Siri Pisters 
I recently read someone arguing that ‘knowing a thing requires loving it’. Be it a place, a person, a Petri dish with microbes, a strand of DNA, an enzyme, a tree, a bacteria or an animal. ‘To know persons we must love them first and look at the world from their perspective. To know any … Read more
Do you ever have the feeling that in order to live more sustainably you have to make lots of sacrifices? That you have to give up on those things that actually bring joy, comfort and pleasure to your life? Living lightly and feeling good You might want to think twice. Research shows that people who … Read more
What is the nature of societal transformative change? When are people willing to go along a transformative change process and when and why do they resist? These questions have been guiding me in my research journey thus far, aiming to better understand the ‘roots’ of transformative societal change towards a more sustainable world. Looking back … Read more
By Siri Pisters ‘Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without’. William Sloane Coffin Jr. The last couple of months I have wandered around Finland exploring its ecovillages with an additional two on the other side of the Baltic … Read more
By Siri Pisters Last week I attended the yearly conference of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) – Europe in Arterra Bizimodu, a young community in Navarra, Spain. Arterra Bizimodu inhabits an old monastery in a sleepy, rural village in the beautiful yet dry and quite deserted Spanish country side. This young community hosted over 200 participants … Read more
By Siri Pisters A few weeks ago I officially visited my first eco community in Finland – Ihala. If I understood correctly, it means something in the direction of bright place. I joined an open community weekend and GEN(Global Ecovillage Network)- Finland gathering at the same time. The group of people attending was small for … Read more