Workshop series #7/7
Perin Ruttonsha
This series of 45-minute workshops examines the balancing act that is implicit in global sustainability transition, organised around the following seven themes: (1) order in chaos; (2) reductionism reconciled; (3) parallel worlds (4) power and vulnerability; (5) shadows and archetypes; (6) relational wellbeing; and, (7) fierce and quiet kinds of love.
In light of post-normal science conditions, those facilitating global sustainability transition may frequently find themselves embedded within problem contexts wherein stakes are high, values diverse, and information low. Not only are transition scenarios situated at the centre of a host of prospective trade-offs among diverse stakeholders; by definition, systems transformation comprises, in the least, a weak form of conflict, characterised by the critique of convention, or business-as-usual. In some instances, design thinkers have engaged with tension as the catalyst for change. Sustainability challenges not only the norms of societies, economies, and politics, but also who we are as individuals and professionals, therein. It calls for us to continually renegotiate systems boundaries, and undertake work that has yet to become formally institutionalised. This is comparable to what social innovation scholars have referred to as institutional or systems entrepreneurship. It may also entail greater levels of personal investment, sacrifice, risk, responsibility, and accountability. Processes of global sustainability transition ask us to retain order amidst seeming chaos; navigate trade-offs, paradoxes, and dualities; bridge past with present and future; shed and remodel our own histories of cultural and social conditioning; exercise strength, sensitivity, flexibility, discernment, and consistency amidst challenging scenarios; stand firm in our values for social and ecological justice; hold the line on integrity within highly politicised debates; and, walk graciously through the fire, as both fierce and quiet kinds of love. In this workshop, we will examine how to balance between the personal and professional, self and system, to become an embodiment of the change we wish to see for regenerative sustainability.