The Harmony Debates

EXPLORING A PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Edited by Nicholas Campion

Foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales

Published in Partnership with the Sustainable Food Trust

ISBN 13: 978-1-967767-22-7

Paperback 606 pages

Product Dimensions 15.19 x 4.19 x 22.91 cm

Description

The chapters in this volume explore the ancient concept of Harmony from a range of perspectives, historical and philosophical, academic and personal. Rather than suggesting fixed answers, the goal is to ask questions about how we relate to each other, engage with the wider environment, face the challenges of the modern world, and work towards holistic solutions for today’s problems.

The word Harmony appears in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development no less than three times, yet with no definition. This anthology gathers together an interdisciplinary array of experts, academics and practitioners to explore what Harmony means and how we can use it.

One traditional view of Harmony holds that everything in the universe operates in a state of balance, another assumes the interconnectedness of all things – an idea central to ecological thought. Such thoughts also lead to action and policy decisions: for example, how do we conduct business, educate children, conduct business, protect the environment, resolve conflict and promote health and well-being in a world in which all things are fundamentally connected?

The chapters in this volume explore Harmony from a range of perspectives, historical and philosophical, academic and personal. Rather than suggesting fixed answers, the goal is to ask questions about how we relate to each other, engage with the wider environment, face the challenges of the modern world, and work towards holistic solutions for today’s problems.

The volume was inspired by the publication in 2020 of Harmony: A New Way of Looking at our World by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Tony Juniper and Ian Skelly.

The book is closely related to the work being carried out by the Harmony Institute at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the Harmony Project.

Reviews

“The first UN Earth Summit in 1992 agreed ‘Humans have the right to live in harmony with Nature’ and yet we have patently failed to do that. Now activists the world over are searching for new ways to offer hope for future generations. Harmony as a core principle offers a way of seeing the world in inter-connected ways and thus offering inter-connected solutions. ‘The Harmony Debates’ open up new ways to explore meanings, solutions and practice – metaphysical, practical, ecological and spiritual – and will enrich your soul. Read and be inspired!”
~Jane Davidson, author of #futuregen: Lessons from a Small Country

“This is a fascinating and diverse collection of essays which explore the concept of harmony. In particular the essays examine the myriad of ways that the concept of harmony can make a substantial contribution to debates about environmental issues. The authors come from a wide range of disciplinary and practical backgrounds and this contributes to the richness of the volume. Harmony is discussed in a wide range of topics from sculpture to farming, from Plato to quantum physics and from Confucius to Aboriginal Dreamings. The book is a critical engagement with the ways that the universal idea of harmony can contribute to helping us all find more sustainable ways of living.”
~Dr. Steve Jacobs, University of Wolverhampton

“The contributors to The Harmony Debates offer a wide range of theoretical, practical and ultimately inspiring ways for making our relationship with planet Earth more harmonious, from the way we produce our food to the way we educate our children and do business. A necessary book for our times.”
~Dr. Robert Wallis, The Open University

“The Harmony Debates is a fulsome and timely exploration into the concept of harmony. As Campion describes, harmony ‘assumes that everything in the universe is interconnected, interrelated, and existing in a state of balance’ and, perhaps now more than ever, thinking deeply about this notion across time and space, and how it can be embedded in practical action is crucial. In its forty-three chapters, the work also explores a vast diversity of subjects as they engage with the concept of harmony. From philosophical, religious, spiritual, cultural and ecological approaches, through science, business, agriculture and health, there are global examples that unpack the long lineage and contemporary thrust of theoretical and practical approaches to understanding and implementing relatedness which centre around the simple ethos that, as the Harmony Institute notes, ‘the well-being of one depends on the well-being of another’.”
~Dr. Christina Welch, University of Winchester

Acknowledgments

The Harmony Institute

Foreword – Harmony
HRH the Prince of Wales
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Introduction
Dr. Nicholas Campion
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Towards a Definition of Harmony in Music and Agriculture An Open Letter to HRH the Prince of Wales
John Eliot Gardiner

Principles of Harmony
David Cadman

Harmony and Dance
Wendy Buonaventura

Harmony and Sculpture
Sophie Howard

A Harmony Bibliography
Toto Gill

Difference, Beauty, and the Divine: Harmony in Religious Plurality
Angus Slater

The Harmony of the Cosmos, the Soul, and Society in Plato
Joseph Milne

The Connected Cosmos: Harmony, Cosmology and Theurgy in Neoplatonism
Crystal Addey

Harmony and Judaism
David Rubin

The Bible: A Guidebook for Harmony?
Rhodri Thomas

Harmony in Islamic Cosmology: Subjugation, Sujūd and Oneness in Islamic Philosophical Thought
M.A. Rashed

The Perennial Philosophy and the Recovery of a Theophanic View of Nature
Jeremy Naydler

Harmony and Ecology: Notions of Harmony and Balance in Nature
Jack Hunter

Nature’s Fragile Harmonies
Stephan Harding

Science and Spirituality
Rupert Sheldrake

Science and Spirituality
Marc Andrus

The Music of the Spheres: Marsilio Ficino and Renaissance harmonia
Angela Voss

Harmonising with Land, Sea and Sky
Ilaria Cristofaro

Peace from the Perspective of Harmony
Scherto Gill

Rethinking Women and Leadership in Myanmar: A prerequisite of a Harmonious Society
Sneha Roy

Harmony, Nostalgia and a Sense of Place
Louise Emanuel

The Harmony of Place
Eve Annecke

Learning By Heart: My Journey as a Pythagorean
Kayleen Asbo

Harmony, Cosmos, Ecology and Politics
Dr. Nicholas Campion

Finding Sea Level: The concept of harmony in the culture of the Kággaba (Kogi) people of Colombia
Alan Ereira

Harmonising the Land and Sky in Aboriginal Dreamings
Trevor Leaman

Harmony and the Farm as an Ecosystem
Helen Browning

Harmony and Permaculture
Angie Polkey

The Food System
Gunhild Stordalen

Mind the Gap! Exploring the Gap between Harmony and the Watery Materiality of Climate Change(s) in Rural Kenya
Luci Attala

Harmony and the Climate Crisis
John Sauven

Reflections upon Education for Sustainability: Supporting Students’ Knowledge, Understanding and Practice
Caroline Lohmann-Hancock and Nicola Welton

Early Years Education, Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship and the principles of Harmony
Glenda Tinney

Harmony in Education: Applying the principles of natural systems to learning
Richard Dunne and Emilie Martin

An Investigation into Well-Being in Wales
Tania Davies

Harmony and Societal Challenges: Empowering Communities
Rachel Parker

From Despair to Hope: Building Harmony in a Challenged Community
Mike Durke

Harmony and Natural Capital
Tony Juniper

Rediscovering the Human Purposes of Business
Mark Goyder

The Circular Economy
Dame Ellen MacArthur

Implementing Harmony: Wellness Tourism
Leo Downer

A Reflection on Harmony
Patrick Holden

Contributors
Index

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