To understand the complex relationships in our ecosystems we may need to challenge our perception of reality, which each of us (inclusive of all species), experience in our own unique way. We may need to untangle ourselves from the concepts of our current worldview. We may need to hone our ability to see multiple views and realities, to learn to coexist as socio-ecological challenges intensify, causing societies to fragment and divide.

Shared world is a programme for people interested in exploring socio-ecological issues and how they interconnect and emerge from our individual and collective worldviews, drawing on concepts from anthropology, ecology and philosophy.

The programme explores questions such as: “Is ‘Nature’, as we think of it, part of the problem?” “How do we experience what we call reality?” “How can we develop ‘ecological thinking?” and “how can we think about ecological aesthetics?”

“It’s always easier not to think for oneself. Find a nice safe hierarchy and settle in. Don’t make changes, don’t risk disapproval. It’s always easiest to let yourself be governed. There’s a point, when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities. Those who build walls are their own prisoners. I’m going to fulfil my proper function in the social organism. I’m going to unbuild walls.”
Ursula Le Guin, The Dispossessed