Shaun Chamberlin is an author and activist, based in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He is the author of ''The Transition Timeline'', co-author of several other books including ''What We Are Fighting For'', chair of the Ecological Land Co-operative, and was one of the earliest

Extinction Rebellion Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk o ...

arrestees. He is also known for his collaboration with the late David Fleming, having brought his award-winning lifework ''Lean Logic'' to posthumous publication, drawn from it the paperback ''Surviving the Future'', and served as executive producer on Peter William Armstrong's 2020 feature film about Fleming's legacy
''The Sequel: What Will Follow Our Troubled Civilisation?''

Biography

Chamberlin studied at

Schumacher College Schumacher College is a college near Totnes, Devon, England which offers ecology-centred degree programmes, short courses and horticultural programmes. The College is internationally renowned for its experiential approach to learning, encouragin ...

in 2006, where his teachers included

Rob Hopkins Rob Hopkins is an activist and writer on environmental issues, based in Totnes, England. He is best known as the founder and figurehead of the Transition movement, which he initiated in 2005. Hopkins has written six books on environmentalism ...

and David Fleming. Hopkins met his future co-founders of the now-global Transition Towns network during the course, and Chamberlin remained a key figure, co-founding Transition Town Kingston before authoring the movement's second book, ''The Transition Timeline''. He also retained close links with Fleming, and they together advised the UK government's feasibility study into his influential TEQs system for fuel/electricity rationing in the face of climate change. Shortly after Fleming's death in 2010, an All Party Parliamentary report advocating TEQs, authored by Fleming and Chamberlin and endorsed by twenty MPs, met with a controversial reception both in the UK and internationally. During this period Chamberlin also spent eighteen months as a director of the campaigning organisation

Global Justice Now Global Justice Now, formerly known as the World Development Movement (WDM), is a membership organisation based in the United Kingdom which campaigns on issues of global justice and development in the Global South. The organisation produces re ...

. In 2012 he collaborated with David Graeber, John Holloway,

Ann Pettifor Ann Pettifor (born February 1947) is a British economist who advises governments and organisations. She has published several books. Her work focuses on the global financial system, sovereign debt restructuring, international finance and sust ...

and others on ''What We Are Fighting For: A Radical Collective Manifesto'', and was also the editor of Mark Boyle's ''The Moneyless Manifesto''. He and Boyle then collaborated towards the realisation of a moneyless community, in partnership with th
Ecological Land Co-operative
of which he became chair in 2015. In 2016, he took a manuscript left by his late mentor David Fleming and edited it for posthumous publication as ''Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It''. This uniquely structured hardback was published alongside the paperbac
''Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy''
conceived and created by Chamberlin after Fleming's death, and consisting of content from ''Lean Logic'' which he selected and edited into a conventional read-it-front-to-back narrative. The twinned books were critically acclaimed, won several awards including first place in the 2017 New York Book Show, and were named in multiple Book of the Year lists. They also gave rise to both Peter William Armstrong's 2020 fil
''The Sequel: What Will Follow Our Troubled Civilisation?''
and Sterling College (Vermont)'s $1.5m EcoGather project, including the online progra
''Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time''
led by Chamberlin since 2020.

Views and Ideas

Chamberlin argues that the key challenge of modernity is responding to what he describes as the dilemma of economic growth - "either we cease growing, and so collapse the economy on which we all depend, or continue to grow until we overwhelm and destroy the ecosystems on which we all depend". He contends that unless we address this, the economy will inevitably continue its ecological destructiveness, while also highlighting that such behaviour is demonstrably not merely

human nature Human nature is a concept that denotes the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—that humans are said to have naturally. The term is often used to denote the essence of humankind, or ...

, since many cultures - especially indigenous cultures - have a long track record of acting otherwise. Accordingly, his writing and participation with activist projects like th
Ecological Land Co-operative
Occupy and

emphasise the possibilities for living in fulfilling ways that do not support our collective drive towards life on a devastated planet. Drawing on David Fleming's work, he has argued that a

post-growth Post-growth is stance on economic growth concerning the limits-to-growth dilemma — recognition that, on a planet of finite material resources, extractive economies and populations cannot grow infinitely. The term "post-growth" acknowledges t ...

rediscovery of culture and community is inevitable, yet only likely after civilisational collapse. He also frequently addresses psychological and spiritual topics such as grief and despair in the face of our collective predicament. He is noted for coining the widely-adopted term 'Dark Optimism', which ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

s Anne Karpf has characterised as "facing dark truths while believing unwaveringly in human potential", and which inspired ''EXPO 1: Dark Optimism'' at the

New York Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of th ...

in 2013, featuring artists including Ansel Adams,

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

Agnes Denes Agnes Denes (Dénes Ágnes; born 1931 in Budapest) is a Hungarian-born American conceptual artist based in New York. She is known for works in a wide range of media—from poetry and philosophical writings to extremely detailed drawings, sculptu ...

Olafur Eliasson Olafur Eliasson ( is, Ólafur Elíasson; born 5 February 1967) is an Icelandic–Danish artist known for sculptured and large-scale installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer's ...

and Adrián Villar Rojas.

Books

''Author:'' * ''The Transition Timeline: for a local, resilient future''
2009, Green Books
''Co-author:'' * ''Tradable Energy Quotas: A Policy Framework for Peak Oil and Climate Change''
2011, All Party Parliamentary Group
* ''Grow Small, Think Beautiful''
2012, Floris Books
* ''The Future We Deserve''
2012, PediaPress
* ''What We Are Fighting For: A Radical Collective Manifesto''
2012, Pluto Press
* ''Dark Mountain: Book 4''
2013, Dark Mountain Project
* ''Low Impact Living Communities, in Britain''
2014, Diggers & Dreamers Publications
* ''Dark Mountain: Book 5''
2014, Dark Mountain Project
''Editor:'' * ''Energy and the Common Purpose: Descending the Energy Staircase with Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs)''
2007, Fleming Policy Centre
* ''The Moneyless Manifesto''
2012, Permanent Publications
* ''Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It''
2016, Chelsea Green Publishing
* ''Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy''
2016, Chelsea Green Publishing
''Audiobook narrator:'' * ''Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy''
2018, Chelsea Green Publishing

Films

''Executive producer:'' * ''The Sequel: What Will Follow Our Troubled Civilisation?''
2020, Bullfrog Films

References

External links

Chamberlin's Dark Optimism website

2015 - Academic paper in the ''Carbon Management'' journal advocating for TEQs, lead-authored by Chamberlin

2016 - ''Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy''
- the paperback which Chamberlin drew from David Fleming's ''Lean Logic''
2017 - "Community, Place and Play: A Post-Market Economics"
-

course taught by Chamberlin, in partnership with

and Mark Boyle
2018 - "Surviving the Future" course
- Footage from Sterling College symposium and course, inspired by Chamberlin's book
2020 - ''LeanLogic.online''
- Freely-accessible reworking of David Fleming's posthumous ''Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It'' as an interactive website
2020 - ''The Sequel: What Will Follow Our Troubled Civilisation?''
- Feature film produced by Chamberlin and directed by Peter William Armstrong
2020 - "Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time"
- Online educational program led by Chamberlin, through Vermont's Sterling College {{DEFAULTSORT:Chamberlin, Shaun English non-fiction writers English environmentalists Alumni of the University of York