About me
Jon Walker has over forty years experience working in the co-operative business sector. He has established and co-managed a range of businesses including retail outlets, a small-scale manufacturing plant, a warehouse and a chain of supermarkets dealing mainly with whole-food, organic and fairly-traded products. Concurrently, Jon has lectured, published, consulted and provided training courses in both private and public sectors, on complexity theory, cybernetics and organisational structures. In particular Jon has pioneered the use of an innovative organisational approach known as the Viable Systems Model, in both large cooperatives and an eco-community. The resulting organisational changes have resulted in working practices which are both efficient whilst at the same time being based on principles of participation and individual creativity and autonomy. His book A Complexity Approach to Sustainability, co-authored with Angela Espinosa, is now on its second edition Jon is based in Yorkshire, UK, where he continues to have direct involvement with the co-operative sector, in particular in developing food networks that serve local communities. Nationally, he is working with the Transition Network, the Permaculture Association and the Cooperative Group. Internationally, he has consulted and run workshops for universities in Colombia, in Cuba, in Spain, Oman and for the Government of Victoria, Australia. Alongside his busy working life, Jon spends as much time as possible with his rapidly expanding family (four grandchildren) and friends in the local community in West Yorkshire. He is a keen gardener, and continues to convert his 1870 stone-built home into a super-insulated, solar-powered dwelling.
