PROUT Institute - Institute Programs

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PROUT SEMINAR

Enlightened Local Solutions
to Global Economic Problems
Next Seminar: October 24, 2009
Ottawa, Canada
$80 in advance
$90 at the door

A Seminar for Our Times
The economic crisis that now grips the world calls upon us to take a fresh look at our basic assumptions and approaches to economic development. No viable enterprise or path of development can be framed without addressing the global crises of energy depletion, climate change, financial meltdown, and environmental destruction. These crises are not independent from one another but interact and reinforce each other in complex ways. They also stem from a common root: an economic paradigm that assumes infinite monetary and material growth is possible with little concern for how nature works or for the holistic development and well-being of all people and other living beings.

To continue pursuit of economic development according to the assumptions, priorities, and institutional structures and behaviors of the dominant paradigm is to embrace an unstable, crisis-prone, and inherently destructive global economic system. Such an approach is not viable, especially for enterprises and communities that seek to realize solutions which are sustainable, equitable, and enhance social well-being and individual fulfillment.

Two imperatives arise from the recognition of this situation. First, economic development must become significantly more local in its control, in its resource base, in its markets, in its capital flow, and in its labor force. Second, local enterprises and economies must focus on development of economic activities that are inherently sustainable and equitable, and which thereby balance practical considerations such as productive capacity, resource efficiency, and operating profit with essential concerns such as worker empowerment and fulfillment, community livability, ecosystem integrity, and people's health and well-being.

This seminar outlines a new paradigm of economic development and presents a set of policies and planning tools designed to meet these two imperatives in a positive, creative fashion. Topics include:

Core features of a sustainable and equitable society
Inherent flaws of the dominant economic paradigm and its institutions
Fundamental values, design principles, and institutional structures of a life-centered, decentralized economic paradigm
Programmatic policies to facilitate global and national financial coordination and regulation; regional self-reliance and inter-regional cooperation; rural and urban integration; and local planning, investment, and enterprise development
Planning methods for coordinating multiple economic sectors
Organizing tools for engaging and mobilizing community-wide participation

REGISTRATION & FEES

Advance Registration: $80
Day of Event: $90
(free parking is available)

Ticket includes meal and refreshments.

Online registration available here.

PRESENTERS

Ravi Logan
Ronald (Ravi) Logan is Associate Director of the PROUT Institute and is the principle author of PROUT: A New Paradigm of Development. He has written on ecology, economics, social theory, history, and yoga philosophy. He was the associate editor of Common Future, a magazine that integrated economic, ecological, cultural, and spiritual perspectives in the formation of a biocentric, decentralist, and humanistic social vision. He also served as the Director of the North American PROUT Research Institute. View Ravi's Full Biography

Jason Schreiner
Jason Schreiner is Associate Director of the PROUT Institute and also serves as the Program Coordinator for Partners for Sustainable Schools, a non-profit organization that works to integrate sustainability in all aspects of K-12 education in Lane County, Oregon. He is also an adjunct instructor for the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Oregon, and has taught courses in environmental ethics and philosophy at Oregon State University. View Jason's Full Biography