June 5-7, 2025 | Pomona College, Claremont
We are pleased to officially announce our upcoming conference commemorating the centenary of eco-sage John B. Cobb Jr.: “Is It Too Late?: Toward Ecological Civilization”. This significant event will also mark a decade since our transformative 2015 “Seizing an Alternative” conference and the founding of the Institute for Ecological Civilization. Held in conjunction with the 18th International Forum on Ecological Civilization and the 7th International Youth Forum on Ecological Civilization, the conference will take place in at Pomona College in Claremont, California
Track one welcomes abstracts on a range of pressing themes, including our current polycrisis, existential risk, and the vision of ecological civilization. We invite contributions that explore the construction of ecological civilization in China and challenge conventional notions of progress by envisioning what a post-growth society could entail. We encourage the examination of both global and local solutions to the environmental crisis, and the role of ecological civilization as a cultural revolution that shifts focus from consumerism to sustainability. Additionally, we seek to redefine success in terms of happiness, well-being, and ecological health, while also learning from indigenous ecological wisdom to enrich our understanding and approach to these critical issues.
Track two welcomes abstracts that explore essential themes such as rethinking higher education in the context of climate change and cultivating ecological literacy through transformative curricula for a sustainable future. We invite insights on how universities can serve as engines for ecological transformation and the importance of interdisciplinary approaches that integrate arts, science, and spirituality in ecological education. Additionally, we encourage discussions on the challenges and opportunities presented by digital education and its role in promoting sustainability. We seek contributions that address ethics and ecology in the classroom, emphasizing the need to educate for moral courage, as well as strategies for teaching hope and inspiring action in an age marked by eco-anxiety.
Track three welcomes abstracts that delve into profound themes such as cosmic ecology and our understanding of humanity’s place in the universe. We invite explorations of the interconnection between consciousness and ecology, emphasizing the relationships among mind, life, and Earth. Contributions that discuss biocentrism and the ethics of all life forms within the framework of ecological civilization are particularly welcome. We also encourage insights into astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life, considering their implications for our ecological future. Additionally, we seek perspectives on how human life serves as a microcosm, reflecting holistic connections between health, mind, and planet, as well as lessons from evolutionary biology and natural history that can inform sustainability practices. Finally, we invite discussions that re-envision creation through religious and spiritual narratives that foster an ecological worldview.
Track four welcomes abstracts that investigate pivotal themes such as the Green Tech Revolution and the question of whether technology can save us from ecological collapse. We invite contributions that explore the relationship between artificial intelligence and ecology, assessing whether it presents a promise or a peril for the planet. Discussions on biotechnology and ethics, particularly in the context of genetic engineering within an ecological framework, are encouraged. We also seek insights into ecological economics and the potential for data and technology to reshape global markets. Contributions that highlight innovations inspired by nature, such as rewilding technology, as well as the planning of smart cities and green infrastructure for sustainable urban futures, are welcome. Finally, we invite papers that examine the role of big data in ecological research and policy, aiming to enhance our understanding of these critical intersections.
Track five welcomes abstracts that explore transformative themes such as the eco-self and the redefinition of humanity’s relationship to nature. We invite discussions on transcending the boundaries of mind, body, and nature through spirituality and psychedelics, as well as insights on living non-violently in a violent world, drawing lessons from Ahiṃsā. Contributions that highlight the power of art and storytelling in shaping ecological consciousness are particularly encouraged, alongside explorations of how ritual and resilience can foster environmental action. We also seek to address the concept of ecological grief, acknowledging the loss we face in the Anthropocene, and invite reflections on human flourishing within an ecological civilization, focusing on the redefinition of purpose and meaning in our interconnected world.
Track six welcome abstract that seek innovative research and case studies that explore how businesses and economic systems can pivot from profit-driven, extractive models to regenerative, equitable, and sustainable practices. Topics may include circular economy, corporate social responsibility, ecological entrepreneurship, alternative economic models, and financial systems that prioritize environmental and social well-being. We welcome interdisciplinary approaches that reimagine the role of business in fostering a flourishing planet and inclusive prosperity. This track will mark our first major focus on business.
Keynote Speakers
Jeremy Lent
Jeremy Lent is an author and speaker whose work investigates the underlying causes of our civilization’s existential crisis, and explores pathways toward a life-affirming future. His award-winning book, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning, examines the way humans have made meaning from the cosmos from hunter-gatherer times to the present day. His more recent award-winning The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe offers a solid foundation for an integrative worldview that could lead humanity to a sustainable, flourishing future. He has written extensively about the vision and specifics of an ecological civilization, and is the founder of the Deep Transformation Network, a global community exploring pathways toward a life-affirming future on a regenerated Earth. Follow him on his author website.
Envisioning an Ecological Civilization in Theory and Practice
Our civilization is careening at an accelerating pace toward a precipice of climate breakdown, ecological destruction, and gaping inequality. Redirecting humanity’s trajectory will require transformation at a foundational level: moving from a wealth-based, extractive civilization to one that is life-affirming—an Ecological Civilization.
The idea of an Ecological Civilization envisages a beneficial potential future of human flourishing on a regenerated Earth. It would require a transformation of our current economy, politics, and mainstream culture, leading to a fundamentally different civilization based of different values, goals, and collective behavior.
In this presentation, author Jeremy Lent will explore the concept of an ecological civilization: why we need it, its underlying principles, and a glimpse of what it might look like in practice. Beginning with fundamental principles of life, expanding to general principles of ecosystems and human flourishing, then exploring specifics of what an Ecocivilization might entail, Lent will show how it’s possible to envisage a robust foundation on which a coherent civilizational framework could be established to set the conditions for all human beings to thrive on a healthy, vibrant planet.
WenLiang Li
Mr. Wenliang Li, founder of Dongguan Getwell Electronics, member of Education Popularization Committee of the International Confucian Association and recipient of the 2024 Cobb Common Good Prize for Ecological Civilization and Green Development Innovation. With 28 years in manufacturing, he pioneered the “51-25-24 Harmony” equity model (51% for Earth welfare, 25% employee shares, 24% investor shares), hailed by Dr. John B. Cobb Jr. as “China’s answer to the planetary crisis.” He has implemented the plant-based diet program in his company since 2009, reducing emissions by 7300 tons, and established “Chief of Boundlesslight Officer (CBO) ” to foster awakened enterprise. Since 2023, he has advocated globally for a “symbiotic enterprise mechanism,” actualizing Arnold Toynbee’s prophecy that “Chinese wisdom will save humanity.”
The Responsibility and Role of Chinese Entrepreneurs in Ecological Civilization Construction
Dongguan Getwell Electronics Co., Ltd. takes Chinese culture as its core and has explored an ecological enterprise practice path of “harmony within heaven, earth and man”. By reconstructing the equity governance mechanism (51% earth/public welfare equity, 25% all-staff equity, 24% capital/investor equity), the corporate mission is shifted from profit maximization to the happiness of human life under the harmonious coexistence of human and nature. By integrating measures such as all-staff organic vegetarianism, organic agriculture and industry-education integration, Getwell has achieved remarkable results in reducing carbon emissions, promoting educational public welfare, and building ecological alliances. Facing the global systemic ecological and spiritual crises, Getwell has proposed advocate global enterprises jointly build a symbiotic mechanism leading by take the wisdom of “harmony between man and nature” in Chinese culture, to provide a Chinese solution for resolving human crises.
David W. Orr
David W. Orr is Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics emeritus (1990-2017), Counselor to the President, Oberlin College 2007-2017, and presently a Professor of Practice at Arizona State University. He is perhaps best known for his pioneering work on environmental literacy in higher education and his leading role in the promising new field of ecological design. He is the author of eight books, including Dangerous Years: Climate Change, the Long Emergency, and the Way Forward (Yale University Press, 2017), Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford, 2009), Design with Nature (Oxford, 2002), Earth in Mind (Island, 2004) and co-editor of four others including Democracy Unchained (The New Press, 2020). He was a regular columnist for Conservation biology for twenty years. See his longer bio on the Arizona State University website.
Eco-Literacy for Ecological Civilization
Abstract Forthcoming
Susan Strauss
Susan Strauss is a professional storyteller, internationally known for her performances on natural history themes and for her signature workshop, The Passionate Fact: Storytelling Science. She has written original narratives for Monterey Bay Aquarium, a National Forest Service salmon watershed restoration project, and a National Park Service film on the wolf in mythology used in Yellowstone National Park. Strauss began as a storyteller of Native American Coyote Stories. Her storytellings grew from friendships with Native elders, anthropological texts, and her love of America’s native wild dog. She discovered that the miraculous stories we call natural science found an echo in the beautiful, mythic pictures in worldwide indigenous stories. Internationally recognized as a storyteller of natural history themes, she combines mythic/traditional story from many cultures with personal anecdote and scientific information.
The Great Story of Ecological Civilization and Our Common Future
In this presentation, we will be invited into the Imaginal realm of storytelling and mythos to help us connect our personal stories to the greater story of Ecological Civilization and our common future.
Professional storyteller Susan Strauss will take us on a journey around the world and deep within our own hearts with stories that are both ancient and new. From reading the sacred text of the book of nature, to creation stories that evoke reverence and awe, to timeless tales of wisdom, we can come to understand how the mythic story, the modern story, and our personal stories are all woven together.
Susan will also run a workshop during a breakout session in which she will facilitate us in becoming the storytellers—boldly and bravely telling the story of Ecological Civilization, both ancient and new, both personal and for our common future.
Clifford Cobb
Clifford Cobb is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a master’s degree in public policy. He is author of Responsive Schools, Renewed Communities: A Communitarian Proposal for Systemic Education Reform; co-author of The Green National Product: An Alternative Measure of the National Economy, co-editor of The Path to Justice: Essays on the Philosophy and Economics of Henry George, contributor to For the Common Good, and author of several articles on social indicators and environmental taxes. In 1999, he was invited to write a background paper for a planning session in Denmark on social indicators in preparation for the United Nations Summit on Social Development. In 1994, he helped establish Redefining Progress, a social policy think-tank in San Francisco, and he remains a senior fellow, doing research projects on common property resources and tax policy. In 1995, he served as a member of an advisory committee for President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development.
Is Artificial Intelligence Creating Stockholm Syndrome?
Abstract Forthcoming
David A. Schwerin
David Schwerin, PhD is the author of Conscious Capitalism: Principles for Prosperity, which was translated into Portuguese and Chinese and went into a second printing in China. His second book, Conscious Globalism was published in the U.S and China. Most recently, David co-authored the book, Know Your Soul: Bring Joy to Your Life with Diana Muenz Chen. He has over thirty-five years of business experience, his articles have been published worldwide, and he has often been quoted in the press. David has an MBA in Finance and a PhD in Consciousness Studies. He was a member of the Financial Analysts Federation and The Sustainable Business Network. In addition, he has served on the board of directors of several non-profit organizations. David has given lectures, presentations and media interviews throughout the U.S. In addition, between 2001 and 2020 he gave dozens of lectures on a variety of business and psychology topics to political leaders, business executives and academic audiences in scores of cities in China and India. As a result, he was asked to write a blog for the Times of India which he did for eight years. His website is www.consciousthinking.com
Ecological Civilization Needs a New Business Perspective
Many people, including those in the Ecological Civilization movement, give little thought to the role businesses could play in furthering this important effort. The common view is that businesses are greedy and shortsighted and, therefore, not worthy of being included. While that belief is often true, it’s myopic. To begin with, almost everyone is in business either directly or indirectly. Doctors, lawyers, educators, farmers, etc. all have a product or service they are trying to sell. Producing and selling things is what a business is all about!
Whether a business is greedy or generous depends on the leader. Leaders who are conscious of who they are and why they are here, will naturally act equitably and sustainably. They realize everything is connected and what they do for another they do for themselves. The key, therefore, is to encourage more people to attain self-knowledge, so they know what is important and how they can best contribute to life.
Fortunately, a business environment can be a perfect place to acquire self-knowledge. Superiors, peers and subordinates challenge those in the workplace to face their fears, doubts and aspirations and understand their motivations when encountering competitors and allies alike. They learn that co-operation is more fruitful than conflict. Their strengths and weaknesses become crystal clear. Self-knowledge naturally leads to the desire for a better world which, in business is expressed as conscious capitalism. It then becomes a significant part of an Ecological Civilization.
Marcus Ford
Marcus Ford was one of the first professors in the country to teach courses in sustainability and develop an environmental humanities program. Since early in his teaching career, Marcus has held that the most important thing we can learn is how to live sustainably and justly within the bounds of the natural world. He has taught sustainability studies at the undergraduate and graduate level and is an advocate for education that prepares people to actively participate in shaping their communities. He is the author of the groundbreaking book, Beyond the Modern University and many articles on higher education. Marcus is the Founder of Flagstaff College.
Is It Too Late for Higher Education Reform?
This presentation will explore the possibility of restructuring general education requirements around the threat of uncontrolled global warming and other existential threats. The modern American university is structured around particular academic disciplines, with the faint awareness that, in addition to one’s major, students need a richer educational experience. The primary mechanism for addressing this other part of a student’s educational experience is the “general education” program.
General education programs were once focused on Western Civilization. Today, they tend to be distributive in nature, meaning that students choose from a long list of approved classes in various academic disciplines. Neither approach makes sense today. What is needed now is a new kind of general studies program created in full view of the existential threats to civilization itself and student’s deep concerns about their future.
Restructuring general studies to address these needs will encounter resistance from within the university itself, but given the urgency of the situation, the concerns of students, and the fact that this approach does not directly challenge the disciplinary structure of the university, it has a chance of being enacted. One strategy worth pursuing is a public campaign led by leading scientists, intellectuals, and activists. To paraphrase John Cobb, educational reform is too important to be left to academics.
All Speakers
Muhammad Jalil Arif
Muhammad Jalil Arif is a PhD Candidate and Teaching Fellow in the Department of Philosophy & Religion at the University of North Texas (UNT). For over five years, he has been teaching undergraduate courses in the social sciences and humanities. Muhammad’s academic interests lie in Environmental Philosophy, American Philosophy, Process-Relational Philosophy—especially the works of Charles S. Peirce and Alfred North Whitehead—the relationship between Philosophy, Religion, and Culture, the Philosophy of Science, human-nature relationships, and promoting Interdisciplinary Education.
A Difference That Makes All the Difference: Reconceptualizing Anthropocentrism, Ecological Value, and Human Responsibility
The discussion surrounding anthropocentrism serves as a cornerstone in environmental philosophy and ethics, representing a fundamental clash of perspectives and values. The notion of anthropocentrism is predominately criticized for its human-centered worldview, which many environmentalists would argue is the cause of our ecological problems. The proposed solution is given in the quest ‘to overcome anthropocentrism’, driven by the assumption that human-centric axiologies contribute to environmental crises by limiting moral consideration to human interests alone. In this paper, firstly, I will try to explore and examine the philosophical and conceptual dimensions of anthropocentrism. I contend that discussions surrounding anthropocentrism are laden with specific philosophical and normative presuppositions that convey a variety of often contradictory understandings.
I would also argue that one of the reasons why our collective social and political will is lacking for making the necessary cultural change for environmental concerns is because environmental thinkers have not paid enough attention to genuine human difference—in critiquing exaggerated uniqueness (like anthropocentrism), they have ignored legitimate human uniqueness. Lastly, I will argue that the recognition and acknowledgment of human difference, along with continuity with nature, is indispensable if we want to develop an effective and sustainable relationship with nature. The works of C.S. Peirce and A.N. Whitehead provide the necessary conceptual and methodological basis for this endeavor, offering a constructive ‘third way’ that dismantles static binaries and integrates difference and continuity within a processual, dynamic, and relational framework—without succumbing to the flattened ontologies or totalizing unity of postmodern deconstructive thought.
Marcus Barrick
Marcus Barrick is an author and musician, with a background in engineering physics and currently working in simulation systems engineering in Ed-Tech. This experience has not only honed his technical expertise in making complex systems feel alive but also fueled his passion for making knowledge accessible and engaging. Marcus focused on the intersection of Cognitive Science and Complexity Theory, his deep curiosity about the underlying principles that govern the intricate workings of the human mind and the physical world shines through in his writing as he unravels its application toward more aligned socioeconomic paradigms. For the past four years, Marcus has lived nomadically traveling in India, and in the Americas in a converted bus connecting with ecovillages along the way. This immersive experience has broadened his understanding of diverse cultures, alternative lifestyles, and the interconnectedness of humanity and the environment.
Representation Vs. Reality: Why We Need a Process Economy Now
Our prevailing economic system, with its emphasis on value, ownership, and transactional relationships, is fundamentally misaligned with the structures of meaning that drive human behavior and the well-being of all life on this planet as it leaves us grasping for impermanent products. In contrast, a Process-Oriented Economy would be founded on meaning instead of value, wisdom instead of rationality, commons instead of ownership, prefigurative politics instead of representational politics, and relational instead of transactional interactions. We have mastered the science of scaling products and yet come up empty when scaling the very processes conducive to life. As HomoEconomicus approaches extinction, so does our belief in rational economic agents achieving social benefit through self interest alone, can we revive and reformulate our humanity through the lens of Process Philosophy, Cognitive Science and Buddhism?
The 20th Century focused on the individual and national scales, at the cost of the Local and Cosmological scales, I believe it is precisely for the reason of not understanding process-relational ontology, as the local and cosmological scales can only organize via process not products. The Noble Eightfold Path provides a much needed frame-shift through its ability to describe the structure of viable collective organization, a practical guide to deepening meaning, and realize the nature of no-self. I will explore how can we organize society towards infinite games—open-ended, collaborative endeavors that prioritize adaptability, intrinsic motivation, community and the flourishing of all life.
Juliet Bennett
Dr. Juliet Bennett is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies and the Charles Perkins Centre, at The University of Sydney, working on a joint research program on The Social Life of Food and Nourishment. Juliet’s work connects shifts in systems, cultures, practices and mindsets for personal and planetary health. Her book Reimagining Peace through Process Philosophy outlines an integrative transformation, addressing the global systemic crisis and moving toward more just, peaceful and sustainable futures.
The Static-in-Process Key: Unlocking an Integrative Transformation
Humanity faces a converging of crises—environmental, economic, social, political and psychological—which some have called a “polycrisis”. The crisis of climate change is bound up in the crisis of inequality, imbalances of power, and mis/disinformation. These are symptoms of a “global systemic crisis”, and a “crisis of imagination”. At root of these crises, this talk argues, is the dominance of abstract “static thinking” over decisions and behaviour across different spheres of power and influence. This talk will articulate key tensions between static and process modes of thought, and argue that a key to modes of thought conducive to ecological civilization is the iterative “nesting” of static abstractions within process-relational contexts. The outlines of an integrative transformation guided by this static-in-process framework will be traced, showing how shifts from dominant static thinking to contextual process thinking can guide changes in behaviours, rethinking economic theories, political practices, and gives rise to a new story of humanity and our place and purpose in (and with) the world.
Bryant Burkhart
Bryant Burkhart is a PhD student at Drew University, studying the intersection of neoliberal political economy and political theology. He received his Master’s in Theological Studies from Claremont School of Theology, where his focus was on Whiteness and race. Before entering academia, he spent a decade as a cabinetmaker and carpenter. He currently lives in Philadelphia (go Birds) with his partner and their three cats. In his exceedingly rare free time, he enjoys cooking for friends, discussing science fiction, and tinkering with technology.
Debt Annihilation: Community-based Mutual Aid Strategues for Confronting Debt Bondage
Americans seem to be nearing their breaking point. As the cost of living balloons and wages stagnate, many turn to credit cards to finance their lives. Credit card debt has nearly tripled in the last 25 years, increasing over 50% in the previous three years alone. The average American cardholder currently holds around $7,200 in unpaid balances, with APRs skyrocketing to nearly 25%. Facing such high borrowing rates, most participants struggle to meet monthly minimums, feeding record profits for credit card issuers. They are drowning in debt; could the church be a lifeboat for them?
In Galatians 6, Paul exhorts the church in Galatia to “shoulder each other burdens.” What if churches took this beyond the spiritual or psychic realm? What if they shouldered financial burdens as well? One church in Philadelphia did just that with their debt annihilation team. In the past 15 years, Circle of Hope pastors estimate they have paid off over $100,000 in principal interest.
Debt annihilation works by appropriating the “avalanche method” of debt repayment and sharing it among a small group of peers. Participants pay their monthly minimum and then contribute a bit extra to the group, which pays down the principal in descending order by interest rate. The church expedites the process by contributing an interest-free “seed fund” to jumpstart the process. After everyone’s debts are repaid, the seed fund is repaid, and the process begins again.
The primary goal of this presentation is to connect this mutual aid model with a broader audience. Relieving the pressures and stigma of carrying a balance is an emancipatory act on its own. But this presentation will also explore ways this approach could be used towards explicitly ecological ends. Could debt annihilation provide an organizational structure for financing renewable energy installations and sustainable retrofits?
Ryan Carolan
Ryan Carolan recently completed his PhD under Arran Gare, which focuses on the neoliberal transformation of Australian federalism, specifically in relation to the Murray-Darling Basin. Employing Gare’s distinction between the Radical and Moderate Enlightenment, the thesis examines the history of public policy since colonization and shows how neoliberalism both abolished the institutions that “re-embedded” water in social relations by making water a public good (although still excluding aboriginal people) and forgot the lessons that rationalised these institutions. It argues that the best framework for returning the Basin to health involves reviving and reformulate the idealist liberal socialist ethic that underpinned federalist policy though the ethics and politics of eco-poiesis, which requires the creation of both an ecological federalism in Australia and the creation of a global ecological civilization. Ryan is currently living in Uppsala with his wife and son and looking for work.
How to Turn a Civilization? Reorienting Social Institutions through the Ethics of Eco-Poiesis
Is it too late to create an ecological civilization? Has the opportunity been missed? We can – and must – allow ourselves to be totally depressed by the current situation. Indeed, the task is monuments and we are heading in the wrong direction. But we cannot allow this total depression to destroy the dream of creating an ecological civilization. Instead, we need to use our unique capacities for abstract thinking to identify leverage points that can create cascading, wide-ranging and inspiring effects in the direction of ecological civilization.
One such leverage point is the question: what is an institution? In the last decades, this question has been dominated by economists who reduced public and democratic institutions to neoliberal logic, which, rationalised the privatization, outsourcing, and commodification of public goods, facilitating the rise of new public management and the financial sector, and the hollowing out of democracy and ‘the public’. Within the emerging ‘multipolar’ world order, a new era of ‘strategic competition’ has given rise to the theory of ‘geoeconomics’, which questions some wisdom of neoliberal logic, although within very strict confines that do not disturb the ontological, metaphysical and ethical assumptions that undergird it. Thus, it is a fake question that keeps humanity on the trajectory of collapse.
The question of what is an institution needs to opened more widely and the basic assumptions need to be questioned and replaced with more life affirming assumptions if we are to shift the trajectory of civilization towards an ecological civilization. In this talk, I will use Merleau-Ponty’s reformulation and defence of institution as an alternative to Kant’s theory of individual constitution as a stepping stone to articulate and defend Arran Gare’s theory of eco-poiesis as an alternative framework to understand and transform social institutions towards an ecological civilization.
Jonathan Cobb
Jonathan Cobb has written for Metapsychosis Journal and is the author of Logos and Liberation: The Path of Kenosis. He has a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Redlands and over a decade of experience in social work. He has experience as a union organizer, has been active in social movements from Occupy to Black Lives Matter, and is affiliated with the Institute for Social Ecology. His grandfather, John B. Cobb, is founder of the Center for Process Studies and the Institute for Ecological Civilization.
Kenosis and Participatory Unfolding
Our current path of civilizational suicide is fueled by growth. The growth machine is one of continuous accumulation driven by monopolistic competition. Capital accumulation is itself nothing but the reproduction of inequality. Capitalism has subsumed us in what Lewis Mumford calls the megamachine, in which all of life is mechanized and driven by instrumental rationality. It has generated an entire metaphysical framework in which we view nature in mechanistic and instrumental terms. Various socialisms have attempted to co-opt the megamachine for their own purposes, but it is the megamachine itself that must be rejected. The mechanistic drive to control and manage society is intrinsically anti-ecological. The antidote to the megamachine is the commons. In building up the commons, we can share in mutual abundance. We can either be individually unequal or we can be collectively wealthy. Nature, society, and techne must all be understood in ecological terms. An organic ecological civilization would be one in alignment with the Logos of nature. We must cultivate a practice of kenosis, of letting go of our drive for control and domination, and learn to live cooperatively with nature and with one another.
Norbert Csizmadia
Norbert Csizmadia is a geographer, his field of study includes economic strategy, geostrategy, geoeconomics, and geopolitics. Dr. Csizmadia is President of the Board of Trustees of the John Von Neumann University Foundation, and President of the International Advisory Board, BC4LS (Budapest Center for Long-Term Sustainability). He is also former State Secretary in the Ministry for National Economy, and former Executive Director of the Central Bank of Hungary. Dr. Csizmadia is additionally a member of International Advisory Board of Fudan Institute of Belt and Road & Global Governance. He has written many books including Geofusion: The Power of Geography and Mapping of the 21st Century (2019); Geofusion 2.0: Towards a Long-Term Sustainable Eurasian Growth (2021); Geovision: Sustainability and Eurasia (2023); and Geofuture: The Big Picture – Synthesis of Geopolitics and Geography (2024).
From Ecological Civlization to the Turquoise Zones: The Life-Centred, Comprehensive, Sustainable Places
The future is born on our Earth, and it is turquoise! A symbol of viability, sustainability, and a vision for the future. The meeting point and fusion of the blue (oases of longevity) and green (zones of biodiversity) zones. The turquoise zones are life-centred, comprehensive, and sustainable, innovative, and creative.
The fusion point of water (blue) and land (green): the rebirth of the ancient (nature, knowledge, technology). The colour turquoise, which includes the colours blue and green. Blue, the colour of water, of oceans, of seas, of crystal-clear mountain lakes, of the sky, of the universe. And green is the colour of land, of renewal, of forests, of fields, of nature, symbolising vitality, and sustainability. The colour turquoise is both protective and innovative, healing, and inspiring, a symbol of innovation and creativity, a cross between the ancient and the new global HUB centres.
Megatrends are constantly reshaping our world. The three key passwords of our time are complexity, connectivity and sustainability. In other words, we are part of the birth of a new “geo-civilization” world order that is life-centred, comprehensive and interconnected. Zones and axes of innovation are emerging, forming geographic patterns. New living spaces, lifestyle spaces are being created, geographic places are being valorised, as global climate change brings increasingly important changes to our daily lives, so adaptation becomes increasingly important.
The naturalist Darwin wrote that it is never the strongest and the biggest that survive big changes, but those who can adapt best. The rise of ancient cultures will also play an increasingly important role in the future thanks to the technological shift. One of the key challenges of the new Eurasian era is to use land connectivity alongside the sea, creating economic, commercial, cultural and political links that have been in place for centuries along the ancient Silk Roads.
Alexander Davidovic
Alexander Davidovic is a master’s student in the department of philosophy at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. His research concerns ecology and metaphysics, particularly process metaphysics and the ways we both do and ought to conceptualize nature and our relations.
Gaia and Becoming: Re-conceptualizing a Static Earth
How can we accurately and beneficially conceptualize the earth undergoing a climate catastrophe? The colloquial way we speak of earth is already laden with metaphysical presuppositions harmful to ecology and the relationship between humans and nature. “Earth” and “globe” are static. A photo taken from space is said to depict the “globe” in its entirety. The complexity of the living and non-living relations, the ongoing process creating and sustaining the earth is obfuscated away to create a simple representation. Bruno Latour develops the concept of Gaia, originally presented by scientist James Lovelock, as a dynamic alternative to the static “earth.” I will explain the concept of Gaia and argue that its accurate conceptualization requires us to adopt a metaphysical stance of process-relationality (drawing from Whitehead), granting priority to becoming over being, counter to the Western tradition from Parmenides to the current day.
The concept must be dynamic as its reality. Conceptualizing Gaia in a static form destroys the essence of the concept—a dynamic, profoundly relation system of systems which ceaselessly changes and reacts. Representational or substance-attribute modes of thought cannot participate in the idea of Gaia correctly. To conceptualize it in this way is to “capture” the idea, restraining its dynamism. Redefining humanity’s relationship to nature is an upheaval of old modes of thought. The static “globe,” and the metaphysical baggage it carries denies the reality of Gaia. Becoming ecological, and the hope of a future ecological civilization, will have to be built upon different foundations, new modes of thought—the dynamic, processual, and relational.
Lynn De Jonghe
Lynn Sargent De Jonghe served as the founding Head of East Bay Sierra School, which merged to form Prospect Sierra School, and become one of the preeminent schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to this, Lynn spent fifteen years in public education administering federal funds to innovative programs, advocating for project learning as an alternative to textbooks, and pushing for integration in Massachusetts. She received a BA from Harvard University and an MS in Library Science from Simmons College before completing her PhD in Education at Cornell University. Throughout her career, she has pushed for challenging educational programs that encourage all students to pursue learning in depth and to use problem solving skills, collaborative learning, and exploration of values in an integrated curriculum. In 2022 Lynn’s book, Starting with Whitehead: Raising Children to Thrive in Treacherous Times, was published by Rowman & Littlefield. Her new book, a process relational view of adult education will be published by Process Century Press in 2025.
Building Learning Communities: Shantiniketan
“Small groups of aspiring adults who desire to keep their minds fresh and vigorous; who begin to learn by confronting pertinent situations; who dig down into the reservoirs of their secondary facts; who are led in the discussion by teachers who are also seekers after wisdom and not oracles: this constitutes the setting for adult education the modern quest for life’s meaning.
— Eduard C. Lindeman, The Meaning of Adult Education, 1926
In his classic manifesto on adult education, Eduard Lindeman set forth a vision for creating learning communities. This paper will argue that learning communities will largely supplant conventional schools and colleges in the next millennium. Using Tagore’s Shantiniketan as an example, it examines three different kinds of learning communities: communities of place, communities of practice, and communities of faith, asking how they are similar, and how they differ in terms of purpose and expectations. It asks what qualities must be present to create each kind of community, what processes are required to build them, and what potential problems may cause them to fail.
Hongwei Ding
Dr. Ding Hongwei serves as the Director of John Cobb Academician Workstation of Luoyang, China. he has been awarded the China National Natural Science Award and iholds significant influence in fields such as natural history education, and ecological civilization. In collaboration with local education authorities, he has sponsored and organized the Natural Observation events, which has grown into a highly influential flagship event. Attracting over 100,000 primary and secondary school students annually, it has become a vital platform for youth.Dr.Ding leading the research teams at Songshan UNESCO Global Geopark and Luoyang Longmen Aquarium, his programs feature professional curriculum design and high-quality services, hosting over 200,000 participants yearly for educational excursions—a figure that continues to grow. These initiatives serve as dynamic practical models for advancing natural history education and disseminating ecological civilisation principles.
Constructing the Songshan Nature Education Center Under the Vision of Ecological Civilization
Focusing on the Songshan Global Geopark as a case study, this report explores its educational value and practical pathways in advancing ecological civilization. The geopark is centered on the “Three Major Tectonic Movements” (Songyang Movement, Zhongyue Movement, and Shaolin Movement), which comprehensively document the historical evolution of crustal tectonics. Its unique folds, fault structures, and gravity sliding theory provide invaluable resources for geological research and science education. By integrating the practical outcomes of the Luoyang Cobb Academician Workstation, the study proposes an innovative model for constructing nature education bases anchored in geological heritage.
Shasha Ding
Ms. Ding Shasha has long been dedicated to museum education and the operation of ecological and natural-themed venues. Under her leadership, the research and study teams at the Songshan Global Geopark and Luoyang Longmen Ocean Park have, through professionally designed curricula and high-quality services, welcomed an average of over 200,000 student groups annually, serving as a compelling model for promoting museology education and ecological civilization. She has also maintained ongoing collaboration with government agencies, sponsoring and organizing local Nature Observation Competitions, which have grown into a highly influential brand event. Each year, the competition attracts more than 100,000 primary and secondary school students, making it a vital platform for youth nature education.
Constructing the Songshan Nature Education Center Under the Vision of Ecological Civilization
Focusing on the Songshan Global Geopark as a case study, this report explores its educational value and practical pathways in advancing ecological civilization. The geopark is centered on the “Three Major Tectonic Movements” (Songyang Movement, Zhongyue Movement, and Shaolin Movement), which comprehensively document the historical evolution of crustal tectonics. Its unique folds, fault structures, and gravity sliding theory provide invaluable resources for geological research and science education. By integrating the practical outcomes of the Luoyang Cobb Academician Workstation, the study proposes an innovative model for constructing nature education bases anchored in geological heritage.
Daniel Dombrowski
Daniel Dombrowski, PhD is Professor of Philosophy at Seattle University. Among his twenty-two books are Rethinking the Ontological Argument: A Neoclassical Theistic Response; Contemporary Athletics and Ancient Greek Ideals; Process Philosophy and Political Liberalism: Rawls, Whitehead, Hartshorne; and most recently Process Mysticism. He is Editor of the journal Process Studies and is Past-President of the Metaphysical Society of America.
Education and the Homo Ludens Hypothesis
Johan Huizinga is famous for his Homo Ludens hypothesis. In contrast to the familiar designation Homo Sapiens (the human knower), Huizinga defended the theses that human beings are playful and that play is not so much part of culture but rather human culture itself is played. The philosopher George Allan in three well-written books in philosophy of education applies the Homo Ludens hypothesis to education, especially to higher education. College education at its best is a type of dynamic play. Allan’s contribution to the Homo Ludens hypothesis has been underappreciated. Allan often relies on the process thought found in Alfred North Whitehead’s classic Aims of Education. The goal of the present paper is to explore the important contribution Allan can make toward the understanding of the contemporary crumbling of the walls of the cathedral of learning, to use his dramatic metaphor.
In Rethinking College Education Allan examines three sorts of college that have existed historically. But missions, methods, and outcomes (respectively) are all extrinsic to what a college is all about. These purposes have a tendency to instrumentalize education or, to use Allan’s startling but not hyperbolic phrase, to engage in educational prostitution. A college should be a place where intrinsic value flourishes. In Higher Education in the Making (an allusion to Whitehead’s Religion in the Making) Allan makes a persuasive case against content canonists, procedural canonists, and anti-canonists and in favor of a processual and (Dewey-inspired) pragmatic reconstructed canon. And in Modes of Learning (an allusion to Whitehead’s Modes of Thought) Allan explores insightfully Whitehead’s three stages (or better, concurrent facets) of education: romance, precision, and generalization. The prime function of both reason and education is to promote the art (or game) of life.
Brianne Donaldson
Brianne Donaldson teaches and writes on cross-cultural animal ethics, environmental and agricultural ethics, and medical ethics. She has a special focus on South Asian religions and philosophies, including the Indian tradition of Jainism, alongside theories of nonviolence, Process-relational philosophy, and Critical Animal Studies, and has authored several books and articles on these themes. She is associate professor of religion, and Shri Parshvanath Presidential Chair in Jain Studies at University of California, Irvine. She lives in southern California where she and her dogs regularly explore the mountains and foothills. Learn more about her work at www.briannedonaldson.com
Crossing “The Rubicon” of Reason and Robbery in Whitehead’s Human Exceptionalism through Animals
In this presentation, I reconsider Alfred North Whitehead’s under-explored human exceptionalism as a productive feature of process ethics, rather than a glitch. Utilizing Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s notion of “conceptual personae” as thought provocations toward alternate futures, I revisit Whitehead’s claim that in “the human”—as distinct from “the animal”—“the Rubicon has been crossed” (MT 27). At one level, Whitehead’s repetition of anthropocentrism’s founding gesture of defining the human over and against the animal would severely curb the usefulness of process metaphysics to challenge ubiquitous harms to animals and the environment. But I argue that a careful reading of Whitehead’s concept of “Reason,” when considered alongside the “conceptual personae” of the “animal body” and individual animals through which Reason in defined, reworks the exceptional human as expressed most fully through its attempts at harm reduction and expansive planetary flourishing.
Fellipe dos Anjos Pereira
The Falling Sky as Cosmopolitical Warfare: Eschatological Ccenes of an Ancestral Catastrophe in Brazil
Brazil’s increase in ecological catastrophes is directly associated with the permanence of ancestral colonization dispositifs/apparatus in governing territories and populations—especially among the poorest, most peripheral, and racialized. From the perspective of the Yanomami shaman and leader Davi Kopenawa, the Falling of the Brazilian Sky—our climate apocalypse—has its cosmopolitical origins in the colonial invasion of Amerindian territories by the “napë” [white men] and the extractive violence of the “people of the commodity”. This scenario of apocalyptic acceleration, however, is experienced [simultaneosly] as the emergence of a far-right that is sustained by christian theological-political affections, perceptions, and discourses—which are mobilized to legitimize denialist positions, neoliberal policies to destroy environmental protection structures and racist attacks against Indigenous and quilombola populations that (re)exist and fight to defend the biomes that are fundamental to sustaining life in the country and the world.
In other words, the Falling of the Sky has been accelerated by the Brazilian evangelical far-right. In this context, the ecological catastrophe in Brazil can be seen and investigated as cosmopolitical warfare (as suggested by Stengers, 2018), a war between sacred worlds and their policies for producing existential territories. In light of the above-mentioned, I intend to establish a dialog between Process Philosophy, Philosophy of Difference, Amerindian cosmologies, and Black Feminist Poetics to speculate on the state of cosmopolitical war inscribed in Brazilian ecological catastrophes. Specifically, I intend to establish a zone of correspondence between Isabelle Stengers, Catherine Keller, Gilles Deleuze, Davi Kopenawa, and Denise Ferreira da Silva to begin an exploratory journey into the conflicts, heterotopias, and dystopias that shape the contemporary Brazilian cosmopolitical setting.
Benjamin Dueck
Towards an Integral Information Literacy: Ecological Society and the Future of Academic Libraries
Academic libraries play a complex and often contradictory role in the life of modern universities. On the one hand, they administer systems of knowledge classification that have contributed to the disciplinary fragmentation that inhibits ecological thinking in the modern knowledge academy. On the other hand, they function as community spaces where learners from across the disciplines can come together to develop their research skills in a safe and supportive environment. Due to their unique position within higher education, academic libraries can play an important role in the development of instructional programming that teaches ecological literacy. This presentation will introduce a new approach to library instruction called Integral Information Literacy (hereafter IIL) that is being developed at The University of Manitoba Libraries in Winnipeg Canada.
IIL uses techniques of contemplative pedagogy to help adult learners deepen their ecological literacy through guided self-inquiry and group discussion. More specifically, IIL provides learners with meditative practices that invite them to “tune in” to their innate feelings of curiosity, intuition, and wonder. Through this process of embodied introspection, learners can begin to experience “ecological consciousness” and understand how their individual journeys form interwoven threads in the story of the Earth community. I begin by summarizing Alfred North Whitehead’s rhythmic theory of education and explore the importance that he placed on the experience of “romance” as a catalyst for the learning process. In the next section, I introduce the integral yoga of the Indian spiritual philosopher Sri Aurobindo—the primary pedagogical framework that informs IIL—which is premised on the cultivation “supramental” faculties that integrate thought, feeling, and action. Finally, I share my experiences teaching IIL in public workshops and library research classes at The University of Manitoba.
Meijun Fan
Meijun Fan, PhD is the Program Director at the Institute for Postmodern Development of China and Dean of the Cobb Eco-Academy. She also serves as Co-Director of the China Project at the Center for Process Studies. Previously, she was Vice-Chair and Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Beijing Normal University, China. Dr. Fan specializes in traditional aesthetics and aesthetic education. She is the author of six books and co-author of another six, and has published over 100 academic articles in both Chinese and English.
Cultivating Eco-Persons: Process Education for an Ecological Civilization
This presentation reimagines education through the lens of Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy, offering a transformative response to both the global ecological crisis and the limitations of conventional pedagogy. It challenges Cartesian dualism and the mechanistic, industrial-age model of schooling, proposing a radical shift in purpose—from the transmission of static knowledge to the cultivation of eco-persons: individuals who are deeply attuned to the relational and interdependent fabric of the natural world.
Three foundational shifts are outlined:
- Reconceiving learners as living, relational beings—“I prehend, therefore I am”—moving beyond the passive reception of information to active, embodied engagement with the world.
- Transforming classrooms into living ecosystems—integrated spaces where nature, community, and learning co-evolve dynamically.
- Redesigning curricula to prioritize ecological wisdom and sustainability, drawing on Whitehead’s rhythmic learning cycle of romance, precision, and generalization.
The proposed eco-curriculum foregrounds vernacular knowledge, systems thinking, and ethical action, equipping students with the capacities to confront and navigate climate-related challenges. Rooted in Whitehead’s ontology of relational becoming, this educational vision offers a compelling alternative to the anthropocentric and reductionist paradigms that dominate mainstream schooling—and continue to imperil planetary well-being.
grace grace grace
grace grace grace is an arts and design researcher, theorist, educator, programmer, and performance-installation artist. Currently part-time faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and University of Illinois Chicago, they received PhD in Media Arts and Sciences in December 2022 from the School of Arts, Media, and Engineering at Arizona State University and a certificate in critical theory. He also works as a researcher and consultant on an NEA Lab project with Virginia Tech and Leonardo/ISAST. They are the founding lead of a 501c3 organization called CCAM, the Center for Concrete and Abstract Machines, which programs and produces at the nexus of art, technology, and contemporary thought in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood.
Modes of Processing: Towards a Processual Approach to Signal Processing in Generative Sound and Media Arts
At the center of this talk is a new digital/analog sound installation set to premiere at Co-Prosperity Sphere in Chicago as part of a May exhibition programmed by the Center for Concrete and Abstract Machines. The installation consists of forty sounding/glowing sculptures interconnected by webs of electrical cables. In contrast to contemporary “networked” distributed digital systems, these sculptures pass analog, cybernetic control voltage to each other in order to modulate parameters of sound synthesis. This patchwork enders a continuously generative sonic landscape distributed across the speakers embedded in each sculpture. From discussions of this work, I will explore what I believe is a fruitful relationship between the processual philosophy of nature and cosmology with second and third order cybernetics.
Since the inception of cybernetics, sound art and adjacent fields such as computer music have utilized the language of cybernetics. Not only are sound art’s apparati literally cybernetic (e.g. modular synthesis), but cybernetics contains useful schemas of perception. While not a well-known influence on historical sound art, process philosophy has been taken up to describe aspects of aesthetic acoustic experience (see Goodman, Massumi, Ramos).
Following Andrew Murphie’s proposition to think world as medium, this installation seeks to think and make in a processual mode. I will discuss my approach to composing the signal processing algorithms (which produce and interpret the aforementioned “control voltages”) running on each sculpture, which takes directly from Alfred North Whitehead’s Modes of Thought, in particular the notions of matter-of-fact, importance, and expression. I will conclude by speculating on how processual-cybernetic poiesis may situate the pragmatics of a technical and ecological civilization faced with waves of nationalism and climate catastrophe.
Attila Grandpierre
Remarkable Connections Between Organic Philosophy and Organic Science
The central thesis of Whitehead’s philosophy is that the Universe fundamentally consists of experiences. Experiences are the hallmark of life. Whitehead’s philosophy is a kind of philosophy of life, namely, an organic, philosophical cosmology. Whitehead also recognized that inherent in the nature of life is a tendency—a striving toward good and even better life. However, he did not provide a necessary and sufficient answer to the question: “What is life?”
A significant breakthrough in this regard was achieved when a Hungarian biologist, Ervin Bauer, published his seminal work in 1935, offering a scientific definition of the nature of life, and established a general biology, a full equivalent of physics. This theory aligns perfectly with the tendency identified by Whitehead, but it also contains a critical added dimension: it provides a deeper foundation for biology, making it comparable to modern physics on this profound basis. By further developing Bauer’s theory, I have reached a comprehensive definition of life that fully encompasses its three fundamental aspects, delves into its ontological depths, illuminates the communal nature of life, its causal order, and elucidates humanity’s place in the Universe—all while remaining relatable to everyday human experiences.
In my presentation, I will demonstrate how astrobiology, anthropic cosmology, the Gaia Theory and other new sciences confirm Bauer’s general biology, and how this comprehensive science complements and scientifically substantiates Whitehead’s philosophy. Furthermore, it offers a simple and easily comprehensible system that facilitates an understanding of the essence of life and its consideration in grounding our personal lives and aligning societal decision-making in the direction of long-term sustainable, ecological civilization. As Dr. Cobb noted, sustainability should ultimately be understood as the sustainability of life itself.
Ronan Hallowell
Reconnecting for an Ecological Civilization: Ecological Medicine and Psychedelic Therapy
The increasing disconnection from nature, others, and ourselves is at the root of many of today’s mental health crises and environmental challenges. Project ReConnect: The Ecological Medicine and Psychedelic Studies, at the UCLA School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry, aims to address this disconnection by integrating two complementary areas of innovation: Ecological medicine and psychedelic therapy. Ecological medicine emphasizes the interconnected care of human and environmental health, while psychedelic therapy has shown promising outcomes in alleviating depression, addiction, and anxiety. Together, these approaches hold the potential to restore our innate empathy and deepen our connections to the natural world and each other.
This presentation will provide an overview of Project ReConnect’s efforts over the past two years that has included organizing two conferences, a webinar series and a working group of experts that are mapping out approaches to develop the fields of ecological medicine and psychedelic therapies in the domains of research, clinical practice and curriculum. Key thematic areas integral to ecological medicine, such as the impact of nature on health and well-being, human-environment interactions, traditional ecological knowledge, and the potential role of psychedelic medicine in fostering nature connectedness, will be discussed. These themes will be examined in the context of Project ReConnect’s efforts to develop a curriculum to train clinicians in this field, with the ultimate goal of establishing a fellowship program for physicians that recognizes ecological medicine as a specialty within Western allopathic biomedicine. Efforts to create transdisciplinary collaborations beyond the confines of biomedicine that forward the aims of ecological medicine, and could contribute to the emergence of an ecological civilization, will also be discussed.
Sam Harrelson
Relational Roots and Ecological Futures: Bridging Whitehead, Cobb, and Gullah Wisdom Toward a Decolonized Ecological Civilization
Process consciousness, particularly through the context of Alfred North Whitehead’s work along with John Cobb’s extension into the concept of ecological civilization, provides pathways toward a more practical understanding of ecological civilization by integrating Indigenous environmental wisdom. This approach finds resonance in the spiritual ecology of the Gullah people, specifically descendants of enslaved Africans who inhabit the Lowcountry regions of South Carolina. Gullah cultures demonstrate a deeply interdependent worldview where humans and non-humans are recognized as spiritually significant and all relationally intertwined.
This study explores three main trajectories by examining the Gullah’s spiritual ecology. First, it considers how Whitehead’s process thought can serve as a philosophical framework for ecological civilization, suggesting that all entities participate in a shared field of consciousness. Second, it engages John Cobb’s interpretation of Whitehead’s work to argue for an ecological civilization that moves beyond consumerist-oriented initiatives and concepts of development (particularly of the land). Third, it highlights the Gullah’s worldview as a practical model of relational ethics and ecological intentionality, suggesting that Indigenous ecological wisdom can offer valuable insights for constructing frameworks for communities to adopt when moving towards an ecological civilization.
Intentional ecological consciousness, a fundamental relational and embodied process, can address modern environmental challenges by fostering a deeper awareness of human-nature interdependence. This more intentional embodied concept of exploring the Gullah communities offers a path towards solutions to the ecological polycrisis communities face. This exploration provides theoretical and practical perspectives on ecological civilization, bridging process thought with Indigenous wisdom to promote ethical and interconnected living.
Simeiqi He
It’s Just the Beginning: A Chinese Catholic View of Ecological Civilization
Over fifty years ago, John B. Cobb Jr. ended his book Is It Too Late? with hope, life, and God. Today, the ever expanding field of ecological civilization attests that we are just beginning to enact enduring hope, living life, and divine love who is pure creativity. This paper puts forward a Chinese Catholic view of ecological civilization that activates human energy, accomplishes flourishing life, and actualizes universal communion. By presenting the myriad intellectual histories, theoretical foundations, and grassroots manifestations of China’s ecological civilization, I argue that China’s ecological civilization, especially its focus on life, creativity, and transformation, reflects the core messages of Catholic social teaching by offering a promising contour for a culture of encounter and civilization of love.
Envisioning integral development in the context of ecological civilization as the flourishing of life and love, which, I propose, demonstrates the Chinese concept of Sheng Sheng or living life, this paper argues that ecological civilization as a civilization of life and love is the hope for our common home and shared future and for the actualization of the common good. Far from being too late, I dare to proclaim that ecological civilization is ushering us toward the dawning of a new age, the horizon of which is a divine milieu.
Chris Hughes
PROcess: For Today’s Realities, a Course for Teenagers to Adults
An Ecological Civilization can only come about if people vote for one. Everybody votes. The educational effort cannot be confined to higher education alone. The beating heart of process thought: events, relationality, values, the glaring weaknesses inherent in a bifurcated world view and Whitehead’s solution the Actual Occasion can and should be freed from the arcane complexity of Process and Reality and communicated to the beating hearts of today’s young adults and high school students. There is a precedent. In 2009 the UK’s Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP) took mindfulness meditation out of the M.B.S.R. clinic and in ten years taught over 5000 teachers how to deliver it to over 1.5 million students. It is now being taught in 83 countries. Can we do the same with process thinking? PROcess is a seven-session course in Process Thinking. It is built on the MiSP model. This session introduces PROcess.
Emma Hussey
From Destruction to Harmony: Hobbesian Perspectives on Violence in the Anthropocene and Reimagining Human Impulses for a Unified Ecological Civilization
Far from being an aberration, violence, as framed by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) is deeply embedded in humanity’s survival instincts and is an inherent aspect of human nature. Nonetheless, in the constant changing space of the current Anthropocene, violence can and should be reimagined through the lens of ecological civilization as a powerful force capable of transforming conflict into a catalyst for resilience and harmony.
This presentation will suggest that the eco-self must embrace a balanced narrative around violence, recognizing it as an enduring part of humanity’s interconnected relationship with nature. By accepting violence as a powerful and inescapable aspect of the human condition, we open pathways to address it constructively within society and ecology alike. This reframed understanding envisions an ecological civilization that does not reject negative human impulses but integrates them thoughtfully. Such a civilization would channel violence toward sustaining social resilience and ecological harmony, acknowledging it as a force that, when carefully directed, can bolster social cohesion and even environmental resilience. By conceptualizing violence as an inherent component of humanity’s ecological identity, this article facilitates the development of strategies to channel human impulses toward a constructive coexistence. Ultimately, this perspective offers a pathway toward a 21st-century ecological civilization where negative human impulses are recognized, accepted, and directed toward constructive coexistence within our shared environment.
Co-Presenting with Fatima Raza
Wang Shik Jang
Dr. Wang Shik Jang is former Professor at Methodist Theological University, Seoul (Philosophy of Religion and theology) and the former President of the Whitehead Society of Korea. He is currently Professor Emeritus at Methodist Theological University, Seoul.
Naturing Human in Naturing Nature: A Taoist Understanding of Whitehead and Bruno Latour
This presentation proposes a novel framework for understanding the human-nature relationship by integrating Taoist metaphysics with Whitehead’s process philosophy and Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory. Traditional deep ecology emphasizes nature’s intrinsic value while downplaying humanity’s unique position within it. This paper aims to overcome this limitation by drawing on the Taoist conception of nature (自然) as the ultimate metaphysical principle governing all existence, as articulated in Chapter 25 of the Tao Te Ching. In this view, humans follow the earth, the earth follows the heavens, the heavens follow the Tao, and the Tao follows nature. Here, nature is understood in two senses: first, as the physical environment (earth) that supports human life, and second, as the ultimate reality that transcends and governs even heaven, the divine, and the Tao itself.
Building on this Taoist framework, the paper draws from Whitehead’s concept of “process” to emphasize that both human and non-human entities co-emerge through relational becoming. By incorporating Latour’s actor-network theory, the interconnectedness of human and non-human actors is further explored, revealing a dynamic and reciprocal process of mutual influence. Unlike the anthropocentric approach of traditional Western thought, this paper calls for a “naturing of the human” within a broader “naturing of nature,” where humans are seen as distinct yet deeply interwoven participants in the cosmic order.
Ultimately, this study presents a new paradigm that preserves the core values of deep ecology while repositioning human activity within the broader web of natural processes. This approach offers a more inclusive and ethically grounded model for ecological thought, allowing for the possibility of human action that remains in harmony with the larger natural order.
John Jermier
Dr. John M. Jermier is Professor of Organizational Behavior and Sustainable Enterprise Research at the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Business and the Natural Environment and Human Behavior and Innovative Organizations. Most of his research has focused on developing critical theory perspectives on business and management and on methods uniquely suited to researching in the field of organizational social science. He is co-founding editor and past editor (1997-2013) of Organization & Environment, an academic journal devoted to the critical study of organizations and their relations with elements of the natural environment. His current research is focused on critical organizational theory and ecological civilization.
The Great Acceleration and the Struggle for Visionary Corporate Environmentalism: Anticipating Ecological Civilization
“All our leaders now call themselves environmentalists. But their brand of environmentalism poses very few challenges to the present system. Instead, they propose to spruce up the planet with a few technical fixes or individual lifestyle changes: scrubbers on coal plants, eating ‘all natural’ cereals, and so on” (Ivan Illich, 30 May 2001, personal correspondence).
Like philosopher and social theorist Ivan Illich, who advanced imaginative understanding of industrial and organizational society, some Business and Management scholars are critical of extant Corporate Environmentalism (CE) and are reluctant to accept its legitimacy because it falls so far short of accepted ecological principles for planetary health and of the ideals of environmentalists? The abundant empirical data that are available show how difficult it is for corporations to enact meaningful, substantive initiatives and innovative reform in line with visionary images or even scientific imperatives (e.g., Simon, 2022; Panwar et al., 2024; Fried, 2024; Winters, 2024).
The crux of the matter is that CE is an unusually complex idea that has spurred a torrent of enthusiasm with too little recognition of its practical limits. Proponents often construe any corporate greening efforts as falling in line with visionary CE and strong environmental sustainability, or at least as taking a significant step in the right direction toward these desirable goals. In this paper, we compare and contrast the corporate environmental efforts of two marquee U.S. business organizations (Interface Carpets, Walmart) and assess the degree to which we can consider them exemplars that provide alternative pathways for transformational organizational and societal change. In doing so, we address one of the most fundamental theoretical and practical questions of our age: who shall lead the necessary eco
Jay Jones
Jay Jones has broad academic training with concentrations ranging from Microbiology and Botany to Geology and Chemistry. He has held appointments with Argonne National Laboratory, The National Park Service, Ripon College in Wisconsin, Indiana University–Purdue University at Indianapolis, ARCO Oil and Gas Exploration Research, and through Lockheed as a consultant to NASA on remote sensing. For the last 35 years he serves as Professor of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of La Verne, now emeritus, where he has taught an extremely diverse array of courses, including an interdisciplinary course called, Toward a Sustainable Planet many involving travel around the world. He continues to teach, including Energy Issues, Mountain and Desert Biology and General Geology. However, most of his professional efforts are directed at sharing information about many aspects of sustainability through lectures and workshops, both domestically and internationally.
Too Late for Who?
Is it too late? Unfortunately for many the answer is yes. But not for all.
This presentation will focus on how much our species has changed the biology and environment of the biosphere upon which we depend. Even many environmentalist do not fully realize the extent of the changes we have wrought. The intent of this presentation is to help others understand the extent of this change and the urgency for altering the predominant economic and behavioral paradigms governing our impact, so that a path toward a more sustainable, ecological civilization can be achieved. Many millions today are impacted by the current course of “development”. Those numbers will surely increase as we adhere to the current consumption based economies. But it is possible for others to assure a high quality life with adequate understanding and planning. Such a fate however, is not assured as competition for remaining resources intensify. Thus, collaborative, strategic planning is critical.
Regardless of the degree of optimism or pessimism, personal actions to reduce one’s ecological footprint and to work for achieving an ecological civilization is a matter of values and personal integrity. Working to achieve congruity between our values and behavior is a challenging endeavor. My hope is that we, in this community, can work together to achieve these goals for ourselves and others.
Gunna Jung
Dr. Gunna Jung is Co-director of the Institute for Ecological Civilization Korea; Economist, Professor Emeritus of Hanshin University, South Korea; and Former Advisor for Ecological Transition Education at Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education.
Pioneering Education for Ecological Transformation (EET): Policy Formation, Implementation, and Lessons from Seoul, South Korea
My presentation is about how education for ecological transition should differ from conventional environmental education at school classroom. In my presentation, I raise and explain several important issues based on my experience in establishing the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education’s mid- to long-term plan for ecological transformation education and participating in policy implementation as an advisor for several years. In the presentation, I also emphasize the importance of an integrated approach, and Whitehead’s ideas on education, the process philosophy’s way of thinking, and the new relationship between ecology and economy. In addition, I emphasize working with local communities to provide sites for education on circular economy at local scales. Then, I examine the achievements, limitations, and further challenges of ecological transition education in Korea. Finally, I will introduce on-going discussions and preparations for establishing so-called ‘ETC: Ecological Transition College)’ from the civil society in S. Korea.
Heeyoung Jung
Heeyoung Jung is a PhD candidate at Claremont School of Theology, specializing in process studies, ecotheology, feminist studies, and postcolonial studies. With a strong commitment to addressing global ecological challenges, Heeyoung integrates interdisciplinary approaches in my research and teaching, focusing on relational justice, sustainability, and cultural wisdom. She has worked with the Center for Process Studies and Ecological Civilization as the Korea Project Assistant and serves as the director of the Ecological Cultural Practice Summer Camp each summer.
Braiding Wisdom: Ancestral Wisdom and Ecological Civilization for a Sustainable Future Through Postcolonial Ecotheology
This presentation explores the discourse of ecological civilization by integrating eco-process theology, postcolonial critique, and ancestral wisdom as pathways for transformative change. Drawing on my research focusing on the ecological practices and cultural insights of Korean grandmothers, I argue that ecological civilization requires not only systemic reforms but also a profound cultural revolution rooted in relational justice, sustainability, and intergenerational knowledge.
The paper highlights the potential of ancestral wisdom and examines how the sustainable practices of Korean grandmothers—such as organic farming, water conservation, and traditional foraging—offer tangible examples of living in harmony with nature. These practices, shaped by historical challenges such as colonial exploitation and modernization, embody a model of resilience and ecological care that challenges the consumerist mindset of contemporary society. By weaving these insights with the principles of eco-process theology, which emphasizes interconnectedness and relationality, and postcolonial ecology, which critiques exploitative systems, this paper envisions ecological civilization as a dynamic interplay of global and local solutions.
Through this interdisciplinary lens, the presentation seeks to inspire collective action toward an ecological civilization that values care, creativity, and interconnectedness as guiding principles. By learning from ancestral wisdom and harmonizing it with contemporary ecological imperatives, we can navigate the path toward a sustainable and equitable future for all.
Kurian Kachappilly Joseph
Dr. Kurian Kachappilly Joseph is the professor of philosophy and religion at the DVK Bangalore, and Christ University, Bangalore, India. He holds Master’s Degree in English Literature (MLitt) and in Psychology (MA), and a Licentiate (LPh) and Doctorate (PhD) in Philosophy from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), Belgium. Dr. Kurian Kachappilly Joseph is a prolific writer with sixteen books and over sixty scientific articles to his credit. He is an established organizer of international conferences, like Process, Religion and Society (2009), Mysticism without Bounds (2011), Bounds of Ethics in a Globalized World (2014), in which His Holiness Dalai lama was the Chief Guest; and Harmony: Interface of Cosmic, Ethical and Religious Orders (2019).
Spirituality of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Kautilya’s Arthashastra
Kautilya, the Prime Minister of India’s great Emperor Chandragupta Maurya, wrote a treatise on all aspects of international relations, economic policies and good governance in the 4th Century BC. Among the 15 Books, Kautilya’s Arthashastra (322-298 BC) includes (i) Raja-dharma (Righteousness of the King) and (ii) Niti-shastra (Science of Ethics).
In Kautilya’s Arthashastra, the first mantra of the corporate management is:
Praja sukhe sukham rajyaha
Prajanamcha hitehitam
Natma priyam hitam rajnaha
Prajanamcha hitam priyam
It means: “In the happiness of his subjects lies the king’s happiness, in their welfare his welfare. He shall not consider as good only that which pleases.” Kautilya maintained that a king (CEO) should have no self-interest, happiness and joy for himself; his satisfaction lies in the welfare of his people. The second mantra in Kautilya’s Arthashastra is “Bahujana sukhaya bahujana hitayacha“, which means: “the welfare of the many and the happiness of the many.” Kautilya describes four principles of governance: raksha (protection), vridhi (enhancement), palana (maintenance) and yogakshema (safeguard). For him, the prime duty of the king is to protect the wealth of the state and its subjects, to enhance the wealth, to maintain it, and safeguard it and the interests of the subjects.
Kautilya stresses the importance of happiness to all stakeholders of an organization. Happiness, for him, is obtained not only by wealth and profit, but also by doing things rightly and doing right things: Sukhasya moolam dharma, dharmasya moolam artha (Happiness for self and others results through ethical behaviour; wealth and resources make ethical behaviour possible). It was his firm conviction that “Dharma without wealth is toothless, and wealth without dharma is useless.” To generate wealth, you need an organization (arthasya moolam rajyam), and the organization the support of the organs (rajasya moolam indriyajayah). Indriyajayah means victory over organs of body: (1) control over the five organs of sense (eye, ear, tongue, nose and skin); (2) five organs of action (hands, feet, mouth, genitals and anus); and (3) six enemies of the mind: kama (desire), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), mada (arrogance), moha (infatuation) and matsara (envy).
We have explored the philosophy/spirituality of CSR from the Indian perspective based on the classic work of Kautilya’s Arthashastra. The core principles of CSR expounded in Arthashastra can be compared to the modern business models, like Total Quality Management (TQM), and the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Sustainability. The Indian philosophy thus offers a spirituality of Corporate Social Responsibility, based on the foundational principles of satyam vada (speak the truth) and dharmam cara (practice virtue).
Eojin Kang
Eojin Kang is a master student in the Department of Public Administration at Korea University. Her research interests include urban planning, environmental governance, and local administration.
Ecological Transition Experiments in Seoul: From the Perspective of Participatory Action Research
This study aims to examine the experiment of Gangbuk-gu, Seoul, in transitioning into a climate-responsive sustainable city from the perspective of Participatory Action Research (PAR). Gangbuk-gu was selected as the case study area due to its prominent efforts in practicing ecological transition and climate care based on a collaborative model between universities and the local community. The research focuses on exploring the possibilities and limitations of creating a circular economy ecosystem in the district through various eco-friendly activities such as urban farming, beekeeping, caregiving, home repair, and item repair. In particular, the study delves into the process of linking these activities to establish a local circular economy ecosystem and collaborating with civil society and ecological/life researchers to develop an alternative university curriculum. By working closely with research participants to evaluate current practices and propose better alternatives, the study aims to contribute to the transition toward a climate-responsive sustainable city.
Co-Presenting with Yong-Sook Lee
Young Joon Kim
Dr. Young Joon Kim studied Law for his BA, Ecology for his MA, and completed a PhD in Philosophy, all at Seoul National University. Following a career as a lawyer, he worked mostly in state government in lawmaking. Dr. Kim has also translated the texts Deep Ecology and Ecology of Law into Korean. He wishes to establish new ecological university for the next generation.
Dreaming of Ecological College
What is ecological civilization? I think it means two things. First, I think it means moving from centeredness to a circle, a whole, a community. Second, I think it means connecting religion or spirituality; philosophy or thoughts; education; politics; economy. So how can this be done? It should be done through doing all of the above in an integrated way. But if we have to pick a specific field for the integration, it would have to be education. But an education containing above mentioned two qualifications. First qualification would be moving from centeredness toward a whole. Even though I am from EcoCiv Korea, I am in this whole circle. Second qualification would be connecting spirituality, philosophy, education, politics and economy, comprising the whole. How can these be achieved? Further plan and actual carrying out would be needed. Can we think and act in a connected way? This would be our common task.
Lawrence Koval
Lawrence Koval (he/they) is a PhD student in Communication at the University of Illinois Chicago. Entering his graduate studies from a background in fitness, his MA thesis focused on grassroots efforts in what is termed the “inclusive fitness movement.” With their colleagues in this space, they edited and contributed to an anthology titled Deconstructing the Fitness Industrial Complex: How to Resist, Disrupt, and Reclaim What it Means to be Fit in American Culture, published by North Atlantic Books in May 2023. His academic research focuses on exploring the intersection of sports and physical culture with race, gender, sexuality, ability, and ideas of citizenship/nation—with a particular focus on the connections between carceral systems and surveillance technologies, the sports industrial complex, and the body. With a background in library and cultural work, they work full-time as a Library Specialist at UIC.
Decolonial AI? Exploring the Archive and its Industrial Uses
“Stop Hiring Humans” reads one of the latest ads posted by tech startup Artisan advertising AI employees. Alex Rivera’s 1997 short film “Why Cybraceros?” sarcastically proposes a future where laborers in Mexico can telecommute into farm fields and control a robot using a joystick to perform farm labor, without “any threat” of becoming an “actual citizen.” It begs the question, what is labor to AI? In this presentation, we draw upon interviews with people using AI in their everyday lives as well as engineers developing AI products to gain insight into what labor we as workers outsource to AI in seeking a better future and life. Given the environmental and informational consequences of AI, are there redeeming potentials? Is AI inevitable and if so, can it be decolonized?
We meet these questions at the intersection of climate change, labor, and social justice and take the opportunity to unpack what it means to trouble the trinary of human/animal/machine in this day and age. This is with particular awareness that AI is being granted a kind of sentience via terms like “AI hallucination” and being offered a spot in the workforce whereas historically oppressed groups have been denied their humanity, knowledge, and had their labor manipulated and extracted while their actual power in the workforce is denied and erased. Drawing upon genealogies and discourses of “smart cities” as a sociological phenomena to intersect with questions of labor, how does AI expand infrastructures of surveillance and policing both “on the ground” and “in the cloud?” What would “better living” within a “smart” city mean, especially from a decolonial lens? We seek to unpack the epistemologies that undergird much of the technologies at play here and put them into conversation with Black and Indigenous ways of knowing as it relates to alternatives for our predicament.
Co-Presenting with George Valladares
Cherin Lee
Cherin Lee is an MPA candidate at the Wagner School of Public Policy, New York University, specializing in International Development. She is passionate about Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives and regulations, particularly how climate change disrupts traditional economic and business frameworks and how innovative and sustainable solutions can be shaped through international coalitions. She is also a research fellow at EcoCiv Korea, supporting sustainability-focused projects. Before pursuing her graduate studies, she worked as a newspaper reporter in Korea, covering business, the information technology industry, and culture. She holds a BS from Seoul National University and an MS in Management from Fordham University.
Environmental, Social, and Governance: A Journey Through Time—Reflections and Future Outlook
Apple’s market capitalization, at $3.75 trillion as of December 15, 2024, surpasses the GDP of the United Kingdom, the world’s 6th largest economy, and is comparable to Germany’s GDP of $3.85 trillion, the 4th largest globally. This underscores a remarkable shift where a single corporation can rival or even exceed the economic output of entire nations. Corporations now play a pivotal role in the global economy, highlighting their immense potential to drive meaningful change and contribute to global progress.
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), a term introduced in the United Nations’ 2004 report “Who Cares Wins,” evolved from concepts such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Socially Responsible Investing (SRI). Over time, ESG has developed into a comprehensive framework, enabling companies to address environmental, social, and governance challenges in a holistic and actionable manner. In the U.S., ESG reporting initially emerged as a voluntary practice, with 98% of S&P 500 companies disclosing ESG-related information by 2022. Following a public consultation period, climate-related reporting regulations became mandatory in March 2024, sparking mixed reactions from stakeholders.
This paper examines the concept of ESG, its historical evolution, current status, associated challenges, and explores its application and potential for future development.
Yong-Sook Lee
Yong-Sook Lee is a professor in the Department of Public Administration at Korea University and serves as the Director of the Urban Future Research Center at the Institute of Governmental Studies. Her research interests include globalization and regional development, industrial restructuring, industrial clusters, urban governance, and the role of government. Committed to envisioning alternative urbanism, she focuses on creating cities that foster happiness, equity, and meaningful everyday life while addressing local issues that resonate with the lives of individual citizens.
Ecological Transition Experiments in Seoul: From the Perspective of Participatory Action Research
This study aims to examine the experiment of Gangbuk-gu, Seoul, in transitioning into a climate-responsive sustainable city from the perspective of Participatory Action Research (PAR). Gangbuk-gu was selected as the case study area due to its prominent efforts in practicing ecological transition and climate care based on a collaborative model between universities and the local community. The research focuses on exploring the possibilities and limitations of creating a circular economy ecosystem in the district through various eco-friendly activities such as urban farming, beekeeping, caregiving, home repair, and item repair. In particular, the study delves into the process of linking these activities to establish a local circular economy ecosystem and collaborating with civil society and ecological/life researchers to develop an alternative university curriculum. By working closely with research participants to evaluate current practices and propose better alternatives, the study aims to contribute to the transition toward a climate-responsive sustainable city.
Co-Presenting with Eojin Kang
Feihu Li
Feihu Li is a journalist-turned-researcher with the Xinhua Institute, a think tank affiliated with China’s Xinhua News Agency. His research interests include the intersection of environment and development. He has conducted extensive research on a range of critical topics, including global warming, environmental policies, and sustainable development. His work touches the complex dynamics of these areas.
Holistic Approaches Towards Ecological Solutions: A Personal Perspective
Agricultural civilization and industrial civilization emerged more or less organically in response to immediate human needs for survival and progress. They unfolded incrementally, shaped by trial-and-error experimentation, often without foresight into their long-term ecological consequences. In contrast, ecological civilization is not the product of happenstance but the result of a deliberate, introspective choice, driven by an awareness of the environmental challenges caused by those earlier development models. Ecological civilization can—and perhaps must—be designed intentionally. On the way to ecological civilization, we need holistic thinking and coordinated actions. Fragmented approaches will fall short. What I have witnessed may spark some further thoughts about ecological civilization taking shape.
Li Ling
Li Ling is Research Professor at the Institute of Cultural Studies, Shandong Academy of Social Sciences. She received her joint PhD from Washington University in St. Louis (USA) and Shandong University and is a Registered Urban Planner. Her primary research areas include architectural aesthetics and urban development, with a focus on ecological city construction and digital development within the context of China’s urbanization process. Utilizing holistic ecology as a theoretical framework, she explores pathways for transforming and upgrading China’s urbanization, as well as the adaptation and application of Western ecological city theories in China. In recent years, she has participated in the review and evaluation of numerous projects, including urban development plans, overall land use plans, and the protection and restoration of ancient buildings. Additionally, she has been involved in key initiatives such as researching and presenting the Yellow River spirit and cultural essence in Shandong Province, as well as promoting integrated urban-rural development. Furthermore, she translates classic works by distinguished scholars to enhance the dissemination of academic achievements through international platforms. She has completed one General Program of the National Social Science Fund of China and is currently leading a Chinese Academic Translation Project funded by the same organization. She has published two monographs and over 60 academic papers.
What is Constructive Post-Modern Architecture?—A Paradigm Shift Rooted in Process Philosophy
Constructive Post-Modern Architecture (CPMA) emerged as a significant theoretical paradigm during a period of critical transition in global architectural thought in the late 20th century. This theoretical framework exhibits a dual critical stance: a profound reflection on the functionalist supremacy and technical rationalism of Modernist architecture, alongside a cautious awareness of the tendencies towards symbolization and formalism characteristic of early Post-Modern architecture. Its theoretical foundations are firmly rooted in Constructive Post-Modern philosophy, aligning with its core tenet that “Being is becoming.” It emphasizes cultural pluralism, historical continuity, ecological holism, and dynamic equilibrium, adopting these principles as key guidelines for architectural design.
Modernist architecture, with its emphasis on functional rationality and technological universality, achieved paradigmatic hegemony on a global scale. However, its standardized and decontextualized design logic led to a severe erosion of architectural regionalism and humanistic dimensions. While Post-Modern architecture sought to deconstruct Modernist uniformity through historicism and decorative languages, it often succumbed to the formalistic predicament of symbolic consumerism. Through critical appropriation, CPMA maintains Modernist technical rationality while integrating the cultural dimensions foregrounded by Post-Modernism, thereby achieving a dialectical transcendence of the architectural paradigm. This results in a distinctive “process-oriented architectural theory” that expands architectural practice from a focus solely on material function to encompass multifaceted dimensions such as cultural identity construction, social relations reproduction, and ecological responsibility.
Despite facing critiques of formal alienation and historical nihilism, CPMA exhibits the potential for paradigmatic innovation driven by both digital technologies and ecological wisdom. Future development should focus on establishing dynamic equilibrium mechanisms, exploring, within a process-philosophical framework emphasizing “becoming,” sustainable pathways for architecture as a complex adaptive system, ultimately realizing a qualitative leap in the quality of the human habitat.
Yang Liu
Mr. Liu Yang is currently a fellow at Xinhua Institute, a think tank affiliated with Xinhua News Agency. He’s primary research focus is the China-US relationship and Chinese foreign policy. He has worked in Xinhua offices in Damascus, Syria, and Washington, D.C. He holds a BA from Wuhan University.
Exploring Areas of Cooperation between Beijing and Washington on Fighting Climate Change
As the world witnesses changes unseen in a century, the China-US relationship is key in maintaining stability in the world and for the international community to stay on course in battling climate change. The cooperation between Beijing and Washington is under tremendous strain as the two sides differ on principle and strategy. Despite the challenge, it’s still worthwhile to explore and identify areas where the two sides can come together.
Diego Emiliano Lopez Pereda
Diego Emiliano Lopez Pereda is a peculiar actual occasion, shaped by a historic route enriched by both beauty and pain over his 30 years in this world. He has been an artist, a teacher, a performer, a film director, a migrant, a babysitter, a son, a brother, and now, a husband: the most transformative event of his life. An unmeasured passionate way of living has characterized Emiliano’s life and it is reflected in the different creative endeavors which have informed his existence. Now thanks to the IFS model and Process Philosophy all together, he has been given the tools to bring harmony to the universe that constitutes him, and unify the parts that accompany him everyday. He is also an active mycologist based in Italy, where he studies fungi both as ecological participants and symbolic agents of regeneration. This mycelial lens now informs his main work: Daedalea, a recursive, regenerative knowledge ecosystem grounded in relational intelligence, process philosophy, and ethical AI. Vegan thanks to his wife, Emiliano believes in the peaceful coexistence across all domains of life. He believes that learning to listen, hug, and love our inner parts is what allows us to truly do the same for one another.
Decision Through Embodiment: A Compassionate Field Guide to the Eco-Self: Integrating Internal Family Systems and Whitehead’s Philosophy of Organism with Cognitive Biology and Embodied Relevance
This presentation offers a gentle field-guide to those exploring identity, healing, and coherence through the lens of process thought. Rooted in Alfred North Whitehead’s Process and Reality, Internal Family Systems (IFS), cognitive biology, and trauma-informed embodiment, this exploration proposes the eco-self as a transductive, relational process: one that emerges through the recursive weaving of sensation, memory, relevance, and care.
Rather than seeking to define the self, this guide traces how it is felt into being, through somatic prehension, symbolic resonance, and the quiet decisions we make to stay present with ourselves and with the world. Drawing on Whitehead’s idea that “each animal body harbours a living person, or living persons.” and the IFS model of compassionate internal multiplicity, we’ll explore how healing might become possible through attunement, to what hurts, to what helps, and to what wants to become whole.
I propose a living invitation: to listen more deeply to the body as a society of occasions; to include the exiled parts of ourselves with gentleness; and to rediscover decision not as willpower, but as embodied enunciation, as a way of letting the world speak itself through us.
Sandra Lubarsky
Sandra Lubarsky holds a PhD in Religion from Claremont Graduate University where she studied with John Cobb. She founded the masters program in Sustainable Communities at Northern Arizona University, chaired the Department of Sustainable Development at Appalachian State University, and now serves as President of Flagstaff College & Communiversity. She has written several books and dozens of essays on inter-religious dialogue, higher education, sustainability, and aesthetics.
What is Beauty For?
Beauty’s uselessness is one of the great misconceptions of beauty, leading to the judgment of beauty as nonessential to the way we live. We have learned to focus on efficiency, optimization, and functionality when we talk about usefulness, and to think that beauty and usefulness are separate categories. But our inability to acknowledge the necessity of beauty is part of the life-destroying attitude that has fractured Earth’s ecological systems. In this paper I ask: “What happens when we no longer see beauty as an integral part of the design of life?” And “What changes when we treat beauty as an important ecological principle?”
Brian Mageo-Sausser
Brian Mageo-Sausser is a Master’s student of Philosophy and Religion in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. His thinking is fueled by an interest in ancient and medieval Christian thought, process philosophy, and the interdisciplinary field of religion and ecology. Brian’s research stems from a desire to heal and protect the more-than-human world through creative and practical responses to ecological crises, and is informed by interdisciplinary studies and work in the budding field of Earth Law.
Maximus, Leopold, and the Ethical Community
The reality of accelerated ecological collapse and intensifying stress upon the life-ways of countless species calls for a reexamination of our place in the cosmos. In hopes of re-enchanting the world and inspiring humans to participate in their vocation as essential actors in the drama of transfiguration and restoration, this paper explores the cosmic theology of St. Maximus the Confessor in conversation with the Land Ethic of Aldo Leopold. Maximus’ theological exploration of the ‘logoi’ of creatures helps us to see the interconnectedness of beings in relation to their Unifying Principle. Leopold’s work shows us what happens to natures when we are transfigured, and it invites practical ethical engagement after transfiguration. The paper serves as an invitation to contemplate the ineffable regenerative principle inherent in the Land in order that we might devote ourselves to ascetic practice and ethical responsibility to our biotic community.
Baiju Markose
Dr. Baiju Markose is an Assistant Professor of Theology at Trinity Lutheran Seminary at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. Previously, he served as Professor of Religion and Dean of Studies at Dharma Jyothi Vidya Peeth Seminary in Faridabad, India. He is the author of several notable works, including Notes from the Edges: Theological Intonations (2021) and Rhizomatic Reflections: Discourses on Religion and Theology (2018), as well as numerous journal articles. In 2017, he was honored with the Marion McFarland Award by the American Academy of Religion (Midwest Region). He coordinated the Global Climate Justice Interfaith Peace Maker Team at the OMNIA Institute for Contextual Leadership, focusing on the intersection of interfaith peace-making and climate justice. Additionally, he is a co-researcher at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa for the project An Earthed Faith: Telling the Story amid the Anthropocene.
Emplaced Subjectivity and Arboreal Activism: A Study of Kallel Pokkudan’s Oiko-Autobiography
This presentation explores the transformative potential of Kallen Pokkudan’s oiko-autobiography and arboreal activism in reconceptualizing human-nature relationships. Through the lens of new materialist philosophy and intersectional environmentalism, it examines Pokkudan’s life narrative as a Dalit environmental activist in Kerala, India. The study highlights three key insights: the mangrove as a powerful metaphor for liminality and micropolitics, the concept of emplaced subjectivity that challenges traditional notions of selfhood, and the emergence of subaltern relational ethics grounded in Object-Oriented Ontology.
Pokkudan’s work demonstrates how marginalized ecological knowledge can address climate crises and proposes new cartography that embraces multiplicity and interdependency. By integrating human and environmental concerns, his vision of emplaced subjectivity offers an ethics of deep solidarity and distributed agency. This research contributes to our understanding of cosmic ecology by illustrating the interconnectedness of consciousness, life, and Earth through the lived experience of a subaltern activist. It presents a biocentric approach that recognizes the agency and value of all life forms, providing valuable insights for developing sustainable practices and fostering an ecological worldview that transcends traditional hierarchies.
Jay McDaniel
Jay McDaniel is Chair of the Board of the Center for Process Studies, editor of Open Horizons, professor emeritus of world religions at Hendrix College in Arkansas, and author or editor of fifteen books, including What is Process Thought? (Process Century Press) and Living from the Center: Spirituality in an Age of Consumerism. His philosophical inspirations include the philosophy of Whitehead, Chinese Buddhism, classical Christian theology (Augustine), and the phenomenological traditions of Western philosophy (Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty). He has a special interest in the intersection of the liberal arts and process philosophy, as they might, together, contribute to a more just and compassionate communities, in rural and urban settings, that embody the spirit of ecological civilization – at the heart of which is living with respect and care for the community of life, with no one left behind.
Mindful Metaphysics: Ecological Civilization from the Ground Up
Mindful metaphysics is a way of living that emphasizes relationality, creativity, and compassion. It is not merely a philosophical framework but an embodied practice of attuning to the interconnectedness of all existence. Drawing from Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy, mindful metaphysics envisions the universe as a creative advance into novelty, where life unfolds through spontaneous and relational processes. This perspective shifts consciousness from ego-centered to eco-centered, fostering kinship with all life forms and a deep responsibility to the web of life. It envisions an ecological civilization built on inclusive, participatory, and sustainable communities where humans live harmoniously with the earth and all its inhabitants.
Resonant with the principles of Theory U, a framework for transformative change developed by Otto Scharmer, mindful metaphysics unfolds through three interconnected phases: sensing, presencing, and realizing. These stages parallel the practices of prehensive presence, openness to collective aims, and testing ideas against lived experience. Both frameworks promote awareness-based change, emphasizing play, empathy, and co-creativity as pathways to innovation and relational understanding. This alignment demonstrates how mindful metaphysics and Theory U offer complementary approaches to fostering systemic change.
Applied to education and community building, mindful metaphysics encourages participatory learning that emphasizes empathy, exploration, and vision. By integrating these practices into formal and informal education, individuals become equipped to navigate complex challenges creatively and collaboratively. This approach nurtures holistic development, preparing individuals to contribute meaningfully to an ecological civilization marked by justice, compassion, and sustainability. We help co-create a flourishing world.
Robert McDonald
Robert McDonald is currently a PhD Candidate at the Claremont School of Theology where he is completing his dissertation in Comparative Theology and Philosophy, the theme of which is a comparative defense for vegetarianism within the Catholic tradition. Prior to Claremont, Rob pursue graduate studies with Gonzaga University and Gannon University, with his undergraduate studies being pursued at Gannon. Additional research for Rob includes addressing anthropocentrism and political theology, general comparative religious studies, and theodicy within ecotheology. (He currently has a book chapter forthcoming on the topic.) He currently lives in Richmond, VA, USA with his wife, Meg, and their two cats, Toshi and Clementine. His goal is to obtain a teaching position at a college or university where he can work with students and pursue his research.
Holding Out Hope for Creaturely Kinship: Building an Ecological Civilization Through a Political Theology of Sight
As we witness a growing poly-valent ecological crisis which is detrimental to the survival of not only human communities but non-human entities, the need to develop an “ecological civilization” grows ever more imperative. To this end, even as there are many propositions for what constitutes an “ecological civilization,” one area which is frequently neglected—especially at the highest levels of policy and culture—but must be addressed is the modern development of industrialized agriculture, specifically animal agriculture.
Chief among the outputs of industrialized agriculture is methane, a greenhouse gasses much more potent than carbon dioxide vis-à-vis trapping heat within the atmosphere. As has been suggested before, the reduction of methane released by industrialized animal agriculture is one step toward building an ecological civilization. What is more, moving away from the predominantly Western diet fed by industrialized animal agriculture qua CAFOs (“concentrated animal feeding operations”) will spur a move toward more ecologically sound forms of sourcing food for a growing population.
To wit, it is argued that a move toward a plant-based diet, if not a fully vegetarian or even vegan diet, is crucial for building an “ecological civilization.” At the same time, it is acknowledged that modern society, with a growing population, cannot move completely away from industrialized agriculture; however, such industrialization can be leveraged to produce healthy and less-ecologically impactful sources of nutrition than industrialized agriculture.
Hubert Meisinger
Dr. Hubert Meisinger studied Protestant Theology in Heidelberg and at the Zygon Center for Religion and Science at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. He has also completed research stays at the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in Berkeley/USA and at the University of Oxford/England. Dr. Meisinger received his Doctorate at the University of Heidelberg on the topic “Love Commandment and Altruism Research. An exegetical contribution to the dialogue between theology and natural science”. He was additionally awarded first prize for natural science and theology by the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT). Since 2006 Dr. Meisinger is the environmental officer at the Center for Social Responsibility of the EKHN and he has also has been a member of the Chamber for Sustainable Development of the EKD Council (2009-2015), served as part-time director of studies for science and technology at the Ev. Akademie Frankfurt (2006-2016), as well as holding positions as a board member of ESSSAT (2008-2016) and fellow of ISSR.
Sustainability, Climate Change and the Integrity of Creation: A New Testament Approach
Tropical nights in Germany, devastating forest-fires in Sweden, Australia and the US, high temperatures north of the polar circle—climate change is all around. Highly visible for those who want to see it, who do not close their eyes. Scientists like Friederike Otto, Honorary Research Associate of the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, and Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber, former president of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, become important. Otto investigates the impact of climate on weather-phenomena, Schellnhuber speaks about a new “hot age” which is going to come in case we do not countersteer immediately. Renewed concepts of sustainability have to be implemented in order to meet climate change in this time of “kairos”. The counterpart of sustainability with its economical, ecological, social and cultural branches in theology can be the triad justice, peace and the integrity of creation.
In my presentation I will elaborate on three theses with respect to religion based upon myth in its development:
- A new relationship between human and non-human life has to be created, in which wisdom and mindfulness will play an important part.
- Altruism and the Christian Love command can give impulses to even love creation at all, as deep as a little blade of gras (so Niels Henrik Gregersen, Systematic Theology, University of Copenhagen, in “Incarnation”).
- It may be the spirit of God which enables a viable future, in consonance with wisdom, altruism and love.
Finally I will reflect about possible images of hope to help to overcome the present crisis, both in paintings and poetry.
Kumrila Mongzar
Kumrila Mongzar, known as Akum (A-khum), is a student at Claremont School of Theology. Her scholarly pursuits center on Trans-religious discourse, Intercultural and Contextual Studies, Tribal and Indigenous Cosmologies, Postcolonialism, and Process Studies. Akum’s work bridges diverse intellectual and cultural traditions, fostering dialogue across religious and philosophical boundaries. Her research reflects a commitment to exploring marginalized perspectives, especially those rooted in Indigenous and tribal worldviews.
Mind Beyond the Human: Extended Cognition and Indigenous Ontologies in a More-Than-Human World
The concept of “being human in a world that is more than human” is central to John B. Cobb Jr.’s reflections in Is It Too Late? Toward an Ecological Civilization. Cobb argues that human beings are not separate from nature but part of nature. The phrase “more-than-human world” invites a rethinking of our place within a broader ecological web of relationships. It moves beyond anthropocentric assumptions that humans are the central agents of meaning and purpose. Instead, it calls for an ethical and ontological shift toward recognizing the agency, value, and subjectivity of non-human beings—animals, plants, rivers, mountains, and ecosystems.
This paper acknowledges the reimagining of humanity within the “more-than-human” world is crucial, as we face the profound crises of the anthropocene, marked by climate change, biodiversity loss, and the collapse of ecosystems. Thus, explores the question of “What does it mean to be a human being?” and address the concept of human and nonhuman forms of representation. The anthropocentric notion that human language and symbolic representation as the sole means of understanding reality will be challenged.
Hence, this presentation will engage on “being human in a world that is more than human” employing Indigenous epistemologies on ontological pluralism of coexisting realities decentering human exceptionalism. This will be done by engaging in other fields of thoughts, in relation to the topic, and drawing epistemologies from Indigenous storytelling in shaping ecological consciousness while advocating myths hold profound meaning that goes beyond mere stories or entertainment. This paper will attempt to envision, “What does it mean to “flourish” in a world that is not human-centered?”
Jared Morningstar
Jared Morningstar is an independent scholar living in Madison, Wisconsin with academic interests in philosophy of religion, Islamic studies, comparative religion, metamodern spirituality, and interfaith dialogue. His work in these areas seeks to offer robust responses to issues of inter-religious conflict, contemporary nihilism, and the “meaning crisis,” among other things. Jared graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in 2018 with degrees in religion and Scandinavian studies and currently works for the Center for Process Studies and the Psychedelic Medicine Association.
Climate Anxiety, Nature Relatedness, and Peak Experiences: An Anthropocosmic Perspective on the Constructive Role of Humanity in the Biosphere
This presentation will review the literature on climate anxiety and nature relatedness, exploring the complex relationships between human emotion, mental wellbeing, and the biosphere. Naturally, this opens a number of interesting questions: what emotions should human beings experience vis-à-vis the natural world and how can communities work to more regularly and reliably induce these emotions? For these questions I will survey the work of Sam Gandy exploring increases in nature relatedness and biophilia induced by psychedelic experiences and consider more generally how non-ordinary and peak experiences may contribute to the project of existentially realizing a more positive and intimate relationship with the natural world. Here, material from neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology will be brought together to provide a fuller picture of the connection between neuroplasticity, extraordinary experiences, wellbeing, and ecological relatedness.
Turning from this empirical work towards speculative philosophy, I will outline a process “anthropocosmic” view of humanity which contextualizes the empirical data and further emphasizes the need for greater human-nature connection. Contrary to modern perspectives that bifurcate the social and the natural, the non-modern anthropocosmic view suggests ways that humanity—along with the diverse cultures that constitute it—is itself an emergent expression of the biosphere and has possibilities for contributing novel values to the overall web of life which would otherwise remain unrealized in a world without people. Drawing upon Layman Pascal’s reading of Gurdjieffian spirituality, I will explore how the anthropocosmic perspective suggests diverse ways human cultures can contribute to the biosphere. This is particularly crucial for moving toward ecological civilization, as it shows the deep interdependence of humanity and the natural world, while simultaneously suggesting positive ecological niches for human civilization itself.
Bhavana Nissima
Dr. Bhavana Nissima is a Lightweaver and Earth coach. She holds a PhD in Communication from University of New Mexico and is the first certified Warm Data Host from India with the International Bateson Institute. She is also a Capra Course Alumni, a Trim Tab fellow with Buckminster Fuller Institute and Theory U practitioner from U-Lab, MIT. As an Earth Coach, she endeavors to return osmotic connections in the linguistic and socially constructed borderlands that perceptually separate human and earth struggles and rejuvenate with-ness. As a Lightweaver, she writes, tells and encourages others to tell old and new stories that help tissue people with places and each other. She lives in the city of Hyderabad in South India and enjoys poetry, music and travel.
Timing Ecology: An Exploration of Time in the Development and Maintenance of Ecological Awareness in South Asian Faith-Culture Practices
It is popularly understood that Time in Asian cultures tend to be perceived as Cyclical. This presentation explores South Asian “Hindu” practices and discovers that the concept of Time is more intricate and related to sustaining Ecological consciousness.
In one form, time is perceived as a cycle of an energetic state that is the result of planetary positions in the cosmos. This state impacts human endeavors and is categorized as auspicious time-season and inauspicious time-season. In other words, even if a person has due social and legal support for an endeavor (say, a marriage), they can’t proceed unless other aspects of the cosmos also align. This process widens thought from a narrow-boundary lens and brings pause and care in action.
Time is also represented in the forms of godly beings, mythic stories and scriptures. Yama or God of Death represents the masculine abstraction of Time, the seasonal and cyclical time. Kali represents the feminine or stochastic form of time-disruption, small subtle changes to major changes, the very notion of variance. Shiva or Mahakaal is the notion of transcending time, the Great Time, to move beyond the seasons and habits to perceive the Earth at the nth order. This time-transcendent state is also held as Enlightenment or Samadhi.
The notion of time descends from the large swaths of social play to personal practices also in the form of Matra during Vedic Chanting. Matra is the time of pronouncing each syllable that is connected to length of breath, structure of other syllables, and available energy.
All of these forms of time elicit an Ecological awareness and care. Time is not merely a conceptual accessory but rather, serve as a framework for generating and maintaining ecological consciousness within south Asian faith practices.
Nathan Dufour Oglesby
Nathan Dufour Oglesby is a scholar, educator, musician, and content creator with a PhD in Classics, whose doctoral research focused on Alfred North Whitehead and ancient philosophy. His work bridges ancient thought and contemporary ethical concerns, integrating philosophy, spirituality, and ecological action. Through his creative ventures under the moniker Nathanology, he engages diverse audiences on ecological and philosophical topics via social media—amassing over 230,000 followers—and live performances. This “rhapsodic pedagogy,” inspired by ancient bardic traditions, fuses education, art, and storytelling to cultivate knowledge and community. Nathan also co-founded the Grokkist Network, an online learning community of 300+ members, where he leads Intro to Philosophy for Ecological Action, a course that inspires ecological initiatives. His activism with the Catholic Worker and other communities reflects his commitment to social justice and ecological stewardship.
Rhapsodic Pedagogy for Eco-Action: Integrating Philosophy, Education, and Online Community
This presentation offers a first-hand account and analysis of the transformative potential of teaching philosophy beyond traditional academic structures through an experimental online course I’ve conducted for the past two years, called “The Intro to Philosophy for Ecological Action.” Designed as a hands-on, eco-action-oriented program, the course engages participants in the philosophical exploration of their ultimate values, guiding them to create original projects aimed at ecological transformation. Past participants of the course have gone on to pursue projects like creating community gardens, composting programs, an app connecting people with environmental resources, and designing courses of their own. Grounded in my academic background studying the intersections between Whitehead’s process philosophy and ancient philosophy, the curriculum integrates the arts, science, and spirituality in a deeply interdisciplinary framework, reflecting John B. Cobb’s commitment to holistic approaches in education and ecological civilization.
By empowering participants to connect their personal values (their “ecosophies”) with actionable projects, this model cultivates ecological literacy, combats eco-anxiety, and demonstrates how philosophy can serve as a practical engine for sustainability. In reflecting on this incipient educational network, I argue that rethinking higher education in the context of climate change requires moving beyond institutional boundaries to embrace radically relational, action-based pedagogies. The pedagogy of this particular course is distinctively symposiastic (grounded in dialogue and a spirit of conviviality), rhapsodic (incorporating elements of poetic performance) and charismatic (appealing to the heart as well as the head.) In these ways it recreates aspects of the social and discursive conditions of early Greek philosophy, offering renewed possibilities of value-action holism and ecological transformation in the modern world.
Candice Olson
Candice Carpenter Olson is the Founder and Co-Executive Producer of Frontiers of Knowledge, Aspen 2025, an event which convenes leading cosmologists, neuroscientists, philosophers, origin of life scientists, and physicists—to explore emerging universe stories that restore our sense of wonder and wholeness. She has been a producer for decades—of an Emmy-winning documentary series on world religions, of companies designed to deliver deeper social connectedness and new kinds of education, and of over 100 public programs in Aspen, Colorado on a broad range of topics, including a 17-part series on psychedelics in 2023. She is a published author and has spoken at major convenings such as TED and Davos and co-designed a program with Harvard Business School and the Harvard School of Divinity on the concept of “Enoughness,” exploring what meaning that concept could possibly have in the context of late capitalism. She has a BA from Stanford, an MA from Union Seminary at Columbia, and spent a post-grad year at Harvard University. Through these academic journeys, Candice has been following particular threads in intellectual history, religious studies, biology in the broadest sense, philosophy, and consciousness studies, and is currently a doctoral student at the California Institute of Integral Studies in Philosophy, Consciousness and Cosmology.
The Idealism of Bernardo Kastrup in Conversation with Alfred North Whitehead and John Cobb
Neither materialism nor substance dualism have been particularly rich soil for developing the eco-spirituality called for by Thomas Berry half a century ago. These two over-arching worldviews may be what has made progress on Berry’s project so glacial. This paper considers two metaphysical systems that delivers five things I would argue are a necessary ontological foundation for genuine eco-spirituality:
- A felt sense of inter-connectedness with—and origination from—the cosmos and the earth.
- A felt sense of equality and wholeness in the deep diversity of the living world, a whole in which each part is both required and celebrated for its unique contribution.
- A deep sense of connection to our true Self, and therefore to all else, ending our sense of isolation.
- A sense of agency and participation in setting the direction of the unfolding cosmos.
- Contemporary myths, images, and rituals capable of restoring our sense of transcendence and wonder on an ongoing basis.
The first is that of Alfred North Whitehead and the second is that of Bernardo Kastrup. While there are important differences in how they understand reality, a close reading together reveals surprising resonances beyond the labels attached to their philosophies. In the resonances and in the creative tension between their understandings, we can find new resources for a deeper eco-spirituality. Whitehead himself argued that holding different metaphysical systems in tension moves knowledge forward. Kastrup brings to the conversation contemporary language, metaphors and examples that support many of Whitehead’s arguments for diversity in unity and participation in co-creation at every level. The paper also recovers the work of Margaret Cavendish, a contemporary of Descartes, who offers a non-hierarchical understanding of the species and the view that contribution, complexity and value are not correlated, considered alongside the position of John Cobb, Jr., that humans do have higher value than other species.
JungEun Park
JungEun Park is a PhD student at Claremont School of Theology in Process Studies. Her research interests include Ecofeminism and Eco-Process Thought.
Indigenous Peoples’ Rights for the Real Climate Change: Focusing on the Declarations Made in Bolivia and Centered on the UN Declaration
The vulnerability of indigenous peoples to climate change is a well-known fact. This paper will talk about how to capture the wisdom of indigenous peoples as one of the ideas supporting the new ecological civilization gives meaning to life and human purposes and helps to establish policies to respond to real climate change. In this session, I will look at examples of agricultural sites where the wisdom and knowledge of indigenous peoples have been used, and to talk about the need for policies to be implemented so that they can be guaranteed in the process of climate policy and decision-making processes.
Sukhyun Park
Sukhyun Park is owner and activist researcher of the “Sustainable Systems Research Institute.” She studied environmental policy and natural resources management. Sukhyun works for sustainable development planning and review/evaluation in the level of local government. In the national level, she works for environmental policy reformation. International level, she works with staff of IUCN, world’s largest conservation organization. Sukhyun joined the EcoCiv Korea project in 2022 and has been a steering member of EcoCiv Korea since 2023.
An Alternative Economic Path Toward Sustainability with Ecological Abundance
The debate surrounding degrowth is highly contentious, particularly in the context of the global North versus South, as well as within civil society. It spans a spectrum of perspectives, ranging from the notion that greed is the core issue but growth itself is not, to proposals that fixing growth metrics like GDP could address the problem, or that we simply need to create a model of sustainable growth like sustainable development. Growth seems to set people free, especially from poverty and many threats, and to give a civilized lifestyle with electricity and longer life expectancies. Thus, there are various arguments for degrowth including decoupling of carbon emissions and growing GDP. Another argument is equity between the developed and the developing countries which want to have a certain level of prosperity.
This paper seeks to explore how the principles of ecological civilization set it apart from traditional growth theories. Rather than adopting Marx’s stages of social evolution as it is, this article takes a co-evolutionary approach, viewing institutional changes as driven by shifts in technology and labor. It also highlights the idea that institutional efforts to reduce inequality will eventually necessitate economic degrowth. Furthermore, it argues that a market economy detached from natural capital and ecosystem services is inherently unsustainable. To address this, the restoration of commons such as ecosystem services must become a priority, requiring a fundamental rethinking of the concept of private property.
Jesse Peterson
Jesse Peterson is an Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies in the Department of Theology and Honors Program at George Fox University. Before coming to George Fox Universit he taught at Purdue University, where he was a visiting faculty member in the institution’s Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts program. In addition, he spent several years in New York City and taught as an adjunct faculty member at Fordham University and St. John’s University. Dr. Peterson earned a PhD in Hebrew Bible from the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University in Durham, UK, in 2021.
Dr. Peterson’s academic research brings biblical texts and traditions into dialogue with philosophy, both ancient and modern. His work on the book of Ecclesiastes/Qoheleth has been published in Harvard Theological Review, Vetus Testamentum, and the Journal of Theological Studies. Dr. Peterson’s first book, Qoheleth and the Philosophy of Value, will be published by Cambridge University Press in early 2025.
The Book of Job and the Ecological Crisis: An “Anthroperipheral” Vision
Our ongoing ecological crisis has now equally become a spiritual crisis. As environmental catastrophes loom large, feelings of anxiety, hopelessness, and despair grip America’s under-forty population, to the degree that volunteer childlessness and even anti-natalism are on the rise. In response, Christian theology needs to develop a new ecotheological vision concerning humanity’s relation to nature, because the inherited theology of “dominion,” gleaned from the opening chapter of Genesis and operative in the West since at least the Enlightenment, has only led us to the current catastrophe.
Turning from Genesis to another passage in the Hebrew Bible, the Yahweh speeches in the book of Job (chapters 38-41) offer an alternative ecotheological vision, one in which the human perspective becomes radically decentered and peripheral. Yahweh here reveals nature not as “under” creation but as an alien “Other” that is worthy of humans’ fear, awe, and reverence, as a realm over which the human does not have control. The spotlight shines on creation’s own relation to God, outside of human agency or benefit. The wild things of nature are tamable only by God, who functions as a kind of divine “horse whisperer.” Job 38-41 goes even further than this, suggesting a kind of boomerang effect: Job and his fellows are warned against attempting to control unruly nature—something only God can do—because human attempts to do so will only backfire.
I want to suggest not only that Job 38–41 might prompt an alternative ecotheological model but also that the stance toward creation which these chapters demand of us—one that sees creation not as “under” us (dominion model), nor even as “with” us (kinship model), but as “other than” us (anthroperipheral model)—naturally arouses within us feelings of awe and sublimity, the very kinds of aesthetically rich experiences central to a life worth living.
Pinran Liu
Pinran Liu is a research fellow at the Xinhua Institute, specializing in the strategic dynamics of China-U.S. relations, US foreign policy, and international security. He joined Xinhua News Agency in 2015, accumulating extensive experience in international news reporting and analysis. From 2018 to 2022, he worked in Washington, DC, focusing on US foreign policy and China-US relations. Prior to joining the Xinhua Institute, he served as a research intern at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore, where he contributed to research projects on Asia-Pacific issues. He graduated from Peking University and the London School of Economics and Political Science, with a focus on international affairs.
China and the U.S. Should Strengthen Cooperation to Address the Challenges of Climate Change
In the face of escalating climate change challenges, there is an urgent need for China and the United States—the world’s two largest economies and emitters of greenhouse gases—to bolster their cooperation. As pivotal players on the global stage, both nations have a unique responsibility and opportunity to lead the fight against climate change. By working together, China and the US can drive significant progress in reducing emissions, promoting green technology, and ensuring sustainable development.
The two countries possess complementary strengths that can be harnessed for mutual benefit and global good. The US leads in technological innovation and renewable energy technologies, while China has demonstrated remarkable capacity in large-scale implementation and infrastructure development. Collaborative efforts could accelerate advancements in clean energy, improve energy efficiency, and pave the way for a low-carbon future.
Moreover, strengthening Sino-US collaboration on climate issues could have broader diplomatic benefits, enhancing mutual trust and opening avenues for cooperation in other areas. It is essential for both countries to set aside geopolitical tensions and prioritize the health of the planet, recognizing that climate change poses a shared threat that transcends national borders.
In conclusion, by forging a robust partnership to tackle climate change, China and the US not only fulfill their international responsibilities but also propel the world toward a more sustainable and resilient future. Such collaboration is crucial in mobilizing international action and inspiring other nations to follow suit in the global effort to combat climate change.
Fatima Raza
Fatima Raza is a qualified solicitor and holds a PhD in sectarian violence in Pakistan from Griffith University (2021). Since 2019, she has served as a sessional academic at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), where she has consistently been teaching in courses within the Justice School. She is currently the Unit Coordinator for Political Violence and Terrorism. During her doctoral studies, Fatima was actively engaged with Gummurri, the Indigenous learning unit at Griffith University, contributing to the advancement of Indigenous education. Driven by a deep commitment to academia and the law, Fatima aims to foster a more equitable and inclusive society through her scholarly and professional endeavours.
From Destruction to Harmony: Hobbesian Perspectives on Violence in the Anthropocene and Reimagining Human Impulses for a Unified Ecological Civilization
Far from being an aberration, violence, as framed by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) is deeply embedded in humanity’s survival instincts and is an inherent aspect of human nature. Nonetheless, in the constant changing space of the current Anthropocene, violence can and should be reimagined through the lens of ecological civilization as a powerful force capable of transforming conflict into a catalyst for resilience and harmony.
This presentation will suggest that the eco-self must embrace a balanced narrative around violence, recognizing it as an enduring part of humanity’s interconnected relationship with nature. By accepting violence as a powerful and inescapable aspect of the human condition, we open pathways to address it constructively within society and ecology alike. This reframed understanding envisions an ecological civilization that does not reject negative human impulses but integrates them thoughtfully. Such a civilization would channel violence toward sustaining social resilience and ecological harmony, acknowledging it as a force that, when carefully directed, can bolster social cohesion and even environmental resilience. By conceptualizing violence as an inherent component of humanity’s ecological identity, this article facilitates the development of strategies to channel human impulses toward a constructive coexistence. Ultimately, this perspective offers a pathway toward a 21st-century ecological civilization where negative human impulses are recognized, accepted, and directed toward constructive coexistence within our shared environment.
Co-Presenting with Emma Hussey
Thomas Reinehr
Tom Reinehr is a Doctor of Philosophy in Religion (Process Studies) student at Claremont School of Theology (CST). Prior to attending CST, Mr. Reinehr had forty years of engineering experience, including leadership in the development of complex computer processing algorithms, including implementation of basic artificial intelligence algorithms. His master of science degree is in electrical engineering where he specialized in image and signal processing, including some of the algorithms now integral to AI. While a student at CST, Mr. Reinehr has focused on process philosophy and plans to specialize in how science, technology and government leadership can be used to produce a more ecological civilization.
Can Artificial Intelligence Terminate the Ecological Crisis?
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been proposed as a solution for virtually every problem facing humanity. Is it a potential solution for the ecological crisis which threatens to eliminate life as we know it on this planet? This presentation reviews the current state of AI, the kind of problems that it is able to solve, whether creating an ecological civilization is one of them, and the costs of using AI in this manner. The current implementations of AI involve very expensive machines and use a lot of power. Would the ecological and financial cost of this solution make things worse instead of better? Would any solution require national and individual commitment that humanity cannot implement?
The very nature of artificial intelligence allows us to interact directly with AI and ask whether it thinks it can be a solution to the ecological crisis. The presentation will explore what answers ChatGPT would give when asked difficult ecological questions. An ‘interview’ with ChatGPT will be attempted to find out whether ChatGPT thinks AI is a solution to create an ecological civilization. One of the drawbacks of the current generation of AI is that they will give an authoritative sounding answer which is completely wrong, a phenomenon known as hallucination. As such, this presentation will fact-check the solutions by ChatGPT.
William Rubel
William Rubel is an assistant professor and subject lead in philosophy, literature, and mythology at University Canada West. Mentored at Columbia University by pioneering ecocritic (and brother of Ursula K. Le Guin) Karl Kroeber, he spent eight years at the University of British Columbia, forging new contexts in romantic studies and process philosophy. His dissertation, Romancing Modernity: Poetry, Process, and Postsecularism (2018) was supervised by Adrian Ivakhiv (J. S. Woodsworth Chair in the Humanities at Simon Fraser University) and recommended for distinction by Mark Lussier. He has published in Process Studies, Joyland Magazine, and in Vala, the Journal of the Blake Society.
“Who sees the Ratio only sees himself”: Reopening Ecological Consciousness via Speculative Metaphysics with Blake and Whitehead
As a scholar of both literature and philosophy, I am interested in ecological modes of attention, or modes of intensivity that might be called haptic. My work in ecophilosophy, climate philosophy, speculative metaphysics, and ecopoetics (along with deep recent engagements with what I would call works of climate philosophy, such as Stengers’ Making Sense in Common) has persuaded me that experience (that which is concrete) is primarily ecological. As time is an abstraction, there may be less impediment than we assume to ecological civilization, which is, after all, indivisible from what Whitehead calls “concrete” experience. Thinking in terms of time may be misleading.
Drawing on the work of speculative thinkers such as Donna Haraway, Isabelle Stengers, Brian Massumi, and Timothy Morton, and on the writings of Alfred North Whitehead, I argue that modernity has set a tacit bar on “etho-ecological” (Stengers) modes of attention. Institutionalized in academia and beyond, this bar has become second nature. We have to go back to the romantics, particularly William Blake, to find a genuine protest against the foreclosure of ecopoiesis, or what one might simply call ecological consciousness. For decades, romantic poetry and its model of imagination has been the subject of withering critique. I argue that this dismissal of romantic “mysticism” has been a symptom of the modern optics of finitude, and propose that, in this moment of eco-anxiety, speculative philosophy can help us “romance” modernity. After all, ecological civilization, like the ecological modes of attention that constitute its very existence, is natural; it is not that which we must create in time, but that which modernity limits. The question becomes, can we recognize climate anxiety as abstraction and put our hands back into concrete experience?
Wm. Andrew Schwartz
Dr. Wm. Andrew Schwartz is an American philosopher and activist. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Center for Process Studies (CPS), Co-Founder & Vice President of the Institute for Ecological Civilization (EcoCiv), and Associate Professor of Process Studies and Comparative Theology at Claremont School of Theology (CST). His research and teaching covers a wide range of topics, such as environmental philosophy, philosophy of religion, Asian and comparative philosophies, metaphysics, economic philosophy, philosophy of mind, philosophy of education, and more. However, his current work mainly focuses on the application of process philosophy in understanding reality, understanding humanity, and understanding how best to organize systems of society for ecological civilization. He is author/editor of 7 books, including What is Ecological Civilization (2019) and The Metaphysics of Paradox (2018). As Executive Director, Andrew has overall strategic and operational responsibility for CPS, including development and implementation of the CPS mission, programs, and strategic vision.
It Is Too Late: How to Adapt to a 3 Degree Hotter World
It is too late! It is now all but certain that humanity will fail to meeting our 2030 climate goals. In all likelihood, we’ll not only surpass the 1.5 degree threshold, but in doing so cascading failure will result in a 3 degree hotter world by the end of the century. If an ecological civilization is to emerge, it can’t be based merely on preventing climate change, and must involve creating resilient communities capable of flourishing in a climate changed world. This paper will explore the implications of it being “too late,” and suggest some strategies for how communities can anticipate and mitigate the worst impacts of a 3 degree hotter future.
Matthew David Segall
Dr. Matthew David Segall is a transdisciplinary researcher, writer, teacher, and philosopher applying process-relational thought across the natural and social sciences, as well as to the study of consciousness. He is Associate Professor in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Department at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, and the Chair of the Process Science Project at the Center for Process Studies. His most recent book is titled Crossing the Threshold: Etheric Imagination in the Post-Kantian Process Philosophy of Schelling and Whitehead (Revelore, 2023). Follow his work at footnotes2plato.substack.com
Whitehead’s “Foresight,” or How Process Philosophy can Shape the Business Mind of the Future
This presentation addresses Whitehead’s lecture “Foresight,” delivered to Harvard’s Business School during the Great Depression, wherein he advocated for a shift in business motivations from short-term profit maximization to long-term societal well-being. He warned against the dangers of narrow, profit-driven thinking, which threatens not only social prosperity but also ecological balance.
Whitehead’s collaboration with Harvard Business School Dean Wallace Brett Donham emphasized that businesses should serve society holistically, rather than operating in isolation. Commerce, according to Whitehead, should be seen as a civilizing force, promoting rational persuasion over coercive force. However, without philosophical reflection, businesses risk contributing to barbarism, such as through military-industrial profiteering or ecological degradation.
The presentation posits that adopting a philosophical perspective in business entails examining the underlying ideals and motives that drive economic decisions. It requires cultivating virtues like foresight and cooperative power, rather than perpetuating the image of humans as selfish profit-maximizers. By embracing Whitehead’s call for a deeper and more ethically grounded business approach, companies can play an important role in moving civilization toward a more regenerative and humane economy.
Kazi Adi Shakti
Kazi Adi Shakti is an artist and independent researcher studying and theorizing on the intersections of Process Philosophy, Madhyamaka Buddhism, Western Marxism and Ecofeminism, with a special focus on the unique role each might play in a holistic soteriology that includes them all. Kazi blogs regularly on her site, holo-poiesis.com.
Process Buddhism for the Age of the Planetary Polycrisis
The present historical juncture is marked by a polycrisis—a convergence of crises spanning every dimension of life. Addressing this requires a comprehensive transdisciplinary diagnosis and anything less is necessarily partial, one-sided, and limited in its effectiveness. Val Plumwood in Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, offers such a compelling diagnosis: we suffer from the dis-ease of dualism—a fractal network of hyperseparated contrasts like self/other, subject/object, masculine/feminine, and humanity/nature. These oppositions aren’t abstract but actively structure relations of power, where one pole assumes mastery over the other. At our present point in history, this structure privileges a “white, largely male elite” while dispossessing those consigned to the “feminine,” “natural,” and “subsistence” spheres, including racialized and colonized others.
This power structure undergirds the “Imperial Mode of Living”, a form of life premised on extraction and consumption, driven by the capitalist mode of production and its antagonism between wage-labor and capital. Deeper still, it stems from what Plumwood calls the “Master Model” of being—an existential orientation of self-mastery through domination of the Other, sustaining extraction, exploitation, and expulsion.
To resolve the polycrisis, this existential root must be uprooted. Axially aligned with Ecofeminism, a creatively synthesized “Process Buddhism” offers a framework that integrates Buddhist negative dialectics with Whitehead’s reconstructive ontology. Process reconstructs reality’s creative advance, while Buddhist analysis subjects it to critique. This synthesis resists the logic of mastery and inclusive-exclusion, forming a system that is coherent, incomplete, and open-ended. Mediated by Marx’s critique of political economy, Process Buddhism bridges micro-ontological processes with macro-social praxis, offering a comprehensive framework for analyzing and resolving the polycrisis.
Steven Shaviro
Steven Shaviro is Emeritus Professor of English at Wayne State University in Detroit. He recently retired after forty years as an English professor. He has published thirteen books, on subjects ranging from film theory to the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead to studies of science fiction. His most recent book is Fluid Futures: Science Fiction and Potentiality.
Xenobiological Fantasias
This talk looks at several works of science fiction that not only imagine alien forms of life, but also present scenarios in which these alien forms interpenetrate with, and affect, human and Earthly biology. Texts include recent novels by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Alien Clay and the Children of Time series) and somewhat older novels by Ian Watson (The Martian Inca and Alien Embassy). In all these books, in their different ways, human exceptionalism is challenged when it is affected or infected by life forms that are governed by different genetic and psychological logics. Human responses to these transformations move between the extremes of paranoiac dread and rejection, on the one hand, and ecstatic psychedelic becomings, on the other hand. The books suggest our need to overcome both of these extremes in order to establish genuine contact. These novels explore how it might be possible for our culture, and indeed for our very being, to welcome and accept radical difference, without trying to exterminate it, but also without simply being absorbed by it. Regardless of the likelihood (or not) of such scenarios actually coming to pass, these works of science fiction point up conditions that we need to acknowledge and accomodate in a world that (contrary to old humanist assumptions) is not unilaterally subject to our will.
Pia Shaw
Pia Shaw is a Whiteheadian scholar and researcher who received her PhD from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco in Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness Studies. Her dissertation, A Whiteheadian Theory of Emotions: Finding Value in the Universe, explores human emotions within a broader context of cosmic emotions. Pia’s work highlights how Whitehead’s philosophical framework can enrich contemporary discussions on cosmic ecology. She emphasizes that human experience is an integral part of the cosmic whole rather than an exceptional phenomenon. By valuing emotional experience, Pia fosters an expansive understanding of our connection to the universe, promoting a deeper awareness of our place within it. Pia’s research and collaborations aim to bridge the gap between philosophy and practical application, advancing the wisdom of Whitehead through accessible methods that integrate psychospiritual coaching models and experience.
Whiteheadian Emotion: The Feeling for Intrinsic Value
Ideas and statistics alone don’t generate change; it is our personally felt emotional responses to them that create the energy for action, along with an empathetic sense of closeness, awe, and appreciation for the innate value of nature’s processes. Viewing nature as ‘something out there’ prevents us from recognizing how our human experience is also part of the natural world. This reinforces an anthropocentric viewpoint, positioning humans as exceptional and separate from nature, valuing it solely in terms of human benefit.
Shifting from an anthropocentric to a holistic and biocentric perspective has been a key theme in modern environmental ethics. This change is crucial for achieving sustainability, justice, and addressing the climate crisis. Central to these approaches are the principles of radical interconnection and the intrinsic value of all living beings. Whitehead’s process-relational and pan-subjective metaphysics support these ideas, countering the notion of a valueless universe with humans as arbiters of value, instead proposing a feeling universe of pan-subjectivity, where each entity possesses value for itself.
Pan-subjectivity can be challenging to grasp from an anthropocentric viewpoint. However, Whitehead’s work offers a way to appreciate this perspective by calling for an imaginal leap to entertain meanings that do not assume sense organs, a brain, a particular nervous system, or the capacity for conscious self-reflection. Our subjective emotional experience is not separate from nature; while it may differ in complexity, its roots are present throughout the universe.
This presentation invites a reflective journey, highlighting not human exceptionalism but rather the commonality of felt experiences of all other entities. Ideas serve as guideposts, leading us toward empathetic and integrated relationships. Our sense of connection inspires concern, and concern is an emotion that generates action.
Jihye Shin
Jihye Shin, a researcher at EcoCivKorea, is a PhD in education and is a lecturer in environmental liberal arts courses at several universities in Korea. She recently co-wrote Climate Care.
Fostering Ecological Citizenship in Korean University Students through Liberal Arts Education
This presentation intends to discuss the findings of a study on the methods and implications of education for reducing individual carbon footprints in liberal arts courses in Korean universities. In a liberal arts lecture conducted by the researcher for five semesters starting in 2022, I would like to talk about the improvement of carbon emission behavior that university students have chosen by themselves and how it has been implemented. And I would like to examine whether they were able to learn to adapt to the climate crisis through their practices. Ultimately, I would like to consider how to teach the meaning of ecological transformation and the lifestyle of ecological citizens in higher education.
Jeanyne Slettom
Jeanyne B. Slettom is an academic publisher and public scholar whose primary interests are process-relational and transdisciplinary thought. She is the publisher of Process Century Press, a former director of Process & Faith, and an ordained UCC minister. She has taught at Claremont School of Theology and United Theological Seminary (MN). Her PhD is in Philosophy of Religion and Theology (Claremont Graduate University). She lives and works on the banks of the Mississippi River.
The Dynamics of Loss: Whitehead and the Dual Process Model of Grief
The proposed paper looks at climate grief through the lens of the dual process model of bereavement developed by Stroebe and Schut, which has replaced the Kübler-Ross stages of grief model still largely held by the public. The dual process model describes an oscillation between two types of stressors—loss-oriented and restoration-oriented—that result in alternating patterns of confrontation and avoidance. It argues that respite from grief is essential to adaptive coping. The dynamism of oscillation is seen as an improvement over static stages; however, while the model assumes a healing telos, it lacks an explanatory framework that this paper argues can be found in process thought. A process ontology illuminates the movement forward (and also getting stuck). Climate grief is the concrete application of these ideas. In an ecological civilization, the dual process model helps with confronting losses in the natural world, with climate action as restorative and necessary respite. Each needs the other, as the both-and ontology of process thought supports and clarifies.
Gregory Stevens
Rev. Gregory Stevens serves as the Northern California Director of California Interfaith Power and Light, and is the founder of the Unitarian Universalist EcoSocialist Network. Gregory is a former Baptist preacher, long time labor organizer, and interfaith community activist seeking to strengthen multi-religious revolutionary responses to climate change. They grew up in Tampa/St.Petersburg Florida, they have a BA in Religion and Gender Studies from the University of South Florida, and after meeting Dr. Tripp Fuller, moved to Claremont for a MDiv with a focus on Process Theology. They also earned an MA in Anthropology and Social Change from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
EcoSocialism Is Not a Metaphor: Building the Socialist Alternative through Faith Communities
This paper argues that the urgency of the climate crisis necessitates moving beyond academic theorizing divorced from material struggles, emphasizing the ecological imperative of building working-class alternatives to the Capitalocene. Using an activist-ethnography methodology, I examine the collaboration between the Bay Area branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco (UUSF), focusing on a PSL unit that has partnered with UUSF to lead a climate justice campaign. This campaign seeks to transform PG&E, the largest utility monopoly, into a nonprofit entity, Golden State Energy, as a step toward ecological sustainability through an equitable and rapid shift to renewable energy while advancing the eco-socialist revolution.
By bringing leading process thinkers—John Cobb, Catherine Keller, and William Connolly—into dialogue with J. Moufawad-Paul, Gabriel Rockhill, and Jodi Dean, this paper critiques tendencies within the left, particularly the religious left, that prioritize reformism, horizontalism, and movementism over the organized, working-class pursuit of revolutionary goals through the local church and party formation. It argues that confronting capitalism amidst ecological collapse demands a revolutionary praxis that integrates environmental justice with a process theological grounding.
Matthew Switzer
Matthew Switzer recently completed is doctoral studies in philosophy and religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies with a concentration in ecology, spirituality, and religion. A former Tatzoo fellow and manager at Planet Drum Foundation, Matthew has worked in education for over fifteen years from K-12 and the university level and has published articles on bioregionalism, green criminology, and religious and environmental extremism. His dissertation highlights the role of dreams in natural resource management.
Between the City and the Wild: Challenges to Domestication from the Archives of Ecological Resistance
This presentation traces the origin and development of rewilding from the radical ecological milieu in the United States as a critical pathway for ecological restoration as informed by wilderness activists, ecopsychologists, conservation biologists, primitivists, green anarchists, social ecologists, bioregionalists, deep ecologists, indigenous resistance, mainstream environmentalism, and more. Through archival research I consider the key guiding principles underlying rewilding, how they address the polycrisis, as well as critiques of international adoption of rewilding as a strategic approach informing the United Nation’s Decade of Ecosystem Restoration to ensure it meets its Sustainable Development Goals and Millennium Development Goals by 2030 to avoid catastrophic climate change.
Drawing on a post-‘1968 critique of civilization articulated in radical and alternative magazines and activist communiques, I suggest rewilding has, in the forty years since its formulation, become both highly popularized and “defanged” by those seeking to make rewilding “fit for policy.” As such, rewilding projects risk undermining their own goals where these critiques are ignored to their detriment. Like “ecocivilization,” rewilding offers a vision of a future in which nature and culture are integrated, yet whose anti-civilizational critiques deepen the analysis to avoid merely greenwashing civilization while leaving intact its core identity. In doing so, the presentation introduces alternative models to civilization, ecological or otherwise, including ecotopian literature that developed during this time, with freedom (wild being etymologically related willed) proposed as a key principle around which to organize for humans and non-humans alike.
Jindan Tong
Jindan Tong, an Associate Research Professor at the Institute of Culture Studies, Shandong Academy of Social Sciences. As a Ph.D. in Literature from Shandong University，she is currently a member of the Shandong Provincial Literary and Art Critics Association. Her primary research focuses on modern and contemporary Chinese literature and culture studies. She has published over thirty academic papers in prominent provincial and national journals. She is the author of the published monograph Cultural Psychology in Xu Xu’s Novel Creation. She has led and completed several research projects, including the Shandong Provincial Social Science Planning Project Integrating Lu Business Culture Resources to Build a Lu Business Cultural Tourism Brand and the project Research on Human Survival Patterns in New Era Novels and in a Market Economy Environment.
From Predatory Development to Humane Development: a Constructive Postmodern Ecological Economy
The predatory development model of modern economism has precipitated severe ecological crises. In response, constructive postmodernism proposes “humane development ” (厚道发展) as an alternative paradigm advocating harmonious coexistence between humans, nature, and society. This transformative framework operates through three integrated dimensions:
- Epistemological Reconstruction: Replacing mechanistic dualism with organic holism, recognizing the economy as a subsystem within ecological systems;
- Ethical Reformation: Establishing a “life-community ethic” that prioritizes the well being of all beings over profit maximization;
- Practical Implementation: Developing synergistic ecological-economic systems through organic agriculture and zero-waste communities, as evidenced by the Sanshengu Eco-Village and Cobb Eco-Academy models.
The philosophy resonates profoundly with traditional Chinese wisdom of “harmony between humans and nature” (天人合一) and “benevolence towards people and care for all things” (仁民爱物), offering cross-cultural foundations for ecological civilization. The path towards “humane development” is arduous yet indispensable. Only through this transformation can humans truly evolve from “plunderers of the Earth” into “guardians of the life community”, thereby ushering in a new epoch of civilizational progress.
George Valladares
George “Eternity” Valladares is an active mind at work in the areas of science and technology studies and a heart-led person in community building.
Decolonial AI? Exploring the Archive and its Industrial Uses
“Stop Hiring Humans” reads one of the latest ads posted by tech startup Artisan advertising AI employees. Alex Rivera’s 1997 short film “Why Cybraceros?” sarcastically proposes a future where laborers in Mexico can telecommute into farm fields and control a robot using a joystick to perform farm labor, without “any threat” of becoming an “actual citizen.” It begs the question, what is labor to AI? In this presentation, we draw upon interviews with people using AI in their everyday lives as well as engineers developing AI products to gain insight into what labor we as workers outsource to AI in seeking a better future and life. Given the environmental and informational consequences of AI, are there redeeming potentials? Is AI inevitable and if so, can it be decolonized?
We meet these questions at the intersection of climate change, labor, and social justice and take the opportunity to unpack what it means to trouble the trinary of human/animal/machine in this day and age. This is with particular awareness that AI is being granted a kind of sentience via terms like “AI hallucination” and being offered a spot in the workforce whereas historically oppressed groups have been denied their humanity, knowledge, and had their labor manipulated and extracted while their actual power in the workforce is denied and erased. Drawing upon genealogies and discourses of “smart cities” as a sociological phenomena to intersect with questions of labor, how does AI expand infrastructures of surveillance and policing both “on the ground” and “in the cloud?” What would “better living” within a “smart” city mean, especially from a decolonial lens? We seek to unpack the epistemologies that undergird much of the technologies at play here and put them into conversation with Black and Indigenous ways of knowing as it relates to alternatives for our predicament.
Co-Presenting with Lawrence Koval
Claudius van Wyk
Claudius van Wyk holds a MPhil in Applied Ethics from St. Augustine College, Johannesburg for his dissertation on holism as the ultimate criterion for ethics, and was awarded a PhD by the Indian Board of Alternative Medicine for his thesis on the necessary epistemological transformation of biomedical model of wellness. Through Transformation Strategies Ltd, Claudius participated in the 2002 Johannesburg world Summit of Sustainable Development assisting the ‘Towards Gondwana Alive’. He served as visiting lecturer to Schumacher College on complexity theory applied to economic and social systems and has worked with the London School of Economics Complexity Research Group on the role of women in delicate ecosystems for the United Nations Environmental Program. Claudius has presented published papers on complexity theory and holism at various universities and conferences.
Toward Ecological Civilisation: Holism, Life and Cosmos—A Unifying Ethos
A unifying ethos is needed for humanity to fulfil its cosmic destiny as a beneficial planetary species. Our evolution toward an ecological civilisation can be guided by ‘metaphysical holism’, integrating life and cosmos into our identity. The ultimate goal is not a static endgame but a continuous process of creative adaptive evolution, transforming humanity into an active, responsible agent within the interconnected web of life.
This paper explores three core ethical principles:
- balancing competition and collaboration,
- contributing to the coherence of the whole, and
- enabling ongoing evolution.
Current global crises push civilisation to the ‘edge of chaos,’ presenting both significant dangers to our future as a species and significant opportunities for more coherent forms of order. While misapplied technology has led to destructive ecological consequences, there is hope that AI-driven data processing could foster ecological realism, shifting from toxic extractive competition to healthy regenerative collaboration.
The shift to ecological civilisation demands a new kind of leadership founded on a universal ethical framework—an integrative view of life and cosmos as sacred holistic phenomena due to the unique potential for reversing entropy. Such syntropic leadership can identify creative opportunities in chaotic conditions, guided by principled pragmatism.
The shift will be evidenced by humanity’s renewed ability to reconnect reverently with life, fostering a deeper cosmic self-awareness, and demonstrating greater agility, resilience, and creativity. This alignment with a participatory culture, informed by a sense of cosmic identity, will reflect humanity’s growing role as a beneficial keystone species, fulfilling its destiny as part of the cosmic process of creative evolution.
Anand Veeraraj
Anand Veeraraj is an ordained minister in the Church of South India and serves as the Pastor-emeritus of the Trinity Community Church [United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church-USA], in Princeton, New Jersey. For many years, he served as the Research Director of the New York University School of Medicine/Bellevue Hospital, New York. He promotes the Meghalayan Congress and Seminars, directs the EcoCovenant Academy-India, and supports sustainable environmental projects in tribal and rural India. He is the author of the books, Green History of Religion, and Earthen Vessels: The Paradox of Christian Leadership and the editor of the book, Pilgrims at the Crossroads: Asian Indian Christians at the North American Frontier. He has written over 50 scholarly and popular essays for journals and book chapters. He earned a PhD in Religion and Ecology from Claremont Graduate School, California. He lives with his family in Warminster, Pennsylvania.
It is Never Too Late! Toward a Meghalayan Axiality [2.0.] in Seizing an Ecological Civilization
The Meghalayan Age and the Axial Age are in dialogue here. The science of ecology and the traditional philosophy of religion are like water and oil; they do not jell. These topics deal with global climate changes and how they affect human-world relations, and their perceptions and approaches are diametrically atypical. Ecosystems are organic, relational, and ever-evolving with human communities embedded within. Contrarily, most axial religious traditions and formulations are monadic, and thrive on exclusivity and singularity; or else they will not be regarded as faith traditions.
Until recently, scholars of the Axial Age were oblivious to global environmental changes and climate catastrophes that visited ancient civilizations. This paper explores the links between the Meghalayan Age and the rise of Axial religions, spiritualities, and philosophies. The notion of an “axis of history” serves as a large-scale interpretive tool in the study of religion, showing among other things, the effects of climate crisis on the evolution of human societies and culture, and the distinctions between pre-axial and post-axial religions. This presentation, in some ways, is provocative, and subversive in exacting why we call for a new Axial revolution, a paradigm shift 2.0 of our religious and cultural existence at this propitious time. It seeks to unmask the philosophical and religious underpinnings of the so-called “Axial Age.”
We seek to answer the following questions in reconstructing a coherent story of the Axial Age.
- Is it prudent to emboss the Meghalayan Age on the Axial Age or vice versa?
- How and why did the ancient humans come to trade in the world-affirming dispositions of the pre-axial times with the world-denying faiths of the post-axial times
- What is Axial about the Axial Age?
- Can India show the way to save humanity from impending ecological catastrophes?
- How do we covenant with the natural world in sizing an ecological commonwealth?
Shang Wang
Shang Wang is a PhD candidate in the school of Philosophy at Beijing Normal University, supervised by Prof. Xiaoting Liu. His research focuses on the philosophical implications of modern avant-garde scientific thought, particularly in philosophy of natural science, process philosophy, ecology philosophy and systems philosophy. With a multidisciplinary academic foundation, he holds an MSc in Financial Risk Management from the University of Glasgow and a BEng in Integrated Circuit Design from Dalian University of Technology. His work bridges historical analysis, philosophical inquiry, and quantitative methodologies to explore paradigm shifts in scientific and technological evolution. Current projects emphasize interdisciplinary dialogues between scientific history and contemporary philosophical frameworks in natural science.
Encountering the Dao with Gaia: A Preliminary Exploration of New Perspectives on Contemporary Ecological Civilization Dilemmas
This study draws on the natural concept of James Lovelock’s “Gaia Hypothesis” to explore a new understanding of the natural view in the Tao Te Ching within the context of contemporary science. It also discusses the possibility of achieving the creative transformation of traditional Chinese Daoist wisdom from this new perspective, aiming to construct an innovative and future-oriented ideological paradigm for the construction and development of contemporary ecological civilization concepts.
Meanwhile, the new ideological paradigm may offer a theoretical approach to resolving the key contradiction between current social development needs and ecological civilization concepts. The structural contradiction between them is specifically manifested as the development model of “pollution first, treatment later”. Its direct cause can be traced back to the imbalance of intergenerational social responsibility, profit distribution, or punishment mechanisms in the temporal scale, with the fundamental crux lying in human biological instincts and the resulting limitations of cognitive and conscious structures. To address this contradiction, a three-dimensional framework encompassing the innovation of the consciousness structure, the transformation of the technological path, and the reconstruction of the governance system should be established, so as to propel human civilization to transform from a “system destroyer” into a “spontaneous regulator”.
The “non-intentionality” of nature jointly expounded by Daoist thought and Gaia theory may not be the “coldness” and “ruthlessness” as wishfully thought by humans, but rather stems from its self-generating dynamic equilibrium beyond the human-centered scale. Only when humans completely abandon anthropocentrism, at least its selfish aspect, can they truly coexist among all things and realize their true value as humans, rather than as animals or objects.
Zhihe Wang
Zhihe Wang, PhD, a former senior researcher of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is executive director of China Project, Center for Process Studies as well as Director of the Institute for Postmodern Development of China, USA. His areas of specialty include process philosophy, constructive postmodernism, ecological civilization, and second enlightenment. Among his recent publications are eleven books, including Process and Pluralism: Chinese Thought on the Harmony of Diversity and Second Enlightenment (with Meijun Fan, 2011). He also published more than 160 articles in China, US, Poland, New Zealand, India, Bulgaria, Australia.
Ecological Civilization Calls for a Constructive Postmodern Philosophy of Food
When an era faces crises, it often reflects a deeper philosophical failure. The industrialized dietary model of the modern age is rooted in mechanical thinking—a worldview derived from Newtonian mechanics that treats the universe, including living organisms, as mere machines. This mindset denies both the intrinsic value of life forms and the interconnectedness between them, leading to two major consequences in food systems: the de-vitalization of life and nutritional reductionism.
De-vitalization treats living beings as lifeless objects—cattle as protein units, hens as egg-laying machines—obscuring the violence and suffering behind meat production. Nutritional reductionism breaks food into calculable units like calories or proteins, ignoring its ecological and cultural significance. Modern nutrition, driven by profit and efficiency, disconnects food from its living essence and social meaning.
As industrial civilization declines, ecological civilization—marked by respect for nature and life—rises, demanding a new dietary model: a postmodern one. Postmodern food philosophy transcends the mechanistic view, restoring reverence for food as a bearer of life and cultural meaning. It emphasizes the co-constitution of food and human identity, promotes food activism, and embodies a uniquely Chinese perspective.
Though it draws from Western sustainable food concepts, postmodern food philosophy is not a mere transplant. It creatively integrates these ideas with China’s rich culinary traditions. The Chinese philosophy of housheng (厚生：respect for life), traditional whole-grain-based diets, and ongoing ecological efforts provide fertile ground for its development.
Ultimately, this philosophy calls us to see traces of life in every bite and to honor the lives that sustain our own. It reminds us that how we treat life—animal, plant, or human—shapes who we become as a civilization.
Spencer Ward
Spencer Ward is an independent graduate student who studies the applications of philosophy to everyday life. He aims to bring diverse ways of living and thinking into dialogue around the intersection of daily life and navigating existential threats. He uses his background in mathematics and computer science and his love for life to work through differences of opinion, culture, ability, and lived experience, with the goal of moving beyond division by harnessing these differences for good. He has an interest in physics and the cognitive sciences, a love of people, trees, and books, and a degree from the University of Maine.
Reverse-Engineering Hope: Concretely Analyzing What Will Have Had to Have Happened
Assume it is not too late. In other words, assume there are still timelines in which we can recover the situation our Earth’s ecosystems are in. To say these timelines are possible means that it is possible for things to play out according to each of their particular series of events, in all of which we will happen to recover the future of Earthly life.
We could follow this with several questions. How likely is it for things to play out along any of these particular timelines? In other words, how likely is it that we recover? This question concerns our relationship, as humans, to the difference between what could happen and what actually happens. Thus, it concerns human knowledge of this difference, along with the implications of human knowledge for human action. How likely is it that we will know the sequences of steps we need to take to steer away from disaster and toward good life for everyone? How likely is it that we will find ourselves in any of these Earth-recovering timelines? And how likely is it that we take on the responsibility of seeing them to their completion?
Since we have already assumed that it is not too late, we know that at least one of these timelines is guaranteed to happen. And all of them are guaranteed to exist as concrete possibilities. Thus, we can refocus these questions from the probability of timelines to their character. In this spirit, this presentation will propose a systematic study of all timelines in which we steward the Earth toward a better future. This will involve (1) delimiting what may or may not be considered determined about these timelines, (2) mapping the landscapes of what might be determined about them, and (3) reconstructing possible timelines based on how they will need to be determined to actually play out. This study must always be considered speculative and relative. However, since it will be determined by the same concrete circumstances we will be working through ourselves, its results will be definitive.
Peter Wei
Peter Wei, a seasoned technology leader with over three decades of experience in software and systems architecture, earned his PhD from the University of Michigan and is the founder of MVC Pro and YB Technology. His prior roles include System Architect at Ericsson and Fidelity from 2000 to 2013 and Software Scientist at Intergraph and Kofax from 1990 to 2012.
Recent Breakthroughs and Development Trends in Artificial Intelligence
The emergence of ChatGPT and large language models is a watershed moment in the development history of artificial intelligence. The rapid advance of AI is disrupting and influencing our way of work, life, social interations, and commerce. This presentation will talk about the challenges and opportunities of AI and its applications, and how we can prepare for and engage in this AI revolution for the benefit of our professions, our industries, and better eco-development of our socielty at large.
Ying Xue
Ying Xue is a research fellow of the Xinhua Institute. Her research focuses on Ecological Civilization and China-U.S. relations. As former chief of Xinhua Los Angeles Bureau, she is running a newsletter “China Ecological Civilization,” which shares the latest development of sustainable transformation in China with subscribers.
The Meaning and Contribution of the Two Mountains Theory
This year marks the 10th anniversary of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “Two Mountains Theory “(“Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”). China made great progress on ecological civilization construction. The “Two Mountains Theory” represents the unique thinking of China which leads to the deep transformation of the social economic developemnt. It shows that the welfares of man and nature can be coordinated instead of conflicting.
Xiao Yin
Yin Xiao is a professor of Philosophy at the department of philosophy, Central China Normal University. Her research focuses on the areas of philosophy of mind and environmental philosophy. She has authored over two dozen peer-reviewed articles in top-tier journals such as Philosophical Research and Philosophical Trends, along with two academic monographs and three translated works. She has held visiting positions at the University of Cambridge, Indiana University, and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (as an Advanced Research Scholar). Recognized for academic excellence, she was awarded the prestigious New Century Excellent Talents title by China’s Ministry of Education in 2013.
The Four Dimensions of Environmental Justice Issues in China from the Perspective of a Good Life
China’s principal societal challenge has shifted to addressing unbalanced development and meeting the people’s growing aspirations for a good life. Central to this pursuit is elevating low-income groups’ economic standing, yet true fulfillment extends beyond material equity—it demands environmental justice. This framework comprises four interdependent dimensions: (1) Distributive Justice, Fair allocation of environmental benefits (e.g., clean air, green spaces) and mitigation of burdens (e.g., pollution exposure) for vulnerable groups. Inequity often stems from systemic disparities in resource distribution. (2) Recognition Justice. The foundation for equity, requiring redress of identity-based marginalization. Without equal recognition, vulnerable communities face exclusion from decision-making. (3) Participatory Justice. Ensures inclusive engagement in environmental policymaking. Marginalized groups, when unheard, disproportionately bear ecological harms or lose access to benefits. (4) Capability Justice. The ultimate goal: distributed resources must enhance health and unlock human potential. Environmental justice thus transcends material fairness—it fosters thriving communities. These dimensions are mutually reinforcing. Achieving them—where all share a healthy, inspiring environment—is integral to realizing the Chinese Dream.
Zhang Yuanyuan
Zhang Yuanyuan is the co-founder of ACTAsia China, a co-developer of the Caring For Life (CFL) education program at Suzhou University of Science and Technology, and a researcher in general education at the Institute of One Health, Wenzhou Medical University. As a pioneer in this field, she has devoted herself to the integrated research of empathy cultivation and CFL education within the framework of mental models, striving to incorporate process poetry into ethical education while exploring innovative practices in general education under the “One Health” concept. She has edited several CFL education publications, including “Life’s Meaning and One Health,” “Caring For Life Education Based on Mental Model Improvement,” and “Learn to Care: Cultivating Empathy and Responsibility.” Additionally, she serves as the deputy editor of the medical popular science book “Facing Alzheimer’s Disease.”
Interdisciplinary Practice of Ecological Civilization Education: A Case Study of the Compilation of “Life’s Meaning and One Health”
“Life’s Meaning and One Health” is designed as an interdisciplinary reader with the objective of promoting ecological civilization education. It brings together insights from life ethics, biology, sociology, and other domains to integrate science and humanities while advancing the “One Health” concept. Anchored in the theoretical framework of the “Caring for Life Mental Model,” the book adopts structured organization and a process-poetic educational approach, offering an innovative paradigm for contemporary general education while addressing the critical necessity of harmonious coexistence for humanity and the planet.
Junfeng Zhang
Zhang Junfeng is Director of the Research Center for Chinese Social History at Shanxi University, a Second-Class Professor, and Doctoral Supervisor. He was honored as a “New Century Excellent Talent” by the Ministry of Education. Concurrently, he serves as Vice President of the “Shanxi Provincial Historical Society, Council Member of the Chinese Society for Social History Studies, and Executive Council Member of the Modern Chinese Social History Professional Committee. His primary academic fields include Modern Chinese Social History, History of Water Conservancy, Environmental History.
Centered on Salt Production: Ecology, Technology, and Society in Hedong Salt Lake since the Ming and Qing Dynasties
The salt lake was originally a natural salt-forming ecosystem, coexisting with surrounding mountains, waters, rivers, and springs to create the region’s distinctive ecological landscape and material-energy exchange system. During the Tang dynasty, “Hedong salt” supplied vast territories, with its salt tax accounting for “a quarter of the state’s fiscal revenue”—a remarkable proportion. Driven by fiscal demands and profit motives, people continuously advanced salt production technologies to overcome the uncertainties of relying solely on manual harvesting. The primitive practice of natural salt collection evolved into a hybrid method combining manual harvesting with “artificial pond cultivation and solar evaporation”, significantly boosting output. Consequently, the “Hedong region”, home to the salt lake, emerged as a historically renowned salt production hub.
By the Ming dynasty, the philosophy “managing water equates to managing salt” had taken root. Guided by this principle, an elaborate flood control system was established around the salt lake: mountain runoff from the “Zhongtiao Mountains” was channeled into “Wuxing Lake via the Yao Xian Canal”, while the “Su River” was repeatedly diverted away from the salt lake. The salt lake thus transformed into a “state-operated salt factory”. Nevertheless, flooding remained a persistent threat. Devastating floods during the “Longqing era (Ming dynasty)” and “Qianlong era (Qing dynasty)” buried the “Black River”—the “mother of salt production”—under silt, drastically reducing the lake’s productivity. In response, the government privatized salt operations, introducing commercial capital. Innovations such as the “Hutuo brine extraction method” and “brine well drilling” were developed to revive production. As the salt-forming environment shifted, “solar evaporation in artificial ponds” became the sole production method from the Qing dynasty onward.
Zirou Zhang
Zirou Zhang is a PhD candidate in Art and Cultural Studies at the School of Arts, Nanjing University, and currently a visiting PhD student in the Department of Art History & Visual Studies at the University of Victoria, Canada. Her research focuses on art philosophy and aesthetic theory, with particular attention to the “life-oriented turn” in contemporary art and its ecological interventions. Her doctoral dissertation is titled The Relationship Between Contemporary Art and the Lifeworld. She has participated in several key and major projects funded by the National Social Science Foundation of China, undertaking sub-project research and academic writing. Her articles have been published or are forthcoming in leading CSSCI journals and collected volumes such as Zhejiang Academic Journal, Art Theory and Art History Studies, and Literary and Art Criticism. Representative works include: “Three Aspects of the Relationship Between Form and Experience: Meyer Schapiro’s View of Artistic Autonomy”; “T.J. Clark’s Narrative of Modernism: The ‘Laocoön Moment’ of Utopian Modernity”; and “On the Intersubjective Mechanism of Artistic Interpretation: A Study Centered on Van Gogh’s A Pair of Shoes”.
The Value of Ecological Art from the Perspective of Human Destiny Community
In the face of the ecological crisis of the Anthropocene, art is no longer confined to being an object of aesthetic contemplation—it has emerged as an active force in the construction of ecological civilization. Contemporary ecological art represents a practice grounded in ecological care and intervention. It responds to the urgent demands of ecological restoration while preserving the poetic, affective, and symbolic dimensions unique to art. This form of art embodies an alternative rationality—one that transcends instrumental reason and formal aesthetics. It opens up a distinct epistemological dimension within art, situated beyond ethics and politics, for understanding and engaging with ecological realities. In essence, ecological art not only aims to “repair nature,” but also redefines the human-nature relationship, thereby revealing the irreplaceable role of art in the age of the Anthropocene.
Lijun Zhu
Dr. Lijun Zhu (朱丽君) is Professor of Political Science at Shanxi University in China. She received her PhD in Philosophy from Nankai University in China and is currently a Visiting Scholar at LMU. Her research has focused on political philosophy . She has published more than 20 articles in major journals of this field.
The Role, Dilemma, and Path of Visiting Scholars in Ecological Civilization Exchanges
As the world’s two largest economies and major carbon emitters, China and the United States have important responsibilities in the construction of global ecological civilization. Against the backdrop of intensified frictions in other areas, cooperation on ecological civilization has become a potential breakthrough for China and the United States to maintain rational dialogue. Exchanges between visiting scholars play an important role in both China and the United States, but as the strategic game between countries continues to deepen, technology blockades and talent containment policies are gradually strengthened, and Europe and the United States have tightened their exchange policies with China. Such trends have formed substantial obstacles to the approval, visa issuance and project setting of visiting scholars. Only through multilateral cooperation, mechanism innovation and strategic foresight can we maintain the original intention and value of academic exchanges in a complex international environment and inject lasting impetus into the construction of global ecological civilization.
Co-Organized by…
With Special Thanks to Our Supporters
Subscribe to the Center for Process Studies Newsletter
Want to hear about future events from the Center for Process Studies? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop and be the first to be notified when we announce a conference!