FURTHER ADVENTURES IN
REGROWING
A LIVING CULTURE
A five-week online series
with Dougald Hine
STARTS 23 & 24 MAY 2024
If your circumstances mean that the regular fee would be an obstacle, get in touch to arrange a reduced rate. info@aschoolcalledhome.org
Join us for a deeper dive into the work of regrowing a living culture in this online series with Dougald Hine, author of At Work in the Ruins and co-founder of a school called HOME.
Thursday group
20.15 CEST • 19.15 BST • 14.15 EDT • 11.15 PDT
Friday group
10.15 CEST • 9.15 BST • 13.45 IST • 18.15 AEST
The weekly teaching sessions last 75 minutes followed by an afterparty to which you are warmly invited.
Time to start swimming
It’s been on my mind again lately, that Brazilian saying, which I learned from Vanessa Machado de Oliveira. Sometimes things have to get bad enough in order for the impossible to become possible. Where are the waters deepest, around here, I wonder, in the societies that rode the tide of modernity the furthest?
I’ve been thinking, too, about limits, sparked by a yarn with Tyson Yunkaporta – how our ability to reckon with the trouble of these times is hindered by a story in which good things are always the fruits of liberation. As children of this story, it can be hard to attend to the possibility that limits are not just a (sometimes necessary) evil: that they can be a desirable good, a condition for the possibility of human flourishing.
So these are the waters I want to take us into, as we gather for a spring series around “the work of regrowing a living culture”, words that have been a touchstone since Anna and I started this school called HOME. What does this language bring into view about the ways of living most of us grew up taking for granted? How do we find our bearings and the places to start from?
We’ll enquire together into the small acts of regrowing, the places where we meet below the radar of polarisation – but also how we tune our attention to wilder possibilities, the daring moves, the moment when the waters are deep enough to try impossible things.
If this is your first time in one of these online series, you can expect some in-depth teaching that starts from what’s most alive just now in the conversations Anna and I bring together. There’s time for questions and reflection, hearing from different voices in the group. For many participants, the power of these series is also the connections that spark with others in the group: we’ve witnessed conversations that come alive and deepen over time into friendships and collaborations that none of us could have foreseen.
It works to show up quietly and listen – and there’s also room to lean forward and play a more active part, especially through the afterparty sessions. You don’t need to be able to make it to every session, and there are recordings available if you miss a week, but we recommend joining us live for at least three of the sessions.
Finally, if the regular fee would be a barrier, then get in touch, because we have some places available on a pay-what-you-can basis.
Dougald Hine
WHAT PARTICIPANTS IN EARLIER SERIES SAY…
“Dougald is an artist of the liminal. His journey has led him to extraordinary places, people and perspectives. He will take you through mythic territory, drawing on stories and symbols from his life, to help you find your own. A deeply nourishing experience that will leave you enriched and sensitised to the mythic in your own journey.”
PHOEBE TICKELL
Founder of moral imaginations
“When I embarked on Homeward Bound, I was at a personal and professional crossroads. I hadn’t expected such an equally philosophical and practical experience – and I never would have guessed where home actually was, or been able to make my way there. But I’m glad I did, for the world looks very different now and it’s a journey I don’t think I’ll ever forget.”
SAM CONNIFF
AUTHOR OF BE MORE PIRATE
“It was like we were all sketching in charcoal every week, making things bolder, or darker, rubbing them out and redrawing them, until, by the last session, some image emerged from all our overlapping lines. Many of us went off and began to draw parts of our lives differently using the shapes we found together. Forms we could never have imagined on our own.”
CAROLINE ROSS
Artist & teacher
How this series will work
We meet over Zoom for a 75-minute teaching session each week.
There are two groups: one that meets weekly on a Thursday evening (Swedish time), starting on 23 May, and the other on a Friday morning, starting on 24 May.
The teaching session opens with a few minutes to land together as a group. Then Dougald gives a short talk introducing this week’s theme.
The second half of the session is a time for questions and reflections.
At the end of each session, following a short break, you are welcome to join us for the afterparty – this is a chance to hang out and meet each other in a more informal setting.
A video of the main session will be shared within a day or two, and these will be available for participants to view for six months after the course.
All participants receive an invitation to our Mighty Networks platform, where these recordings are shared, along with notes from each session. This is also a space for you to share stories, make connections and follow up on conversations that began during the sessions.
At the end of the series, you are welcome to stay with us as part of the Long Table, a self-organising community whose members met through earlier series and gather regularly on Zoom.
Dougald Hine is one half of a school called HOME.
His latest book, At Work in the Ruins: Finding Our Place in the Time of Science, Climate Change, Pandemics & All the Other Emergencies was published by Chelsea Green in February 2023.
He has been a founder of a series of organisations including the Dark Mountain Project, Spacemakers and School of Everything. He presents The Great Humbling podcast with Ed Gillespie.
Originally from the north-east of England, since 2012 he has been settled in central Sweden where he lives with his partner Anna Björkman, the other half of this school.