Ci Sono Ancora Utopie?
Ecovillages, Nonviolence, New Economies
Training on new opportunities and new hopes
Braziers Park (27th June 4th July)
Subject
This course aims to promote the ecovillages. The course is focalised in history and meaning of ecovillages and intentional community in the world. A theoretical and practical study.
Project date
2004/06/24 - 2004/07/04
Project type
Training courses
Target group
Interested people who speak English and Italian
Group size
12-14
Place
Braziers Park - Oxfordshire
Country
United Kingdom
Aims and Objectives
This course aims to promote the use of the
community living and to promote cultural discovery and sustainability learning.
The following concrete objectives have been set in order to reach the aims as
described above:
to explore and discover more of the local environment of ecovillages (typically:
natural environment, social environment, historical environment, traditional
environment);
to provide pedagogical support and time for the participants to develop their
own environmental activities;
to support the intercultural exchange between participants;
to produce a short handbook with the activities created by the participants;
to allocate space for the participants to develop their project ideas (new
ecovillages, new style of life).
Profile of Participants
The course is intended to be an opportunity for
further training for people who:
are experienced in environmental activities;
are ready to take the challenges that the exploration of an unknown place puts;
are committed to prepare themselves for the working subjects, previous to their
arrival;
have the willingness to cooperate and create together during the training course;
are strongly motivated to develop a environmental project;
are motivated to undergo training and able to attend the course for its full
duration;
are able to communicate and work in at least one of the two working languages of
this training course (English, Italian).
Methodology
The nonviolence training, the psychosyntesis, the social theatre, and the role-plays. The approach will be holistic and not didactic. The course will be based on the principles and practise of non-formal education and is conceived according to a learner-centred approach based on active and interactive methods. Participants need to self organise part of the activities and thus take a personal responsibility for their learning process. They should be open for an experiential learning experience.
Trainer
Maurizio Pittau. Economist and trainer he works with NGO’s and he organizes since 1997 courses, seminars, and work camps. He is writing a book about the ecovillages, that it will be published the next autumn-winter.
Specificity of this course
The participants will be divided into 4 groups
according to 4 subjects:
The Nature group
The History group
The Relationship group
The Sociology group
They will have to make a research about the topic, how it was in the past; and
they will have to prepare and organise one active performance to provide these
discoveries to other participants.
Programme elements
The course programme will address the following
elements:
Why ecovillages?
Group dynamics;
Introduction to and definitions of the intentional community;
Exploration of the local environment;
Planning of the activities;
Testing and evaluation of the activities;
Partnership between community’s members;
Overall evaluation of the course.
Working language
English and Italian