Today’s economy is built on the foundations of a global industrial and financial system with immense productive capacity, however the extractive nature of it has created extreme income disparity and social injustices as well as wrought devastation on the natural world.
There is an increasingly spirited debate about the need for a ‘new economy’, which has fertile and important implications for the legal and philosophical foundations of the current system.
What are different generative visions for this ‘new economy’, and how achievable are they? How can we re-imagine work, exchange, money, care, law and our relationship with the natural world through the prism of a new economy?
The Australian Earth Laws Alliance and the University of NSW are organising an important conference to explore the dimensions and future prospects of building a ‘new economy’.
New Economy Conference 2016
Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 August 2016
Glebe Town Hall, Sydney
The two-day conference will bring together activists, social entrepreneurs, economists, academics, lawyers and regulators, to discuss, showcase and weave together the explosion of experiments that are bubbling up around peer-to-peer initiatives, commoning, maker movements, sharing, buen vivir, collaborative economies, solidarity economies, localisation and cooperative movements.
Over two days, the conference will tease out the connections and tensions between these movements, with an eye to the practical lessons for projects and politics. The conference will include an interactive plenary session on Day 2, which will enable interested participants to co-design a Charter for a Coalition for a New Economy.
The call for participation opened on the 21 April and closes on 30 June 2016.
All prospective participants are invited to be creative with their proposals. Although some speakers have been invited in advance, the final program will depend upon what you submit. It will be crafted with an eye to the practical lessons for projects and politics, including a plenary session on ‘The City as Commons’ (exploring how different projects and ideas intersect with each other) and a second plenary exploring the idea of an Australian New Economy Coalition (whether for political advocacy, policy development or networking purposes).
The guiding question for the Conference is ~ How can we re-imagine work, exchange, money, care, law and our relationship with the natural world through the prism of a new economy?
The following types of participation are invited:
- Panel discussions ~ between 20 and 40 minutes long (please contact us first by email to discuss your ideas about panel discussions)
- Papers ~ presented for up to 20 minutes
- Short performances or interventions ~ 5 to 10 minutes
- Mini-workshops or facilitated games ~ up to 40 minutes
- Posters
Finally, the program will also include time for open-space sessions.
To prepare your participation proposal, please use the Conference Template, which can be downloaded here and email to neweconomy@earthlaws.org.au.
Find out more ~ Conference Website
