Descripción
Intercontintental Dialogues
on the Environmental Crisis
Event
description:
Is there a
crisis of environment? Or should we understand the so called crises
of ecology as a symptom of an underlying civilisational crisis ? Is
climate change, alongside racism, war, patriarchy, capitalism and
authoritarianism, only one of the pathologies of our times caused by
Western modernity? To what extent is it still correct to portray
Western civilisation as the root cause of the globalised polycrisis
of the 21st century? And what
are the solutions, the ways forward, to ecological justice and to
peace on earth and with the earth? The purpose
of this event is to deepen political understanding of the
environmental crisis and the multiple crisis of our times through
dialogues between activists and engaged intellectuals from different
continents. We will
meet to share experiences and to compare wisdom resources of
different traditions which inform, guide and inspire movemments
fighting for ecological justice and democracy, dignity, peace and
survival in our times. One perspective will be how the
environmental crisis and its relation to civilisational critiques of
modernity has been articulated on different continents and how the
legacies develop today. What can we
learn from Latin American discourses in which Buen Vivir, Pacha Mama,
pluriverse, extractivism and post-coloniality are some of the words
we hear? What are the commonalities and the divergencs in the
learning processes in which négritude, Pan-Africanism and Ubuntu
have become some key references? What is the relevance today of the
search for swaraj (self-rule) through "satygraha"
(truth-force) and of the criticism of the "Modern West"and
of "development" inspired by Gandhi? In the North Atlantic
region German, French and North American critical theory, left
activism and critique of modernity have, argubly, responded belatedly
to the ecological crisis, while "eco-philosophy" developed
in the Nordic countries after the second world war, with pioneering
contributions made by environmental and feminist
activist-intellectuals, including Hilkka Pietilä and Sigmund Kvalöy,
and also academic philosophers such as Georg Henrik von Wright and
Arne Naess. What is the relevance in our conversations and our
activism of these and other traditions from the North? And how do
indigenous knowledge traditions from all continents come in to the
debates and change them? The
dialogues will include contributions by activist-intellectuals with
diverse background including Indra
Adhikari, Nepal Tord Björk,
Sweden Yusra
Elmobashir, Sudan Vijay
Pratap, India Thomas
Wallgren, Finland Desiree
Weber, USA
Organisers:
Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam Network for Comprehensive Democracy -
Swaraj
In
cooperation with
The
von Wright and Wittgenstein Archives, University
of Helsinki
Research
projects: "Nordic Workshops on the Environmental Crisis"
and "Freedom in the Age of Polycrisis", University of
Helsinki,
PI, Thomas Wallgren
Friends of the
Earth, Finland