Community Think Tank About Local Economics

The event consists of two components:
During the West Cork Feel Good Festival a figure representing the Celtic nature goddess Danu has been co-created over the course of three workshops by a dozen or so volunteers who enjoyed the experience of meditatively weaving individual patterns into a collective whole that felt quite organic. The sessions took place in 49, North Street, a creative mental health space in the market town of Skibbereen that is seriously embracing and supporting doughnut economics.

On 21 October 2024, Danu was installed in the nearby village of Leap as part of the Leap Scarecrow Festival that celebrates the Celtic festival of Samhain (translated elsewhere into Halloween). She is much admired for her stunning appearance, which equally reflects the threats besieging nature: the bottom of her skirt contains waste materials including plastic and nylon. 

A letterbox was installed next to her where visitors can post an envelope with their own view on "what makes them thrive". This is explained on a board that also, succinctly, describes doughnut economics and features the doughnut diagram. If she survives the autumnal weather unscathed, Danu will take part in a Samhain parade.

She will eventually end up back at 49, North Street in the room where the first Community Think Tank About Local Economics will be held and live-streamed to the DEAL platform on 6 November. The attendees will be (local) people from various backgrounds.

Offline, before the start of the live-stream, there will be a What Makes Us Thrive workshop lasting an hour. Several of those were held last year, both at 49 and in the village of Ballydehob, organised by the Ballydonut group. They serve as an introduction to doughnut economics. Some of the principles and practices will be explained using the doughnut diagram. A real, subtle shift tends to occur once people realise that this model focusses on "what makes people thrive" and they are then asked to examine, internally, what makes them thrive. The question often has an emotional impact. 

The participants will be invited to share their answers, which tend to vary greatly, with the rest of group. Any interesting comments that entered the letterbox associated with the Danu figure will also be mentioned. Discussing what Danu represents -nature as a dynamic force in people's minds -will underpin the idea  that we need to make sure that the living world can thrive, too. This will feed into the conversation that will be live-streamed and that will revolve around what people feel would serve them locally, in economic terms, and what action step(s) they can think of to help make that happen. 

"Ethical consumption" will probably be one of the strands that connects the local with the global. Action steps in this area could come under the heading, "Creative awareness raising". 

To ensure a follow-up, the intention is to form groups and plan activities (during the Think Tank or afterwards) around specific topics, themes and ideas that appear to energize and activate people, with 49, North Street as its HQ.