10th International (Hybrid) r3.0 Conference 2023

r3.0 is pleased to announce its 10th International Conference, convening 12 – 13 September 2023 in hybrid mode (in-person in Amsterdam and online globally), building on the success of rolling out this hybrid set-up in our 2022 Conference. We at r3.0 consciously take a “margin-centered” approach to programming our Conference, drawing on the wisdom of communities that are pushed to the edges (tapping into the “abundant edge effects” Principle of Regenerative Vitality). Our Conference also fosters what Joanna Macy calls “Active Hope” — in other words, not blind faith, but rather trust in the actions we take together to tackle our predicaments. One important aspect of this is the ability to collectively grieve what’s dying, killed off by humanity’s status quo systems (an economic systems predicated on perpetual growth and institutions that entrench this status quo) as inspiration to nurture the birth of new ways of being. And we strategically schedule our Conference to coincide with the shifting seasons, to support participants in reassessing priorities as cracks increasingly emerge in the status quo.

Social norms determine our fate: in the Anthropocene, our collective action is adding up to cumulative harm that’s overtaxing our earth’s provisioning systems while simultaneously undermining livability for billions, leading us to the cusp of crossing catastrophic ecological and social tipping points. 

On the flip side, social norms also hold the key to our salvation: the most efficient and effective way to heal our cumulative harm is to transform from destructive to restorative social norms, harnessing the exponential power of prosocial collective action. 

Here, the very same dynamic that threatens our survival — tipping points, or sudden phase shifts from a stable state of being to a radically different state — can instead deliver our redemption. So, just as our collective action can tip the systems we rely upon into collapse, so too can our collective action tip us into desirable states — in particular, stabilizing our systems against the threat of adverse tipping points.

Working together in solidarity is the only way for humanity to navigate through the predicament we’ve created for ourselves. The Conference will explore ways to connect to create the change necessary to heal the harms that are embedded in many of our systems, by activating new social norms that restore balance in humans’ relationships with each other and with nature.