Sold Out: On the Poetry & Spirit of Systems Change

Each affects the other, and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one.' - Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet In Heaven.

This lecture is based on a two year effort and forthcoming book to uncover the invisible, mystical and durable forces behind what sparks and sustains today’s social movements and moments of great reckoning. Together, we will explore how societal change happens in the hearts and minds of people - the slow, as well as sudden, nature of it - and how radical change feels ‘on the inside’ at a time of great reckoning and unrest in the world today.

This is an effort to re-humanise our political and social discourse. Stories and ideas will unravel about how change happens at an individual and systemic level - not in the form of models, theories or frameworks - but as waves, as a spirit, as a force that both creates and is created, by us - the people.

Through a lecture and group discussion, Josiane fuses storytelling, imagery and poetry, as well as academic research and scientific debate on topics ranging from protest movements, activist networks and social innovation to systems change, personal identity, hope and faith.

If you are looking for meaning in your work, or to find re-enchantment in the world, then this lecture is most definitely for you.