Table of contents
In our last workshop we will brainstormed things that we'd like to regenerate.
For the second workshop, we'd like to identify key leverage points for each of these dimensions of regeneration. As Donella Meadows said,
These are places within a complex system (a corporation, an economy, a living body, a city, an ecosystem) where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything.
It is not insignificant that Meadows talks about "places" within systems: our language is itself a complex phenomenon that carries all sorts of traces, some of which are helpful and some which can be a hindrance. In this particular context, it is helpful, because place plays such a central role in any holistic understanding of regenerative work. One of the starkest illustrations of this is the link we began last week. As Ryan Heavy Head explains:
the one thing that [Maslow] really missed was the Indigenous relationship to place. Without that, what he’s looking at as self-actualization doesn’t actually happen.
What is our place in this regenerative movement? More importantly, where is our place. Who are the people, animals, plants, mushrooms and other living expressions of the universe with whom we must continue to get along in order to live well? These are not just abstract questions either, inapplicable to increasingly digital contexts. As Holly Grimm and others are showing, a deep appreciation of place and the role it plays in ReFi is beginning to take grip across the ecosystem.
Preparation¶Please read the following (in addition to the link above):
- Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System, Donella Meadows (1999);
- Making ReFi Real, Jahed Momand at the Sustainable Blockchain Summit, whole playlist linked (2022);
- “Join nature’s resilient community of aliveness!”, Tom Atlee, a Wise Democracy Pattern Language.
- Identifying Leverage Points in a System, David Ehrlichman (2018).
More Resources:
- Applied Regenerative Economics, Louise Borreani (2021);
- Cybernetics, Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation (2022) for a wider view on the topic;
- The Cybernetic Hypothesis, Tiqqun (2010).
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