In Conversation – Part 2

Land as a Commons: Building the New Economy

Sunday, October 25, 2020 is the date of the 40th Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures. Kali Akuno and George Monbiot will speak addressing the topic “Land as a Commons: Building the New Economy.” The virtual event will take place from 1pm to 4pm Eastern Daylight Time. The two talks and the live-streamed discussion following will be free to all registered.

The topic is land access, the problems generated by a concentration of ownership, and ways of creating a more fair and equitable system. The Schumacher Center’s own response to the inequities in land access is to call for a voluntary gifting of land into regional community land trusts where its use can be allocated through lease agreements in a socially determined manner outside of market forces.

We expect a large international audience for the 40th Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures, the first to be held virtually. Save the date!

Register here

Kali Akuno is co-founder and co-director of  Cooperation Jackson, a network of worker cooperatives and community-led programs that sustain and grow a democratic, just and sustainable economy in Jackson, MS. Among these programs is the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust, which allows community members to collectively steward the land and creates opportunities for affordable property ownership.

Kali served as the Director of Special Projects and External Funding in the Mayoral Administration of the late Chokwe Lumumba of Jackson, MS. His focus in this role was supporting cooperative development, the introduction of eco-friendly and carbon reduction methods of operation, and the promotion of human rights and international relations for the city.

Kali also served as the Co-Director of the US Human Rights Network, the Executive Director of the Peoples’ Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF) based in New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. He was a co-founder of the School of Social Justice and Community Development (SSJCD), a public school serving the academic needs of low-income African American and Latino communities in Oakland, California.

George Monbiot is an author, Guardian columnist and environmental campaigner. His best-selling books include Feral: Rewilding the land, sea and human life and Heat: how to stop the planet burning; his latest is Out of the Wreckage: a new politics for an age of crisis. George cowrote the concept album Breaking the Spell of Loneliness with musician Ewan McLennan; and has made a number of viral videos. One of them adapted from his 2013 TED talk, How Wolves Change Rivers, has been viewed on YouTube over 40m times. Another, on Natural Climate Solutions, that he co-presented with Greta Thunberg, has been watched over 50m times.