Around the world, we are seeing dramatic inequities and injustice resulting from human influence on the many systems of which we are all a part: increasing storm intensities, sea level rise, human migration— and a global pandemic...the list goes on. In order to change these systems, we need to better see the systems we exist within. This is where the new Transformations Systems Mapping & Analysis Working Group comes in.

Glenn Page, a longtime friend of Cobscook Institute, and whose wife Jane serves on our Board, helped launch this working group in April 2020. He pointed out that as a society, we are good at seeing the small scale with very powerful microscopes and seeing very far away with powerful telescopes. But what if we had a “macroscope,” something that would allow us to view the systems we are living within in sharper focus and from a community and place- based perspective? That is where Cobscook Institute comes in, as a partner helping to see the greater Cobscook/Passamaquoddy Bay and St. Croix watershed as part of the larger Gulf of Maine.

“I’ve always been impressed by the power of community-based organizations such as those rooted in the folk school tradition, like Cobscook Institute as seers of the wider social and ecological systems,” Glenn remarked. “With over twenty years of engaging deeply with the community, Cobscook Institute is a perfect partner to better see, connect and accelerate change in the region because they move at the speed of trust in collaborating with the community and focusing on issues that matter to the people of greater Cobscook Bay. It makes perfect sense for an initiative like the Transformations Systems Mapping & Analysis Working Group to have a bit of a home here.”

Glenn added that, “We’re all part of systems: food systems, healthcare systems, education systems, etc. But so much of them are invisible to us. If we can better see the systems that we’re part of, we can begin to see new opportunities. At the end of the day, this work, in which Cobscook Institute plays an important role, is about improving wellbeing, creating greater access to jobs, healthcare, clean drinking water, transportation, even broadband— it’s about all the things that matter most to the people of this wider community. I’ve never seen anything more holistic, systemic, and meaningful and it will be exciting to further develop this here with Cobscook Institute.”