Achieving Sustainability: The Ultimate Human Challenge: Critical Barriers and Future Perspectives

175 Pages·2022·4.104 MB·English

by  Karen Blincoe

Karen Blincoe
Achieving
Sustainability:
The Ultimate
Human Challenge
Critical Barriers and Future Perspectives
Achieving Sustainability: The Ultimate Human
Challenge
Karen Blincoe
Achieving Sustainability:
The Ultimate Human
Challenge
Critical Barriers and Future Perspectives
Karen Blincoe
Dronningmolle, Denmark
ISBN 978-3-031-10022-2 ISBN 978-3-031-10023-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10023-9
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To David, Sophia, Chloe, Alexander and
Jacob
Preface
From the age of 7–13, I used to run away regularly. My parents’ relationship was
fiery, and arguments would happen from time to time. I would get fed up and leave
home, which meant walking out the back door, down through the garden, past the
beehives and the vegetable garden, the blackcurrant bushes and cherry trees, into
our farmer neighbour’s corn field. There I would hide among the wheat or barley
(my favourites), lie down and look up at the sky, watch the clouds, the ladybirds,
the ants and other creepy-crawlies on the ground, listen to the birds above and the
sound of the rustling corn—or I would hide in the long grass and wildflowers in the
hedgerows. There were many natural places to hide in, in those days. My parents
and siblings did not worry about me disappearing. They knew I would be back when
I got hungry, generally for the evening meal.
We lived in the country surrounded by fields, woods and close to the sea. We had a
big garden and grew nearly all of our food. So my life as a child was living in, around
and with nature. It was part of my DNA and has continued to be so all my life. My
love for nature knows no boundaries. I live surrounded by it, and it’s a factor in the
way my life and career have unfolded and why sustainability has been an essential
part of that journey. Another factor that has contributed to my interest and passion
for these issues is how we lived during my childhood. We lived an almost sustainable
life. By that, I mean that my father, who, in addition to being the village schoolmaster
and church singer, was also a beekeeper and managed our large vegetable garden
with the help of us children.
The garden covered all our vegetable and fruit needs for the year, such as pota-
toes, carrots, onions, leeks, Brussels sprouts, peas, cucumbers, beets, kale, cabbages,
beans, and celeriac. What could not be kept in the ground through the winter was
deep-frozen. My mother made pickled beets and cucumbers. The fruits we grew were
strawberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries, raspberries, cherries, apples,
and plums. Some were frozen for desserts for the winter months, some were made into
jams, and some were turned into cordials or other condiments. We had a cellar full
of pickles and preserved foods for the winter, and we had a section in the communal
deep freeze, full of vegetables, fruits, and meats. The communal deep freeze was a
vii
viii Preface
building consisting of one room covered by a large deep freeze divided into compart-
ments. The citizens in the municipality were each given a compartment where they
could store their frozen foods.
Meat was part of my upbringing, always on the menu with potatoes. Early in my
childhood, we kept a pig in the garden. It ate all our scraps of food during the year
and was slaughtered at Christmas. Every morsel was used: cuts for roasts, chops,
mince, a variety of sausages, pates, cuts for stews, black pudding, etc. My father
went hunting, and my brothers fished. So, we had all the meat and fish we needed.
My mother looked after us, in addition to running the school library. She cooked,
cleaned, washed, ironed, sewed, darned, and baked with the help of her daughters,
my sister and me. There was no waste, no unnecessary consumption. Presents for
birthdays and Christmas were sensible, perhaps with the addition of a doll or book
from time to time. New clothes were a rarity. We lived simple lives but rich lives.
Rich in meaning, traditions, values, and learning.
These events tell me how important my childhood experiences were in shaping
my life’s journey. The first was the love for nature. The second was resource respon-
sibility and self-sufficiency. The third and fourth elements that gave depth to the other
two were the intellectual and spiritual aspects of my life. School and learning were
ingrained elements in our everyday lives. The school was situated at one end of the
house, while we lived at the other. My father taught three different years simultane-
ously and so, storytelling was important when learning about topics such as history
and religion. My father was a follower of N. F. S. Grundtvig’s ideas, particularly
those related to education. Grundtvig (1783–1872) was very influential in Danish
society from 1820 onwards. He had many roles as pastor, teacher, poet, philoso-
pher, politician, and historian. He was visionary and radical and applied his ideas to
society. Grundtvig’s views on education went against the norm of that time. He advo-
cated participative and action learning and learning for life rather than focussing on
educating scholars, and he was one of the founders of the folk high school movement.
My father’s other educational role model was Christen Kold (1816–1870), a teacher
and folk high school principal famous for his storytelling abilities. I grew up living
in a village school environment with these approaches to education. That had an
impact. The ideas of life-long learning as a participative and personal development
activity have, as such, been founding pillars in my teaching approach.
My mother ran the school library, where the local community came to borrow
books. The library was another place for escape and solitude, shared by most of the
family members. I loved the books and read from early age authors such as Jean-
Paul Satre, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Franz Kafka, etc. Reading became
a passion. The spiritual aspect was also an innate part of my early life that has
remained with me. Early on, spirituality was related to my parents’ beliefs. They
were Christians and keen churchgoers. I prayed and had a sense of something or
someone called God. But it was not until I discovered a different kind of spirituality
at the age of 19 at a folk high school that I found something that I could relate to and
feel supported by. A folk high school teacher introduced me to Kahil Gibran (1883–
1931), a Lebanese-American poet and writer famous for “The Prophet” (1923). In
Preface ix
his books, I found the wisdom, that I have pursued since then through a variety of
practices taught by many wonderful spiritual teachers.
The fundamental learning, both practical and theoretical, that was available to
me as a child, I am very grateful for and feel enriched by. That early learning has
supported me throughout my personal and professional life and is a key to my passion
for and relationship with sustainability. However, even though I respect the past, I do
not believe that the solution is to go back to that way of life or to that time. However,
learning from history is essential to shaping the future.
Dronningmolle, Denmark Karen Blincoe
Acknowledgements
This book is an adaptation and update of the PhD thesis that I completed in 2020.
The support and contribution from the Research Departments at The School of Art
at Kingston University, London, UK, and The School of Art at Brighton University,
UK, where I was a student while I researched and developed the thesis, have been
invaluable. My supervisors at both places guided and supported me expertly through
the process. Our regular meetings and conversations were essential in helping me
to clarify what I was doing and where I was going. At Kingston University, prin-
cipal supervisor Paul Micklethwaite and second supervisor Christopher Doll kept me
focused during the final two years of thesis writing. At Brighton University, principal
supervisor Prof. Jonathan Chapman and second supervisor Paul Hopper kept me on
the right path during the first years of research.
I owe a special thank you to Prof. Emerita at Kingston University, Anne
Boddington, who allowed me to complete the PhD at Kingston University.
I thank the three wonderful and inspiring case story teams: Søren Hermansen,
Malene Lunden, and Michael Kristensen from Samsø Energy Academy; Sister
Jayanti, Golo Pilz, and Sonja Ohlsson from Brahma Kumaris, and Claus Stig
Pedersen, Per Henning Nielsen and Hannele Sørensen from Novozymes A/S. They
generously shared their experiences from the change processes, and they are the kind
of role models we need and can learn from as we take the steps towards achieving
the necessary transition to sustainability.
Many people have inspired me on the long journey from research for the PhD to
writing the book. I want to thank my wonderful and wise board colleagues and staff
at Chora Connection from 2014 to 2019 in Copenhagen. The work and discussions
inspired me to continue the research and complete the PhD, even though it was a
stressful time. My gratitude also goes to the many loving friends and colleagues in
Denmark and abroad who have supported me both in the external career world and
on my internal spiritual path.
xi
xii Acknowledgements
The work at the ICIS Centre (2001–2014) would not have been possible without
the continued support from the ICIS board, for which a special thank you goes to my
supportive sister and great friend, Birte-Marie Jørgensen, to colleague Vibeke Grupe
Larsen and colleague and long-time friend, Steinar Valade-Amland. In this context,
I am indebted to my daughter, Philippa Shepherd (a sustainability researcher), for
generously developing the sustainability content in ICIS, working on the Rødding
Manifest and on the Mali project—and was also an ICIS board member for many
years. Without her contribution, we would not have achieved what we did.
The experience heading Schumacher College in Devon, UK (2006–2008) was
invaluable. It broadened my knowledge of sustainability and showed me how impor-
tant it is for an organisation to work holistically inside and out. The many conversa-
tions with the visionaries who taught at the college at that time inspired my future
work. The first time I attended Schumacher College as a participant in 1998, I was
inspired to create a similar platform in Denmark, which subsequently became the
ICIS Center.
I am grateful to the Publishers, Springer Nature, and especially Margaret Deignan
for taking on this book project, even though I am a novice, and for answering all my
queries when in doubt about the process.
Equally, I am indebted to Tim Harper, Visiting Professor, Newmark Graduate
School of Journalism, City University of New York for helping me through the first
months of dealing with publishing information and communication. It was a new
field for me to enter, and without Tim’s reassurance and comments, I would have
hesitated to embark on the book project. I am also grateful to Nancy Bobrowitz,
Tim’s wife, the best client I have ever had in my design practice in London so many
years ago, and who was also remained a valued friend.
Regarding the inner work, there are many special people to acknowledge. I am
grateful to my long-time friend Mary Aver, a healer, shaman, and spiritual teacher in
London, who created the Wise Women network in Denmark and has been a continuing
source of wisdom over many years. The Wise Women network in Denmark lasted
20 years and was joined by extraordinary women, especially Ulla Heegaard, Pia
Stærmose, Anne Echwald, and Margit Thomsen who have remained close friends.
My gratitude includes my own and extended family members. A special thank you
goes to my daughters, Anna Blincoe, a fine artist who made the front cover illustration
for the book, and Philippa Shepherd, whose special contribution I mentioned above,
and their families for sharing ideas on sustainability issues, and supporting me during
the ups and downs over the years—for their continued generosity, love, and care.
My final debt I owe to Mervyn Kurlansky, my wonderful husband, for continu-
ously supporting me, no matter what, and for encouraging me to do what I do. Paying
the bills when I haven’t been earning, tolerating when I was somewhere else in my
mind, and at times working day and night. Given support when I have been in doubt,
read the chapters in the book, given constructive feedback, and helped with practical
matters, such as designing the diagrams for the thesis and beautiful front cover ideas
for the book.