Communion for Sustainable Futures
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Proposed Research and Project Activities 
(2013 - 2018)

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Nat/PMA/2012/Coimbatore
The Centre will be involved in initiating, promoting and supporting activities that contribute to spiritually-engaged sustainable lifestyles, products, organisations, services, and institutions. It will work to partner and consolidate efforts that have been initiated by others in promoting spiritually-engaged sustainability. 

The working approach of the Centre will therefore be governed by "cooperation, collaboration and partnership" with clear focus on concerns and issues that are being addressed. 

The Centre's activities will cover three core areas:
  • Towards creation of a new 'language' i.e. orientation and cosmology
  • Creative institutionalisation (consolidating and building civilisational dialogue)
  • Consolidation or creation of networked communities

(I) Broad Research Directions and Activities: 
Towards a New 'Language' i.e. Orientation and Cosmology
                  
Research activities will be undertaken on a regular and need basis (dependent on people and funds). 

(i) (a) Critical review the “business-as-usual” approach to sustainable development and its impact on human societies, nature and our common future.


(b) Exploration of  sustainability beyond the mainstream technological or economic points-of-views/practice.

(ii) (a) Exploration and promotion of the language of spiritually-engaged sustainability and futures  (with the aim to engage and transform 'mainstream' discourses on contemporary global concerns and issues). 

(b) Monitoring and cataloguing of notions such as gross national happiness (GNH) or well-being, spiritual quotient, spiritual capital, “green deen”, mindfulness, interconnectedness, servant leadership (and many more that have come into contemporary usage), etc., into a body of ideas, imagination, images and a language that inform discussions on spiritually-engaged sustainable futures. 

(iii) Exploration, discovery and building  a development logic of Being within a nature-oriented cosmology and moving away from the growth logic of Having (i.e. material possessiveness).

(iv) Exploration, discovery and promotion of new conceptions of personhood, community, nature and their deep inter-connectedness (
to foster trust, dialogue/multilogue and friendship across age, gender, ethnic communities, perspectives, religious affiliation and regions).

(v) Systematic study of self-correcting, continually improving process-driven institutionalisation and governance of spiritually-engaged sustainable futures [with emphasis on civilisational dialogue and education (teaching-learning)] .

(II) Proposed Projects/Project Areas: 

Creative Institutionalisation (Consolidation and/or Initiation of  Civilisational Dialogue)

These projects are conceived as partnerships between the Global Centre, Centres distributed across the globe with similar aims and objectives, target communities and socially-conscious professional communities and foundations.

(1) Deep dialogue sessions (including regional and global events) in specific and relevant  topics in any (or in combination) of the following categories (in order to encourage development of the 'spiritually-engaged sustainability' orientation): 


  • Peace, Dialogue and Democracy
  • Commodification, Desire and the Good Life
  • Poverty and Social Justice
  • Labour,  Future of Work and Leisure
  • Globalisation and Human Rights & Security
  • Education and People Formation
  • Globalism, Regionalism, and Localism
  • Dwelling and Urbanisation
  • Femininity and Indigeneity
  • Conventional, Alternative and Appropriate Technologies 
  • Health & Healing
  • Victims of Economic Growth and Development (Refugees, Victims of  Human Trafficking, etc)
  • Food, Water and Energy Security
  • Social Enterprise and Financial Models 
  • Cooperative Global Trade
  • Media, Communication and Culture
  • Transparency and the Quality of Everyday Life
  • Sustainable Organisation, Social and Product Design
  • Culture, Heritage and Future(s)
  • Ecology and Planetary Consciousness
  • Faith Communities, Perspectivism and Universalism
  • Spirituality and Sustainability

(2) Publishing and production efforts -- books, blogs, bl-ooks, reports, powerpoint presentations, posters, information pamphlets, action packs, thematic websites, monographs, articles, coffee table photo-books, documentaries and audio recordings, etc...anything that promotes the cause of the Centre. (The periodicity of this effort will of course depend on people and funds.)


(3) Festival of Arts once a year to offer a platform for inventors, artists, designers,  film makers and other communication professionals to promote the cause of the Centre through arts and sustainable designs. (As and when opportunities unfold, the Centre will also hold small-scale documentary film festivals, photo-exhibitions, and promote the cause of the Centre through art, etc.) 

(4) People formation and leadership programmes/courses  to support the cause of the Centre and such Centres that are globally distributed.

(5) Sustainable livelihood initiatives that are based on a sense of deep inter-connectedness with nature and communities (across space and time). 

(6) Programming, building and disseminating deep dialogue-promoting, community-building social and digital technologies (softwares) and methodologies to support the concerns and cause of the Centre, and such Centres across the globe. (See here)

(7) Consultancy in the area of products, services and organisational designs that promote spiritually-engaged sustainability. 

(III) Building Technologies and Knowledge Base: 

Creating Networked Communities

The Centre will seek out and collaborate with like-minded individuals, organisations, foundations, and communities with the aim to build active networks. Such networks,  it is hoped will help consolidate, transform and move the present human agenda towards spiritually-engaged sustainable futures. Behind the networks will be efforts to build humanity-and-nature-oriented spheres of activities surrounded by digital technology-supported dynamic knowledge base. This will be an ongoing activity.



The Global Centre

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  • Focus
  • Vision, Mission and Values
  • Orientation
  • Disciplinary Focus Areas
  • SES Narratives (Spiritually-engaged Sustainability Narratives)
  • Climate Change
  • Urbanisation
  • HRD/HRM
  • People and Structure
  • Promoting SENSE

Knowledge Base

  • Main Catalogue
  • General Links
  • Indigenous Knowledge Collection
  • Agroecology
  • Beyond Sustainable Development
  • Commodification
  • No-Growth Philosophy
  • Focus Areas Sub-Catalogue
  • Sustainability and Spirituality

  • Ecology and Religion
  • Planetary Consciousness
  • Eco-Psychology
  • Future Studies
  • Sustainable Design
  • Authentic Communication
  • Sustainable Leadership
  • Books 
  • Reports
  • Videos on Contemporary Issues
  • Technologies for Sharing, Dialogue and Action
  • Info-graphics on Sustainability
Our Book
  • Living Pathways
Managed by:
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www.publicmediaagency.org

Booklet Series (Reprints)
Critical Orientations 
to Sustainability and Spirituality 


  • 7 Screens
  • Dialogue

This site promotes the orientation, activities, resources and projects of the Centre for the Study of Sustainable Futures and Spirituality (GCSSFS). The Centre is supported in the area of content generation, project execution, design and general administration by Public Media Agency (PMA),  Petaling Jaya, Malaysia under the direct care of one of their creative consultants, Dr. M. Nadarajah (Nat). Nat works as consultant on different projects.  He supports PMA on its various projects supporting social causes. Nat is presently engaged with Xavier University@Bhubaneshwar, India, with it School of Sustainability. He works with Loyola College@Chennai, India on issues related sustainability and spirituality. He is associated with the Centre for Diaspora Studies@MSU, Tirunelveli, India. He continues to support Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP), which is based in Penang, Malaysia, as consultant on a project to set up a 'blended' institution, International People's Agroecology Multiversity (IPAM), to promote agroecology across Asia and the Pacific. He is also a member of the Asian Public Intellectual (API)  community.

GCSSFS, 2016