Martin Pedersen

Studied in the School of Independent Studies at University of Lancaster, composing my own study plan (BA, MA: 1999-2003) for a transdisciplinary (computer science, history, law, philosophy, sociology) investigation of the nature of information technology - from cave paintings to extra-terrestrial networks - and the evolution of consciousness: How does technology shape human societies and vice versa?

Alongside my studies I participated in various social and environmental movements and made two documentaries with friends:

'genova citta aperta' (2001)

'DOGS RUN FREE' (2004)

Then wrote a phd (2003-2010) on property relations and social movements with a case study on the hacker/Free Software movement, which was published in The Commoner. As part of the research I spent two years in the Amazon engaging with shamans and community leaders to understand the conceptions of ownership at play in their cosmovision. This immersion helped further uncover my own racism and ignorance bestowed upon me through many years of European schooling and culture, a process that began in the mid-1990s, when I spent two years in India.

As Honorary Research Fellow in the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR), which is part of the Research Institute for Sustainability, Equity and Resilience at Coventry University, I am working on the idea of magic, religion/philosophy, and science as three primary and complementary frameworks of meaning, particularly with reference to jurisprudence, commoning, agroecology, health, microbiology and prehistory, and to illustrate how soil, community, individual and planetary health are bound up with each other in the complex web of life that sustains us all.