Past Events

Strategies for Social-Ecological Transformation “Degrowth Vienna 2020 – Strategies for social-ecological transformation” is a online event that will happen in spring 2020. The conference will consider the role of strategy for a degrowth transformation and give room for exchanging, reflecting and developing strategies with scholars, practitioners, artists and activists. It will complement the International Degrowth Conference in Manchester in September 2020. By bringing together practitioners, artists, activists, civil society actors and scientists, we want to integrate different kinds of existing…

The OPEN 2020 conference focuses on practical solutions to co-create a collaborative, regenerative economy that puts people and planet before profit. Over two days, on the 11th and 12th of June, at Conway Hall in London we will explore: Money systems and how mutual credit in particular can be transformative. The features, design patterns and ownership structures of a new, democratic economy. The tools, technologies and projects that are enabling the new economy. We are particularly interested to welcome UK…

How are communities shaping their local environment? The fifth and final event of the Love your Environment learning cluster, will focus on how Big Local areas can address local issues such as litter, graffiti, disused spaces and shuttered shopfronts, and use them to bring people together, build local pride and improve people’s wellbeing. Speakers will include people from the statutory bodies who could play a role when making improvements in your local environment, organisations with the skills and expertise to…

Neil McInroy CEO of CLES, is facilitating the “Community Wealth Building: An Economy For All” workshops in conjunction with Stir to Action.  The workshop will be run twice, the other event takes place in Newcastle on 7 December 2019. While the UK’s local authorities are still managing an austerity programme that has led to devastating social spending cuts, and others are trying to attract inward investment into their regions, this workshop will look at the alternatives. This session will explore the practice of…

Following on from our inaugural research conference on UK food insecurity in 2018, we are hosting a second conference in June 2020. The conference theme is ‘Evidence for Change’, and the conference will focus on highlighting both the evidence base which demonstrates the need for change but also on how and what research evidence can be change-making. The aim of the conference is to build understanding on how household food insecurity research can make a difference to policy, practice, and…

An introduction to the fundamentals and CLES’ latest thinking around community wealth building Book your place → About this Event In this session you will be taken through the five pillars of community wealth building, what they are, what they mean in practice and what it looks like when action is taken on each pillar in a place. This session invites delegates to explore community wealth building in the current UK context and evaluates its key role in developing an…

An introductory action-focused session on the power of a progressive approach to procurement Book your place → About this Event In this session the specialist CLES trainer will progressive procurement talk you through the five stages of progressive procurement: policy; anchor collaboration; analysis; understanding wider impact; and making procurement accessible. The session will explore a series of real world examples of when each part of the journey has been done particularly well in place and encourage you to consider where…

150 Big Local areas are invited to get together for two days to learn, share and network Big Local Connects, our biggest event of the year, is an opportunity for all Big Local areas to come together to celebrate and inspire each other. Resident-led sessions We are inviting residents from Big Local areas to run a session at Connects 2020, to share their learning and ideas with other areas. The theme for Connects 2020 is ‘vision for the future’: what…