THE HEADWATERS CONFERENCE
Every fall, Western State College hosts a gathering of scholars and writers, poets and journalists, public officials and community activists, social and natural scientists, and the general inquiring minds from the mountain region for a weekend of interdisciplinary and cross-cultural interaction on an issue of concern in the Headwaters Region. Papers are presented, but every effort is also made to make the discourse accessible through "Forum Theater" dramatizations, poetry and music, and generally a full gamut of the varieties of human communication.
Western's 18th Headwaters Conference:
Resort Communities in the Great 21st
Century Transition
November 2-4, 2007, at Western State College (various locations)
The 21st Century in America promises to be a time of a “Great Transition” in American society, from a consumptive, petroleum-based economic society with a low level of environmental sensitivity, to a more sustainable and environmentally aware society relying primarily on renewable and carbon-neutral energy resources.
This “Great Transition” is likely to be even more important for communities that are “marginal” in our economic society, either geographically or economically, or both, and dependent on amenity-based tourism —places like the mountain resort communities of the Southwest’s “headwaters region,” geographically remote communities with median incomes, for the most part, that are inversely proportional to their altitudes.
Other "transitions" also seem likely given the West's history of boom and bust economic cycles, renewed emphasis on energy extraction, current real estate market perturbations, and demographic trends. What can our communities do to prepare for such transitions? What are we already doing? How can we avoid becoming like former boom towns that are now ghost towns?
The conference will address these questions in a variety of formats providing numerous opportunities to both listen to community representatives and contribute to the discussion.
Feature Event: World Premier of Enemies Rehearsed, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's Enemy of the People, a play exploring tensions between economics, environment, and community health. Friday Nov. 2, 8 pm. Taylor Hall Auditorium
PreConference Discussion of the Topic
Materials archived from the Conference
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