EXPLORING BIOREGIONALISM: Can bioregionalism solve our housing crisis?

Join us for AELA's "Exploring Bioregionalism" webinar series! In our August webinar, we ask: can bioregionalism solve Australia's housing crisis? 

Housing comprises one of the largest land based human activities and while individually small, once assembled, human housing comprises the majority of the built environment. At present the development of housing is an outcome of global capitalism in a highly financialised system driven by lending debt. But housing is too important to be left to the vagaries of 'the market'. Housing should be designed in terms of its relationality to social-cultural values and as a means to evolve human-culture rather than as an instrument for consolidating and further entrenching isolation, loneliness, individualism and economic atomisation.  

In this webinar, AELA Convenor and Greenprints creator, Dr Michelle Maloney, will be joined by Elena Pereyra (Co-Housing Australia and Deakin University), and Anitra Nelson (Informal Urbanism Research Hub, Melbourne University) to discuss how all aspects of Australia's housing system - affordability and financial drivers, sustainability, livability and overall governance - could be transformed by using bioregional approaches to creating and maintaining human habitats.

What is 'bioregionalism'? Bioregionalism is a a philosophy that sees human societies and culture as part of nature, and proposes that modern human societies can be more sustainable, successful and meaningful, if our human governance systems - including political, cultural and economic systems - are organised within, and explicitly connected to, natural boundaries such as bioregions and catchments (watersheds). Some have referred to bioregionalism as 'localisation within the foundations of nature'. 

'Exploring Bioregionalism' is part of AELA's Greenprints program, and features guest speakers from diverse backgrounds, disciplines and bioregions, sharing research, insights and stories from around Australia and around the world. Our goal is to show how bioregionalism offers exciting pathways to create Earth-centred systems change. 

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

ELENA PEREYRA

Elena is a PhD candidate exploring Housing as an Urban Commons, interweaving urban form making, sustainable mobility, participatory design, and collaborative governance for new forms of human habitat conducive to an abundance of life. She is the Co-chair of Cohousing Australia, a regenerative development practitioner, and works with community groups to build community cohesion, participatory processes, collaborative decision-making, for socially and environmentally literate communities. Elena is interested in the broader interaction between housing, urban space, and civic participation. She takes an ecological and systems thinking approach to design and problem solving and is interested in the economic and cultural relationship between housing, ownership, and belonging. She is passionately exploring new futures for housing with a focus on affordably and environmental responsibility in the Australian context.

ANITRA NELSON

Anitra is an activist-scholar, affiliated with the Informal Urbanism Research Hub (InfUr-) at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She has written and published extensively on housing, degrowth and other related topics. Recent publications include the following: she is one of four co-editors of Post-Carbon Inclusion published by Bristol University Press mid-2024; Beyond Money, A Postcapitalist Strategy published by Pluto Press (London) in early 2022; Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide co-authored with Vincent Liegey in 2020 and Food for Degrowth: Perspectives and Practices, co-edited with Ferne Edwards (NTNU, Norway) in 2021. More information about Anitra's work can be found on her website: https://anitranelson.info/bio/ 

DR MICHELLE MALONEY 

Dr Michelle Maloney is an Earth lawyer and advocate for ecocentric and nature based governance. She is recognised internationally and in Australia for her work advocating for Earth centred law and governance, including First Laws and the Rights of Nature. Michelle is Co-Founder and Director of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), and Co-Founder and Director of Future Dreaming, an Indigenous led organisation that works to share Indigenous ecological and governance knowledge with non-Indigenous people and organisations in Australia. She is also Co-Founder and Director of the New Economy Network Australia (NENA). Michelle holds a Bachelor of Arts (Political Science and History) and Laws (Honours) from the Australian National University and a PhD in Law from Griffith University. Her publications, public speaking and other affiliations can all be found on her website - www.michellemaloney.au 

ABOUT GREENPRINTS

Greenprints is a framework for nature based thinking and action, which can help people and organisations understand how human societies can live (and thrive) within their ecological limits. Greenprints helps people think differently, locate ourselves within our bioregions and ecosystems, understand the options we have to minimise impact and increase nature positive actions - and redesign our relationships with nature. Greenprints draws on bioregionalism and 'bioregioning' as key concepts for rethinking our personal, organisational and community wide governance systems.

Visit our website - www.greenprints.org.au

ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN EARTH LAWS ALLIANCE (AELA)

AELA is a not-for-profit organisation working to increase the understanding and practical implementation of Earth-centred (ecocentric) governance, with a focus on systems change across law, economics, education, ethics and community participation in Australia. AELA's vision is an Australian society that embraces an ecocentric or ‘life-centred’ culture, with governance systems that enable human communities to thrive within ecological boundaries, while nurturing biodiversity and ecosystem health. AELA's work includes education programs and project support for people, communities and organisations working to create ecocentric systems change.

For more information, visit our website: www.earthlaws.org.au
or email us anytime: aela@earthlaws.org.au