Sharif Abdullah of the Commonway Institute in Portland, Oregon offers a tele-seminar titled, “Catalyzing Our Relational World: Building the Lifeboat.”  The five-session seminar will be held Tuesday evenings beginning January 27, and will preview the contents of his forthcoming book, Catalyzing Our Relational World. Topics include:
- The Default Option: We Don’t Make it.
- The Big Three: Food, Water, Energy
- An Awakened World
- From Contractions to Solutions
- Beyond Economics: Enoughness
Sharif is a proponent of what he calls “local governance”– what others call gramswaraj or resilient community. A university professor and peace worker, he has authored several books on changing society, and has worked extensively in conflict resolution in the U.S. and elsewhere. He is a founding member of the Common Society Movement, was recently awarded the Vishvamitra Award by the Sarvodaya Movement in Sri Lanka, and is scheduled to receive the Martin Luther King Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Arts Foundation this weekend.