Prosperity without Growth – Continuing the discussion and determining priorities for action
This is a series of three workshops to continue the discussion from where Tim Jackson leaves us. All three workshops will hav a mixture of working in small groups and sharing our findings to make sure that everyone has a chance to talk about the issues they are concerned about. The proposed structure for the three workshops is subject to change, depending on exactly where Tim Jackson leaves us, but is currently proposed to be:
Workshop 1 – Getting things straight –the key messages behind ‘Prosperity without Growth’
- Questions of clarification
- Challenges – are there concepts that Tim Jackson is proposing that you don’t’ agree with or are not sure about?
- Working out which issues you’d like to explore the implications of
Workshop 2 – Exploring the implications of the ‘Prosperity without Growth’ model
This workshop will explore some of the issues identified in workshop 1, in particular looking at social and political changes required. Discussion topics may include
- What’s it going to take to ‘reverse the culture of consumerism’?
- What does ‘tackling systemic inequality’ really mean?
- How do the massive changes needed to transition to a safe climate fit in with this?
- Can we make these changes through reforming our existing economic system and governance? If we think it’s going to be close to impossible what does this mean ? Can we make it politically saleable?
Workshop 3–What does a sustainable macro-economy for Australia look like?
Steve Keen , economist from the University of Western Sydney will join us for this workshop. We will discuss some of the key economic changes that will be required such as:
- What would a sustainable macro economy for Australia look like?
- How dramatic are the changes required to shift our current free market capitalist economy to a sustainable macro economy?
- What are the priority actions needed to begin this transition?
- Where would we be investing? What would our priorities be? If we had $30 million to invest where would we spend it?
All workshops will be facilitated by Janet Rice. Janet is an expert facilitator, who specialises in facilitation of discussions concerning our journey to a sustainable future. She is also number 2 on the Greens Victoria Senate ticket for next years federal election, and was a founding member of The Greens.
