“The collapse is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.”

  1. It is time to face the realities of collapse: the unravelling of systems and structures that many of us grew up taking for granted.
  2. Framing this as a set of “problems” to be solved doesn’t help us face these realities – because it suggests that, with the right solutions, our societies could get back on the path they appeared to be on.
  3. Refusing the “problem–solution” mindset doesn’t mean giving up and doing nothing – there is still plenty of work worth doing that has a chance of affecting how things play out.
  4. To catch sight of the work worth doing and to become capable of contributing to it, we need multiple lenses, new maps and tools for orientation, practical and cultural skills.
  5. We also need to find each other, in the in-between spaces of the internet and in the on-the-ground places where we start from.

THE INSTITUTE FOR COLLAPSONOMICS first appeared in London in 2009. Its founders were Kalam Ali, Mike Bennett, Mamading Ceesay, Vinay Gupta and Dougald Hine. If you suspect you might be a member of the Institute, then feel free to declare this when registering for conferences and events. Just be aware that you do so at your own risk.

THE BLACK ELEPHANT is the emblem of collapsonomics, an unholy hybrid of two boardroom clichés: it’s an event that when it happens, everyone will try to pretend was a “black swan”, when all along it was the “elephant in the room”. The phrase was coined by our friend Lloyd Davis on 24 April 2009, a story told here.

RESOURCES

1. ORIENTATION

2. SENSEMAKING

3. ONWARD PATHS

4. TOOLS

5. COMMUNITY