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CORVALLIS, Ore. – An examination of the global corporate economy and how it can shift into a human-scale community is the focus of a speech by social critic David Korten on Thursday, March 13, at Oregon State University.

The lecture, “Navigating the Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community,” will begin at 7 p.m. in OSU’s Gilfillan Auditorium. It is free and open to the public.

The speech is the final event in OSU’s Ideas Matter series, “Who Owns the Sky? The Tragedy or Triumph of the Commons.”

Korten’s classic bestseller, “When Corporations Rule the World,” was one of the first books to articulate what he calls the destructive and oppressive nature of the global corporate economy. In his new book, “The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community,” Korten demonstrates that corporate power is a contemporary manifestation of what he calls “empire” – the organization of society by hierarchies of domination grounded in violent chauvinisms of race, gender, religion, nationality, language, and class.

Advocating for an earth community, Korten will talk about how humans can choose to turn this moment of “planetary crisis” into a new era, grounded in the life-affirming values of community, caring and cooperation that are shared by most of the world’s people and reflected throughout human history.

The series is sponsored by the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word, and the OSU Department of Philosophy. For information, go to http://springcreek.oregonstate.edu.