REFRAMING COMMUNITY-BASED ECONOMIES

Colette Lewis, Cobh Zero Waste and SIRIUS

Commissioned by SIRIUS

Supported by the Creative Ireland County Cork grant scheme 

‘Reframing Community-based Economies’ is a project by the artist Colette Lewis, Cobh Zero Waste and SIRIUS exploring a community-based model of exchange towards the implementation of circular economies as a civic-driven imagination of sustainable living strategies. The project brings the experience of older generations together with the aspirations and actions of younger generations shaping the new wave of eco-politics.

For older generations, being able to make, repair, reuse, forage, hunt or grow was mainly learnt within the family home and locality, often out of necessity, due to limited access to resources. While much place-based knowledge and skill has declined with advances in technology that fosters productivity, local know-how has been gaining critical purpose around humanitarian values.

For younger generations, new forms of know-how have emerged, mediated through digital media like Instagram, YouTube and wikiHow. Its use centres on the sharing of information and creation of awareness-raising platforms for environmental issues.

Colette Lewis, Cobh Zero Waste and SIRIUS are forming a digital and Cobh-based group to engage with discourse and practices around alternative, community-based economic systems. They are inviting all interested people to participate in a series of events to creatively and ethically think about how to ‘take back the economy’.

 

EVENTS

Monthly online, on-site and off-site workshops, talks, discussions, reading groups, making sessions and field trips.

Free; registration via Eventbrite (Zoom link in ticket order email confirmation)

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reframing-community-based-economies-tickets-130626177413

  

Thursday, 3 December, 18.00 – 19.30, Zoom

In conversation about civic practice with the artist Colette Lewis, Stephen Thornhill, from Cobh Zero Waste, and Miguel Amado, from SIRIUS.

 

Thursday, 10 December, 18.00 – 19.30, Zoom

Talk on sustainable living strategies by Angela Nagle, doctoral candidate in Civil & Environmental Engineering, University College Cork.

 

Thursday, 14 January, 18.00 – 19.30, Zoom

Reading group around the book Take Back the Economy: An Ethical Guide for Transforming Our Communities, by J.K. Gibson-Graham, Jenny Cameron and Stephen Healy, led by Miguel Amado.

 

Thursday, 11 February, 18.00 – 19.30, Zoom

Talk on economy as a public realm and enterprise as art by Kathrin Böhm, artist and co-founder of the Centre for Plausible Economies, c/o Company Drinks.

 

Thursday, 11 March, 18.00 – 19.30, Zoom

Workshop on ‘Redrawing the Economy’: the Cobh case, led by Colette Lewis, Stephen Thornhill and Miguel Amado.

 

Thursday, 8 April, 19.00 – 20.30, Zoom

Talk on community currency, feminism and the redefinition of the notions of value, worth and distribution by Ailie Rutherford, artist and initiator of the People’s Bank of Govanhill.

 

Thursday, 20 May, 19.00 – 20.30, Zoom

Reading group around the book Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, by Kate Raworth, led by Stephen Thornhill.

 

Thursday, 17 June, 19.00 – 20.30, Zoom

Workshop on ‘Redrawing the Economy’: the Cobh case, led by Colette Lewis, Stephen Thornhill and Miguel Amado.

 

Thursday, 15 July, 19.00 – 20.30, Zoom

Workshop on ‘Where to Land After the Pandemic?’, informed by the thinking of Bruno Latour, led by Colette Lewis and Miguel Amado.