Through lectures and working in the YIP garden, this course week offers both an intellectual and practical introduction into Biodynamic agriculture.
Together with the YIP participants this course will involve learning over time and through the seasons how to grow vegetables and herbs in a northern climate. Activities will include harvesting, compost making, bed care for the winter, processing, fermenting, seed saving etc. Time and space will be given to learn how to observe and understand the different plants and their needs and the needs of the garden.

With Autumn comes harvest time in the garden. The YIP participants will spend the mornings learning from Thomas Lüthi about the foundations of Biodynamic agriculture. The course will focus on the basics of Biodynamic agriculture and will broaden the perception of what ‘communities’ can be, by giving an insight into how ecosystems live and grow together. Thomas will introduce the participants into the Swedish landscape and seasons, specifically in the area of Järna.

What are the root causes of war and conflict? To reach the roots, we must look beyond surface narratives and understand the violent systems that instigate, enable, and maintain conflict globally. To catalyse change, we must first look within ourselves to understand why we should care – if at all – about conflicts in far away places. Is it empathy or justice? Is there such thing as “far away”?

This course presents a series of frameworks from global to personal that help us uncover the specific drivers of war and conflict, which often feel overwhelmingly complex. We first look at how global systems such as colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism underpin conflict. We then explore the power of narratives and discourse in shaping identity and reifying power structures, focusing on discourses that enable “othering” such as orientalism, islamophobia, and various types of bias.

This course employs a justice lens, rather than compassion narratives, to identify responsibility and complicity, and integrates restorative justice exercises to support action. Case studies of modern conflicts will be used to practice these frameworks, with particular attention paid to displaced peoples, border politics, and refugees.

This course will offer participants an introduction into the laws and rhythms of biographical development from the anthroposophical perspective. They will explore the evolution of the consciousness of the human being and ask what it means to be human in today’s world. This will include a re-membering of our childhood environment, an exploration into the impact of relationships in the events of our lives, the value and meaning of crisis and struggle in development and how we can prepare capacities for the future, Participants will learn how to participate and co-host biography groups where they will develop faculties to listen empathically, work with judgement and understand how diverse and complex individual lives can be.

This is a theoretical and practical course aimed at exploring a generalist approach to physicality and physical practices which supports the growth of overall human capacity. We will critically look at the current state of physical culture, present some latest developments and shifts in perspectives, analyze various theoretical and practical movement practice foundations. We will present and allow participants to explore the idea that one of the ways to get in touch with our own human complexity and thus – capacity (in the most general sense) is to become aware of the complex ways we move or could move if we were more aware of the needs and the facticity of our own bodies. By engaging into “complete movement practice” rather than a linear-specialized physical activity the participants will be able to practically test how such approach affects inner human capacity in terms of creativity, communication, sense of meaning, etc.

This is an open course! For more information and to book a place, contact [email protected]

Self-portrait painting; a practice in portrait painting using acrylics. Armed with a photo of themselves to engage with for the entire week participants learn how to navigate self portrait painting using acrylics on canvas. The course includes a lot of personal painting time within the larger group as well as group teaching session to encourage and practice giving clear and constructive feedback, receiving feedback, following instructions and cultivating courage. Participants are taught creative ways of meeting the challenges of art in practice and learn how to support others in this process.

During this week participants will explore the role and necessity for initiative in their lives and the world and will participate in a number of exercises to discover a personal initiative that they carry at the moment and throughout the year. Participants are encouraged to give space to their own intrinsic motivation to enable them to discover a theme or topic that is truly of interest to them. This is encouraged through methods such as generative interview, the question game and artistic enquiry. They will explore where initiative and motivation come from, how to work with freedom and responsibility, and dive into the qualities and practices of societal entrepreneurship and initiation.

There will also be time given to reflect and review the experiences and learnings thus far, and to prepare for departure to the outpost.

What makes a story work? Can words shift the world? What is the relationship between wisdom traditions and stories from the past and your life today?
During this course, participants will learn how to tell and work with traditional, personal and spontaneous stories. The course will introduce them to the transformative path of the storyteller, a path of development and transformation guided by humanity’s great shifters and shapers – Stories. Working with folk tales and the experiences of their life and shaping them into stories to be shared.

Participants will also look at the three-folded and four-folded approach to the human being as developed by Rudolf Steiner. Basic thoughts can be found in “Theosophy” and in “Study of man” both written by Rudolf Steiner. The course will include an exploration of the physical, soul and spiritual development of the human being, as well as the physical, etheric, astral and I development. Participants will learn about the temperaments and planetary qualities as they relate to human character and will engage in lively discussion about the possible existence of a spiritual world beyond the world of the senses.

Recent years have thrown humanity into the deep end of the pool we call the virtual world. Without the extremes of a knee-jerk avoidance or an unthinking immersion, we must be able to come to grips with this strong immersion in the digital world, by accurately observing the experience and understanding our own choices, capacities and tasks in the light of this interaction.

During this week, we will work in such a way that each individual, and the group as a whole, will begin to recognise the paradoxical nature of intention (that to realise oneself one has to open oneself); the paradoxical nature of observation and thinking (that each both conceals and reveals the potential of the other), and the paradoxical nature of humanity’s relationship to the world (that the more truly individual we are, the more universal we are).

She will look at the education of small scale farmers, the threats imposed by multinational companies and their criminal behaviour for the sake of profit making. She will share her own experiences as an ecofeminist and environmental activist and will inspire and action in the realm of environmental preservation. She will share the work undertaken in Navdanya including her revolutionary seed sovereignty and seed saving projects. She will speak about the role of women in farming and the role of women in Indian farming.

Around this input, the participants will design an event, with scope for workshops, open spaces and cultural programme.

Stay tuned for more information!

The self designed curriculum is a key element in YIP that supports participants to take on, commit to and track their own learning and to work intensively on their personal initiative,- a topic they have chosen to research and develop. The participants group can decide, supported by the organising team, what they would like to do together in these four weeks, what they would like to do in smaller groups, and what they would like to do individually. A budget is given to the participants for them to invite contributors of their choice who they would like to learn form as a collective. Mentor time is also available by the team to support the participants in their personal initiative. The structure of the days and weeks is held by the participants group together with the organising team (service hour, breakfast, morning singing, introduction to the day, announcements, lunch, dinner, community meeting, check in group etc.) Outside of this structure, the participants learn how to meaningfully self direct their own learning. The self designed time will begin with a day workshop to set out the schedule for the following 4 weeks. Using open space technology, all participants gain an overview of what is happening for everyone, what invitations are there for group work and can schedule in their individual working time.

During this week, the participants will enter the Swedish nature by water. This week is designed as a digestion week as the penultimate week of the program. Participants are supported to pack and prepare for the outdoors where they will canoe and camp for 5 nights without any phones or digital aids. Participants are instructed on how to live in the Swedish outdoors without disturbing or destroying nature. Meals will be cooked over fires, water will be collected and filtered, fire wood will be sustainably sought and collected, canoes and camp will be cared for. Time will be given for individual and group reflection on the year that has passed and on intention setting for life after the programs end.