Catalyze Cooperation
In our fourth week of the spring series, we explored yet another regenerative design principle: catalyzing cooperation. As the authors of Regenerative Development and Design: A Framework For Evolving Sustainability write, “one of the characteristics of regenerative development is that its influence on place continues to unfold long after a project is completed.” For that to happen, a regenerative project will “call into existence a system of mutually beneficial stakeholder relationships,” which is “where the power lies to extend the project’s contribution through widening spheres of influence and time” (82). Projects should thus be vehicles for catalyzing mutually-beneficial, cooperative relationships – called guilds – needed to foster ongoing evolution. Some of the questions we engaged were: What future is this project intended to create for its place? What kind of stakeholder relationships will be needed to realize this future? How might these various stakeholders be put into relationship in ways that amplify collective and mutually beneficial impact? What kind of events or processes would bring these relationships together and entangle them in creative partnerships oriented toward the future?