Why Rural?
Why the Rural School of Economics (RSoE)?
RSoE values the rural as a source of cultural and economic resilience and as a vital contributor to global conversations about how to learn and live well together. The rural stretches the centralized & urban-dominated cultural and art spaces by offering every day lessons in adaptation and more-than-human relationality. Building on our work as the Myvillages artist collective, we sharpen previous artistic and pedagogical methods in togetherness.
Why Rural?
The school understands the rural as a place, a mindset, a memory and a trans-local territory. The rural is not geographically defined, it exists within cities too, often as subtle and unacknowledged undercurrents. By centering rural experience we open space to question dominant urban-centered economic and educational models. And by complicating the imaginary binary of rural-urban, we create room for more diverse, emancipatory ways of understanding and inhabiting the world.
Why Economics?
Economy is a lived, social and cultural practice relevant to all. RSoE makes visible and strives to practice different ways of living, working and sustaining that emerge and already exist in rural communities. Particularly land-based and women-led initiatives that (often implicitly) practice a solidarity-based, care-driven economic reality that supports both people and the natural environment they are embedded in.
Why School?
We understand school as any communal space for mutual learning. Classrooms can take many different forms, they can be informal and formal, on a field or around a table with food and drinks. Rooted in "learning by doing" our classrooms emphasize hands-on, non-linguistic and informal knowledge-sharing, designed to honor less-valued local knowledge and build trans-local connections through commoning.