By Joern Fischer
The world is full of bad news, and essentially, we hear day after day how various social and ecological systems are further deteriorating. We’re caught up in the dynamics of a ‘polycrisis’, according to some, where various negative dynamics interact, making things worse and worse as time goes on. But if negative forces of change can interact synergistically … can’t positive forces of change also act synergistically, so that things get better and better through time rather than worse and worse?
This idea seems plausible, and in our new paper in Nature Sustainability we suggest that it’s an idea that ought to be further investigated. The paper focuses on ‘regeneration’ – an emerging lens for how to study and work with social-ecological complexity. As we show in our paper, variations of ‘regeneration’ are gaining attention in many different fields, including agriculture, economics, management, chemistry, sociology, and even psychology – so the time is ripe to conceptualize regenerative systems in more general terms, and to begin to link different fields.
Imagine a person who engages in regular ‘regenerative practices’ as an individual – for example, someone with healthy sleeping patterns, a good diet, who regularly meditates and exercises. It is plausible at least that such a person will also act differently in the world than the someone who lives a ‘degenerative’ life, and perhaps this person’s way of living can help contribute to regenerative dynamics at larger scales. Or take businesses that are managed according to the idea of ‘regenerative management’. Could such businesses help to transform entire economic sectors, ultimately? A similar situation exists for regenerative farms, which might well contribute to the ecological regeneration of entire landscapes.
Based on such observations, it seems that regeneration, and interacting regenerative dynamics across multiple scales and domains, could be a really exciting and positive way forward for sustainability.
And there’s another big difference to many existing approaches: at present, we often think about targets and measures to reach those targets in a relatively static way. If we frame sustainability around regenerative dynamics instead, the focus is less on goals, but more on generating and supporting healthy dynamics that take us in the direction of a better future. – And arguably, it’s such healthy dynamics that we are currently seeing too little of in all kinds of domains, be it in agriculture, mental health, or material use (and re-use).
In short: regeneration, and especially the idea of regenerative dynamics across domains, is likely worth a closer look in sustainability circles.
You can read our new paper here.
Ideas for Sustainability 