Program > Lectures
Throughout the week, the morning talks will be held in the big hall of the Culture House. Prominent speakers will talk about community, each discussing the subject from a different perspective.
Orland Bishop
The Shade Tree Multicultural Foundation 
Orland Bishop combines a deep dedication to human rights advocacy and cultural renewal with an extensive study of medicine, anthropology, psychology and indigenous cosmologies.
Shade Tree employs a unique process that draws on both contemporary and ancient practices, particularly that of the South African tradition Indaba or “deep talk”. Hidden Forces of the American Dream refers to the creative, still unused powers available to the American people and land that were released through tremendous sacrifices made over the course of American history by Native Americans, African slaves and waves of immigrants.
Farmer John Peterson
Angelic Organics 
Lifelong farmer John Peterson is the subject of Taggart Siegel’s 30 award winning feature documentary film The Real Dirt on Farmer John, which has been seen in theaters and on television throughout the world. In 2006, John’s first book was published, Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables. He co-directed and co-starred in two music videos, 'The Bug Song' and 'The Farmer John Song' on Lesley Littlefield’s debut album, Little Songs. He has written numerous plays and short stories, acted in short fiction films and done numerous performances of his life on stage. Farmer John runs Angelic Organics, one of the largest Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in the United States. More than 1300 families in the Chicago area receive a weekly delivery of vegetables and herbs from Angelic Organics during the growing season.
Rob Hopkins
The Transition Movement
38-year old Rob Hopkins is author of "The Transition Handbook", the widely respected book about Transition Towns and Transition Culture. The core question of the Transition Movement is: how can our community respond to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change? The idea is that the transition to a carbon-neutral community can be feasible, viable and attractive, if we start building it ourselves. The grassroots-approach that is typical to the Transition Movement is being implemented by an increasing amount of communities worldwide, including a start-up group in Ytterjärna.
We are delighted to have Rob Hopkins as a contributor to the 360º conference. Rob does not only set high ideals for communities worldwide, he is also sticks to some high ideals himself. He chooses not to travel by air, and therefore his contribution to the conference will be an interactive video-lecture that will be held live from his home in Totnes to the big hall in the Kultur Huset. We see this as a simple example of how things can be done differently not in the future, but today.
Bill Beardslee & Lisa Mahar
It became apparent quickly that “community is people” and if we were to be effective agents of transformation we needed to understand and take responsibility for ourselves as we endeavored to take responsibility for change.
This talk will focus on those years in community, the joys and concerns, the ups and the downs. It will affirm the necessity of community in its many forms for personal, local and global transformation.
Lisa and Bill have known each other for 40 years. They’ve been partners for 33years. Lisa gradated from Lesley college (now University) in Cambridge, MA in 1976 and has been involved in education and community service work ever since. She is currently the administrator of the Monadnock Waldorf School in Keene, NH and an active member of the Associated Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA). She is actively involved with Mothers and Others Uniting to Create a Non-Violent and Just World for All Children. She is the mother of Lucas and Silas Beardslee and Amber (Mahar) Fields. (you can read Bill’s bio here)
Jane Lorand
Green Master of Business Administration
Jane Lorand is an entrepreneur, former tax attorney, co-founder of the GreenMBA, the first accredited MBA fully designed to reformulate how to do business sustainably. She teaches Critical Thinking for Business Redesign and Diffusion of Innovation courses. She is the leader of the Fort Baker Leadership Summits to create a vision and guiding principles for a Sustainable Future for California. She is an educator and has owned/managed an organic catering company while raising five children. She is a student of Rudolf Steiner’s work and much of her work is based on his ideas.
Guillermo Bettocchi
The session will start by describing how the concept of “human rights”has evolved over history, from the times when feudal lords “owned” other people as slaves, to the dramatic advances prompted by the atrocities of Second World War. Evolution of rights and liberties as related to religious or moral beliefs and tensions between “human rights” as viewed by the (mainly Christian) West and the Islamic approach will also be discussed.
The relationship between the not always compatible “individual rights” and “community rights” will be thoroughly analysed, as well as the need to have “conflict resolution mechanisms” to address this and other ossible frictions between different interests.
Emphasis will then be placed on the modern ideas related to individual reedoms and their essential nature for life in community, in whatever shape and form community is shaped. Interrelations between violations to human rights at the local or at the global levels and our own responsibilities and obligations as citizens will finally be addressed.
