course for professionals
INTRO TO
DECOLONIAL
SUSTAINABILITY
closed 8th Feb
This is an introductory course for professionals on the contribution of globalised industry to systemic oppression, centring on the relationship between the Global North and the Global South through industry operations.
We begin by acknowledging that the dominant "sustainability" and "regeneration" methodologies and discourses we have today arise from a modern colonial narrative. We identify this as a mechanism of the One World, seeking a single story of progress, development and success, to trap us all into the certain death of incrementalisation through a narrow kaleidoscope of carbon-centric thinking. Net-zero systemic injustice. Eurocentric regeneration discourse further normalises the appropriation of indigenous knowledges, thereby trapping us all into repeating the same rhythms of extraction and dispossession.
This course does not seek to present a clear linear framework to decolonise corporate sustainability, or the masses of sustainability professionals in the corporate world. It rather seeks to create space to consider some unknown unknowns within Sustainability, Inc. - corporate sustainability, associated areas of academia, environmental activism - through understanding more clearly our long pasts and complex, confused contexts. We create safe uncomfortable space for exploration of our own cultural evolution, and together find patterns within our current systems where the perspectives, narratives and behaviours that brought us here remain powerful and unchanged, even within the popular field that seeks to put humanity on a different course.
This course delivers a clear holistic perspective of globalised corporatisation, supply chains and their systemic impacts. Our sessions reframe our problematic economic paradigm from Global South perspectives and experiences. Through facilitated explorations, this course enables participants to connect the dots within their sectors and look with fresh, purposeful eyes at what systems change might feel like through us as collaborative individuals.
learning outcomes
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deep understanding of globalised industrial capitalism and its effects on the Global South
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greatly improved ability to dance between existentially conflicting perspectives and narratives
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a practical understanding of decolonisation and its value in planetary regeneration
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development and improvement of self-learning and co-learning skills, approaches and methods
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improved clarity on how to embed perspectives and inquiries around decolonial sustainability in your work
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increased capacity and creativity to innovate for systemic justice
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new purpose within your sector aligned towards building a just world where "development" is self-determined
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PROGRAMME
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 have been 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
Who has been silenced and why?
Mechanisms of denial
Worldviews: dominant vs. alternatives
INTERROGATING SUSTAINABILITY, INC.
Critical assessment of global and corporate sustainability frameworks
"Sustainable development" in the One World
Is greenwashing designed in?
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
OUR ROLES AT THE END OF THE WORLD
Seeing new paths for "sustainability" and "regeneration"
What are our individual and collective roles?
Listening to the silenced
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SESSIONS
Course duration
March - August 2023 (5 months)
This timeframe has been selected to span various working "seasons" in different sectors, including quarterly reporting periods, intending to spark important embedded co-learning opportunities.
It coincides with typical June - August holiday seasons to encourage participants to use the mindspace to explore more deeply within the course.
Size of cohort
maximum of 50 professionals in
climate science, sustainability, innovation, communications, business development.
Two cohorts are being held - a Friday/Saturday one and a Sunday one - to accommodate successful applicants.
Live sessions
The five-month course includes
twelve two-hour 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 doublecheck the session times via the hyperlinks below.
Friday/Saturday cohort sessions (Pacific)
Twelve two-hour sessions at
every other weekend starting 10/11th March 2023, ending on 11/12th August 2023.
Sunday cohort sessions (Afro-Eurasia)
Twelve two-hour sessions at
every other weekend starting 12th March 2023, ending on 13th August 2023.
Self-led homework
This is the bulk of the course.
Course participants are required to prepare for live sessions by watching pre-recorded content (e.g. 60 or 90min videos with guest speakers and facilitator discussions), and bringing reflections to live sessions for active 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 (leading to final week presentations)
Peer group explorations
Self-organised Microsolidarity peer group meets in between cohort sessions to work through group exercises and support each other in co-learning
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.
is this course
FOR YOU
THIS COURSE IS FOR YOU IF...
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you are seeking professional development for radical justice
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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)
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you are willing to decenter yourself, commit to listening to unheard, oppressed perspectives and potentially change the way you work
THIS COURSE IS NOT FOR YOU IF...
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you are not prepared to question the dominant models of business we operate within today
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you don't feel there is anything deeply wrong with your life or its place in global systems of politics or resource governance
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you wholeheartedly subscribe to dominant or mainstream sustainability narratives (e.g. UN SDGs, carbon emissions, etc.) and don’t wish to critique them
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you’re uncomfortable with discomfort, and feel challenged by challenge
We’re serious about this course being an exploration of provocative ideas and different ways of being.
This course utilises an open 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.
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FACILITATORS
Click on pictures to know more about each facilitator or guest coach.
Samantha
Course admin, designer & facilitator
Luiza
Quest designer & facilitator
Anna
Course designer & facilitator
Christina
Course designer & facilitator
Nolita
Course designer & advisor
Garry
Guest coach
HEXO Change
Heather
Guest coach
Keduzi
Lorraine
Guest coach
Matereality
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REGISTRATION
COURSE FEES
There is one single course fee tier, payable in any of the following currencies:
USD 1,280
GBP 1,060
EUR 1,200
AUD 1,900
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 individuals within the indigenous rights and peasant rights movements who have contributed directly to course content.
Payment will be requested via invoice after cohort places are confirmed. We accept payment in USD, GBP, EUR and AUD - our bank details may be found here.
Should you experience challenges around the financial requirements of this course, please indicate in the registration form where appropriate.
Similarly, we welcome any additional contributions e.g. to provide free Global South spots and/or any increased contributions to our indigenous partners. Please indicate in the registration form where appropriate.
key dates
Access the registration form via the button below.
Registration closes 12noon CEST on 8th February.
We will confirm via email that we have your registration within 48h.
Invoices will be sent out to those who have been accepted into the course by 10th February.
Payment by 25th February confirms your place in your specified cohort.
Welcome pack issued 4th March.
Course begins 10/11th March.
Any queries should be directed to infinite@possiblefutures.earth.
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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