What environments aid the emergence of a regenerative future?

A visual framework to synthesize a complex topic

References mentioned above

• Just Transition Principles
• Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing
• Democratizing engineering education - Zastavker & Venkatesh 2020
• Wellbeing Blueprint
• 🔮 White supremacy characteristics

About the roots of this work

This framework emerged from a synthesis process to capture essences of our health systems (during a course on health with the MESH program).

The project morphed into a research project, and I wrote a blog post with the illustration from above at its center called: Frameworks for environmental justice - I drew a framework and share resources.

Some words on “creating conditions for emergence” vs “forcing outcomes”

If we look at our health and social systems as living (ecological) systems, we gain insights into how to intervene or work with it.

We can’t force health in nature (we can’t force a plant to grow healthy and strong). We can only create the surrounding conditions for the emerge of our desired outcome (e.g. health). Emergence is a reoccurring pattern in living systems. Emergence cannot be forced.

Interestingly, the scientific paradigm is deeply interested in control and manipulation of the world, which doesn’t work very well in natural systems. At least not for co-creating a balanced, healthy system because in healthy natural systems, everything happens at-will. Read more about problematic side of science in my marble on the 🔮 historical roots of the scientific method.

Values are an essence that is re-created in all other parts of the graphic

Notice how inclusive governance is rooted in the values consent and cooperation. How care opens the space for personal growth. And co-ownership emerged from equity. There might be more values at play, but my point is that values are something fundamental that is like a 🔮 DNA of the structures that we create (e.g. an organization to address an issue). I stress the importance of values because we can use them as guidance for building structures (if we know our values well), and we can use this knowledge to pinpoint where structural dysfunction might originate from.

Three concepts that build the foundation for this graphic and my “thinky” systems work

• In systems thinking, the most impactful way to intervene in a living system, is thought to be the changing of the mindset out of which the system arises and the transcendence of paradigms themselves: 🔮 living systems intervention points
• Values (and two other things) are the smallest building blocks for what our understandings of reality is (ontology). These DNA essences is called 🔮 ontological primitives.
• Lastly, there an interesting way to define life: the ability of a system to re-create the conditions for its own emergence and maintain itself at the same time. This concept is called 🔮 autopoiesis. It gets quite fascinating because our social systems (including health systems) could therefore be considered alive.

License for all original work:

MMSHealthAutopoiesis