Imagining, designing and teaching regenerative futures – creative approaches and inspirations from around the world
What does it take to learn and lead in times of global challenges? Who do I need to be in order to catalyze regenerative change? What creative approaches can support change makers and educators to teach about regenerative futures? What kind of old and new knowledges can strengthen regenerative practices for all? Which methods can be used for better designing and imagining a thriving world in which humans are participating as an integral part of nature? What if it turns out way better than we could have imagined?
Regenerative futures may sound like a daring idea. It is a hopeful and radical concept based on the realization that doing ‘less worse’ is not good enough. As several of the planetary boundaries are being reached or even exceeded, calls for new ways of learning and engaging in and with nature, and with others are clear and loud. The environmentalist Paul Hawken writes that “regeneration is not only about bringing the world back to life; it is about bringing each of us back to life” (2022). Bringing Hawken’s idea of regeneration into a learning setting may mean a totally new way of approaching global challenges. It emphasizes solutions and approaches in which humans are participating as an integral part of nature and as nature that have the capacity to restore, support and regenerate living systems (Reed, 2007). It addresses challenging topic of climate change via new channels that inspire their learners and underline the role of each individual, with their specific talents and world views. Since regeneration implies an interdependent process within which the healthy becoming/restoring of every life form is inseparably linked with the healthy unfolding of other living beings and spaces, human wellbeing is tightly linked to the wellbeing of the environment as a whole. Fostering and evolving an emerging “regenerative” view of wellbeing demands a transformative journey in order to radically shift the way we understand, imagine, and design our place within the future world.
Creative and arts-based approaches are increasingly seen as a powerful way to engage in global challenges and develop meaningful connections. Art can help to expand the learners’ visions of the future, opening up their minds to new scenarios and more-than-human worlds. Exploring alternative and regenerative imaginaries of the future can be inspiring and empowering for (young) people.
The book
Many educators are lacking approaches that help them to wisely navigate the complexities of global challenges in a learning setting. This collaborative book project will compile and make available creative approaches for teaching and learning about regenerative futures. It will be composed by short contributions that introduce an approach or method, identify its regenerative or transformative potential and describe how it can be used in a learning setting/workshop. It is intended to comprise a useful resource for educators, teachers, lecturers, community workers and change makers in the broadest sense. Compiled methods, practices and creative approaches will be ordered alphabetically (in a glossary-like style).
Editors: Julia Bentz (WG3 leader) and Jelena Ristić Trajković (WG3 co-leader)
Instructions for submissions
With this manual we are aiming to create a collection and glossary of creative methods that are potentially useful for educators and practitioners working for regenerative futures. This is a collection of methods focusing on usability in diverse learning and public engagement settings. In order to promote user-friendliness for people outside academia, we recommend limiting scientific jargon to essential concepts.
As a way to accommodate a diversity of methods, practices and approaches we would like to have a certain degree of coherence among submissions. Therefore, submissions should follow the following format and structure:
1 – TITLE:
NAME of the METHOD or APPROACH (no scientific title :))
2 – INTRODUCTION
Introduce the approach/method: What is this method? How does it work?
Here describe why this method or practice is powerful. In which context is this practice useful?
3 – TRANSFORMATIVE, REGENERATIVE POTENTIAL
Identify its regenerative, transformative or ecological potential: Why is this particular method so powerful to contribute to regenerative futures? Why shall I use it? What is the potential of using it? Why is it transformative?
4 – APPLICATION
Describe how it might be used and applied: How can the reader actually apply it? Here you can illustrate the use of the methods through a project of yours, or a case study as a way of showing the reader how it can be applied. What are the things the reader needs to consider for using it? For instance: How much time is required? What material is necessary? Can it be applied individually or in groups? In what groups? Any preparatory work needed in advance?
Compose an entry in the scope of approx. three A4 pages (one page approx. for each section (1-4)).
If there is a possibility, it is desirable to attach photos that additionally visually illustrate the process or the results of the application.
Important note: Please provide a high-resolution image to ensure its suitability for publication. In the case that you are not an author of the photo you must must have copyright permission to publish it.
Timeline
Submission of contributions: 15 November 2023
Review and feedback: 15 November 2023 – 15 February 2024
Submission of revised contributions:15 February 2024
Final text April 2024
Layout and Book design May 2024
Publication Jun 2024