The 2001 ESDA Conference

The first Envisioning a Sustainable and Desirable America (ESDA) was held at the Oberlin College Lewis Environmental Center from January 8-10, in an effort to broaden public discourse using a "Future Search" process (Weisbord and Janoff, 1995). Over a three-day period, a broad cross-section of stakeholders gathered together to develop a shared vision for the future of America. In contrast to ‘typical’ conferences, this workshop strove to include representatives of the whole system, not just experts or policy-makers. Participants self-managed the tasks of discovery, dialogue, learning, and planning, and the whole system was addressed, not just one isolated component. Everyone at the conference was treated as an equal, with no distinctions made between experts and laymen. Extensive research, experience, and psychological studies have shown that this prolonged process is necessary to create the conditions for an effective dialogue (Weisbord and Janoff, 1995).

During these three days, the 43 participants created a shared vision of a Sustainable and Desirable America in the year 2100. We also founded the ESDA network. The goal of the Network now is to further develop and flesh out this vision of the future, disseminate this vision as widely as possible, and initiate a unified effort to commence working towards this vision.