Details TBC - save the date!

Community, Democracy & Resistance

A chaired panel discussion with:

• Carne Ross (ex-diplomat and author of There We Are Human)

• Eleanor Finley (writer and researcher on Social Ecology, new book, Practicing Social Ecology)

• Hazel Sheffield (investigative journalist and author of Frontierland)

Carne Ross

Former British diplomat who resigned over the Iraq War, an adviser on diplomacy to leaders of over forty countries and political movements, and a writer and commentator on geopolitics and political change. Carne writes and broadcasts about the deeper structures that shape global events - and how to change them.

I agree with every word Carne says. Let's get this shit done!

–Alexei Sayle

Carne Ross reminds us that although we are controlled by a few people who will do anything to protect their interests, they can be made irrelevant if we just have confidence in ourselves. That’s why I love what he says. He keeps it real.

–Benjamin Zephaniah

Eleanor Finley

Eleanor Finley is a researcher at the University of Massachusetts, an associate of the Institute for Social Ecology (ISE), and an affiliated researcher at George Mason University, Next System Studies. She has published numerous articles on social ecology and related themes, such as Kurdish democratic confederalism, energy and environmental justice, and degrowth, and conducted dozens of workshops, talks, and lectures to diverse audiences in North America and Europe. She lives in Fairfax, Virginia.

‘At a time of ecological collapse and rising authoritarianism, when we desperately need new forms of social organization, this lively book provides a wonderfully accessible exposition of the foundational ideas of social ecology – and inspiring examples of its practice. A powerful call to action for all who believe we can, and must, create a more democratic and ecological society’

– Debbie Bookchin, journalist, author, daughter of Murray Bookchin

Hazel Sheffield

Hazel Sheffield is a business reporter and investigative journalist. Her work can be found in national and international publications including the Guardian, Follow the Money and the Financial Times.

Before going freelance, she covered derivatives for Euromoney and worked as the business editor of the Independent. She left the Independent in the summer of 2016 to start a grant-funded project called farnearer.org, documenting self-organising communities and economic alternatives in the UK.

After a decade of reporting, that work has come together as Frontierlands, her first book, described as “…the essential new book about Britain's 'frontierlands', the abandoned and neglected places that provide opportunities for business and communities, and how they can help us face the challenges of climate change.”

'This is not just a grassroots manual for 21st century survival - groundswelling and prophetic, it could be a startling blueprint for life in the 22nd.' - Tom Nancollas, author of Seashaken Houses

'This is a book for now, when so many feel jaded, worn thin and in desperate need of hope.' - Kassia St Clair, author of The Secret Lives of Colour