Shane is a REconomist, entrepreneur, environmentalist and dreamer. He left the UK at 17 to discover the world, without money, direction or date of return -- just a fascination for big questions like "is a better world possible?" 20 years later, his current work with the Transition Network's REconomy Project (http://www.reconomy.org) exposes him to the rise of the new economy and a possible answer.
In his talk, Shane explores the rise of seemingly unrelated new economic trends that are global enough in scale and are evolving at such a rate that they could trigger a positive economic systemic shift. Cooperatives provide 100 million jobs worldwide, 20% more than multinational enterprises. Online collaboration techniques (open source and peer-to-peer systems) -- are spreading. Niche groups experimenting with cooperation-based economics are outperforming competition-based enterprises.
At a time when mainstream confidence in the old economy is at a low Shane provides hope in a plausible and positive vision of the future based on present and credible economic trends.
