initial becoming aware stage, I started to learn about self-compassion; a topic that has been thoroughly studied by Dr. Kristin Neff2. See for example www.selfcompassion.org for a ‘self-compassion test’. Self-compassion, I have realized is crucial in any change process which will inevitably not always be easy. Lastly, I became inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert’s3 work on creativity; her blogs, podcasts, TED talks and especially the book ‘Big Magic’. Through this, I understood that creative living is not about making paintings all day long, but is about creatively shaping every aspect of your life and actively create rather than Transformative change: from personal experience to societal valueaccepting a life as a passive consumer. Creative living does require courage, coping with fear and uncertainties and the willingness to get in touch with your inner self4.A personal change process and a societal change process might require roughly the same capacities from people.
First of all, quite importantly, we cannot avoid looking at ourselves if we truly want to make any change in the world. This insight is commonly accepted in many of the ecovillages I have been to so far. If you want peace in the world, make peace with yourself and put it at the basis of every relationship you have with other people and your environment. This is for example a central theme in a theater play in a Finnish theosophical inspired community, Väinölä. The same holds for self-compassion: self-compassion has been shown to also increase other focused compassion and care1. Or love. As Brene Brown2

rightly states, you can only love others so much as you love yourself.Secondly, Giddens explains how people’s self-identity and self-worth in late modern societies depend upon ‘modern life securities’ including money, property, status, career and social contracts. In Eckhart Tolle’s words, it is a conceptual story that people create in their minds upon which their identity and self-worth is based. If we do not learn who we are and create a sense of worthiness independent of this story, ‘stiring up’ these modern life securities directly threatens our identity and self-worth. A reluctance to go along a change process that does that then becomes quite understandable. The problematic nature of these modern life securities in terms of sustainability and people’s wellbeing or happiness is very well explained in this short interview of the ‘poorest president of the world’, the president of Uruguay. It is part of the documentary HUMAN. Spending ten minutes of your time to watch it is absolutely worth it.

Interview Jose- Uruguay
Thirdly, questioning the origin of our thoughts and thought patterns is especially important in order to get to transformative change. As Martin Winiecki from ‘Tamera’, an ecovillge and Peace research institute in southern Portugal explains: the link between mental conformity and political power is very close; ‘it is a political necessity to question the basic assumptions that we grow up with and are used to’. He continues by quoting Noam Chumsky1 who argues that ‘the smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion but allow very lively discussion within that spectrum’. Inspired by this reasoning, Tamera found the ‘Thinking School’ aimed at ‘learning to think again’.
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Thinking School – TameraComing back to the value of creativity in a change process, arts-based creativity can enhance a change a process by broadening our minds, triggering new modes of thinking and reflecting upon our existing way thinking and perceiving the world, as can be seen in the above short video of the Thinking School as well. Furthermore, actively shaping one’s own life rather than having it shaped by others, requires critical thinking and the second type of creativity, self-actualizing creativity in Maslow’s terminology. Actively imagining and together shaping a desired future on a societal level is an inherently creative process as well. One that requires courage and the willingness in people to (re)connect and cultivate (self) compassion.

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1 A. Giddens 1991. ‘Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age’. Standford Press.2 Kristin Neff 2011. ‘Self-Compassion.The proven power of being kind to yourself’. William Morrow.3 Elizabeth Gilbert 2015. ‘Big Magic: Creative Living beyond Fear’. Cargo. 4 Abraham Maslow 1968. ‘Creativity in self-actualizing people’ in Towards a Psychology of Being. John Wiley & Sons. 

​5 Neff, KD and E. Pommier. 2013. “The Relationship between Self-Compassion and Other-Focused Concern among College Undergraduates, Community Adults, and Practicing Meditators.” Self and Identity 12(2):160–76.6 Brene Brown 2012. ‘Daring Greatly. How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead’. Penguin UK

7 Noam Chumsky 1998. ‘The Common Good’. Odonian Press.

Siri Pisters / SUSPLACE-project

Syksyn 2017 yhteisötapaamisessa yhdistyksen viralliset vuosikokouskuviot punoutuivat Keuruun ekokylän laulu- ja joogaviikonloppuun virkistäväksi kudelmaksi: Skey-atktiivit inspiroituivat vuorolaulun ja mantrojen parissa; rinnakkaistapahtuman osallistujat tulivat tietoisiksi Skeyn toiminnasta ja muutamat viivähtivät yhteisötapaamisen ohjelman parissa. Rantasaunan lauteille ja avantoon mahduttiin mukavasti yhdessä.Yhteisöjen ja hankkeiden tilannepäivitysten lisäksi kuultiin Osuuskunta Ehta Rahan Marika Lohen terveiset sekä kuvataiteilija Johanna Hyrkäksen kokemuksia Yhdysvaltain New Yorkin osavaltion yhteisöistä.Vuosikokous valitsi jatkoon puheenjohtaja Mia Salorannan. Hallituksen jäseninä jatkavat Anna Yrjönen, Juhana Kallio ja Selma Kilpi. Hallitustyöskentelyn aloittavat Pauliina Helle, Hanna Utriainen sekä varajäsenet Pentti Okkonen ja Anna Vasko. Hyväksytty toimintasuunnitelma lupailee jatkoa koulutusprojekteille, kiertokoulun elvyttämistä ja uutena avauksena suomalaisten EVS-vapaaehtoisten lähettämistä eurooppalaisiin ekokyliin.

Yhteisöllisyyden lämpöä syksyn koleuteen!
SKEY ry toivottaa kaikki kestävän elmäntavan ja yhteisöjen ystävät tervetulleiksi perinteiseen yhteisötapaamiseen!

Aika: Perjantai-illasta sunnuntai-iltapäivään 9.-11.12.2016
Paikka: Keuruun Ekokylä
Teema: Kansainvälisiä ulottuvuuksia
Hinta: 35,-/SKEYn jäsen, 40,-/ muut*, sis. majoituksen ja ruokailut
Yöpymiset: omin patjoin ja makuupussein salin lattialla.
Ilmoittautumiset: viimeistään 6.12. skey.pj @ gmail.com. 
Mainitse kyytitarpeesi junalta tai bussilta, eli Keuruulta Ekokylään. Ilmoittautuneille lähetetään maksuohjeet ja linkki kimppakyytitaulukkoon. (Kyytitilannetta voit kysellä ennen ilmoittautumistakin.)
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Ohjelma pääpiirteissään:

• Perjantaina klo 18 alkaen keskustelemme SKEY ry:n tulevaisuudensuunnitelmista ja kestävän elämäntavan koulutusten edistämisestä sekä nautimme iltapalan. 
• Lauantaina aloituspiiri klo 12., ekokylien kuulumisia ja uusien yhteisöhankkeiden uutisia.

• Lounaan jälkeen kuulemme pikaesittelyjä SKEYn kansainvälisistä hankkeista: menneistä, olevista ja suunnitelmista. Johanna Hyrkäs kertoo kokemuksistaan USA:sta, New Yorkin osavaltion yhteisöistä.
• KekoVerkko-hankkeen karonkka. 
• Marika Lohen talousklinikka päivystää muun ohjelman rinnalla. Neuvontaa yhdistyksen, hankkeen tai yhteisön talousasioissa.
• Sunnuntaina SKEY ry:n syyskokous n. klo 11.00, lounas ja loppupiiri. Lopettelemme n. klo 15.
• Ohessa pientä ulkoilua, tutustumista ja hippalointia, saunomista…
• Päihteetön tapahtuma 🙂

Muutokset ohjelmassa mahdollisia.

TERVETULOA KAIKKI LÄMMITTELEMÄÄN!

‘Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without’. William Sloane Coffin Jr. ​

The last couple of months I have wondered around Finland exploring its ecovillages with an additional two on the other side of the Baltic Sea, Estonia. This, I can tell you, is an interesting endeavor and one that I’m not alone on. In all these communities I met people that were wondering around Europe or just ‘the world’ exploring ecovillages or other places where people are experimenting with alternative ways of living.

One of the most interesting aspects about these ecovillages in my view is the diversity among them. Not one place is similar to another. As I find this aspect of diversity so interesting, especially in relation to our seemingly globalized culture and development projects that overlook place uniqueness, I started to read into it.

I stumbled upon the work of David Harmon who writes about ‘How Diversity in Nature and Culture makes us Human’ inspired by the philosopher, William James.

This work inspired me in thinking about the value of this diversity among ecovillages. In representing such diverse places appealing to a wide variety of people, the ecovillage movement supports diversity in both culture and nature. Communities are created that are very much place-based, embedded in the historical, cultural and natural characteristics of the place and keeping it alive and dynamic. For example by using local traditions, local indigenous knowledge, preserving cultural heritage on the ecovillage property etc.. Such place-based approaches in creating communities and alternative lifestyles are unique and diverse by nature.

Another type of diversity refers to the diversity of people within a particular community. Zygmunt Bauman explores the phenomenon of community in our modern, globalized world thereby critically reflected on the issue of diversity. He explains how many forms of community today are found by people seeking security in this complex world by creating boundaries, by creating distinctions between us and them. This is to a certain extent understandable, people seek security and an identity and the most obvious way to do that seems for many to find a group to belong to. However, this creates a sort of fake sense of security and leads to more separation between people instead of less. The meaning of multi-cultural then comes down to living alongside each other without actually living with each other, connecting, learning from each other and reaping the benefits of multiple cultures. Creating a safe and secure world needs exactly the opposite; it needs collective action, breaking through boundaries and connection.

Creating community thus comes with a risk, the risk of unconsciously or consciously creating boundaries around the ‘community’ and defending these boundaries in order to create a safe place to live. This is a risk that can also be observed in some ecovillages. I realized for example (and I know this is acknowledged by GEN and regarded as a challenge to hopefully overcome) that most ecovillage residents in Europe are white Europeans and in a large number of communities relatively well-off white Europeans.

This being said, the ecovillage movement does put a lot of effort in north-south collaboration and aims at a worldwide inclusive movement. GEN for example is very active in the current refugee crises with Refu-GEN.
A related beautiful example is the Syrian Initiative Craftsman Ecovillage, an initiative by a Syrian refugee in Sweden:
The Syrian Initiative Craftsmanship Ecovillage (SICE) is an NGO formed in April. It is driven by  a group of Syrian refugees and Swedes in Uppsala, Sweden. Our aim is to empower Syrian  and other immigrants to integrate into Swedish society in an inexpensive and  ecologically sustainable way within the social framework of an eco village. We plan to do the  building process in cooperation with a swedish municipality to achieve a fully functioning
Ecovillage. (http://www.ecovillage.nu/about/ – accessed 31.10.2016)

Diversity in the world and between places is often quite easily accepted and enjoyed, it’s a given that makes the world an interesting and adventurous place. Diversity in our direct living environment and day to day lifes could be framed as ‘place-based diversity’ and is another more complex and sensitive issue to deal with. The latter often invokes insecurity and confusion with regards to our identity and is thus prone to conscious or unconscious boundary making.

I do believe that in many people the intention to bridge difference and to live with each other in a life enriching way is definitely present. Acknowledging our fears and being aware of our mechanisms to find security by creating boundaries might be an important first step in eventually overcoming them and realizing a world which enjoys diversity.  

Siri Pisters / SUSPLACE-project

EU:n Erasmus+ -ohjelmasta rahoitettu Kestävän elämäntavan kouluttajaverkosto -hanke lähetti kahden vuoden aikana 17 aikuiskouluttajaa eri aiheisille ja eri pituisille kursseille Eurooppaan. Kursseilla opittiin monipuolisesti ekologisen, taloudellisen, sosiaalisen ja maailmankatsomuksellisen kestävyyden käytäntöjä sekä erilaisia opetus- ja fasilitointimenetelmiä ja koulutusten järjestämistä. Hankkeen ansiosta syntyi kestävän elämäntavan kouluttajaverkosto, jonka tiedot löytyvät täältä SKEYn nettisivuilta.

Hanke vahvisti merkittävästi SKEYn edellytyksiä järjestää kestävän elämäntavan koulutuksia. Kansainvälinen hanke toi myös uusia kontakteja, joita voidaan hyödyntää tulevissa yhteistyöhankkeissa.
Osallistujien mielenkiintoiset kertomukset kurssikokemuksistaan löytyvät kohdasta Hankkeet > Kekoverkko. Lue ja inspiroidu!

Kouluttajaverkoston kehittäminen ja kestävän elämäntavan opinteiden suunnittelu jatkuu! Jos aihe kiinnostaa, voit tulla mukaan Keko-verkko -sähköpostiryhmään keskustelemaan: Lista tilataan lähettämällä tyhjä viesti osoitteeseen: keko-verkko-subscribe@lists.riseup.net .

Last week I attended the yearly conference of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) – Europe in Arterra Bizimodu, a young community in Navarra, Spain. Arterra Bizimodu inhabits an old monastery in a sleepy, rural village in the beautiful yet dry and quite deserted Spanish country side.
This young community hosted 200 plus participants for a week. Most of them came from Europe including some from North and South America, Africa, Asia and Australia. Among the participants were those coming from eco-communities themselves, others who are thinking of or in the process of creating one, many supporting ecovillages or various sustainable living initiatives on both personal and professional levels, quite a number of researchers, older people, young people, children and everything in between.
Every morning started with a plenary session, which, in my interpretation, served to connect everyone again to each other, the purpose, values and energy of the GEN movement and to update each other on everything that is going on within the network globally. The days continued by two rounds of workshops addressing a range of diverse topics including social and spiritual development, the response of GEN to the refugee crisis and an urban resilience project. Parallel to the workshops expositions and demonstrations on new technologies and (permaculture) practices were organized and meetings were held among several work and sub-groups. Arterra Bizimodu as a community is ofcourse embedded and related to the broader environment in which is located. Producers and entrepreneurs from the surroundings of Arterra Bizimodu were therefore invited to the ‘marketplace’ organized as part of the conference to present and sell their local produce and handcrafts. The focus of the conference to me seemed to lie on the inner and social work that is understood as the foundations of communities. As Jonathan Dawson1 mentioned, rebuilding the fabric of community is the basis from which the rest will follow. This experience from creating and living in ecovillages complements the historical analysis that can be understood as the basis understanding (or assumption?) underlying the ecovillage narrative. This historic analysis shows that the natural ways for human beings to be and live is in tribes or communities and in cooperation rather than competition. This tribal societal structure is in stark contrast to our current individualistic and patriarchal societal structure. Taking humans out of these tribal or community foundations based upon cooperation has, according to Steve Taylor, professor of psychology2

, opened the door to a human history dominated by endless wars.
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This line of thinking reasons that we come from 5000 years of individualism, patriarchies and war and we therefor need to go through a deep process of reconditioning in order to be able to live in community again. Getting a harmonious functional social foundation in place thus seems to need a lot of inner work and social work including practicing conscious communications, building social trust, diving deeply into the nature of relationships and questioning our current societal organization based on individuality, nuclear families and one on one love relationships. This was clearly reflected in the nature of many sessions and workshops at the GEN conference. As mentioned by one participant of the conference, ‘it sometimes feels like therapy’. Although I personally quite like therapy and actually felt calm and replenished after a week of GEN conference, in my research mind the question does arise if this deep inner, social and spiritual work is really needed to create functioning communities. Can communities also function when organized around a particular material assemblage like sustainable housing or producing food together in a sustainable way? Are opportunities to include a larger group of people in the movement missed out by focusing too strongly on the spiritual, inner and social dimension thereby in some cases scaring people away?
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What should be kept in mind here is that only one out of ten communities survives the first three years, the other nine fall apart as a result of social problems within the community3. Coming from our current society, most of us will probably try to safeguard their privacy and individuality when coming together in a group, consciously or unconsciously. Can people live together in a nice and cooperative way structured around some materiality or will social friction eventually lead to collapse? Is it really so that “only tribes will survive”, in the words of Vine Deloria Jr. -native American spiritual teacher?

Some food for thought! (and research)

Siri Pisters / SUSPLACE -project

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1

 Jonathan Dawson is the former president of GEN International, current general secretariat GEN Europe. Living in Findhorn community Scotland and author of the book ‘Ecovillages – New Frontiers of Sustainability’. https://www.findhorn.org/2008/09/ecovillages-new-frontiers-of-sustainability-by-jonathan-dawson/2 S.Taylor (2005). The Fall: The Insanity of the Ego in Human History and the Dawning of A New Era. O-Books, UK

3 Diane Leafe Christian in K.A. Joubert & R. Alfred (2014) ‘Beyond You and Me – Inspirations and Wisdom for Building Community’. Gaia Education

Hollantilainen Siri Pisters tekee ekokyläaiheista tutkimusta SUSPLACE-hankkeen rahoituksella Luonnonvarakeskuksessa Suomessa. SKEYn tehtävänä hankkeessa on välittää tutkijalle tietoa Suomen ekokylistä. Siri osallistui SKEYn kevätkokoontumiseen 27.-29.5. ja kirjoitti kokemuksistaan blogin SUSPLACEn  nettisivulle.  Kopio blogista: 

A few weeks ago I officially visited my first (mini) (eco?) community in Finland – Ihala. If I understood correctly, it means something in the direction of bright place.

I joined an open community weekend and GEN(Global Ecovillage Network)- Finland gathering at the same time. The group of people attending was small  for the simple reason that it is spring in Finland, which means there is usually lots of work to do in and around eco communities. For me a perfect small gathering to slowly get immersed in the ecovillage network in Finland.
IHALA at the moment consists of four adults and three children living in a large communal house that used to serve wood trading purposes. It belongs to the community of Porlammi, just an hour drive from Helsinki. To get an impression of IHALA, they have a nice website . 

The opening line on their website says ‘your authentic self in union with all’. This, I learned during the weekend and from all the readings I have done so far for my research, is something that needs to be practiced. As for us, individualized Westerners, we have unlearned how to live in communities and it is scary to get out of our comforting, individualized zones to truly open up to others again.

Getting out of our comfort zones and getting together is however truly powerful in creating new ways of living that are simultaneously improving human health and wellbeing and environmental health and wellbeing. Sustainability and human wellbeing go hand in hand, which I believe is the most powerful point of departure towards regenerating and transforming our societies towards ‘socio-natures’ or human-nonhuman assemblages’ (1) that allow for a thriving Earth.

(1) These concepts come from authors that seek to go beyond the human-nature dichotomy and aim to understand places as not either society or nature but as complex human-nonhuman assemblages, or socio-natures or eco-cultures. See for example:
Braun, B. (2008). Towards a New Earth and a New Humanity: Nature, Ontology, Politics. In David Harvey (pp. 191–222). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

​The Friday evening was all about coming together by means of a circle. This is a way of communicating and coming together in groups often used in communities. By sitting together in a circle and passing an object from one person to the other, it is made sure that everyone gets space to talk about what is on their heart at this very moment. Everyone is listened to without being interrupted.

Soon it became clear to me that the ecovillage network in Finland had recently lost someone very dear to them: Heikki, the man of a thousand stories. I came to understand that he was quite a character and meant a lot to the ecovillage network. Have a look at this short movie Man of thousand stories – Tuhannen Tarinan Mies.

The next day I got acquainted with the Finnish concept of ‘Talkoot’ freely translated as ‘gathering for combined work and enjoyment’. So we did. I helped out on the piece of land the community is using  to grow some vegetables. The land is not their property, but their neighbors have given it to them to use. Together we did some weeding and prepared pumpkin beds.

After a nutritious lunch and some sauna, I came to know about the great variety of activities the Finnish eco villagers are involved. From learning how to build houses from sub soil in the UK, to coming back to oneself in nature at a Wildcamp retreat in Spain, to working with youth in facilitating their search for purpose. Rather than being isolated islands, most ecovillages actively reach out to learn, educate and co-create sustainable practices in numerous ways and in numerous places.

On Sunday Ronski Kosky led us through a process from connecting with ourselves to an authentic connecting with the other. Ronski is ‘a community weaver’: he travels around visiting eco-communities and facilitating processes of community building, including communication and leadership, to help communities to thrive. He is described as ‘dynamic, intuitive, inspiring and personal’. His trainings are based on non-violent communication, the art of touch, yoga and dance. For me it is an interested process and very valuable in my daily life, to learn to ‘tune in’ with myself and from there connecting with the other. 
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In July, the Luova Kasvu   community in Finland will host the Community Leadership workshop – Rising Together, which has been developed by Ronski Kosky. Unfortunately I’m not able to participate inthis workshop, as I will be in Spain for the yearly conference of the Global Ecovillage Network. More on this conference in July!
Siri Pisters

Ihalan avoin yhteisöviikonloppu ja Skey:n kevätkokoontuminen 27-29.5.2016.

Tapaamisessa kuultiin KekoVerkko-hankkeen liikkujien kuulumisia, kevätkokoustettiin, talkoiltiin ja muisteltiin  Heikki Attilaa. Mukana oli 18 aikuista ja kolme lasta koko viikonlopun ajan.  

Hallitus talkoilee SKEY:n nettisivujen kanssa.

Kuluneena vuonna yhdistyksen toiminnan keskiössä oli Kestävän elämäntavan kouluttajaverkosto (KeKo-verkko) –hanke. Vuoden aikana hankkeesta tuettiin 11 liikkujan kurssimatkaa eri Euroopan maihin. Hanke sai rahoitusta EU:n Erasmus+ -ohjelmasta.
Yhdistys oli aktiivinen uusien koulutushankkeiden ideoinnissa, vaikka uusia rahoitusmyöntöjä ei saatukaan. Kiinnostuneet kokoontuivat useita kertoja eri puolilla Suomea ja myös perustivat oman sähköpostiryhmänsä jatkosuunnitelmia varten. Vuoden aikana ideoitiin myös säätiötä, joka mahdollistaisi omistautumisen maalle maata omistamatta. Teemoja esiteltiin Suomen Sosiaalifoorumissa Helsingissä yhdessä Katajamäki ry:n kanssa.

Yhdistys aloitti ei-akateemisena hankepartnerina EU-rahoitusta saaneessa Sustainable place-shaping (SUSPLACE; www.sustainableplaceshaping.net) –hankkeessa Luonnonvarakeskuksen kutsusta. SKEY ei saa rahoitusta, mutta on mukana hankkeen ohjausryhmässä ja välittää jatko-opiskelijoille tietoa ekokylistä tutkimuskohteena ja harjoittelupaikkana.
Yhdistyksen kevätkokous pidettiin Livonsaaren yhteisökylässä, Naantalissa samana viikonloppuna kuin yhteisökylä vietti 10-vuotisjuhliaan. Syyskokous järjestettiin Luvattulassa, Sysmässä valtakunnallisen yhteisötapaamisen ja KekoVerkko–kouluttajatapaamisen yhteydessä. Yhdistyksen tiedotus hoidettiin SKEYn oman ja Rihmaston ”tiedotus”-sähköpostilistojen avulla.

Luvattulassa, Sysmässä järjestettiin vuosittainen yhteisötapaaminen 20-22.11. Mukana oli 25-30 aktiivista SKEY:n jäsentä ja muuten toiminnasta kiinnostunutta. Teemana oli Keko Verkko -projektin innoittamana kestävän elämäntavan koulutuksen eri muodot. Haaveita ja yhteistyökuvioita saatiin ilmoille ja koko viikonloppu soljui mukavassa ja lämminhenkisessä ilmapiirissä.