Learning
Below find a list of activities and session modules focused on learning. Some of these appear in the seven-session curriculum; others can be used once your group has finished it.
Read suggestions from others and suggest your own ideas here!
Chris Martenson’s Crash Course
The Crash Course is an excellent resource which will provide you with a baseline understanding of the economy so that you can better appreciate the risks that we all face. Videos are broken into chapters; watch the 45-minute Intro with your Circle, and consider meeting to watch the rest together. Click here for the Crash Course: https://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse Related […]
A Link Between Climate Change and Joplin Tornados? Never.
Check out and share this video mash-up of Bill McKibben’s Washington Post op-ed connecting extreme weather events around the globe. Related items: What if Climate Change is a Big Hoax? Session 3: Richard Heinberg, “The End of Cheap and Easy Oil” and Bill McKibben, “What is Climate Change?” Global Temperature Change Graphic Watching “Inside Job” […]
Video: We’re Not Broke, Just Twisted
Extreme Wealth Inequality in America Via inequality.org Related items: Video: The Spirit Level – Income Inequality & Social Justice Video: If the Federal Budget Were Oreos… by Ben Cohen Video: Smart Security, Not War Video: Go Figure – What Would It Cost to Save the World? Video: What’s the Economy For, Anyway?
Homework for Sessions 1 and 2: Economic Meltdown Funnies (Optional)
Download a copy of the PDF Economic Meltdown Funnies here. To inquire about print copies, contact us. Related items: Homework for Session 3: Potluck and Recipe Sharing (Optional) Homework for Session 2: Inside Job (Optional) Homework for Session 2: The Story of Stuff (Optional) Session 1: Causes of the Economic Meltdown Homework for Session 7: […]
Make > Shift: From Finding a Job to Crafting a Livelihood
Make > Shift is a collaborative learning process that shifts attention at this time of job scarcity to the abundance of possibilities for meaningful work that can generate both income and community benefits. Meeting seven times over a four-month period, participants brainstorm ideas for products and services stemming from current demographic and market trends – such […]
Action Ideas: Budgeting & Debt Reduction
Resilience Circles can be a place where we support one another to get our personal financial situations in better shape. Below are some of the activities that clubs have done to support one another. 1. Assess Your Debt Take inventory of your debt. Is your debt a serious issue? Take this confidential Debtor’s Anonymous quiz […]
Homework for Session 5: Crash Course in Resilience, by Sarah Van Gelder (Optional)
From YES! Magazine, Fall 2010 We can strengthen our communities and ourselves to prepare for the uncertain world of failing economies, climate change, and oil depletion. To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival. —Wendell Berry When we are no longer able to change a […]
Homework for Session 6: No More Band-Aid Solutions to the Financial Crisis: We Need to Build an Economy that Works, by David Korten
Excerpt from Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth, 2nd Edition, 2010 Treat the System, Not the Symptom As a student in business school, I learned a basic rule of effective problem solving that has shaped much of my professional life. Our professors constantly admonished us to “look at the big […]
Homework for Session 6: Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth, by Juliet Schor
“Plenitude is about transition. Change doesn’t happen overnight. Creating a sustainable economy will take decades, and this is a strategy for prospering during that shift. The beauty of the approach is that it is available right now.” – Juliet Schor I. THE ECONOMIC CHALLENGES WE FACE Juliet Schor argues in her book Plenitude that a […]
From Field to Skyscraper: Tomorrow’s Farms
Imagine a world in which we could grow our food by sustainable methods, produce and distribute enough for everyone, and repair the heavy ecological damage inflicted by today’s farms. Can we realize this vision if we continue farming as we have for the past 10,000 years? Dr. Dickson Despommier, author of The Vertical Farm (https://www.verticalfarm.com/), […]
Global Temperature Change Graphic
Graph of global annual surface temperatures relative to 1951-1980 mean temperature. Air and ocean data from weather stations, ships and satellites. The 2007 point is the 11-month anomaly. NASA GISS Image. Related items: What if Climate Change is a Big Hoax? Session 3: Ecological Change and Our Economic Security Watching “Inside Job” with Neighbors: Preparing for […]
Video: The Spirit Level – Income Inequality & Social Justice
The correlation between income inequality and social problems in the 23 richest nations on earth is portrayed in this video. Studies show that the richest nation in the world, the United States, has the widest range of income inequality and ranks highest in social problems. What has happened to our declaration that “all (men) are […]
Small Group Guides: Northwest Earth Institute
The Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) is a national leader in the development of innovative programs that empower individuals and organizations to transform culture toward a sustainable and enriching future. Today, NWEI offers nine discussion guides for small groups. NWEI’s self-guided discussion courses are suitable for workplaces, universities, homes, faith centers, neighborhoods, and community centers. NWEI […]
Session 1: The Phantom Economy
Part 2: The Phantom Economy Our economy is going through a fundamental transition. We had economic growth based on borrowing. That is over. Over the last couple decades, the fastest growing part of the economy was “finance” (banks, lending, investments). According to experts, fantastic amounts of wealth were created. But how much of this was […]
Session 6: The Emerging New Economy – Summaries of Korten and Schor
ATTACHMENT 6-2 Read Aloud Living In A New Economy From David Korten, Agenda for a New Economy We do, in fact, have the means to create an economy that fulfills six criteria of economic health. Such an economy would: 1. Provide everyone with the opportunity for a healthy, dignified, and fulfilling life. 2. Bring […]
