Perin Ruttonsha, Luigi Ferrara, Melanie Goodchild, Gerald Midgley, Lesley-Ann Noel, and William Sutherland
Regenerative sustainability as a paradigm and era has been advancing as a niche within the broader field of sustainability—similar in concept, however, emphasising the dynamic interconnection of all things within a complex living world, and reflective of holistic and relational worldviews. The term regenerative has been adopted across a range of fields, such as design, engineering, agriculture, medicine, economics, psychology, cities, as well as futures planning, and also has clear associations with the concept of flourishing. As part of this transition, we have been witnessing a number of disciplines and institutions self-organising around comparable strategies to (i) cultivate wellbeing for people and planet, while also modelling the wisdom of ecological systems; (ii) embrace complex, cybernetic, relational, and pluralistic epistemologies and methodologies; (iii) examine long historical and evolutionary pathways of planetary social-ecological change and degradation; (iv) deconstruct the nature of human sociopsychology to facilitate personal, cognitive, behavioural, and political-economic transformations, while also seeking a deeper sense of meaning and connection; (v) study and/or facilitate mechanisms, processes, and patterns of change and transition across multiple sectors, levels, and scales; and (vi), pursue holistic systems and knowledge integration.
Work across the domain of regenerative sustainability is oftentimes framed around a spirit of hope, positive action, and thriving; yet, contemporary conditions of global complexity are becoming increasingly more challenging to navigate, and include risks of cascading collapse, polycrisis, and synchronous failure. Although scholars and practitioners in related fields continue to embrace the optimistic view of harmonising social with ecological and technological systems, transformation is being catalysed equally in response to multifaceted crises, along with the imperative to seek novel and creative solutions by which to address them, imminently. For example, facilitating regeneration across planetary systems entails planning alternatives for climate adaptation, decarbonisation, ecological restoration, infectious disease management, Indigenous reconciliation, social diversification, housing equality, international security, along the ethical implementation of breakthrough technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI).
This session brings together leaders who have been championing systems transformation through the fields of design, social innovation, sustainability, and health to discuss how the nature of changemaking, along with the application of complex systems thinking, has continued to evolve in light of surmounting global challenges. We will also consider how we may be reaching a point of critical mass within the paradigm and era of regenerative sustainability, such that initiatives with shared objectives might be networked for increased impact.
