a gathering place and a learning community for those who are drawn to the work of regrowing a living culture
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In the small Swedish town of Östervåla, thirty miles north of Uppsala, we are creating a school called HOME.
It’s a school that grows out of the conversations we bring together around our kitchen table.
It’s the fruit of the projects we led, the books we read, the organisations we built, the people we learned with and the friendships that formed us over the past two decades.
And it’s a new beginning. Something we’re figuring out together as we go along, with the help of that web of friends and collaborators.
HOME is a school the shape of a pocket. An air-pocket. A breathing space. A pocket of resistance and hope.
— Anna Björkman & Dougald Hine
Illich at 100
4–6 September 2026
A patchwork of local gatherings around dinner tables and picnic blankets and in convivial spaces of many kinds, in places around the world, to mark what would have been the 100th birthday of Ivan Illich.
Whether you’re a newcomer to Illich’s work, a long-time reader or anywhere in between, you are warmly invited to join in.
News
June 2026
Over the past five weeks, we hosted our first online series since 2024. A Bit More Practice brought together 180 participants from twenty different countries, and we look forward to following the connections and collaborations sparked during this time together.
As the series came to a close, we found ourselves spreading a rumour of convivial gatherings around the world in celebration of the centenary of Ivan Illich, one of the great inspirations for our work, over the weekend of 4-6 September 2026.
One of those gatherings will take place at the old shoe shop here in Östervåla on Saturday 5 September. We’ll have more information to share about that soon, along with an invitation to an online series exploring the resonances between Illich’s work and that of John Berger, another of our great inspirations, whose centenary we also mark this year.
SUNDAY SESSIONS
a season of overheard conversations
In the spring of 2024, we hosted this season of conversations with friends of the school. Watch recordings from the whole series on YouTube.
At Work in the Ruins
at the Stoa
In this free Zoom event hosted by our friends at the Stoa, Dougald was joined by three thinkers whose work resonates deeply through the work of our school.
order the book
“Essential reading for these turbulent times.” — Amitav Ghosh
“Lucidly unsettling and yet in the end empowering.” — Brian Eno
“A must-read for all those activists feeling lost, desperate and perhaps subject to ‘press-on-itis’.” — Gail Bradbrook
Order a signed copy of Dougald’s new book, At Work in the Ruins.
