Ecological Economics Event Recap

Simplifying complexity is one of the greatest challenges in understanding the practical implementation of a Wellbeing. Economy. Luckily, there are media producers, such as Broaden who champion the initiative. With their 11-minute video interviewing Simon Mair, an Ecological Economist, the video simplifies the complex nature of discussing the topic of economic systems change.

On June 2, WEAll hosted a Q&A discussion with Broaden (Bryony Simcox & George Webster), Simon Mair and Lukas Hardt around ecological economics, narratives, and the Wellbeing Economy.

The hour-long webinar first premiered the video with the audience, then opened the conversation up for discussion. You can watch the recording here:

One question that erose during the conversation was “How do you make a living in a way that embodies your ideals if they conflict with the dominant system?” Simon spoke of the power of the current economy in that it forces each of us to choose between meeting our basic needs – i.e. participating in the system – or choosing to make decisions that are more in line with our  values.  Noting the success of the current system to nearly  require us to participate in it. 

He carries on to say, “find a way to participate in the market, but find a way to do it to engage with the things that shift the balance of power within a workplace or a community.”

Bryony adds, “models and frameworks help us but we don’t have to adopt a single one. We are working toward the same goals with a slightly different framework and a slightly different model. We’re trying to erode the system, as opposed to completely overthrowing it.” 

 Later, Lukas spoke to frameworks and models and added, “There are  lots of different models and we don’t have to choose one. I think it’s very  encouraging  that a diversity of models are being taken up. And hopefully at some point it can lead to change at a higher level.”

This event was a beautiful collaboration of the WEAll Network supporting each others initiatives. If  you’re interested in hosting a session on your work, please reach out to Isabel <isabel@weall.org> to learn more.