Zoönomic Workshop Zoönomic Workshop

On 22 April 2022, the institute added Maike van Stiphout to the organisation as Speaker for the Living. The institute thus became the first Zoöp.With her background in nature-inclusive architecture and landscape design and and based on observing the way Het Nieuwe Instituut participates in its ecosystems. Maike, as Speaker for the Living, represents the more-than-human interests within the Zoöp and ensures that these are included in the decision-making process.

Since Het Nieuwe Instituut adopted this organisational model, we have learned a lot, for example about listening and watching life in and around the buiding, about the usefulness and feasibility of various regenerative goals, about working with a Speaker for the Living and about ways in which to get an entire organisation on board with the Zoöp idea. Some lessons are specific to the institute as Zoöp, but many of the insights gained are relevant for all future Zoöps.

Many organisations of varying scale and practice have expressed their desire to become a Zoöp, and thus to work with a Speaker for the Living. The Zoönomic Institute (which helps organisations become Zoöps) will start training prospective Speakers for the Living in 2023 to prepare them to work in a Zoöp and enable them to help the organisation to become symbiotic with the ecosystems it participates in.

In this workshop we would like to work with representatives of proto-zoöps with aspiring Speakers for the Living and with people with experience in ecology, with managing and changing organisations, with buen vivir, with rights of nature, and work out a first draft for the training for the Speakers for the Living.

What knowledge, skills, values ​​or attitudes should a potential Speaker for the Living already have, regardless of the Zoöp they will be working with? What knowledge(s) or skills should be taught in the training? How can training prepare the Speaker and help create a sense for a space that is shaped not only by people, but also by plants, insects, animals, etc.? How can a Speaker learn to deal with the frictions associated with organisational change? What expertise should be present in the Council for Speakers for the Living support network?

These and other questions will be addressed in this workshop.

If you are interested in participating in this workshop, please send a short email to zoop@hetnieuweinstituut.nl and indicate your expertise. Registration is free.

Zoöp is an organisational model that was jointly developed at Het Nieuwe Instituut, who has been applying this model itself since April 22, 2022. A Zoöp is committed to making the interests of non-human life part of its organisational decision-making. A so-called Speaker for the Living represents the voices and interests of non-human life to help create an ecologically regenerative organisation.