Stories of the Great Turning - to be published in Spring 2013

Editors:
Peter Reason and Melanie Newman

With an introduction by Joanna Macy

 

 

Buddhist scholar and eco-activist Joanna Macy argues that Western culture is going through a Great Turning, from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilisation.

Stories of the Great Turning is a collection of stories of how individuals and groups are contributing to this revolution.  It is accompanied by the Great Turning Artful Inquiry.

Peter and Melanie write:

In the autumn of 2011 we sent out an invitation, "Are you engaged in activities and projects, in either inner or outer spheres, that aim to contribute to building a more life-sustaining world? Would you like to share your work through creative writing? If so, we invite you to propose a chapter for this book."

We had no idea what kind of response this invitation would generate. We knew we wanted stories not from the well known figures of the environmental movement, but from ordinary women and men in their everyday lives.  We knew that lots of inspiring initiatives were taking place, and we wanted to help people tell good stories about what they were up to. In the event, an initial slow trickle turned into a minor flood as the deadline approached. We ended up over forty proposals.

Joanna Macy writes in her introduction of the many people who "each uniquely in their own fashion, are hearing the call to widen the notions of their self-interest, and act for the sake of life on Earth." She emphasizes, just as we do, the importance of ordinary peoples’ stories. "Like all true revolutions, it belongs to the people… The power of this revolution arises from people of all ages and backgrounds as they engage in actions on behalf of life."

Early in January, we spent a day together carefully going through the proposals. All told stories of engagement with important issues. Some we immediately knew we wanted to include; some we discarded because they didn’t fit our image of the book. We selected stories that showed a range of different activities by very diverse people, regretfully realizing we could not include all the good stories.  It was an uplifting and humbling experience.

We have invited all the contributors to workshops in March and June to develop and craft their stories. So this list of chapters is just a taster, for the stories will change and develop over the next few months.