Learning Outcomes

• deep understanding of globalised industrial capitalism and its effects on the Global South

• ​greatly improved ability to dance between existentially conflicting perspectives and narratives​

• a practical understanding of decolonisation and its value in planetary regeneration

• development and improvement of self-learning and co-learning skills, approaches and methods​

• improved clarity on how to embed perspectives and inquiries around decolonial sustainability in your work​

• increased capacity and creativity to innovate for systemic justice​

• new purpose within your sector aligned towards building a just world where "development" is self-determined

Course Programme

PLANETARY SYSTEMS COLLAPSE
Reframing systems of human relationships to the Sixth Mass Extinction, and societal collapse as collateral damage, centring upon ongoing Global South experiences of collapse

Five overarching themes make up the course programme, designed to enable participants to view the activities of public and private enterprises from the perspectives of humanity's long pasts and ecology's stubborn silence.

STORIES OF THE GLOBAL SOUTH
General state of the planet
What are the dominant stories that have gotten us here?
The long view of power

NARRATIVES LOUD AND QUIET
The power of stories vs. the stories of power
Mechanisms of silence and denial
Worldviews: dominant vs. alternatives

INTERROGATING SUSTAINABILITY, INC.
Critical assessment of global and corporate sustainability frameworks and institutions
Mapping and analysing colonial narratives and approaches on individual and institutional levels

OUR ROLES AT THE END OF THE WORLD
Seeing new paths for "sustainability" and "regeneration"
What are our individual and collective roles?
Practical decolonisation

Course Dates

DecSust24 Starboard
13/14 July to 14/15 December 2024 (5 months)

This spans various working "seasons" in different sectors, including quarterly reporting periods, intending to spark important embedded co-learning opportunities. Regular course schedules continue during holiday seasons to encourage participants to use the mindspace to explore more deeply.

Registration for the next cohorts, DecSust25 Port, will open in October 2024.

Size of cohort
Maximum of 100 places in each cohort, offered to successfully vetted professionals in climate science, sustainability, innovation, communications, business development, academia and activism.
Peer groups of 5-6 people will be organised by time zone and sector.
For Live Sessions, two time zones are offered.

Live Sessions
The five-month course includes
twelve two-hour live sessions, with two cohorts in two time zones: Afro-Eurasia and Pacific.
Our live sessions are designed as facilitated discussions and explorations based on self-led homework (including reviewing pre-recorded content).
Please check the session times via the hyperlinks below.

Pacific Friday/Saturday live sessions
Twelve two-hour sessions at
9am Papua New Guinea time fortnightly.

Self-led homework
This is the bulk of the course.
Course participants are required to prepare for live sessions by watching pre-recorded content (course videos not exceeding 120min fortnightly, plus additional reference resources), and bringing reflections to live sessions for interactive discussion.
Follow-up co-learning may include exploring together suggested readings, conducting and sharing own research, developing and designing interventions within your peer group, work organisation or in your sector.
Coursework is due just prior to Sessions 5 and 12.

Peer group explorations
Co-learning is designed via Microsolidarity-based relationships. Self-organised peer group meets between live sessions engage course participants to work through group exercises and support each other in navigating difficulty, challenge and discomfort.

Is this course for you?

We're serious about this course being an exploration of provocative ideas and different ways of being.​

This course utilises an open, exploratory teaching and learning style that might feel at first detached and uncomfortable for those who are conditioned into a prescriptive educational approach. We will help participants adjust where needed.

By registering for this course, you are agreeing to reflect on and question your reactions, opinions, and attachments - we are asking you to explore some of this individually and with others, within the safe uncomfortable spaces we facilitate for this purpose.

What is decolonisation?
Decolonisation is the dismantling of colonialism, coloniality and colonisation in thought, behaviours, cultures and systems.

It requires, as a very basic prerequisite, a willingness to build a robust understanding of coloniality in different contexts, and to hone a critical perspective towards colonial violence and oppression.

That is what this course is about.

Decolonial sustainability does not appropriate indigenous knowledges or cultures by offering "indigenous wisdom" to Sustainability, Inc.

This course is for you if...

you are seeking professional development for radical justice​

you want to intentionally create space in your life for understanding systemic privilege and systemic oppression (e.g. to emotionally address the deafening emptiness and detachment of the comfort and privilege you experience in your career)

​you are willing to decenter yourself, commit to listening to silenced, oppressed perspectives and potentially change the way you work

This course is not for you if...

you are not prepared to question the dominant models of business we operate within today

you don't feel there is anything deeply wrong with your life or its place in global systems of politics or resource governance

you wholeheartedly subscribe to dominant or mainstream sustainability narratives (e.g. UN SDGs, carbon emissions, etc.) and don’t wish to critique them​

you want to listen to indigenous voices and traditional wisdom to improve dominant systems

you’re uncomfortable with discomfort,
and feel challenged by challenge

Afro-Eurasia Sunday live sessions
Twelve two-hour sessions at
10pm Papua New Guinea time fortnightly.

Individual coaching
One-to-one sessions with our guest coaches are available as an ad-hoc add-on to provide additional support where participants themselves deem necessary.
Guest-coaching fees are additional to the course fees, and are to be paid during guest-coaching session bookings. Sessions should be booked at least one week in advance.

Lorraine
Coach
Matereality

Heather
Coach
Keduzi

Lavinia
Coach
The Crisps -
Greenwashing

Vidhya
Coach
Collective Knowledge Works

Samantha
Course admin, designer & facilitator

Luiza
Quest designer & facilitator

Anna
Course designer & facilitator

Christina
Course designer, researcher & facilitator

Athena
Course admin & content design

Course Facilitators

Course Registration

Course fees include a sizeable contribution to our indigenous partners as indirect course teachers and guest speakers. At least 25% of course revenues are allocated for this purpose. Our indigenous partners are Philippine-based IPMSDL, Brazil-based Instituto Janeraka, and other organisations and individuals advancing decolonial aspects of the indigenous rights and peasant rights movements, some of whom have contributed directly to course content.​

Payment will be requested via invoice after cohort places are confirmed. We accept payment in USD, CAD, GBP, EUR, AUD and more - payments may be made via card or bank transfer.

Middle-class and/or underprivileged Global South folk in the Global South may be eligible for partial or full scholarship. No scholarships are offered to folk in the Global North who are not underprivileged refugees or asylum seekers.

Similarly, we welcome any additional contributions e.g. to fund our scholarship spots and/or any additional contributions to our indigenous partners. Please indicate in the registration form where appropriate.

Registrants with a long track record or are currently actively engaging within international aid and development should expect additional registration requirements including an exercise comprising of research and an 8-min video essay. No scholarships are granted to development professionals.​

Registration for the next cohorts, DecSust25 Port, will open in October 2024.

Course Fees

There is one single course fee tier, payable in any of the following currencies, or equivalent in other currencies:

USD 2,094
CAD 2,772
GBP 1,654
EUR 1,908
AUD 3,138

The course requires 5-10h engagement per week for 24 weeks. That's just EUR 8-15 per hour.

Payment by bank transfer (where available) incurs an additional 0.6%, while card payment fees would add 6%.

Key Dates

Registration opened 5th April 2024.
Registration closes 8pm Papua New Guinea time on 3rd June 2024.
We will confirm via email that we have received your registration within 72h.
Invoices will be sent out to those who have been accepted into the course by 10th June 2024.
Payment by 24th June 2024 confirms your place in your specified cohort.
Welcome Packs are issued 1st July 2024.
Course begins 13/14th July 2024.​

Direct any inquiries to infinite@possiblefutures.earth.

Course Testimonials

"Intro to Decolonial Sustainability was an unsettling but rewarding course that highlights the need to centre Global South voices and nature and to do the continuous work for actual sustainability, instead of the watered down version that we have become accustomed to. A must for all those who are in corporate sustainability, philanthropy, international development and social impact."

- Anonymous pilot course participant