5.3.2 A Regenerative Evolutionary Strategy to Creating Community Wealth

For communities that are seeking to improve their ability to produce wealth in a broader sense, we think a more comprehensive and strategically sound strategy is conceivable. The regenerate life paradigm serves as the foundation for this strategy, which we refer to as regenerative development. A regenerative strategy is therefore by its very nature developmental. This means that it strives to improve strategic planning and leadership skills across sectors and among many stakeholders, in addition to strengthening local economies and socio-ecological systems. It accomplishes this by fostering the local population’s potential, skill, creativity, and commitment. By doing this, they develop into active citizens who embrace rather than dread the messy problems and changing dynamics that characterize any genuine neighborhood and place.

Communities stop continually trying to catch up with an endless list of problems and crises when they adopt a regenerative strategy. Instead, companies start to focus on strengthening their ability for evolution in order to stay ahead of problems. They learn to become more and more life-affirming and life-enhancing, capable of enhancing the vitality and sustainability of their physical, physiological, social, economic, and cultural contexts. As systemic change agents, people develop the capacity to define their own collective future by organizing themselves, concentrating on things that matter to them, and being rooted in the potential around them. They actively take part in an evolutionary process by doing this.