Gaia and the origins of Schumacher College

Following on from the sad news of the death of James Lovelock, we’ve delved into the archives and Dr Stephan Harding’s own memory banks to reflect on the impact the founder of Gaia has had. Below is a recording of a conversation with Stephan out in the gardens at the College, where we begin to contextualise the importance of Gaia theory and Lovelock’s work more generally and explore how it intertwines with Stephan’s own research, the life of the College and the broader learning community at Dartington. 

Thanks to our archivist Kevin Mount for digging out the original marketing pamphlet promoting the first course at Schumacher College, which ran in 1991. It includes the quote “In many ways the Earth behaves as if it were a living organism. That is why she has so often been named and why I call her Gaia.”

Just over 30 years later Dr Stephan Harding continues to teach about Gaia here, building on James Lovelock’s foundational ideas to develop his own work in Gaia Alchemy. The next course to explore this subject will be Living Gaia’s Alchemy with Robin Rose Saltenstall and Satish Kumar from 10 – 14 October. For a detailed description of the course please click this link.