When Joe Brewer wrote his book, The Design Pathway for Regenerating Earth, it was to show both the seriousness of the predicament we are in and to demonstrate that it really is possible to regenerate the Earth at the scales needed. The pathway he describes in the book is to organize ourselves around holistic, integrated landscapes known as bioregions, and connect those bioregions into a planetary network of learning exchanges.
Members of the Design School are working together on the ground in bioregions while simultaneously building a planetary network and community engaging in this kind of bioregional work. All of this enables focused actions to arise with clear design and intent so that we can effectively regenerate at the bioregional scale and create interactions and supports between and across bioregions.
The challenges humanity and the Earth are facing now are extremely complex and unlike anything that has come before in the history of the planet. In order to regenerate the Earth at the scales needed, we must consciously and intentionally evolve humanity into a "planetary species" and cooperate at unprecedented levels. Members of the Design School are choosing to step fully into this challenge and do what we can to embody and live out the design pathway for regenerating Earth.
1) Online learning journeys, guilds, and courses geared toward sharing and directly applying knowledge and skills to the work of organizing on the ground in our bioregions. We blend theory and practice and apply what we learn in the real world as we learn it.
2) Access to the Bioregional Learning Exchange Center where we facilitate learning exchanges across the bioregions of our network. We offer live sessions geared toward optimizing learning exchanges and a dedicated space for sharing updates, stories, and events happening in our bioregions. We also have a Resource Hubs area in this Center in which bioregional organizers host their own spaces for the purpose of sharing resources related to their organizing processes for the benefit of all members of the school.
3) Pathways to participate in bioregional activations, immersions, and other activities in the bioregions of our network. Bioregional organizers are beginning to host more activities in their landscapes to help activate bioregional awareness, weave bioregional dialogues within and between landscapes, and provide shared language and shared tools & resources for organizing for regeneration at the landscape scale. You can help organize these activities in your own landscape and/or participate in them for your own learning.
4) The opportunity to host/lead activities within the school. Members who engage regularly in the community have the opportunity to lead activities within the school -- activities such as workgroups, design labs, themed dialogues, courses, and more. We consider these member-led activities to be central to the culture and breadth of the school.
5) Access to the Inner Space where we are intentionally cultivating the inner capacities needed to be devoted and sovereign regenerators of the Earth. You also have the opportunity to host activities yourself in this area of the school.
6) Meaningful connection and collaboration with like-hearted and like-minded peers from around the world.
We offer various contribution options for membership in the Design School. All contribution levels get you the same access and benefits in the school. We offer monthly and annual payment options, with an 18% discount for annual. Please choose a contribution level that honestly reflects your capacity to give.
We have also created a scholarship fund to provide help for those who cannot afford the membership dues. If you have additional resources, please consider the Pay-It-Forward contribution option to help someone else join who wouldn't otherwise be able to join. Scroll right in the area where you choose your plan to find the Pay-It-Forward option.
Please email us at [email protected] if you'd like to gift your donation to a specific person or if you have any other special requests.
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“I call the transformed world toward which we can move ‘sustainable,’ by which I mean a great deal more than a world that merely sustains itself unchanged. I mean a world that evolves, as life on earth has evolved for three billion years, toward ever greater diversity, elegance, beauty, self-awareness, interrelationship, and spiritual realization.”
-Donella Meadows, Co-Author of the Limits to Growth Report