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We Can Hope and Change the World for the Better, but only when we embark on Our Journey of Hope

Our Journey of Hope is about many things. It is about challenging the norm. It is about  volunteerism and service. It is about serving our communities, our world, and caring for our planet, our home. It is about finding out more about ourselves than we ever imagined possible. It is about having a dream. It is about a mission and our vocation in life. It is about believing in our journey and stories. It is about hope.

‘It is hope that can give meaning to life and which will give us the courage to continue on our way into the future together.’

And this is why our 2018 LUCCA Conference offers a journey of hope to all those  hoping  for a better world, a world of wisdom and beauty, peace and justice, fairness and kindness, caring for our Sacred Earth and Mother Nature. Please consider joining us. Let us march together, taking action in the interest of the common good, to design and construct the better world, we are all yearning for. 

The 4th International Joint GCGI-SES Conference is coming to the historical and inspiring Lucca, Tuscany in 2018

Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative

and

School of Economic Science

Fourth Joint Conference

28 August-1 September 2018

‘OUR SACRED EARTH:

‘Spiritual Ecology, Values-led Economics, Education and Society Responding to Ecological Crisis’

To be hosted at

LUCCA

Villa Boccella, Tuscany, Italy

The Old Town, Lucca

“Perhaps the greatest threat to our common future is a combination of extreme individualism and extreme arrogance, as we deal with proposals to expand – through the genetic engineering of species and the geo-engineering of Earth’s climate – our domination of forces of nature of which we have only the most superficial understanding. The turning we humans must navigate to a viable future depends on a profound awakening to our nature as spiritual beings and our responsibility for the consequences of our choices and our relationships with one another and a living Earth.”

With a burgeoning human population and ever increasing demands being made on the natural world, many observers with an eye on truth, believe that, we are engaged in an all-out war against our Earth Mother. Thus, it seems timely that, we should have an engaging Forum to address the seemingly urgent need for a new understanding of the human role and relationship with our Mother Nature. This requires a deepening understanding of what it is to be human and how human imagination, energy, creativity and spirituality can work with natural forces for the mutual benefit of people and planet.

Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative (GCGI) and the School of Economic Science (SES) are convening this conference to consider what principles, policies and practices can lead humanity to a mutually enhancing relationship between people and the Earth? How can human society work for the benefit of all?

How can we then rise to the challenges of global environmental and ecological crisis? This is the fundamental and pertinent question.

Our LUCCA Conference calls for an Inner Revolution

It is a call to become more mindful, more peaceful, more connected and more loving to ourselves, to each other and to the Earth. It urges us to change our “Descartes” inherited philosophical perspective of ourselves as separate from each other and the Earth and embrace our interconnectedness. It calls for us to grow beyond the selfish drives of our materialistic society, obsessed with consumerism and short-termism, and create a new way – moving from self interest to mutual interest, reciprocity and interdependence; sympathy, empathy, fairness and justice for all. Throughout our daily dialogue and conversation, conference participants will be invited to explore how we can each make a difference and take urgent action to be the change in our daily lives, continuously echoing and reflecting on the question, “What am I going to do differently?” LUCCA 2018 is an invitation to have a voice, to help shape our collective future and to take an active role in propagating the New Consciousness Revolution, and build a world in the interest of the common good; urgently needed to enable and empower us to imagine the better world we wish to build.

In Search of the Light to Build a Better World

Photo:bing.com

During our LUCCA Joint Forum, similar to our past gatherings at Waterperry House Conferences, all of us, experienced and newcomers, young and old, students and teachers, together will form a community, committed to exploring and debating visions and ideas for celebrating diversity, appreciating uniqueness, and acting in the interest of the common good, to enabling ourselves to transform disagreements into understanding, competition into cooperation and mutual respect.   In addition to keynote speeches, plenary sessions and storytelling roundtables, there will be opportunities for informal spontaneous meetings and dialogue between participants all through the week.  This, we sincerely hope, will result in invaluable collaborative learning experiences and networking as well as rich personal interactions.  

Furthermore, we invite you to share a common belief in the potential of each one of us to become self-directed, empowered, and active in defining this time in the world as opportunity for positive change and healing and for the true formation of a culture of peace by giving thanks, spreading joy, sharing love, seeing miracles, discovering goodness, embracing kindness, practicing patience, teaching tolerance, encouraging laughter, celebrating diversity, showing compassion, turning from hatred, practicing forgiveness, peacefully resolving conflicts, communicating non-violently, choosing happiness and enjoying life.

Meet our Keynote Speakers

In addition to our plenary and featured  speakers, roundtables and parallel discussion and debating sessions, as well the Storytelling periods, we are delighted and honoured to have Keynote Speakers who have specialist knowledge of our work, who capture the interest of the participants and will leave all who hear them informed and inspired.

Prof. Pier Luigi Luisi

Professor Emeritus at the ETHZ (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), a professor of biochemistry and a leading authority on the the origin of life (cells), prebiotic chemistry, and synthetic biology, and a pioneer of  a "systems view of life" which involves thinking of cells as integrated automated information-based biochemical entities. In 1985 he founded Cortona Week, the legacy to the Todi-Week (devoted to the interdisciplinarity of science and humanities). Prof. Pier Luigi Luisi, Professional Profile

Words of Welcome and the Opening Address

Prof. Kamran Mofid

Founder, Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative (GCGI). Prof. Kamran Mofid, Professional Profile

The Journey and the Spoken Word: The Stories in Pursuit of a Life Worth Living

The Opening Story and the Storyteller

Dr. Susan B. Eirich

Susan and Earthfire the wolf

Co-founder of Earthfire Institute, a non-profit wildlife sanctuary and retreat center near Yellowstone National Park, is an inspirational voice for all life. She has lived with rescued wildlife native to North America for 20 years. With degrees in psychology and biology, she works to bridge scientific and spiritual understandings of wild animals and connections between all life. She has lived and taught around the world, seeing through others’ eyes. Dr. Susan B. Eirich, Professional Profile

As so many sages and prophets throughout history have wisely reminded us, whether we are religious or secular, spiritual or materialist, it is necessary for us all to connect authentic spiritual experience with kindness and compassion toward All Living Beings without exception. It is with this in mind that we are planning with you together, to make OUR Lucca 2018 a very special celebration of friendship and cooperation in the interest of the common good.

See the comprehensive and detailed information about our LUCCA 2018 Conference

SEE THE FINAL PROGRAMME

Lest We Forget:

‘Strong communities, lasting friendships, healthy and worthwhile living, a just and fairer world, are all built on shared dreams and the practical tools to express those dreams.’

Our vision and our hopes and dreams for the flourishing of the Earth Community in these challenging times

Below, please read a sample of our hopes and dreams as we expressed them at Lucca, Tuscany. These beautiful, wise and loving words by Susan, John and Tamas, go a long way to warm our hearts, give us hope, that indeed, we can come together, dream, imagine and realise the better, fairer world we all all yearning for.

Susan B. Eirich, Ph.D. GCGI Senior Ambassador, Co-founder of Earthfire Institute, USA.

Read Susan’s reflection

John Thompson, GCGI Senior Ambassador, is a Transformational psychologist, Perth, Australia.

Read John’s reflection

Tamas Veress, GCGI Youth Ambassador, is a PhD student at the Business Ethics Center, the Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary.

Read Tamas’s reflection