Finding Common Ground: Short Course on Commons, Conviviality & Community
19th – 22nd August 2025
The Netherlands
In these times of strife, discord, and confusion, how can we create common ground on which we cultivate the conditions for flourishing lives — in ourselves, our communities, and the ecosystems we depend on? Finding meaningful answers to this question feels more urgent than ever if we’re to chart pathways to better futures.
Together, we’ll explore not only how to build this common ground, but also how to reconnect with our own personal sense of purpose and learn what it means to create with others — with care, courage, and imagination. Along the way, we’ll discover that there are many pathways forward — and that we don’t have to walk them alone.
We’ll explore the themes of commons, conviviality, and community, grounded in nature connection, relational governance, and phenomenological approaches. We’ll discover more questions along the way - how can we develop our intuitions about ‘community’ and bringing people together for common purpose? We’ll call upon some useful wisdom from Elinor Ostrom and EF Schumacher, as well as dozens of other thinkers. And we’ll experience an embodied, holistic approach to learning that will, in itself, become an important part of our living inquiry.
This course is an exciting collaboration of Schumacher Action Labs (NL), Schumacher Center for New Economics (USA), and Schumacher Wild, the ‘regeneration phase’ of world renowned Schumacher College (UK). This new initiative strengthens our translocal partnerships and helps grow the European learning ecosystem we’re co-creating — one rooted in care, participation, and lived experience. Is this kind of learning needed in the world in these times? Might this course be a spark that helps it spread far and wide? Come and be part of something wonderful.
This course is for:
land stewards and commoners whose hands are dirty and boots muddy
artists and activists who imagine new possibilities
educators and researchers asking questions
community organisers and citizens of the world getting on with it
regenerative entrepreneurs and progressive policy makers
anyone seeking to explore how commons-based practices can nurture social and ecological renewal.
What might you gain?
working knowledge of key concepts like commons, conviviality, community, human needs, wellbeing, agency and justice
familiarity with exemplars and cases where these ideas are making a difference
new appreciation for life and connection with the more than human world
experience with a holistic learning and teaching methods
new found hope and purpose, as well as new friends
Venue
We’ll be at the historic permaculture center Kleine Aarde (https://plaatsdekleineaarde.nl/) in Boxtel, NL. The setting will inspire with gardens, trees, green building, and a heritage that links permaculture, ‘Small is Beautiful’, and the deeply held mission to be a catalyst for transforming our food system. At Kleine Aarde we will create for a few days an experience of living together for the common good.
Accommodation
We are going to be living on common ground in the course. Sleeping arrangements will be shared dormitory style and all meals are included.
Book This Course
Booking includes the course, accommodation and local transportation. We’re offering three pricing tiers:
£850 - those who can enable bursaries and more Schumacher-inspired learning
£750 - professionals and lifelong learners
£500 - for young people 30 years old and younger
Faculty
David Bollier (online)
David Bollier is Director of the Reinventing the Commons Program at the Schumacher Center for New Economics in the U.S. He’s an author, activist, blogger and independent scholar with a primary focus on the commons, as well as co-founder of the Commons Strategies Group, an advocacy/consulting project supporting the commons movement.
Emma Kidd
Emma co-led the Ecological Design Thinking program at Schumacher College, focusing on meta-design as a practice that fosters awareness of the interconnectedness between being, knowing, and doing. She is passionate about practices that cultivate attention and awareness, allowing for a deeper understanding of life—human and more-than-human.
Jay Tompt
Jay led the MA Regenerative Economics program at Schumacher College. He is a co-founder of several place-based regenerative economics initiatives. He is also an associate lecturer in economics at Plymouth University.
Natasha Hulst
Natasha is a systems convener, commoner, social entrepreneur, and regenerative strategist with over 20 years of experience at the intersection of food systems, commons governance, and regenerative finance. She is the cofounder of Schumacher Action Labs and has worked with the Schumacher Center for a New Economics since 2019 to advance community-rooted economic models across Europe.
And more…
Schumacher Action Labs
Schumacher Action Labs is a practitioner-led space for transformational learning and life-centered action. More than an organization, it is a bold and trust-based platform that convenes diverse changemakers to co-create context-specific solutions. We don’t offer blueprints—we foster conditions for collective wisdom, peer governance, and creative experimentation to thrive. Rooted in commons thinking, post-growth economics, and ecological regeneration, Schumacher Action Labs connects people working across urban commons, agroecology, Indigenous science, open-source production, and cultural practice. Our aim is to shift not only systems, but the very context in which politics, culture, and economics are imagined and enacted.
