The role of centres for life in regenerative futures (1)

When we consider the kind of structures of scale in which life on earth has worked, we can see that earth’s unique biome is made up of a number of different bioregions and ecosystems.? A bioregion can be described as a geographical area that is not defined by human political boundaries but by the unique ecology which thrives naturally within it – including the human cultural and economic systems we have more recently woven into them.? They encompass the natural resources that live together in a balanced but ever-evolving harmony.? Some people think of them as life-sheds, many as watersheds. Sometimes a bioregion is dominated by a major watershed like the Mississippi, others may contain several inter-connected watersheds such as the Arun and Adur in Sussex where I live.?

In 2020, One Earth created a map of the world’s bioregions which built upon 844 terrestrial ecoregion divisions as mapped by Dinerstein et al. 2017 to delineate 185 discrete bioregions organized within the world's major biogeographical realms. (insert graphic with permission of One Earth) Whilst an extremely helpful tool to understand and work with ecological aspects of bioregions, it did not include human cultural or economic systems within its categorisations. Hungarian cartographer Robert Szucs created stunning visual maps of the world’s watersheds that are almost works of art. These direct us towards rivers as the primary organiser of the geography.

We all live in a bioregion whether or not we are aware of it. They are less visible to the naked eye unless you develop the kind of eagle-eyed vision (of any eagle) best conferred upon as humans by Google Earth – and even then they can be hard to profile.? Land systems, geology, soil type can be indicators but so can unique forms of human culture and economy that have arisen and persisted in different forms over period of time – sometimes whole ages.? Since cultural and economic outputs shifts distinctly over time, these consistent patterns can be hard to spot without the ability to see the relationships between patterns that occur in the land and ocean-scape alongside human cultural and economic developments.

In regenerative design, the integrated design profile that is the in-depth study produced at the detailed context end of the story of place process, takes a very different approach to mapping a bioregion, including multiple different fields across time as we have seen in Act 1 such as the geology, biology and botany of place, looking for enduring processes that have shaped the cultural and economic patterns that have grown successfully in place. A bioregion is an expression of the fusion of non-human and human systems. It can be as small as an island or as large as the Cascadia bioregion on the western coast of Canada and the USA.

As something of a pattern geek, seeing invisible interconnections between cultures, actions, economies, ideas, social constructs and human behaviour patterns has been something I have worked with and studied all my life – sometimes without knowing that was my work.?

As a brand strategy and communications consultant, I looked for emergent ideas and cultural shifts, political and economic trends, the changing landscape of technology and information – all of which are woven into a new narrative and strategy for your client that will enable them to ride the emergent wave to either establish new markets and territories or gain competitive advantage. (more?)

As I have moved more directly into the work of evolving systems from place, the questions have changed but the themes remain the same.?

• How do we develop the capacities to see, understand and work on the potential of bioregional salutogenesis for ecological, cultural and economic systems?
• How do we develop capacities for the transfer of appropriate technologies (ways of working) that are consistent with the ecological and cultural qualities of unique bioregions??
• How, concurrently, do we develop the capacity to screen out incoming new technologies that may be developed for other unique bioregions, or for a globalised world that are wholly inappropriate for the capacity for our own bioregions to thrive?
• What might be the land tenure system in each unique bioregion that would support a stable but evolving bioregion, and within that idea, how much restoration would have to be done to repair the current conditions of depletion – both of natural systems but also human catalytic agency?
• How, and who, would be the repositories of the right kind of wisdom, knowledge and technology development that would truly fit its own conditions, cultural and natural resource? How can we learn enough about our resources, culture, economies and future potential within the scale of a bioregion – given the political constructs within which we are constrained. Nation states. Regional boundaries. City-scapes.
• How do we develop the capabilities of vision-holders and the teams that support them to develop ideas and work on this scale, when they will inevitably face deep recurring forms of resistance from the dominant culture of the day?

Donella Meadows Vision of Bioregional Centres

Many decades ago legendary systems thinker Donella Meadows began exploring these questions herself. Much of my own thinking and work has been inspired by her early explorations in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s.? She, an agricultural ecologist called Vernon Ruttan and a marine biologist, John Todd, were considering very similar questions when they brough The Balaton Group into being. According to the notes Donella made in her reflections on the becoming of The Balaton Group, John Todd first proposed the following:-

‘We need a broad theoretical base for looking at sustainable food production systems that could be implemented in a valley in Vermont or Nepal, or anywhere. I mean a system of thinking, not particular knowledge of particular regions, which is also necessary. People need to know how to think about complicated biological and social systems. Each person needs to be the bearer of the kind of knowledge that allows that person to be a steward of the planet….’

Out of that original notion, and combined with her lifetime experience as an organic farmer in her own bountiful bioregion and armed with her systems thinking training, Donella’s own vision developed towards the idea of bioregional learning centres.

“Out of that combination came a vision of a number of centers where information and models about resources and the environment are housed. There would need to be many of these centers, all over the world, each one responsible for a discrete bioregion. They would contain people with excellent minds and tools, but they would not be walled off, as scientific centers so often are, either from the lives of ordinary people or from the realities of political processes. The people in these centers would be at home with farmers, miners, planners, and heads of state and they would be able both listen to and talk to all of then.

The job of these centers is basically to enhance that capacity that Vernon and John talked of, the capacity to solve problems in ways that are consistent with the culture and the environment. The centers collect, make sense of, and disseminate information about the resources of their bioregions, and about the welfare of the people and of the ecosystems.

They are partly data repositories, partly publishing and broadcasting and teaching centers, partly experiment stations and extension agents. They know about the latest technologies, and the traditional ones, and about which ones work best under what conditions. They are able, insofar as the state of know- ledge permits, to see things whole, to look at long-term consequences, and to tell the truth. They are also able to perceive and admit freely where the boundaries of the state of knowledge are and what is not known.?

Above all, the job of these centers is to hold clear and true the context, the values, the ways of thinking, through which all development plans and resource management schemes proceed.”

As I have developed my own thinking about evolving systems from place, the idea originally floated by Donella has stayed with me. In some ways, Really Regenerative CIC was originally intended to be such a centre, although that idea has been temporarily derailed by the covid pandemic alongside some resistance from the regenerative movement itself. ?It may itself eventually evolve to become one.

However, my vision of the role of centres has deepened and widened over time to incorporate many different variations on what centres are and do in a transformative process.?

I am deeply indebted to the many organisations and people who have contributed their own stories to this Act, and especially to those with whom I have been invited to work or mentor.

In the context of evolutionary system change, what is a centre?

What are centres and why are they important?? We have now looked extensively at what it takes to convene fields of energy and activate critical nodes. It’s time to look at a very specific strategy for sustaining them over time through a focus on finding, creating, energising and re-energising specific centres.

Centres can be found throughout all sizes and scales of living systems.? They are points at which there is a significant – but often invisible – exchange of vitalising, regenerative? energy and value.

In biological living systems they are often described as ecotones. These are areas of steep transition between ecological communities, ecosystems, and/or ecological regions. They can be marshlands – a boundary between dry and wet ecosystems.? Mangrove forests at the edge of the inland waterway and the ocean act as centres, processing the rich nutrients where the river meets the sea – a boundary between terrestrial and marine ecosystems.? ?They can be the grasslands of the savannah, sometimes a boundary between desert and forest landscapes such as in East Africa or estuaries, a between saltwater and freshwater. These boundaries are always rich, diverse, vibrant ecosystems unless they have been damaged. This is one reason why the health of an estuary is such an important indicator for the health of the watershed of the river which runs into it.?

Ecotones occur at multiple spatial scales and range from natural ecotones between ecosystems and biomes to human-generated boundaries. When we talk about the ‘edge effect’, we are often referring to centres that exist or are arising.

In a single tree as a living system, we think of the ‘detonation point’ which is at the boundary of the earth between the root system and mycelial network and the trunk, branches and leaves. It is the point where nutrients, water, gases are exchanged from the system that is above the ground to the system that is below the ground.?

In a single human living system, biologically, our livers play a role. But as spiritual wholes we have three centres: the heart, the brain and the spirit which in our work we think of as cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence.

In human systems, centres can liberate the potential of transformative change by acting as stabilising nets for ongoing cultural development across multiple stakeholder groups.? They are at their most effective when they

a)???? are able to convene multiple stakeholder groups around a critical node in a system for the purpsoes of a transformative programme, that can also be connected to other systems in order to for there to be a multi-level and layered impact which radiates out across other systems in the living whole

b)??? they act as regenerative development hubs from which stakeholders can consciously and intentionally work on the development of the self, work with others and work on the systems in which they sit ; ideally across economy, ecology and culture

c)???? they act as a constant source of regeneration and innovation, consistently absorbing new information on the state of the whole and pulsing new insight back outwards into the system

Centres generate and regenerate the energy field in a place and system, supporting emerging regenerative fields to develop and sustain in the long term. They can anchor local work and act as long term support networks, archives and ‘lighthouses’ for inspiration. Centres can respond closely to place, helping bring to life bio-cultural uniqueness. For example, drawing on an industrial past to focus today on bio-materials for the future. Multiple centres can form networks, amplifying knowledge, learning and supporting multi-scalar systems evolution, across and between places.

They can be social movements, physical centres based in a particular place, ideas and concepts which bring a field of energy together.

Some very good examples of centres in human systems throughout history include

• the café culture which sprang up during the Enlightenment period in Europe in which new social concepts were discussed and acted upon by interested groups which played a strong role in the formation of The RSA in London as an agent of social change in the 19th century.
• the folkschools which sprang up in the Nordic countries in the early 20th century to support those nations transformation from poor agrarian societies into the powerful social democracies of the 20th century
• Similarly the chapters of the Masonic movement that exist to facilitate philanthropy and togetherness
• the Quaker meeting houses that were places in which local members of the religion could meet are other examples.
• the baptist churches that acted as centres for convening an sustaining the heart and energy of the American civil rights movement

More contemporary versions are needed. Some, whose stories are documented in the next chapter include:

• The story of SCOOP the Sustainable Cooperative is one of creating a centre that would bring diverse members of the food system on Jersey together to explore innovative approaching to food production, human health and the cultural relationship to food. It's success would go on to impact the government, and birth a regenerative consultancy who only this week reported on a new food resilience system strategy for the island.
• Experimental centres such as Atelier Luma in Arles can support the re-development of biomaterials based economy an revitalise an entire region
• Cultural centres such as The Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall hold the source of spirital an nature-connection as a tourism destination
• Ideas can also be Centres; the recent launch of The Sussex Bay is becoming a centre of energy convening all the diverse actors for freshwater and ocean regeneration in a single movement
• Private estates can act as centres which they partner together to create a holistic whole across a bioregion. The kingdom of Fife is a great example where three different estates - Balcaskie, Balbirnie and Falkland - have combined to generate a field of energy that is gradually shifting the food system back to a regional and resilient place.
• Bioregional learning centres such as Joe Brewer's experimental project in Barichara Colombia, from which many other bioregional movements that are springing up across the world are being energised
• The OD For Life collective is a centre working on transformative change within the organisational design community worldwide

What kind of centres are emerging, what others do we need?

Education and learning centres

Education plays a key role in cultural, systemic change, however there is insufficient access to regenerative education in the UK. Academic institutions have begun to weave regeneration into sustainability, business and other programmes, whilst others are developing ‘regenerative’ programming, a marker that there is appetite for change. However, it remains to be seen how progressive these options are. The growing ‘living lab movement, visible in EU, Australia, South America and US, is a strong opportunity to democratise regenerative learning but as yet not fully integrated or financed.

Long serving regenerative education offerings, such as Schumacher College in Devon, have struggled financially and are having to rebirth in different forms to continue to resource the field. New centres could be developed, either independently or in partnership with existing organisations that demonstrate some understanding of regenerative design.

Many regenerative learning centres continue to be based online to accommodate global reach; some of the earlier innovators are now looking at integrating more in-person, place-specific opportunities. Including Really Regenerative CIC, Regenesis Institute, Gaia Education and ETH Zurich.

Regenerative accelerators & innovation centres:

Whilst common in other fields, such as tech, these centres are few and far between in the regenerative field. Rather than traditional accelerators which seek to scale and bring to market individual businesses, centres of this kind in regeneration are seeking to build the wider connectivity and success of the field by enabling individual projects to learn from, develop and network together with one another.

RRCIC’s Power of Place programme was designed as an action learning accelerator, helping groups to develop and actualise place-based projects. Project holders learn to take a regenerative and nested systemic approach to their idea which often transforms its capability for change. It was designed based on my experience of mentoring in knowledge in start-up accelerators of the early 2000s. Such accelerators need to be woven into the innovation fabric of bioregions. Ideally, these would be created and led in partnership with bioregional/regenerative learning centres or supported by existing place-based infrastructure such as councils, national parks, museums etc. However, at present these institutions do not have the resource, capacity or capability to deliver such initiatives and would need significant support to enable this to happen.

Social Centres

Historically, the UK had many different social centres that held the fabric of society together. These included youth clubs, working men’s clubs, churches etc. as well as better public realm for community gathering. This kind of centre, which can help communities to gather and build foundations for work to build upon, is key to place readiness and enabling regenerative activity to organise.

This is a short extract from Places For Life: The Art of Evolving Systems from Place due to be published in 2025. All rights reserved.