Getting Involved

There are a number of ways in which you can get involved with SISS. There are opportunities to support our work, to create strategic collaborations and we offer internships.

Systems Thinking for Sustainability

We are an independent research and education organisation that honours the work of E.F. Schumacher.

News

Facilitating real behaviour change: new Challenge Papers for May

The two latest additions to the Scumacher Institute Challenge Papers series continue our programme of critically exploring and expanding the heritage of E. F. Scumacher's thinking in the 21st Century.
Alice-Marie Archer, an Institute Research Fellow, argues in her paper Making Aquaponics Accessible that aquaponics - a sustainable, closed-loop food-production technique that involves growing fish and plants symbiotically – should be made accessible to urban communities in ways that effectively support their local economies while helping solve global food security problems.
In Language, Images & Boundaries, Schumacher Research Fellow and co-Director of Research Michael Clinton argues that for society to adopt truly sustainable lifestyles requires informed and effective decisions and actions by people across the whole social spectrum, making it essential that communication between those with specialist sustainability knowledge and expertise and the wider public uses language and images that promote better shared understandings of the issues and responsibilities involved.

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Schumacher Institute Reports Series launched

The new Schumacher Institute Reports series sets out to provide accessible, essential and timely information on key themes in sustainability. They are prepared by Institute Research Fellows on the basis of literature reviews, original research and ongoing discussions within our local and global research communities. They also reflect the Institute's involvement in teaching and public outreach, as, along with our other resources and publications, they aim to offer a basis for informed communication to specialist and general audiences.

The 2012 report series opens with PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES: THE EARTH SYSTEM IN THE ANTHROPOCENE by Institute Research Fellow Steven Harris. This report uses the concept of planetary boundaries to frame an overview of the current status of the Earth system as revealed by a number of recent large-scale scientific studies. Findings from the studies converge on a common conclusion: that human activities are now the dominant force driving major planetary developments such as climate change, ocean acidification and biodiversity depletion – and that these changes offer serious challenges to further human development. It seems that the whole Earth system has irrevocably entered the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch characterised by large-scale human impacts on the Earth system. Since the last Ice Age most, if not all human cultures have developed at considerable cost to their supporting ecosystems, both locally and globally; the challenge for the current generation is to use our scientific understanding of the functioning and dynamics of the Earth system – and humanity's place within that system - to guide future human development along more equitable and ecologically sustainable pathways. [read full text]

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Two New Challenge Papers published

The two latest additions to the Scumacher Institute Challenge Papers series continue to critically explore and expand the heritage of E. F. Scumacher's thinking in the 21st Century. Nicola Jones, an Institute Director, argues in her paper The Role of Work in a World Where People and Planet Matter that in order for work to become truly meaningful we need to radically rethink our current perspective on work, replacing a worldview based on difference, fragmentation and separation with one focused on interconnection. In Appropriate Nano-innovation, technology analyst, Schumacher Research Fellow and Post Growth Institute co-founder Donald Maclurcan argues that if nanotechnology is to play an appropriate role in addressing the health-related challenges faced the world's poorest people in the 21st Century, there will need to be a much greater focus on some of the more equitable ways in which it can be developed.

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Schumacher Institute Challenge Papers Series

This new series of short papers by Schumacher Institute staff, fellows and associates aims to challenge, provoke and stimulate discussion. Each paper raises a practical or theoretical challenge for the sustainability movement and presents the author's personal take on the issue... read more

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Sustainability Toolkit

Sustainability Toolkit 2012
Final tasters sessions

Bristol
6.15pm, Tuesday 3rd January
St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol, BS1 2AW
Toolkit starts – 17th January

London
The Hub, 34b York Way, Kings Cross, London N1 9AB
Toolkit starts – 18th January

Email martin@schumacherinstitute.org.uk to book a space, for more information or to apply to join the programme.

You can find details about fees and how to apply here

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