Eileen Conn

Eileen Conn, is a community activist who has lived in Peckham for 38 years. She worked for many years in policy-making on the organisation, management and development of government systems for the UK Government in Whitehall and subsequently in developing systems of business corporate social responsibility. In the 1990s she established ‘Living Systems Research’ as an umbrella for her study of social dynamics and complex living systems, and her work in the field of sustainable and cohesive communities. As an RSA Fellow she founded the RSA Living Systems Group in 1994 looking at companies and other human social systems as complex living systems. In parallel, she has been an active citizen in London community organisations. She was Southwark Citizen of the Year in 1998, and in 2008 was Community Activist of the Year, Active Citizen of the Year, and Southwark Woman of the Year. In the UK’s New Year’s Honours of 2009 she was awarded the MBE for services to the community.