We are living through an era of multiple interlocking transformations, from ecological change to rapid innovation and demographic shifts. Some are engineered; many are unplanned, but all are unfolding within an era of mass extinction. Over the past 100 years, the modern Western institution of biodiversity conservation emerged as a project to “save nature” from industrialisation, economic expansion, and technological progress. But our planet is still experiencing the accelerating loss of millions of known and unknown species and the web of life that sustains us all. And despite the global economy breaching critical planetary thresholds, billions of our human community still survive with unmet basic needs.
This contradiction means we must look beyond the rhetoric of protection toward broader institutions and cultures of modernity—land use, technology and economic systems—that shape how we live with, and often against, the rest of nature. This symposium draws on ideas of conviviality as both a lens and invitation. Conviviality names the art of living together, with one another in our human communities, and amongst our more-than-human communities of animals, plants, water and terrestrial ecologies. Premised on notions of ‘connection over protection’, conviviality also means tracing and amplifying the many inspiring seeds of renewal and repair sprouting throughout the world.
“The countryside” emerges as a site of urgent possibility containing struggles for survival and renewal, both cultural and ecological. The Convivial Futures symposium gathers voices to explore how convivial approaches to land, knowledge, technology and property might open other pathways for living well with each other on the one Earth we share.
Bringing together local and international speakers, the symposium offers an afternoon of talks, panels, and discussions that explore these possibilities for convivial futures.
Speakers
- Curators WorkOverTime (Dr Louise Carver & Dr. Jamie Allen) (UK/ GER) –Convivial Futures Opening Talk.
- Dr Aspa Chatziefthimiou (Qatar) – Biodiversity literacy and the living bonds between ecology and everyday life
- Tariq Al-Olaimy (Bahrain) – Faith-based ethics and interdependence for nature and economy
- Dr Karl Widerquist (Qatar/USA) – The history of enclosure and the meaning of the commons
- Dr Safouan Azouzi (Tunisia/France) – Desert oases as convivial tools and biocultural commons
- Professor Bram Büscher (Netherlands/South Africa) – Planetary exhaustion and convivial conservation
Schedule
4pm – Opening talk: Convivial Futures and introductions
4.30pm – Conservation and its Contemporary Currents
5.15pm – Commons and the Countryside
6pm – Break / Refreshments
6.30pm – Evening Keynote: Professor Bram Büscher in conversation with panelists
7.15– 8pm – Walkthrough of the Qatar Preparatory School (QPS) exhibition grounds
