Why place ecologies
Pause for a while. There is nothing to solve here. Nothing to market or to sell. Just notice. Places carry the stories of what we care about.
Place Ecologies honours the interplay of social, ecological and economic systems through which life happens.
Solastalgia is the sadness we feel when the places we love change until we no longer recognise them. The creek runs differently. The seasons shift. The birds arrive in fewer numbers. Locals are anxious about changes in the neighbourhood. Much of this is outside anyone's control. Anxiety grows. Community members bring this to engagement and honouring it is key.
Place ecologies begins with noticing the sources of change, and mapping what anchors a place: its ecosystems, people, cultural anchors, local knowledge and relationships. It seeks to understand the change, belonging, place attachment, and agency.
Who belongs?
Who decides?
What does it mean to inhabit a place well?
Only then can we think about what we can do - together. Sitting with these questions, and with those who have long kept place, reveals more than solutions from the top. Lasting actions always come from the bottom up and are owned by those that care about their place.
Stay a while. If these questions are yours too, you are welcome here.
Place Ecologies work
Research & thought leadership
Thirty years of real field experience. Named places. Real communities and not generated by AI. Based on decades of research and placed-based experience.
Grounded mentoring and real conversations
Coaching, mentoring and advisory for place practitioners, businesses and communities ready to work differently. Grounded in the field with experience across Australia and internationally.
Community learning
Connecting researchers, practitioners and changemakers through events, programs and shared learning. A community of people who believe places deserve better.
Going deep in workshops and retreats
Spaces for thinking together, in places that matter. For practitioners, teams and communities ready to go deeper. Not a course, but the experience of thinking holitsically.
Places carry the stories of our relationship to nature, community and economy and what we care about.
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Get in Touch
Feel free to contact me to ask a question, or learn more about our projects and initiatives.
Better still, pull up a stool, take a pause, and let's have a genuine heartfelt conversation about what you are witnessing, experiencing or activating.
