To cap off an incredible year of Folio events, please join us for an evening of inspiration and shared reflection with one of the world’s leading voices on ‘community power’, Jon Alexander.
Rediscovering our role in community
As Australia faces multiple, overlapping crises and contemplates a referendum to enshrine an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice in our Constitution, it is high time to interrogate our unique national identity and rediscover our role in community.
Storytelling is a fundamental part of being human. Stories help us connect, share information, and make sense of who we are and the world around us. So much so that anthropologist Clifford Geertz famously defined culture as 'the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves'.
The Australian story has long-defined our country as the land of the 'fair go', where mateship and equality of opportunity have shaped our national character. Whether myth or reality, the dominant narrative in contemporary Australia is characterised by individualism and consumerism.
However, if dominant narratives shape culture and society, then changing the narrative has the power to reshape it.
Will our current narratives serve us well into the 21st century? Or might changing these narratives help us rebuild communities, rise to our challenges, and envision an Australian dream that works for all of us?
Join us in the East Melbourne Library Meeting Room on Wednesday, 23 November from 7:00pm.
Members free | Guests $35. Food and Drink provided.
JON ALEXANDER
CO-FOUNDER, NEW CITIZENSHIP PROJECT
Jon is author of CITIZENS: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us - a book that seeks to reframe the moment in time we're living in as one of huge civic opportunity, not just crisis and collapse, and in doing so opens up a world of possibility for organisations and leaders across sectors and across the world.
Jon is co-founder of the New Citizenship Project, a strategy and innovation consultancy that aims to shift the dominant story of the individual in society from Consumer to Citizen. NCP’s client list includes The Guardian, the European Central Bank, and the European Journalism Centre. They have partnered with the BBC, Amnesty International, National Trust, the British Film Institute, Tate galleries, the National Union of Students, YouGov, the Centre for Public Impact, the Food Standards Agency and the Food Ethics Council. NCP is a certified B-corporation.
