Feasta
= Feasta, set up in Ireland (but not exclusive to it) by Richard Douthwaite and John Jopling, aims to identify the characteristics (economic, cultural and environmental) of a truly sustainable society, articulate how the necessary transition can be effected and promote the implementation of the measures required for this purpose
URL = http://www.feasta.org/
Description
"The organisation was launched in Dublin in October 1998 to explore the economic, cultural and environmental characteristics of a truly sustainable society - and to disseminate the results of this exploration to the widest relevant audience.
The position Feasta has adopted is that many of the world's problems are caused not by bad people but by dysfunctional systems and it sees its purpose as designing better systems.
While most of Feasta's members live in Ireland, people from other countries have joined because they have found that its form of "hard sustainability" is not being discussed in any depth in their own circles. This has turned the organisation into an international network with an Irish office and efforts are currently being made to reflect this more in the way in which Feasta is structured and in its activities. We are trying to change Feasta from being a place-based body to one which is of equal value to its members wherever they happen to live in the world.
Our thinking is normally carried out through working groups which form to explore a topic. Often a project, such as organising a conference, brings a group together. Some groups start, run for a year or so and then go dormant when their goal has been achieved. Others are active for longer although they will go through phases, as their members' interests and circumstances change. In our earlier years, these groups tended to meet in person, usually once a month, but increasingly the discussions are carried out by e-mail, with groups developing their own e-lists.
The word feasta (pronounced fasta) is taken from an old Irish poem that laments the decimation of the forests. It means 'in the future' and Feasta sees itself as a collective thinking process about that future."
More Information
- (a) General - Internet video of Feasta lecture about "Reclaiming the
Commons" by Emer O'Siochru, at http://vimeo.com/5667418
Note also that discussions about commons are to be found at various places on Feasta Forums at, at http://www.feasta.org/forum/index.php
- (b) On "cap and share" as an approach to managing the atmospheric commons, at http://www.feasta.org/documents/energy/Cap-and-Share-May08-summary.htm
also www.capandshare.org (this is the website of a campaigning organisation for 'cap and share' that is an offshoot of Feasta's work)
- (c) Global Climate Trust initiative - governance arrangements for
global atmosphere/climate commons, at http://www.globalclimatetrust.com/principles.htm
- (d) Land Value Tax and the value of the land commons
- http://www.feasta.org/documents/landhousing/coritax.html
- (e) The monetary system as a commons (This includes a link to a piece
that Richard Douthwaite wrote and the full discussion that followed it.)
http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/will-big-business-privatise-the-monetary-commons/2010/02/25