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Discussion Courses - Discovering a Sense of Place
an seven-session course focusing on knowing and protecting our place

Purpose:

• To understand the meaning of a bioregional perspective, and what it would mean to develop one.
• To consider the benefits of consciously developing an intimate relationship with your place.
• To explore what it might mean to protect the place where you live.

Topics Covered:

• A Sense of Place: Wendell Berry, America's best-known bioregionalist, says if you don't know where you are, you don't know who you are. With a sense of place, your identity is defined—to a significant extent—by the natural features of the place where you live. Without a sense of place, what will fill the void?
• Responsibility to Place: There is a difference between living on the land and dwelling in it—understanding its rhythms, its potential, and its limits. Those who develop intimacy with a place over time tend to accept responsibility for it.
• Knowing Your Bioregion: Your bioregion is a unique place with its own watershed, soils, climate, plants, animals, and history. How much do you know about it?
• Living in Place: Living in place means consciously trying to satisfy your needs and find your pleasures in your local bioregion and working to assure the long-term health of the bioregion.
• Mapping Your Place: Mapping can be learned by local groups and individuals to give a new sense of place. Whereas a typical map shows political subdivisions and transportation routes, a bioregionalist's map delineates regions based on watersheds, climate, and plant types, thereby helping people relate to their natural surroundings.
• Building Local Community: A bioregionalist assumes responsibility for the health and continuity of a place, not only its natural features, but also the social bonds of its people.
• Empowerment: Knowing a place can inspire and empower one to take action to preserve it or take part in its restoration. How important is individual and group action in modern society?
   

*This course contains an optional eighth session Celebration where participants can explore follow up actions.

• Course Flyer
• How to organize a discussion group

The Canadian Earth Institute supports the commitment of individuals who seek to protect the earth.

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