CULTIVATING THE RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH WHICH PLACES FLOURISH

The time is now to bring people, place and institutions into closer relationship. Our institutions are sustained by the collective contributions of the people who live in a place. There is an important responsibility to ensure public resources recognise local knowledge, enable community agency and support the conditions for thriving local economies.

When institutions, researchers and communities operate in separate worlds, silos deepen. Community initiatives become disconnected from public resources; policy can overlook lived experience; and research struggles to find its way into practice. We risk losing sight of the whole.

Permaculturalists, community developers, educators and place-based practitioners have an important opportunity to bring their knowledge and capabilities into this space, connecting institutional resources with the agency already present in communities. Living Earth College works at this intersection, activating local food systems through Con Viv design: bringing people, place, knowledge and resources together.

The Riomaggiore Food Systems Action Lab, 27–30 January 2027, brings this approach into practice. Join an international gathering of policymakers, researchers, designers and community practitioners in Liguria to develop capabilities in living systems design and become part of the founding cohort of Con Viv Design Practitioners.

Explore the Lab: https://livingearthcollege.org/food-design-lab-liguria-italy-riomaggiore

Join the free webinar, 18 November: https://livingearthcollege.org/enrolment-courses/food-community-webinar-november-18th-2026

Let's cultivate the relationships through which people and places flourish together.