The working groups

Work in progress

The working groups result from the pre-events of the preliminary programme (see above).
Be invited to the pre-events and help shape the World Goetheanum Forum 2024!

WS 1

WS 1: Decommodifying Land

With David Fix (Schumacher Center, USA), Ulrich Kriese (Stiftung Edith Maryon, CH) and Susan Witt (Schumacher Center, USA)

Moderation: Ani Jibghashvili (Youth Society Parzival, GE)

David Fix

David Fix is the Director of Operations for the Schumacher Center in which capacity he is responsible for ensuring programs and office systems are running smoothly. He also serves as Assistant to the Board of BerkShares local currency program, liaising with the banks, merchants, and media about the program, organizing events, and authoring the popular BerkShares Business of the Month profiles (https://berkshares.org/about/). Additionally he assists the board of Berkshire Community Land Trust (https://berkshirecommunitylandtrust.org/), organizing its meetings, liaising with lawyers regarding sales of units and transfers of leases, and introducing new leaseholders to the history and guiding principals of the organization. David has served the Schumacher Center since 2019, first as Library and Public Programming Intern and later as Communications and Development Associate before moving into his current role. David holds a B.A. in Economics from Bowdoin College and currently lives in New York’s Hudson Valley where he enjoys cooking with friends, reading by the river, and tending to his garden.

Ulrich Kriese

Dr Ulrich Kriese, graduate landscape and open space planner and administrative scientist (Mag. rer. publ.). Professional stations in Hanover, Halle (Saale) and Berlin. Doctorate at the ETH Zurich as part of the National Fund research project Investoren bauen Lebensstile. Since 2009 at the Stiftung Edith Maryon, Basel, Member of the Executive Board since 2020; AContact person for social inheritance regulations and responsible for (inheritance) building law, research issues and the foundation's land policy work. Incidentally, in Switzerland he was jointly responsible for the referendum campaign on the Basel Bodeninitiative sand co-founder and member of the board of the association Gemeingut Boden. In Germany, member of the Board of Trustees of the Stiftung trias, Spokesman for building and settlement policy of the Naturschutzbunds Deutschland, Co-founder of the nationwide call for action Grundsteuer: Zeitgemäß!, active in Netzwerk Immovielien and representatives of the Edith Maryon Foundation Bündnis bezahlbarer Wohnraum. Author of numerous publications on land policy, property tax, (inheritance) building law, sustainable housing development. Co-editor of the anthology Boden behalten - Stadt gestalten (Verlag rüffer & rub, Zürich) and columnist at the Handelsblatt.

Susan Witt

Susan Witt is the Executive Director of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics and has been responsible for many of the innovative financing and contracting methods it uses to create more affordable access to land.

Thema

Economics is nothing more than human ingenuity organizing labor to transform natural world into products to share with others. That simple. On this workshop we examine the nature of the land. We argue that capital should not be invested or tied up in land and natural products. Such linking of capital and land creates a blockage in the economic system that leads to social illness such as great discrepancies in wealth and lack of access to land for basic life support. So if land is not to be distributed by the market – how should its use be allocated? We will examine the right economic relationships between land, labor, and capital to regulate the allocation—transparent economic institutions. Susan Witt will share her own experience in this field.

WS 2: Liberating gift money

with Kelley Buhles (Philanthropic Consultant, USA/CH)

Moderation: Rosario Gabrielli (Student International Relations, CH)

Kelley Buhles

Kelley has been building a regenerative economy for over 15 years, working across philanthropy, integrated capital, and participatory grantmaking. As a Senior Director at RSF Social Finance, she co-created the integrated capital approach to financing, oversaw $90m in philanthropic assets, facilitated community pricing conversations, and supported organizational culture. She is currently a consultant working across participatory grantmaking, community-led governance, and the boring revolution.

Thema

Kelley Buhles addresses key themes, drawing from her experience, on liberating gift money to foster a regenerative economy that promotes equitable systems and empowers communities in decision-making roles. The discussion will include the role of gift money in the economy, practices for giving more decision-making to communities, and the inner work needed to transition to a regenerative economy.

WS 2

WS 3

WS 3: Rethinking Ownership, Power and Capital

with Lukas Hotz (Purpose Schweiz, CH) and Friederike Mainz (Lawyer, D)

Moderation: Johanna Meyer-Tonndorf (Student Economic Science, D)

Lukas Hotz

Lukas Hotz is Co-Founder of Purpose Schweiz. Through my activities as an entrepreneur and consultant, I've become some sort of a business jack of all trades and master of none. Always looking for better ways of doing business without harming each other or our planet. My main focus lies in creating sustainable ownership and governance structures for companies, so that the purpose always stays the driving force of a company and profits serve purpose. Additionally I’m acting as a connector for Steward-Ownership aligned financing between companies and wealth holders. From experience I know the pains and challenges of ventures and have a very broad understanding in multiple areas.

Friederike Mainz

Friederike Mainz is a lawyer. She works academically on fiduciary corporate structures and has been working for years on practices that can enable us to create a future worth living. She is also the managing director of a housing co-operative, a non-profit association and an energy generation company. She lives with her family in Berlin.

Theme

Assuming that co-operating and sharing is favorable for the world, we can ask what enables or prevents us from doing so. Therefore we want to look at the power attached to ownership and capital, and what happens when we redefine this relationship. Steward Ownership is a legal structure for organisations that changes the rules attached to organisational property and could therefore influence social, economic and environmental dynamics. Our working group will explore this legal form on a technical level as well as from a philosophical and personal perspective: What is steward ownership, why should an entrepreneur choose it for his/her business, what skills does he/she and his/her team need to live up to the structure? What are the interdependencies between structure and culture?

WS 4: TRUE PRICE: Experiences and Insights

with Ueli Hurter (Agricultural section/Goetheanum, CH) und Volkert Engelsman (EOSTA, NL; inquired)

Moderation: N.N.

Ueli Hurter

Ueli Hurter has been co-leader of the Section for Agriculture since 2010 and on the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society since 2020. Up until 2020 he was a biodynamic farmer and part of the management group of the Swiss pioneering farm L‘Aubier with its farm, cheese dairy, eco hotel, organic shop and housing development.

Volkert Engelsman

Founder and former Eosta CEO, Volkert is now chairing the Robin Food Coalition, a food transition network for one-health, social inclusion and regenerative agriculture. After graduating in business administration at Groningen University Volkert worked for Cargill Inc USA before founding EOSTA, Europe's leading distributor of organic fruits. He initiated several initiatives and companies, such as Nature & More, Soil & More, Dr Goodfood, the True Cost of Food, FQH (sensitive crystallization methods to assess food quality), Vitalis Organic Seeds, Ecos del Agro Costa Rica, Florganic Europe, Biofresh Belgium, TOSC UK, Red Sea Organics Israel. During the United Nations Year of Soil Volkert initiated the Save Our Soils campaign, together with FAO, 200 NGO’s and many VIP’s amongst whom Desmond Tutu, Julia Roberts, the Dalai Lama, Sioux Chief Arvol Looking Horse and The Prince of Wales. The initiatives have been awarded with various prizes, such as the Nr 1 position in the Dutch Sustainability Leaders Top 100, the King Willem I Award for Sustainable Entrepreneurship and the European Business Award for the Environment.

Thema

Pricing in supermarkets. What is the economic process needed to arrive at a price that makes sense for both the consumer and the producer and that takes both sides into account?

WS 4

WS 5

WS 5: Nuturing pluralist economies - How can we cultivate the diversity we need for a sustainable economy?

with Gerald Häfner (Section for Social Sciences/Goetheanum, CH) and Florian Rommel (Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung, D)

Moderation: Julia Ebner (World Child Forum, D)

Gerald Häfner

The former Waldorf teacher and publicist is the initiator of numerous initiatives and foundations such as (among others) Mehr Demokratie and Democracy International. He also co-founded the German party Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and was its national chairman and managing director. He was a member of the German Bundestag between 1987 and 2002 and a member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2014. Gerald Häfner has been Head of the Section for Social Sciences at the Goetheanum since June 2016.

Florian Rommel

Florian Rommel is a pluralist economist based in Basel, Switzerland. He co-funded the first student association for pluralist economics since 2012 in Germany and the Cusanus University (now HfGG) since 2013. Changing the Economics Curriculum at a broader scale is his mission. One aspect of this is his doctoral study at the University of Frankfurt for which he is surveying the plurality in current economic publishing and the developement of an adequate methodology of pluralist economics.

Theme

The world is full of alternative economic practices. Treating land, labour and money differently is not just possible. It is a lived practice that enables quality of life and fulfills us. However, living those alternatives is often hard and badly supported. One reason and possible turning point is economics education. As it often remains focussed on individuals, maximization and markets it is failing many of our true needs. In this workshop we will collect and review the diversity of alternative economic practices. We will draw many maps and think about ways, narratives and metaphors that could enable alternative practices to leave their bubbles and enter common knowledge.

WS 6: From lighthouse to movement - the potential of cooperation for change

with Helmy Abouleish (Sekem, EGY) and Thoraya Saeda (Sekem, EGY)

Moderation: Juan Bottero (Banka ética Latinoamericana, ARG)

Helmy Abouleish

Helmy Abouleish studied Business Administration and Marketing in Cairo. As the son of SEKEM founder Ibrahim Abouleish, he is deeply connected to the development of SEKEM. SEKEM has been promoting sustainable development in the fields of ecology, economy, society and culture since 1977. In addition to his work as CEO of SEKEM Holding, Helmy Abouleish is involved in national and international politics for responsible competitiveness, social entrepreneurship or the fight against the major problems of the 21st century, such as climate change and food security.

Thoraya Saeda

Thoraya Saeda is the Director of the Carbon Footprint Center, Heliopolis University for Sustainable Development and a senior climate change and Sustainable Development Consultant. Thoraya has over 15 years of experience in the fields of climate change and sustainable development, offsetting carbon projects, afforestation, soil carbon sequestration, UNFCCC, and CDM methodology. Carbon and water footprint assessment and true cost accounting.

Theme

In working groups, we want to shed light on how the path from a vision to a movement takes place via the five stages of visioning, research, prototyping, scaling and mainstreaming in the context of SEKEM Vision Egypt 2057. These stages are described in detail in my book ‘SEKEM Inspiration, Impulses for Sustainable Change’ as well as in the SEKEM Annual Report (Publications - SEKEM). We will illustrate this path with a concrete example. On the second day, we will address the question: What is the future? And how can we invite and shape the desired future? We will also examine the connection with the development of people's consciousness. On the third day, we will use the example of biodynamic agriculture to show how we have moved from an idea to the realisation of a project that will involve 7 million farmers in Egypt. We will discuss concepts such as true cost, carbon credits and holistic development models such as the Economy of Love Standard as important levers for system change

WS 6

Contributors:

Helmy Abouleish

Juan Bottero

Juan Bottero, Co-Founder of Youth Section Argentina, returned to Argentina after completing the Goetheanum’s Anthroposophical Studies program in 2018, to tackle new challenges from an anthroposophical perspective related to social and economic questions.

Kelley Buhles

Kelley has been building a regenerative economy for over 15 years, working in philanthropy, integrated capital, and participatory grantmaking. As Senior Director at RSF Social Finance, she co-founded the integrated capital approach to finance, oversaw $90 million in philanthropic assets, facilitated community pricing conversations, and supported organisational culture. She currently works as a consultant in the areas of participatory grantmaking, community-led governance, and Booring Revolution.

Julia Ebner

Julia Ebner studied philosophy, politics and economics, as well as ethics and organization (M.A.) and is a certified business mediator. She is co-founder of the intercultural fashion brand nouranour, as well as a member of the management board of the world child forum.

Volkert Engelsman

David Fix

Rosario Gabrielli

Rosario Gabrielli attended a Steiner school, is studying international relations and is actively involved in the youth section.

Rosario Gabrielli

Gerald Häfner has been Head of the Section for Social Sciences at the Goetheanum since June 2016. The former Waldorf teacher and publicist is the initiator of numerous initiatives and foundations such as (among others) Mehr Demokratie and Democracy International. He also co-founded the German party Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Alliance 90/The Greens) and was its national chairman and managing director. He was a member of the German Bundestag between 1987 and 2002 and a member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2014.

Rosario Gabrielli

Lukas Hotz is co-founder of Purpose Switzerland. Through my work as an entrepreneur and consultant, I have become something of a jack of all trades, master of none. I'm always looking for better ways to do business without harming each other or our planet. My main focus is on creating sustainable ownership and governance structures for businesses so that purpose always remains the driving force of a company and profits serve the purpose. I also act as a liaison for steward-ownership orientated financing between businesses and asset owners. From experience, I know the pains and challenges of businesses and have a very broad understanding in different areas.

Ueli Hurter

Ueli Hurter has been Co-Head of the Section for Agriculture since 2010 and a member of the Board of the General Anthroposophical Society since 2020. Until 2020, he was a biodynamic farmer and managed the pioneering Swiss farm L'Aubier with its agriculture, cheese dairy, eco-hotel, organic shop and housing estate.

Ani Jibghashvili

I am Ani, a member of the Parzival Youth Society in the Republic of Georgia - an organisation that brings anthroposophy to life. I have a background in business and organisational development. I am currently managing a small organic garden that is transforming into a biodynamic garden.

Ulrich Kriese

Dr Ulrich Kriese, graduate engineer in landscape and open space planning and administrative scientist (Mag. rer. publ.). Professional stations in Hanover, Halle (Saale) and Berlin. Doctorate at the ETH Zurich. With the Edith Maryon Foundation, Basel, since 2009, member of the Executive Board since 2020; contact person for social inheritance regulations and responsible for (inheritance) building law design, research issues and the foundation's land policy work. Various association and board activities as well as author of numerous publications on the topics of land policy, property tax, (inheritance) building law and sustainable housing development.

Salvatore Lavecchia

Salvatore Lavecchia is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Udine, where he also teaches in the Master's programme "Meditation and Neuroscience". His main interest is the development of a philosophy of the self that is able to enter into dialogue with both neuroscience and the spirituality of the East and the West.

Friederike Mainz

Thomas Meyer

T.H. Meyer was born in Switzerland in 1950. He is the founder and publisher of Perseus Verlag, Basel, and editor of the monthly journal Der Europaer. He is the author of several books including D.N. Dunlop, A Biography; Rudolf Steiner's Core Mission; The Bodhisattva Question; Clairvoyance and Consciousness and Reality, Truth and Evil, and editor of Light for the New Millennium. He has written numerous articles and gives seminars and lectures around the world.

Johanna Meyer-Tonndorf

Born in the west of Germany, Johanna grew up in North Rhine-Westphalia and first came into contact with anthroposophy at a Waldorf kindergarten. She spent her school years at the Waldorf School in Remscheid, where she graduated from high school in 2020. After graduating, she did a voluntary social year at the Camphill Schools Aberdeen. In the house where the Camphill movement started, she lived with children with special needs and organised her everyday life there. After the year in Scotland, she started studying in Bochum, but after the first semester she switched to Alanus University, where she is enrolled on the dual study programme ‘Rethinking Business Administration and Economics’. She has been studying with her practice partner Sonett since March 2022.

Florian Rommel

Florian Rommel is a pluralist economist in Basel, Switzerland. He co-founded the first student association for pluralist economics in Germany in 2012 and has been at Cusanus University (now HfGG) since 2013. His mission is to change the economics curriculum on a broader level. One aspect of this is his doctoral thesis at the University of Frankfurt, for which he is investigating plurality in current economic publications and the development of an appropriate methodology of pluralist economics.

Florian Rommel

Peter Selg

Peter Selg is a specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy, co-director of the General Anthroposophical Section at the Goetheanum and director of the Ita Wegman Institute for Basic Anthroposophical Research. He teaches medical anthropology and ethics at the Alanus University for Art and Society (Alfter near Bonn). Peter Selg is the author and editor of numerous publications based on Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy.

Matt Stinchcomb

Matt Stinchcomb has been actively involved in the development of numerous initiatives in the nonprofit sector related to climate change and the new economy and serves as VP, Values and Impact at Etsy.com. He is a board member of the Schumacher Centre for New Economics and the Hawthorne Valley Association. In recent years, he founded the Good Work Institute and helped launch the Place Corps educational initiative.

Andrea Valdinoci

Andrea grew up in Italy and Germany. He worked as a social banker for the alternative Bank GLS Gemeinschaftsbank and the GLS Treuhand in Bochum, Germany. Afterwards he became a Trustee of the Neuguss Holding in Berlin, which supports entrepreneurs in succession planning, inspired by the idea that companies should not be sold but find out the proper structure to realise their identity. Since 2020 he started to work also for the World Goetheanum Association and other projects.

Nathaniel Williams

Nathaniel Williams was born in Alabama, studied painting and puppetry in Switzerland and political theory in Albany, and founded an art school in upstate New York with a view of the Catskill Mountains. Since the beginning of 2023, he has been head of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum.

Susan Witt

Susan Witt is the Executive Director of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics and has been responsible for many of the innovative financing and contracting methods used by the Centre to create more affordable access to land.

	Thursday, 19 September	Friday, 20 September	Saturday, 21 September
Morning		08:45 Keynote speech A free cultural life as an impulse for global peace. On Dunlop's intentions and social threefolding Salvatore Lavecchia Exchange	08:45 Condensation & Exchange *a.o. Impressions from the World Energy Council 2024* Thomas Meyer
		10:00 Pitches from entrepreneurial life
		10:30 Coffee break	10:30 Coffee break
		11:00 Working Groups	11:00 Conclusion and outlook End 12:30
		12:30 Lunch
Afternoon	16:00 Opening 16:30 Terracetalk 17:30 Keynote Speech Ita Wegman und D.N. Dunlop Peter Selg	14:30 Pitches from entrepreneurial life
		15:30 Renewing the economy in me. How can we contribute to this? Ani Jibghashvili · Rosario Gabrielli · Johanna Meyer-Tonndorf
		16:30 Coffee break
		17:00 Working groups
	18:30 Dinner	18:30 Dinner
Evening	20:00 Introduction Working groups & Start of Working groups	20:00 Artistic evening
Evening	21:30 Night café	21:30 Night café

Supporting price Conference is supported and a young person is allowed to attend	CHF 700
TANDEMprice For WGA partners in tandem with a person under the age of 30	CHF 250
Normal price Companies	CHF 450
Normal price single person	CHF 350
Reduced tickets especially for people under the age of 30	CHF 100

Working for freedom and the common good

Bringing a new life into the economy

100 years after the first World Power Conference

The Programme

Work in progress

Pre-Programme

online, in English

The preliminary programme prepares the working groups of the forum; be invited and become a co-creator of the forum!

Decommodifying
Land

Liberating gift money

Rethinking Ownership, Power and Capital

True price: Experiences and Insights

The working groups

Work in progress

The working groups result from the pre-events of the preliminary programme (see above).
Be invited to the pre-events and help shape the World Goetheanum Forum 2024!

WS 1

WS 1: Decommodifying Land

WS 2: Liberating gift money

WS 2

WS 3

WS 3: Rethinking Ownership, Power and Capital

WS 4: TRUE PRICE: Experiences and Insights

WS 4

WS 5

WS 5: Nuturing pluralist economies - How can we cultivate the diversity we need for a sustainable economy?

WS 6: From lighthouse to movement - the potential of cooperation for change

WS 6

Contributors:

Prices

Registration

Working for freedom and the common good

Bringing a new life into the economy

100 years after the first World Power Conference

The Programme

Work in progress

Pre-Programme

online, in English

The preliminary programme prepares the working groups of the forum; be invited and become a co-creator of the forum!

Decommodifying Land

Liberating gift money

Rethinking Ownership, Power and Capital

True price: Experiences and Insights

The working groups

Work in progress

The working groups result from the pre-events of the preliminary programme (see above). Be invited to the pre-events and help shape the World Goetheanum Forum 2024!

WS 1

WS 1: Decommodifying Land

WS 2: Liberating gift money

WS 2

WS 3

WS 3: Rethinking Ownership, Power and Capital

WS 4: TRUE PRICE: Experiences and Insights

WS 4

WS 5

WS 5: Nuturing pluralist economies - How can we cultivate the diversity we need for a sustainable economy?

WS 6: From lighthouse to movement - the potential of cooperation for change

WS 6

Contributors:

Prices

Registration

Decommodifying
Land

The working groups result from the pre-events of the preliminary programme (see above).
Be invited to the pre-events and help shape the World Goetheanum Forum 2024!