Workshop Webinar 1 of Reimagining Quality of Life Webinar Series

Please join us for an exciting series of online workshops about redefining ‘social wellbeing’ and ‘quality of life’ in Australia.

From June to October 2021, the University of Newcastle (UoN) Alternative Futures Research Hub (AFRHub) and New Economy Network Australia (NENA) will be hosting a series of online workshops that invite guest speakers and participants to explore, challenge and re-define the concepts of ‘wellbeing’ and ‘quality of life’ in Australia.

You are invited to join these workshops to listen to thought-provoking guest speakers, listen to or participate in the open discussions and share your views. This webinar series is part of the UON-NENA joint research project “Reimagining Quality of Life Post-COVID”, funded by the UON College of Human and Social Futures.

Please register here to attend the first session to be held on 23 June, 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time)

** Please join NENA’s email list, to stay up to date with our workshops and exciting guest speakers – https://www.neweconomy.org.au/ (scroll down to the bottom of the homepage) **

ABOUT THE ONLINE WORKSHOPS

People have been thinking about, describing, and striving for ‘the good life’ or ‘quality of life’ for millennia. Since the 1950s, the concept of gross domestic product (GDP) has dominated discussions about economic progress and economic growth by nation-states, and narrow concepts around income and financial value have come to dominate individual notions of worth and wealth. However, the past few decades have seen a rising movement of people trying to describe and define ‘wellbeing’ and ‘quality of life’ in alternative ways – challenging the dominant capitalist and financial growth mode of thinking and building policy.

This workshop series seeks to share information about different perspectives and stimulate discussion on these topics. The workshops are part of a larger project that invites progressive thinkers and transformative organisations to share their ideas about how to define ‘quality of life’ and wellbeing in 21st Century Australia.

WORKSHOP FORMAT:

In each online workshop session, guest speakers will present their views on the subject, to stimulate thinking and generate discussions. Participants will then be invited in real-time, to share their ideas about wellbeing and the quality of life.

GUEST SPEAKERS AND TOPICS

WORKSHOP 1 (23 June; 12.30 pm – 2 pm) – “Re-imagining Quality of Life Post-COVID”: (1) Dr Michelle Maloney (NENA) and Dr Hamed Hosseini (UON) introduce the NENA-UON joint project; (2) Dr Hosseini’s presentation: “From Wellbeing to Well-Living: On the urgency of a transformative approach to Quality of Life”; (3) Ms Shelley McGrath’s presentation (UON) on “Reimagining social change through connection”; Open Discussion.

Dr Michelle Maloney is the Co-Founder and Director of New Economy Network Australia (NENA), the Co-Founder and National Convenor of Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), and Adjunct Senior Fellow of Law Futures Centre at Griffith University. She has more than 25 years of experience in designing and managing climate change, sustainability and environmental justice projects in Australia, the United Kingdom, Indonesia and the USA, and this includes ten years working with indigenous colleagues in Central Queensland on a range of community development, sustainability and cultural heritage projects.

Ms Shelly McGrath is a PhD candidate and lecturer at the Wollotuka Institute, University of Newcastle. Her research examines how systemic modes of criminalisation and containment impact the socio-political positioning of First Peoples in settler states. She is primarily concerned with state-sanctioned violence and the corresponding reproduction of racialised hierarchies.

Dr S A Hamed Hosseini, PhD in “Sociology and Global Studies” from the Australian National University (ANU), is a Senior Lecturer and at The University of Newcastle, Australia. He is the founder and principal investigator of UON Alternative Futures Research Network (AFRN), Co-founder and chief editor of Common Alternatives initiative, a leading international team/website engaged in studying post-neoliberal, post-capital, post-carbon, progressive alternatives.

PLEASE REGISTER FOR WORKSHOP 1 TO ATTEND HERE:

FOR MORE INFORMATION: events@neweconomy.org.au

OR CONTACT THE PROJECT LEADER: S A Hamed Hosseini