The Right Livelihood Award was established in 1980 by Jakob Von Uexküll to honor and support those “offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today.” Uexküll first approached the Nobel Foundation with the suggestion that it establish two new awards; one for ecology and one relevant to the lives of the poor majority of the world's population. He offered to contribute financially for the two awards but his proposal was turned down by the Nobel foundation. Uexkull believed the Nobel prizes had a narrow scope and only recognized the work of people in industrialized countries. In order to recognize those who were outside of the Nobel Prize Foundation, he created the Right Livelihood Award and provided an initial endowment by selling his collection of postage stamps for $1 million USD. The award since then has become widely known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize” and as the world’s premier recognition for personal courage and social transformation.
The Right Livelihood College is a global capacity building initiative of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation at the university level. There are nine associated universities throughout the world; in 2013, the University of California Santa Cruz's became the first RLC campus in North America.
In 2018, UC Santa Cruz's relationship with the Right Livelihood Foundation grew, and now the partnership is based at the Institute for Social Transformation. David Shaw founded the UC Santa Cruz Right Livelihood College and currently serves as the colleges’ coordinator. At large, the RLC aims to make the knowledge of the laureates and their work accessible by connecting academics and organizations with these change makers; in hopes that students may implement and amplify the laureates’ solutions into their own communities and beyond.
Junior
Sociology major, concentration in Global Information and Social Enterprise
Senior
Sociology major, Global Information and Social Enterprise minor
Senior
Anthropology major, Global Information and Social Enterprise minor
Junior
Environmental Studies major, Global Information and Social Enterprise minor
Social media coordinators, Shay and Sophia, ran the Right Livelihood College Santa Cruz social media campaign. Over the course of the partnership they implemented around 30 posts about upcoming events and Right Livelihood Laureates.
Event coordinators, Ethan and Jordan, planned for the World Cafe dialogues, in which they’d host Right Livelihood Award Laureates and students from around the world and documented participation collaboratively with attendees on virtual tablecloths.
The dialogues were designed to have critical discussion about the winning ideas from recognized laureates with students.
The Ning was designed as a prototype to provide an online social meeting place for the established community of the RLC network.
This space is dedicated to sharing ideas, events, projects, and resources within the RLC network. Since its recent birth, the Ning has welcomed 48 members, varying from students, RLC faculty, to Laureates.
Focusing on the justice movement we were passionate created the biggest impression in our community.
Working together is the best way have accountability and find effective ways to create effective content and events.
Sharing stories of triumph and struggles will bring empathy and create a bond to further social justice work together.