Aseem Shrivastava is an environmental economist, philosopher and a writer. He is the co- author with Ashish Kothari of Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India, and The Grammar of Greed, among others. He taught economics for many years in India and the US and writes extensively on issues associated with globalization. More recently he taught ecosophy, an ecological philosophy grounded in the thought of Raimon Panikkar. He writes regularly for numerous publications, and is currently writing a book bringing Rabindranath Tagore’s spiritual and ecological vision into dialogue with the ecological challenges of 21st century modernity.

In this interview for the Planet Local Voices II, Aseem delves into the philosophical roots of our present crises in the rise of modernity which effected an ‘earth alienation’ that ultimately gave rise to colonialism and today’s catastrophic obsession with economic growth and progress. The values of modernity – including individualism, instrumentalism, and mechanization – drive the dominant world system, in which we are all embedded. As a radical alternative, Aseem proposes ‘ecosophy’, an ecological philosophy that rejects the philosophical foundations of modernity and calls instead for us to return to and embrace our home, the Earth.

Episode 1 of the Planet Local Voices series II:

Living Alternatives, Active Hope with Laura Kaestele

Drawing on a wealth of practical experience from regenerative community building, Laura Kaestele, discusses the importance of living models of localization in keeping alive a sense of active hope and radical imagination for a more beautiful, just and nourishing world.

She calls attention to a 'mycelial network' of such alternatives, all over the world, which remains invisible in the mainstream world, but which is clearly gaining strength. Laura Kaestele works as a network weaver with ECOLISE, and has worked as designer, grower, project manager, and facilitator for the permaculture and ecovillage networks for nearly two decades.

This video forms part of the Planet Local Voices II series, produced by Local Futures, an international non-profit organisation, dedicated to renewing ecological and social well-being by strengthening communities and local economies. Explore our work here.

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We close the Bristol Conversations series with the much-admired teacher, poet and post-activist, Bayo Akomolafe. A public intellectual and writer, Bayo blurs the lines between the personal and the political, prompting a deep rethink of how we can act for change. He is the founder and curator of the Emergence Network and Chief Host of the We Will Dance with Mountains community. He’s involved with many other projects, some of which you will hear about in this episode.

In this conversation with Helena Norberg-Hodge, Bayo reflects on the ruptures in modernity that have sparked his own questioning. Going beyond a politics which fetishizes identity and category, he invites us to open up other spaces of power – where the immediate, the understated, and the local are more profound and more promising than grand slogans and ideas.

Dr. Lyla June Johnston is an indigenous musician, scholar, and community organizer of Diné Navajo, Cheyenne and European lineages. She blends her study of human ecology, graduate work in indigenous pedagogy, and the traditional worldview she grew up with to inform her music, perspectives and solutions. Her research has focused on the ways in which pre-colonial indigenous nations shaped large regions of Turtle Island (aka the Americas) to produce abundant food systems.

In this conversation, Helena and Lyla weave together different lines of heritage and experience, getting into deep discussions about identity, psychology and culture. They focus a lot on European identities and salvaging them from cruel and inaccurate narratives of progress which have cast many as fools, and many as villains. They come out with a throughline that connects the 'ancient primitive' with 'ancient futures'.

In another life, Manish Jain was educated at Harvard, became an investment banker with Morgan-Stanley, and worked with the UN. Since then, he has been on a journey of unlearning, deschooling and decolonizing, returning home to India to learn from his illiterate village grandmother. Manish is the founder-coordinator of Shikshantar Andolan, which has been significant in shaping the larger unschooling movement in South Asia. He's the co-founder of Swaraj University, Udaipur as a Learning City, the Indian Multiversities Alliance, the Ecoversities Network and more.

In this conversation, Manish and Helena Norberg-Hodge bounce of each other in a radical questioning of concepts like progress, freedom, wealth, empowerment and knowledge. Manish shares his personal story of disillusionment with the dominant system, sketching the profound worldview shift he had to undergo in order to come back to life, love, and local wisdom.

In the fifth episode of The Bristol Conversations, we hear from Iain McGilchrist, the author of the groundbreaking book ‘The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World’. Iain is a neuroscientist, psychiatrist and scholar; a man who has shed light not only on some fascinating truths about our minds and our experience of the world, but also on how these truths relate to many of the seemingly intractable predicaments we find ourselves in today. He helps us see the world and its problems with a new eye.

In this conversation with pioneer of the new economy/localization movement, Helena Norberg-Hodge, the two draw connections between their seemingly quite different bodies of work. They discuss human psychology, community, connection to nature, spirituality, technocracy, and AI. They illuminate how the struggle between the brain’s left and right hemispheres relates to the global techno-economic system, the damage it’s doing, and exactly how we might change it.

In the fourth episode of The Bristol Conversations, we hear from Camila Moreno, civil society’s foremost expert on the international COP climate negotiations. Since 2008, Camila has been charting the emergence of what she calls a system of ‘global climate governance’. She describes the ways in which the environmental movement is being coopted and reduced to a mandate for decarbonization and digitalization, which are in turn paving the way for the unfettered financialization of nature and the extension of technocracy.

This conversation between Camila and Helena Norberg-Hodge strengthens our critical awareness of the often unconscious but undeniable hijacking of social and environmental concerns and their buzzwords. It’s a conversation that will help activists and everyday people remain impervious to co-optation and stay true to a vision of real ecological integrity.

In this episode we hear from Nelson Mudzingwa, a farmer and food sovereignty advocate, working with La Via Campesina. He teaches at the Shashe Agroecology School and is the national coordinator for the Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmer’s Forum (ZIMSOFF).

In this conversation with Helena Norberg-Hodge, Nelson extols the benefits of local food systems that are closely connected to culture, community and the land. With firsthand experience, he highlights how local seeds and local knowledge systems offer real resilience and prosperity, especially in a time of climate change and market volatility. As a leading spokesperson for the global peasant movement, Nelson debunks the stubborn notion that we need big agribusiness – and particularly the so-called ‘Green Revolution in Africa’ – to feed the world.