RESCHEDULED: Building collective agency for activists and artists

A speaker talk, a shared dinner, and a whole-group discussion—all offered as a gift

6.30pm: arrivals 
7–8pm: session with Linda Doyle
8pm: dinner
8.45–9.30pm: whole-group discussion

Event description

You know the feeling of being part of something that can think, feel, and achieve more than you could alone? That's collective agency. It's what it takes to create things capable of transforming each other and the wider world we live in. This session explores the process of collective creation, drawing on complexity science, collective intelligence research, and the lived experience in the room.

We know from biology that agency scales: when individual cells form communication networks, the network itself becomes an agent, capable of things none of its parts can do alone. When those networks break down, the parts revert to self-interest – not out of malice, but because that's default behaviour for when a cell thinks it's alone. The same dynamics play out in groups of every kind, from movements to organisations to creative collaborations.

That's some of the rich theory behind this work. But analysis does not produce agency, only practice does. So we'll attempt to build it in the room, working through a game designed to surface the difference between a group of individuals working together and a group acting as one. Along the way we will look at what connective tissue is, why it matters more than strategy, and what activists and artists each bring to this question that the other tends to miss.

You will (hopefully) leave with a felt sense of what collective agency is, ideas about what blocks it, and sharper questions about how to build it in your own work.

About the speaker

Linda is a facilitator, educator and strategist with seven years of experience supporting organisations to develop actionable strategies. She is a co-director of the Movement Ecology Collective. 

Not a “free” event. An event that is offered as a gift.

Although there's no charge for your ticket, it's not “free”. It's a gift—something valuable, offered with love and care, whose worth isn't measured in money. Our hope is that coming together not under a market exchange, but as neighbours, offering and receiving gifts, might change something in the tone of these evenings. Might make it more possible for each of us to be deeply changed by the wisdom shared.

We're only releasing 25 gifted places per event, and each place has been made possible by generous donations of funds and by loving preparation of exactly enough food for the ticket holders. So if it turns out that you can't come along, please return your ticket, so that someone else can receive the gift instead. 

About Edge School

Edge School is a conversation series designed to grow a living culture, and share the kind of wisdom that can help us live in these edgy times. We'll gather once a month, September 2026 until March 2027 (twice in January!) to hear talks, many of them from our neighbours here in South Devon, then have a shared dinner and a whole-group discussion about the ideas we've heard.