Presentations

Ludwig Schuster – A New Monetary Pluralism: from a recombination of regional economic circles to investing in a sustainable future.

Ludwig Schuster, who advises many of complementary currency systems that have sprung up in Germany, looked at the role that money systems have to play in moving economies away from the exponential growth paradigm. He argued that, as different activities offer different benefits, special currencies may be needed for particular purposes.

David Korowicz – Complexity, Economy, Civilisation & Collapse

David Korowicz documented the disturbing growth in the complexity of trade and financial networks and in the various types of infrastructure. He sees the collapse process as a system of re-enforcing feedbacks that cut investment in energy and R&D and cause supply chains and IT networks to break down.

Dmitry Orlov – Definancialisation, Deglobalisation, Relocalisation

Dmitry Orlov explained why efforts to extend the lifetime of the industrial, fossil fuel-based economy are misguided and will fail. He then presented alternatives, describing how patterns of land use can be transformed into patterns of habitat creation and how informal local networks of sustainable non-fossil-fuel-based production and distribution can be created.

Brian Davey – Further Dangers Ahead: prioritising risk management at all levels of political economic decision making.

Brian Davey is an economist with an interest in mental health and how and why systems break down. He believes that a fluid situation exists now that the financial and political parts of the present system have discredited themselves. He wants to see if local green initiatives (like Transition Towns) flourish, eventually developing national level capacities to transform the energy and transport infrastructures of societies.

Julian Darley – Influencing Power: Factors Involved In High-Level Decision-Making For Sustainable Change.

Julian Darley reviews the non-economic factors that influence decisions making. He explains how a knowledge of them can be used to get new systems introduced. The factors include culture, social and individual psychology, business and political fashions, perceptions of what will be publicly acceptable, and what other opinion leaders and decision-makers are thinking and doing.