Tag Archives: netwalk

Simon Cole knows London. Both the places and the stories that make it come alive and can inspire us in our work and personal lives. He has offered to host a walking tour of Hackney for 6heads and Greenskythinking. We think this is the start of a series of ‘net-walks’ – opportunities to walk and connect with like minded people. Its on 28th October. Places are limited. You can (and really should!) sign up here: Netwalk on pioneering disruption

Below, he tells us more: 

ROCKING THE BOAT TO SAVE THE WORLD

“If we are to better the future, we must disturb the present” – it could be the mission statement of a modern day innovatorin East London, the nearest that we have to Silicon Valley. Buts it’s a quote from a Hackney religious radical of the 1800s. There is a rich tradition in this part of the global city of disruptors rocking the mainstream boat to address the problems they see around them.

Hackney Tours uses walks to explore the past to reframe the present and anticipate the future; we’re tapping into that on a forthcoming walk that channels the best of this powerful desire for positive change by showcasing examples of it happening around us today.

Using inspirational characters from the past, we discover how today’s pioneers in Dalston are following in great footsteps. In Hackney we’re standing on the shoulders of giants, whether they be inventors or reformers or activitists. Many of the things we take for granted today were hard won by people who had the moral courage to stand up and risk ridicule, or worse.

6 Heads is about “Shaking things up” and it’s what Hackney personalities have been doing in various forms since the 1600s. From the groundbreaking demand for gender equality by Mary Wollstonecraft to the direct action soup kitchens of the Salvation Army, Hackney changemakers have challenged the conventional and shaped the way we live and think today.

Some of you on this experience walk, which also serves as a space to create connections and find affirmation, may be the contemporary equivalent of those who broke paradigms with new ideas or new methods. We’ll see some great projects that seek to break some unhealthy planetary patterns that need renegotiation. So come and see some good stuff, connect with how good it feels to be part of positive change. And see what Hackney innovators are doing for the field of sustainability and how they’re reinvigorating notions of community in the 21^st Century city.