The Future of Leadership for Sustainability – Part One

What if we could create an unprecedented flourishing of humanity and nature? What type of leaders and change agents would we need to become in order to cultivate a world far beyond mere sustainability? In this article I report on findings that offer initial insights into the future of leadership. It’s an approach in which we learn to express powerful, latent capacities that may be crucial to…

SALT

“Salt is as free as the water suspending it when it's dissolved, and as immutable as stone when it's dry."  -Sallie Tisdale SALT follows Rossi’s ICE series. The artist ponders what will happen once all the glaciers have melted, if global temperatures continue to increase.  As water evaporates and lakes disappear, salt flats, massive evaporative basins that extend for…

Patagonia

Artist Statement After a life in the heart of London, among the madness of Manhattan, and the eternal bustle of Rome, I longed for the serenity of nature. The stunning beauty of the immense, vast, and wild southern tip of South America, known as Patagonia, overwhelmed me, and prompted a passion that was to change my life. In 1995, I moved into a tiny cabin in a national park in Patagonia…

ICE

ICE (H20) is an ongoing project that portrays the effects of Global Warming. The world, as it has been for millennia, is changing and Jasmine Rossi has chosen photography as a medium to stir our conscience and make us reflect on the dire question of the future of our planet.  Glaciers cave into the ocean, giant bergs float nimbly across Patagonian lakes, waves lick and gnaw at…

Reclaiming Our Great Lakes Commons: A New Approach for Protecting Our Water

There are 70 of us assembled here at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana for the opening of the first-ever Great Lakes Commons Gathering. In the opening circle we introduce ourselves and pour water brought from our homes around the Lakes into a large clear bowl. This confluence of the waters reflects the real and symbolic center of our meeting. We have come from many places,…

Toward A Common Theory of Value | Part Three: Common Knowing

Our Brain Hemispheres: Decoding the Epistemology of Economics The articles in this series examine the meaning of value in economics. Parts One and Two considered Aristotle’s distinction between C-M-C’ (the possession of household Commodities, which aims at getting useful things to sustain life) and M-C-M’ (the ownership of wealth, which aims at getting Money by converting commodities into…

Alexa Bradley and Julie Ristau

Alexa Bradley (left) is a Program Director at On The Commons. As part of the organization's leadership team she works to foster community solutions rooted in commons principles. Her current work includes a focus on the Great Lakes Commons Initiative. Alexa has worked as an organizer, facilitator and popular educator for over 25 years. Julie Ristau (right) is Co-Director at On the Commons, where…

Alms Bowl Upside Down

Very slowly, placing our attention in each foot as it descended to the sidewalk, we moved down San Francisco’s main thoroughfare.  Market Street was its usual noisy conflagration of traffic and advertisements, businesspeople and shoppers. In silence we walked amid them, clad in swathes of crimson fabric, our signs held high.  In support of our brave friends in Burma. May ALL…

Reflective Approaches to Social Activism

In a world aflame with greed, corruption, inequality and environmental devastation, the quiet victories happening worldwide often go unnoticed. A rousing article by Rebecca Solnit about the worldwide explosion of Occupy focuses on the movement’s staying power and patience—patience that is required for long term systemic change. Occupy is changing national debates, articulating  the destructive…