Ted Trainer

{{Use Australian English|date=June 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix = | name = Ted Trainer | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = F.E. Trainer | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1941}} | birth_place = | death_date =  | death_place = | death_cause = | region = | nationality = | period = 1975–present | occupation = | title = | boards =  | known_for = | discipline =  | sub_discipline =  | movement =  | religion =  | denomination =  | education = PhD | alma_mater = University of Sydney | thesis_title = A study of orientations to social rules: with special reference to autonomy and some educational implications | thesis_url = | thesis_year = 1975 | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | notable_students =  | main_interests = | workplaces = University of New South Wales | notable_works = | notable_ideas = | awards =  | website = http://thesimplerway.info/ | footnotes = }} '''Ted (F.E.) Trainer''' (born 1941) is an Australian academic, author, and an advocate of economic degrowth, eco-anarchism, simple living, and 'conserver' lifestyles. He is a retired lecturer from the School of Social Work, University of New South Wales. He has written numerous books and articles on sustainability and is developing Pigface Point, an alternative lifestyle educational site near Sydney.

==Background== Trainer grew up in Sydney, Australia. He has a PhD from the University of Sydney ("A study of orientations to social rules: with special reference to autonomy and some educational implications", 1975)<ref>{{Citation |author1=Trainer |first=Ted |title=A study of orientations to social rules : with special reference to autonomy and some educational implications |publication-date=1974 |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/22032552 |access-date=28 April 2025 |publisher=}}</ref> and lectured in education at the University of New South Wales from the 1970s. In the 1980s he shifted gears to join the growing environmental and limits to growth movement in Australia, and became a frequent speaker and activist, largely in New South Wales. He remained teaching at UNSW for several decades, usually delivering an undergraduate course on global problems. He was for many years an Honorary Adjunct Associate Professor in Social Work at UNSW, choosing to work part-time, and also a member of the Melbourne-based [http://simplicityinstitute.org/ Simplicity Institute].{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

His practical energy has been thrown into Pigface Point, an alternative lifestyle educational site on a swampy meander of the St. George's River 20 km from Sydney, near East Hills/Voyager Point. Trainer lives there with his family, practising voluntary simplicity and the art of re-use. He lives partially in a barter and subsistence economy, and built a house and the grounds from recycled materials and manual labour.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://socialsciences.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/PigfacePoint.html|title=Pigface Point|last=Trainer|first=Ted|website=UNSW School of Social Sciences|accessdate=February 19, 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512073607/http://socialsciences.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/PigfacePoint.html|archivedate=May 12, 2013}}</ref> His household uses 2% of average Australian electricity consumption and he rarely travels.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://socialsciences.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/D15TheWayILive.html |last=Trainer |first=Ted |title=The way I live|website=UNSW School of Social Sciences|accessdate=February 19, 2014| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20150329092539/https://socialsciences.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/D15TheWayILive.html| archivedate= March 29, 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> His site is used as a model to show people how to create an interconnected, resourced and equipped ‘village’ / housing complex.<ref name="Permaculture Visions">{{cite web | url=http://www.permaculturevisions.com/hommage-to-ted-trainer/ | title=Hommage to Ted Trainer | date=21 March 2014 | publisher=Permaculture Visions Online Institute | accessdate=September 3, 2017}}</ref> Photos show the extent of the property, which was originally purchased by his father in 1940.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://socialsciences.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/PPtour1.html |title=Pigface Point; A Guided Tour in Pictures |last=Trainer |first=Ted |website=UNSW School of Social Sciences|accessdate=February 19, 2014| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150328042048/https://socialsciences.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/PPtour1.html | archivedate=March 28, 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Contributions== A prolific author, Trainer has published widely<ref name="TSW"/> on global problems, sustainability issues, radical critiques of the economy, alternative social forms, and the transition to them. He has written numerous books and articles on these topics, listed below.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

His theory of social change is called "The Simpler Way".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://permaculture.org.au/2012/06/05/ted-trainer-and-the-simpler-way/ |title=Ted Trainer and the Simpler Way |author=Samuel Alexander |date=June 5, 2012 |website=The Permaculture Research Institute |accessdate=September 3, 2017}} and [http://simplicityinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/TedTrainerandTheSimplerWay1.pdf at Simplicity Institute]</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://thebulletin.org/why-consumer-society-cant-fix-climate |title=Why a consumer society can't fix the climate |last=Trainer |first=Ted |date=November 4, 2013 |work=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |accessdate=February 19, 2014 |archive-date=16 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140216134021/http://thebulletin.org/why-consumer-society-cant-fix-climate |url-status=dead }}</ref> He argues "A sustainable world order is not possible unless we move to much less production and consumption, and much less affluent lifestyles within a steady-state economic system."<ref name="TSW">{{cite web | url=http://thesimplerway.info/ | title=The Simpler Way | publisher=The Simpler Way | date=August 9, 2016 | accessdate=September 2, 2017 | author=Trainer, Ted (F. E.)}}</ref> In ''The Conserver Society'' he outlines what such a world would look like, based around intelligent and networked eco-villages providing healthy lifestyles, work and education with much-lowered net consumption.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

His calculations of global energy demand, given in Trainer 2007, suggest any shift to renewable energy will have to be accompanied by a radical decrease in global demand, since renewables could not cope with expanding demand.<ref name="greenleft">{{cite web|url=https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/49371|author=Ted Trainer|title=The problem is consumer-capitalism|work=Green Left Weekly|date=November 8, 2011|accessdate=2014-02-09}}</ref><ref>Ted Trainer, [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/journal/vol3/vol3_no1_Trainer_renewable_energy.htm "Renewable Energy: No Solution for Consumer Society,"] ''The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy'', Vol.3, No.1 (January 2007).</ref>

He maintains a large website of materials for critical global educators.<ref name="TSW"/> His ideas, pursued in conferences and academic publications, on less resource use and lowered population have distanced him from some idealistic environmentalists, Marxist thinkers wanting to continue industrialism, as well as from pro-growth supporters of individualistic free markets and economic growth.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

==Recognition== Samuel Alexander and Jonathan Rutherford (eds.). 2020. ''The Simpler Way: Collected Writings of Ted Trainer''. Simplicity Institute Publishing.

== See also ==

* Anarchism in Australia

==Books== *Trainer, F.E. 2017. ''La vía de la simplicidad : hacia un mundo sostenible y justo'' (trans. Adrián Almazán Gómez). Editorial Trotta, Madrid, Spain. {{isbn|978-84-9879-658-2}} (Updated and adapted translation of ''The Transition to a Sustainable and Just World''.) *Trainer, F.E. 2010. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=I_JBYgEACAAJ The Transition to a Sustainable and Just World]''. Sydney: Environbooks. {{isbn|978-0-8588-1238-3}} *Trainer, F.E. 2007. ''Renewable Energy Cannot Sustain a Consumer Society''. Springer. *Trainer, F.E. 2001. ''We must move to the simpler way: an outline of the global situation, the sustainable alternative society, and the transition to it.'' Burton, S.A.: Critical Times Publishing. *Trainer, F.E. 1998. ''Saving the Environment: What It Will Take''. New South Wales University Press. *Trainer, F.E. 1995. ''Towards a sustainable economy.'' Sydney: Environbooks. *Trainer, F.E. 1995. [https://books.google.com/books?id=jc2vNO6WIMwC ''The Conserver Society: Alternatives for Sustainability'']. London: Zed Books. {{isbn|978-1-8564-9276-8}} *Trainer, F.E. 1991. ''The Nature of Morality: An Introduction to the Subjectivist Perspective.'' Aldershot: Avebury Press. *Trainer, F.E. 1989. ''Developed to Death: Rethinking Third World Development''. Devon: GreenPrint. *Trainer, F.E. 1985. ''Abandon Affluence!''. London: Zed. *Trainer, F.E. 1984. ''Third world development''. Series: Critical social issues. School of Education, University of New South Wales *Trainer, F.E. 1982. ''Dimensions of moral thought''. Sydney: New South Wales University Press.

==References== {{Reflist}}

== External links == * [http://simplicityinstitute.org/ted-trainer Ted Trainer] at Simplicity Institute

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trainer, Ted}} Category:Degrowth advocates Category:Simple living advocates Category:Academic staff of the University of New South Wales Category:Green anarchists Category:Australian anarchists Category:University of Sydney alumni Category:1941 births Category:Living people