https://transitionnetwork.org/
Related: TRANSITIONS • Arthur Keller • Énergie & environnement • Coop business schoolCohousing Now: Home – in Swedish Kollektivhus NU – is an association working to promote collaborative housing and other alternative ways of living. The association supports existing co-housing units as well as groups intending to create new units. Originally formed in 1981, it has recently been revitalised with the prime purpose to inform the public about cohousing as an alternative, and to influence authorities to facilitate the creation and running of such units. "Kollektivhus NU currently has 42 cohousing units as full members, and 15 organisations working in favour of collaborative housing.
THE TAINTER + GENERATIONS MODEL. EPISODE 4 MUSIC IN PHASE SPACE: An experiment in decentralized media Joseph Tainters 1988 book The Collapse of Complex Societies presents that societies collapse when they hit a point of rapidly declining marginal returns on their investments in problem-solving capacity. What does Tainter Mean by the ‘Collapse’ of ‘Complex Societies’? Tainter starts his book with a comprehensive list of examples of societies that have collapsed. They include: the Western Chou Empire, The Egyptian Old Kingdom, The Hittite Empire, the Western Roman Empire, and Lowland Classic Maya. Global insurers share successful climate change strategies to drive greater action and ambition - Asset Owners Disclosure Project Fourteen global insurers worth over USD 3.5 trillion discuss how they manage the risks and opportunities of climate change in a new leading practice guide launched today by climate finance experts. The interviewees provide peers with practical ways to navigate an increasingly complex environment marked by escalating climate risks and regulatory pressure for better disclosure across underwriting and investment portfolios. The report by ShareAction/AODP, called ‘Insuring a low-carbon future: A practical guide for insurers on managing climate-related risks and opportunities’, explores current leading practice, identifies common barriers, and presents a framework of industry-tested building blocks relevant for other insurers of all types. It also offers wider recommendations for policymakers, customers, insurers and their investors to help drive the industry towards aligning with a successful low-carbon and climate-resilient transition.
From social entrepreneurship to systems entrepreneurship: how to create lasting change The 20th anniversary of the Schwab Foundation in 2018 was a pivotal moment to reflect on how far social entrepreneurship has come in the past two decades. My husband Klaus Schwab and I started the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship because we sensed that a distinct, more entrepreneurial approach to alleviating problems associated with poverty and social and environmental challenges was emerging. We saw a new generation of social entrepreneurs who channelled their passion, resources, creativity and sense of injustice into finding new ways to achieve real change. Too often however, especially in the early years, they worked in relative obscurity in their home countries. They typically had trouble accessing high-level decision-makers who could support their efforts or help them scale, and they were frequently misunderstood by authorities, funders, the media and the general public.
Housing Prototypes: Collective House Street facade, detail. Sven Markelius was an important member of the Stockholm architectural avant-garde in the 1930's. Along with Gunnar Asplund and others, Markelius was instrumental in bring the ideology of Modern Architecture to Sweden as one of the authors of the Functionalist manifesto acceptera, published in 1931. Markelius also socialized with a group of radical Social Democrats who shared an interest in the new architecture and a new social order. Chokepoints and Vulnerabilities in Global Food Trade Growing international trade means that chokepoint dependency is likely to increase for the foreseeable future. Some chokepoints will come under more pressure than others. Rapid and continued growth in exports from the Black Sea region will increase dependence on the Turkish Straits, particularly for wheat. At the same time, sustained demand growth in China (averaging around 14 per cent a year for soybean imports over the past 15 years) will continue to increase shipments from crop exporters in the West via the Panama Canal and the Strait of Malacca. Second, climate change is increasing the threat of disruption by acting as a hazard multiplier across all three categories of chokepoint risk. It will increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather, leading to more regular closures of chokepoints and greater wear and tear on infrastructure.
How much of Earth’s biomass is affected by humans? We know, even by casual observation, that humanity has disrupted the balance of life on Earth, eradicated habitats, reduced biodiversity, and driven some species to extinction. Now, an updated Census of Earth’s Biomass reveals some details of this transformation of the species diversity on Earth. The study – by Yinon M. Bar-On and Ron Milo from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and Rob Phillips from the California Institute of Technology, published on June 19, 2018, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – compiles hundreds of global and local studies from recent decades, including revised estimates for certain families, phyla, and kingdoms of organisms. We find out that humans and their livestock now comprise about 96% of all mammal biomass on Earth. All other mammals – whales, sea lions, bears, elephants, badgers, shrews, deer, bear, cougars, rats, wolves, and all the rest – are about 4.2%.
Most of the $2 billion spent on focus groups last year was wasted. - Let's Take a Closer Look Thousands of businesses threw away their money last year because they used focus groups for some very bad reasons. Most wanted to validate decisions they’d already made. Focus groups are great for this, as participants can be easily steered to provide the answers you’re looking for. All you have to do is have a cooperative moderator, stack the deck with leading questions, and make it absolutely clear that you are not only looking for agreement, but for group consensus.Too many treated focus groups as quantitative data. Nothing is more absurd than counting qualitative responses as if they were part of a statistically valid sample of randomly selected participants.Some did groups because they liked the voyeuristic feel of sitting in the dark behind a mirror eavesdropping on the conversations of others.