Being involved in the Australian Student Environment Network (ASEN) can be a life-changing experience. I don’t use these words lightly, not in the way we often hear of ‘life-changing’ cleaning products or ‘life-changing’ tourist packages. I’m talking about the life-changing experience of being part of a group of people committed to critical thinking about our world, committed to seeing the environment as deeply implicated in our social and political systems rather than as isolated and separate from them, and most importantly, committed to fighting for environmental and social justice.

However, like all organisations, ASEN goes through high times and low times, peaks and troughs. Sometimes it’s easy to remember why ASEN and its aims and ideals are important. At the annual Students of Sustainability (SoS) conference there’s no way you can help but get swept up in the enthusiasm of 500 people committed to creating a better world together. At the Summer Training Camp the daytime workshops and late-night discussions on systemic change never fail to inspire. But for the other 355 days of the year, without that critical mass of like-minded people around you, it can be hard to stay focused and motivated.

The idea for this blog arose out of a desire to incubate our network throughout the year. To nurture our connections, motivation and inspiration by putting our ideas, conversations and actions under hot lamps.

Detailed analyses of current events, theoretical musings, funny memes, youtube clips, reflections on protests, campaigns and actions, promotion for upcoming events, artwork – we want it all to coalesce here on ASENincubate. We want to spark discussion, communication, the picking-apart of the messy world we live in and an attempt to build alternatives with the resources we have. For this to happen we need you! Active ASEN members new and old are all invited and encouraged (please!) to make this project happen and to take ownership over it.

1. If you want to post a text only blog, just go to the ‘Submit’ tab above. Unfortunately, you cannot submit multimedia content this way, so if there is image, video or audio you would like to share, send us an email and we will post it. 

2. Have your say by pressing ‘comment’ below any post, and take the conversation to twitter and facebook by liking or tweeting posts.

3. Or, if you’d like to go one step further and join the editorial collective, shoot us an email at incubate.tumblr[at]asen[dot]org[dot]au.

In love, rage and solidarity,

The Editorial Collective (Mim, Aimee and Rosa)