1.2 Lesson-2: What is Regenerative Economy?

First of all, the study of economics nowadays is primarily focused on the creation, exchange, and consumption of products and services. This description conjures up ideas like resources, labor, commerce, capital equipment, etc. in a world of tangible existence and exchange. The focus on commodities and services, which is separate from the creation of systemic impacts, quietly supports the perception that there are both winners and losers in a zero-sum game where scarce resources are taken, refined, sold, and used up. Adam Smith attempted to apply Newton’s scientific reasoning to human contact with a view to reducing its complications to identifiable material mechanisms guided by universal principles. This effort gave rise to the science of contemporary economics.

Yet, Aristotle described economics as the pragmatic science of leading a virtue-filled life as a part of the polis through shrewd family administration in Ancient Greece, which is where the word “economics” originates. This definition provides a totally new framework for considering economics. The family unit is a complete living system that is nested inside bigger community and landscape systems, to start. Second, prudent management is prioritized in a home over output and consumption. Third, a household’s entire business is focused on building stronger, more attractive communities through the attributes that are fostered in their residents.

They can be transformed into a regenerative framework for a twenty-first-century setting by using them as seeds. The ultimate household is Earth itself, as ecological understanding and the effect of indigenous science have taught us. When one views economics as the prudent management of the planet as a whole, one starts to realize that the concept of externality, or a cost to a third party that did not choose to bear it, is no longer valid. For example, manufacturing pollution imposed on a local community. Instead, it is essential to take into account how every economic action will impact the world and its nested socio-ecological systems. The emphasis in a regenerative economy shifts from production and consumption as essentially mechanical activities to smart management as a developmental activity. Aristotle suggests that one needs to plan beyond the present by using the word wisdom. It’s important to consider how the households fits into the interconnected systems of the community and the land, as well as how one’s decisions will affect future generations.

This suggests that an economy with intelligent management aims to increase not only wealth but also everyone’s ability to create wealth. Having a lot of valuable belongings or money that may be utilized in transactions is how most people define wealth. Yet, the word’s etymological root has a collection of connotations that include contentment, success, and wellbeing or health. Hence, at its core, the idea of wealth includes all the things that make it possible for us to survive well.

So, the essential competency that a post-extractive economy needs its people to master if they are to live in healthier and more attractive communities is the capacity to engage in smart management of a whole system. It may be argued that economies are created by civilizations to organize and support their own evolutionary growth. The knowledge required from a regeneration standpoint must be grounded in a change from viewing the world in term of closed or even open systems to viewing it in the context of living systems.