PHM in South Australia
On July 16, 2008. PHM Oz together with the Conservation Council of SA and Flinders University presented a free workshop aimed at small health and environment groups, social campaigners and people interested in a sustainable future. Numbers were limited and the event quickly became fully subscribed. Dr. David C. Korten is the author of The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. His previous books include the international best-seller When Corporations Rule the World; and The Post-Corporate World: Life after Capitalism. Dr. Korten is co-founder and board chair of the Positive Futures Network, which publishes YES! A Journal of Positive Futures; founder and president of the People-Centered Development Forum; a founding associate of the International Forum on Globalization; a board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE); and a member of the Ventures Network, and the Club of Rome. He holds MBA and Ph.D. degrees from the Stanford Business School, has thirty years experience as a development professional in Asia, Africa, and Latin America and has served as a Harvard Business School professor, a captain in the US Air Force, a Ford Foundation Project Specialist, and a regional adviser to the US Agency for International Development.
In the workshop David set out the key arguments from his book The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. He explained that the linked global crises of climate change, the end of cheap oil, global financial collapse and widespread social disintegration were marking the end of a long and deeply destructive era of human history. This era was characterised by a dominator, male and imperial ethos. Carried to its logical conclusion in the face of these unambiguous signs of unsustainability, this ethos will lead to a suicidal, ‘last- man-standing’ destructive demise for humanity. The alternative is to make ‘the great turning’ to a model based on cooperation and partnership, community, local autonomy and civic participation.
Korten was challenged by the workshop participants and asked whether, given the analysis he had presented, it was not already too late. His response was a pragmatic one. We cannot afford to believe that – for if we do, we do nothing, and it is too late. Only by acting as if we can make the great turning a reality do we have any chance of creating a sustainable and just human society. Events in the few months since his visit seem to support this approach. The global financial crisis (as predicted by Dr. Korten) heightens our alarm, while the election of Barack Obama brightens our hopes. At a local level, the workshop brought together a diverse group, one David Korten would see as a local community working together towards the great turning. David Korten’s talks can be seen on YouTube.
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