Call for submissions: Briarpatch unplugged, or, How I learned to stop destroying the planet and love the global recession

What if the economic recession we’re presently experiencing is not just a regrettable temporary setback in the never-ending march of growth-fuelled prosperity, but the beginning of a painful but ecologically necessary process of scaling back our footprint to a more sustainable level?

How would we manage the decline so as to ensure the burdens are shared out equitably? How would we go about reorganizing our society and economy around conservation and community well-being rather than economic growth and short-term profit?

The revolution envisioned above would require a fundamental transformation in every aspect of our lives — our jobs, our homes, our food system, our arts and entertainment, etc. It’s certainly beyond the scope of a single issue of Briarpatch to describe, but in our July/August 2009 issue, we hope to sketch out some of the broad contours and specific opportunities so our readers can get to work on the rest.

What principles should guide our efforts to reorganize our lives and communities on a human scale? What initiatives already underway deserve to be profiled, celebrated, and imitated? What can we learn from what other people are doing in other parts of the world? What books and films shed light on the key issues and should be reviewed? How can our efforts to cope with the global recession pave the way to a more stable and sustainable future?

If you’ve got something to contribute to this discussion, then we want to hear from you. We are looking for articles, essays, investigative reportage, news briefs, project profiles, interviews with luminary thinkers, reviews, poetry, humour, artwork & photography that explore how we can unplug from the growth machine and cope with the global recession.

We seek to cast a broad net in our approach, profiling initiatives in energy alternatives, housing and urban planning, transportation, job (re)training, ecological economics and much more — this is not an exhaustive list!

Queries are due by March 23, 2009. If your query is accepted, first drafts are due by May 1, 2009. Your query should outline what ground your contribution will cover and include an estimated word count and a short writing sample.

Please review our submission guidelines before submitting your query. Send your queries to editor AT briarpatchmagazine DOT com.

We reserve the right to edit your work (with your active involvement) and cannot guarantee publication.