WHEN: Friday, January 31, 2014 at 7:30 pm (veggie potluck at 6:30pm)
WHERE: Los Angeles Eco-Village, 117 Bimini Pl, LA 90004 (Directions)
FEE: $5 to $10 sliding scale ( no one turned away for lack of funds)
RESERVATIONS REQUIRED: 213/738-1254 or crsp@igc.org
Come hang out with us for a veggie potluck at 6:30 pm and schmooze with others living in or interested in creating more eco communities in and around LA or the world!
Then stay with us as Karen Litfin shares her adventures exploring 14 of the most prominent ecovillages throughout the world (including LAEV) on her year long personal journey seeking answers to how she might align her living patterns with her ecological values, as well as how societies throughout the world might benefit from the lessons of ecovillages in their midst, from the most advanced industrial societies to remote villages in the developing world.
Here’s what some are saying about Karen’s new book
“If you can’t take a year off to visit ecovillages around the world, this marvel of a book is the next best thing. It’s actually even better for the carbon it saves, the questions it asks, and the wisdom it shares. I am eager to share it with all my students and fellow teachers.”
Joanna Macy, author of Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in Without Going Crazy
“Ecovillages have for many years acted as micro-laboratories for building a low carbon, post-growth society. But what can we learn from them? How much of ecovillage life is scaleable and replicable? Karen Litfin set out to find out, and her learnings and insights are invaluable. We owe her road trip and her research a great deal, there is much wisdom and treasure here!”
Rob Hopkins, author of The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience
“Nature teaches us that nothing disappears when it dies, it merely becomes something new. Karen Litfin’s lucid and heartfelt book reveals the new life emerging in the cracks of failing systems. Through her eyes, we meet people everywhere who are building high-joy, low-impact communities. Litfin is the perfect guide: intellectually rigorous, spiritually awake and deeply caring. If you want to create a richer, gentler life for yourself and your community, read this book!”
Vicki Robin, bestselling author of Your Money or Your Life and Blessing the Hands that Feed Us
For more quickie reviews, info about the book, and Karen’s travels, go here: http://ecovillagebook.org/
ABOUT KAREN
Karen Litfin, Ph.D. is a professor of political science and environmental studies at the University of Washington. She grew up in Pittsburgh and Baltimore, received a B.A. and M.A. from University of Maryland, and then a Ph.D. from UCLA. Karen is a mother, an introspective activist, an avid bicyclist and hiker, and a second-rate gardener. In her research and teaching, Karen takes a “person/planet politics” approach, which entails integrating the intellectual, emotional, practical and contemplative dimensions of sustainability.
Karen’s first two books were Ozone Discourses: Science and Politics in Global Environmental Cooperation (Columbia University Press, 1994) and The Greening of Sovereignty in World Politics (MIT Press, 1998). You can find her scholarly articles on her faculty website. Unlike her earlier writings, Karen’s latest book, Ecovillages: Lessons for Sustainable Community, communicates her person/planet politics approach in language that is at once personal and engaging without sacrificing intellectual clarity and nuance. The book itself is an expression of Karen’s aspiration for wholeness.
Ecovillages traces Karen’s journey to fourteen ecovillages around the world to learn firsthand from those who are taking a “person/planet approach” to their own lives. In this inspiring and insightful book, Karen shares her unique experience of sustainable living through four broad windows—ecology, economics, community, and consciousness—or E2C2. Her aim was not to be a cheerleader for ecovillages but to truly learn from them, to transform her own life accordingly, and to share her gleanings with ordinary people who want the information about how to transform their lives and the inspiration to actually do so.
