Roots Winter School

The path to democracy crosses with our ability, as community members, to make informed decisions about public affairs that affect our lives. Informed decisions depend on applying a critical perspective on the social, political and economic structures that underlie our societies. Roots School of Critical and Explorative Learning promotes transformation in education and society through the cultivation of reflective and solution-seeking thinking about political, social, economic and environmental issues. As a transnational, community-based training center, Roots School applies learning methods which are based on participation, experimentation, inclusivity and reflexivity.

Held annually in Athens, Roots Winter School (RWS) is a three-day progressive learning programme designed to cultivate hope, widen horizons, and catalyse action. RWS aims to push the boundaries of participants’ thinking, abilities, and imagination in order to foster global societies dedicated to planetary health and well-being. The program integrates critical theoretical thought with urgent political, socio-economic, ecological and cultural matters and experiences of struggles through a multifaceted methodology.
 

This year’s theme focuses on strategies for socio-ecological transformations in times of uncertainty, with a particular emphasis on socio-spatial justice. What are the relationships between global socio-spatial systems and local lived experiences? What is the role and implications of economic growth? How can we use the critical frame of degrowth to look through possibilities, policies and actions towards sustainable and equitable ecosystems that challenge mainstream perceptions of sustainability, including circular economy, smart cities, and green technological innovations? How intersectional, decolonial, and transfeminist processes can prioritise the needs of humans and beyond humans contributing to alternative socio-spatial visions across scales? What could be the diverse personal, collective, and institutional processes in such transformations?