Hope for Creation IACCW – Spring Week Two Summary

Partner with Place

In class this past week, we explored a second principle of regenerative development and design: partnering with place. We affirmed that when we see places as alive, recognize that they have essences, and begin to search for the “spirit of a place,” we are invited to explore how to enter into a living relationship with them. As Robin Wall Kimmerer writes, the living world is thus understood, “not as a collection of exploitable resources, but as a set of relationships and responsibilities” (Traditional Ecological Knowledge, 27). Questions we might ask then include: How big is here, what is the scale of place, or what is the appropriate scale within which this community would like to have a regenerative influence? How does here work geo-physically, biologically, and culturally? And what makes this place unique, gives it vitality and viability, and is the source of its potential?