The Cornwall Doughnut Hack

An amazing, tricky, collective, challenging, collaborative, audacious day of beginning the process of understanding which direction we're facing in our current context of climate, economic and social crises.

http://www.cafedisruptif.com/eco-nomics-disrupted--the-doughnut-hack.html

It made for much scratching of heads as we fought with the best way of embracing this enormous level of complexity; and brought out some hair-raising facts... and some heart-stormingly brilliant ideas for change...

We talked about climate and change, about facts, and behaviour; about politics and community and fear , about loss and the past, about the future, and injustice and soil and communication and poverty and  systems and planning; banking and carbon and schools and food; and watched and heard and spoke and listened and  ate together in warmth and space of the Chy N Bobl Hall in Heartlands in Cornwall.

We gave ourselves an enormous, complex task: but we tackled it with gusto, started to make some amazing connections and were encouraged on by the awesome Kate Raworth, who received two huge rounds of applause without even being in the room...!

Then we heard from Ian Smith on poverty, exclusion and the need for change.

Tony Greenham offered the new model of a local bank that might let us reconfigure how we manage our money - with some jaw droppingly compelling arguments. You can find out more at www.southwestmutual.co.uk @SouthWestMutual @TonyGreenham

Then Jay Tompt from the REconomy Project talked about how they created a community wealth building programme in Totnes.

We looked at the Preston Model and what they're doing differently.

We looked at every point on the doughnut, by splitting into four groups and taking a quadrant each. We then used our own knowledge, networks and connections to identify at least one name and organisation that could be our "lead" to extract the data we need to take a 21 Century Cornwall Doughnut Selfie.

to underline the three dimensional nature of the doughnut, we chose a point  from the doughnut and walked through the room talking to other people with other "points" to identify the dynamic connectivity between them all.

Reviewing the connections we had made we acknowledged the overwhelming importance of climate in every one of these, and that each section of the doughnut and the work we need to do in it *has* to contribute to our response to the existential threat of climate breakdown.

We lined up from one end of the hall to the other and invited everyone to occupy the place they felt they could contribute best, fully in the knowledge that - crucially - we need every sort of action, from formal, local authority, officer-shaped effort, to on the street, making a noise, activist effort - and that there is space for everyone to engage, in whatever way they think they can have most impact.