FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions of Mathilda Tham feminist, Earth mind and heartful learning and wisdom company to people and organisations in existential crisis and metamorphosis.
Q: WHAT DOES BEING A FEMINIST COMPANY MEAN AND DO YOU ONLY WORK WITH WOMEN?
A: Being a feminist company means working to challenge norms that uphold and reproduce sexism and to design new images, stories and structures for how we can all be together. Sexism is a ’structural problem’ meaning that unless we say NO STOP, everybody (women as well) is part of upholding unhelpful patterns. Sexism is expressed in a connected spectrum from femicide to bad jokes. Sexism is ’intersectional’ (Kimberlé Crenshaw 1989) with other common factors in discrimination, such as race, ability, age, class, education and sexuality. Being a feminist company means digging deeper behind obvious needs and presencing less/in visible stakeholders’ needs. Being a feminist company means making a fuss (Isabelle Stengers and Vinciane Despret 2014) and being a feminist killjoy (Sarah Ahmed 2017). Mathilda Tham works with and for all genders.
Inspiring texts for being a feminist company.
Photo Mathilda Tham, 2024.
If you are looking for inspiration, here are some great texts:
Ahmed, Sarah. 2017. Living a Feminist Live. Duke University Press.
Lorde, Audre. 1984. The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House. In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press.
Stengers, Isabelle and Despret, Vinciane. 2014. Women Who Make a Fuss: The Unfaithful Daughters of Virginia Woolf. Univocal.
Strömqvist, Liv. 2018. Fruit of Knowledge. Virago.
Q. WHAT DOES BEING AN EARTH MIND AND HEARTFUL COMPANY MEAN?
Earth Logic means what makes sense or is logical for the survival and health of Earth and all its species, including humans. (Kate Fletcher and Mathilda Tham 2019) Being an Earth mind and heartful company therefore means setting up goals and processes that genuinely prioritise a stable planet and social justice instead of economic growth. As an Earth mind and heartful company, we draw on values, frameworks and processes developed through the Lucky People Forecast, Metadesign and Earth Logic research, and from kin-places – such as work on care, decolonialism, coexisting with many species. We talk about earth logic and love, because this way of working is both a mind set and heart set.
Read more about Lucky People Forecast, Metadesign, and Earth Logic in Projects.
Other key reference points for being an Earth mind and heartful company include
Notions of care:
Puig de la Bellacasa, Maria. 2017. Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More than Human World. University of Minnesota Press.
Decolonial perspectives on design:
Escobar, Arturo. 2018. Designs for the Pluriverse. Duke University Press.
Living in a multispecies world:
Haraway, Donna J. 2016. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.
Q. WHAT DOES BEING A LEARNING AND WISDOM COMPANY MEAN?
Western science, modern technologies, the economic growth logic and adjacent dominant ways of thinking have proven insufficient in meeting the complex challenges the world faces today. (Stoddard et al. 2021) A core reason is that it is not possible to solve problems with the same kind of thinking that created the problems in the first place. Being a feminist, earth logic company therefore means diversifying how we know and which tools we use from ‘business as usual’. For example, we combine artistic and scientific approaches, invite different stakeholders’ perspectives and ways of knowing, and engage bodies, hearts and minds in learning.
Learning and unlearning can be scary and uncomfortable – especially leaving familiar ‘truths’ behind. Yet, if we dare to approach challenges in an open, curious, prestigeless way, we may find valuable knowledges and practices that didn’t seem relevant before, and we can start creating more diverse insights. Perhaps this is wisdom?
We use the word company in two ways: an entity that provides services as well as company in the sense of a friend on a shared journey.
Q. WHO AND WHAT DOES ‘PEOPLE AND ORGANISATIONS IN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS AND METAMORPHOSIS’ REFER TO?
Arguably all people and organisations at this time are in existential crisis since there is a climate emergency threatening vital earth systems and thereby the very existence of humans.
The existential crisis refers also to individuals and organisations – as familiar lifestyles must be left behind, and new skills, habits, relationships must be developed. This does not only entail hard work but also facing tricky feelings – guilt, blame, fear, anger, grief. Metamorphosis refers to the necessary leap in how we orient ourselves (there is no caterpillar 2.0 – only the hope of a butterfly).
How can we imagine existing differently from what is familiar to us?
Photo Mathilda Tham, 2024.
See some inspiration:
Machado de Oliveira, Vanessa. 2021. Hospicing Modernity. North Atlantic Books.
Tsing, Anna., Swanson, Heather., Gan, Elaine., Bubandt, Nils. (Eds.) 2017. Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet. University of Minnesota Press.