A year-long research inquiry for practitioners who work with land, held as three four-month online circles. The first circle runs from December 2026 to March 2027.
We have become very good at speaking about the Earth.
We study her systems. We measure change. We diagnose ecological crises. We develop solutions.
But what happens when we slow down enough to listen?
Rooting for Earth is gathering a small group of practitioners to explore what it means to listen to the living Earth, and how what we hear might shape the way we work and the decisions we make.
The inquiry runs for a year, in three circles of four months: winter (December to March), spring and summer (April to July), and late summer and autumn (August to November). Each circle stands on its own. I am now inviting people into the first one, and if you want to keep going, you are welcome to stay on for the next.
Listening to the Earth is also a research project, which I am conducting as an independent researcher. It is part of a wider inquiry into ecocentric governance and leadership: how we can co-create the future together with the more-than-human world.
This is not a course in nature connection, and it is not about learning how to speak for nature. It is a space to experiment with listening to the land as a participant with a voice of its own, and to become curious about what changes when we take what we encounter seriously.
I am looking for practitioners whose work already has a relationship with land and the living world.
You might be a farmer, grower, gardener, forester, land steward or seed saver. You might work in agroecology, conservation, food systems, land trusts, education, research, community, art, ritual or another field entirely.
You don't need to share a particular philosophy or worldview, and you don't need any experience of ritual, sensing or Theory U.
What matters is a relationship with a piece of land, however small, and a genuine curiosity about what listening might mean within your own practice.
Each month, we will gather around a question, a practice or an encounter.
We might listen to a particular place, species, season or ecological process. We might explore different ways of knowing and the assumptions we bring to them. We might ask where listening ends and projection begins, and what reciprocity means when the other is not human.
And we will continually return to the question:
What does this change in the way I practise?
The Earth encounter happens both within and beyond our gatherings. Between meetings, you spend time listening on your land and keep a short diary of what you notice.
Then we return to the circle and share what we have encountered.
Each circle loosely follows the four movements of Theory U, which I am exploring through the u.lab, and each one is coloured by its season. The first begins in December, around the Winter Solstice, entering the quiet and darkness of the year:
In March, the winter circle closes. You can stay on for the spring and summer circle, which goes round the U again as the growing season begins, or step out with what you have found. The year closes with the late summer and autumn circle, from August to November.
One gathering each month.
One turning of the Earth.
A year of listening.
Perhaps the question is not only:
How can we save the Earth?
Perhaps another question needs to sit beside it:
Can we learn to be in relationship with a living world we do not control?
Listening may ask something different of us than problem-solving does. It may require patience rather than certainty. Attention rather than extraction. Relationship rather than mastery.
And perhaps, over time, it changes not only what we know about the Earth, but how we understand our place within it.
Listening to the Earth is a research project I am conducting as an independent researcher, within a wider inquiry into ecocentric governance and leadership.
The question at its heart is how Theory U can be adapted so that people who work with land include the land itself as a stakeholder in their decisions. The winter circle is the pilot, where this way of working is first tried out.
The approach is cooperative inquiry. You take part as a co-researcher, not a research subject: you help shape the questions, reflect on the process and make sense of what emerges.
Before we begin, you receive a plain-language information sheet, and we agree together how reflections, recordings and creative material may be used. You stay anonymous unless you ask to be named, and you can step back at any time, including withdrawing what you have shared.
What we learn will shape the later circles and a working paper on the Rooting for Earth website. You will see the findings, and can comment on them, before anything is published.
This first circle will be intentionally small.
I am currently gathering expressions of interest from practitioners who feel drawn to this inquiry. This is not yet a commitment to join.
If you are interested, leave your details below. I will be in touch with more information about the circle, including meeting times and next steps.
We meet online once a month for 60–90 minutes, so practitioners from different places and time zones can take part together. The circles are held in English.
Each circle runs for four months: December 2026 to March 2027, April to July 2027, and August to November 2027. You commit to one circle at a time, and at the end of each you choose whether to continue.
This circle sits within a gift economy. There is no fixed fee to take part; you are simply invited to join. If you feel moved to reciprocate in some way, through a donation, an exchange of skills, or in whatever form feels right to you, you are welcome to, but it is entirely your choice, never an expectation.
Thank you for your interest in Listening to the Earth. This form is for the first circle, which meets monthly from December 2026 to March 2027. You are welcome to stay on for the circles that follow, through to November 2027.
This form is simply an expression of interest. It does not commit you to joining. Your answers will help me understand who is drawn to this experiment and find a rhythm that works for the group.
