“Guarding the invisible ecology: A commons-based approach to the civic sphere”: The new frontier for profit is the human mind itself, generating cognitive crises in mental health and shared reality. This talk proposes a "meta-language of the commons" as a strategic tool to diagnose these new threats and collaboratively govern our civic sphere, our most vital shared resource.
Dr. José Ramos is an action researcher, writer, advocate and futurist focused on the commons. He focuses on such areas as future political economy, planetary stewardship, innovations in democracy and governance, and transformative social innovation. His work uses vision driven social experimentation, anticipatory governance and participatory futures.
He has over 25 years experience as an advocate, writer and organiser, which includes ethnographic study of alternative globalizations and sustainable development pathways, writings on collaborative planetary governance, and research on applied foresight and social change.
He is the director of Action Foresight, co-editor of the Journal of Futures Studies, and co-founder of the Participatory Futures Global Swarm. He holds a PhD from Queensland University of Technology in critical globalization studies, winning their award for outstanding doctoral thesis, an MS in Strategic Foresight from Swinburne University of Technology, and a BA in Comparative Lit. from the University of California Irvine.
He has published over 80 articles, chapters, papers and reports in various journals and magazines. He has taught and lectured on future studies, public policy and social innovation at universities worldwide.
