Designing Regenerative Cultures by Daniel Wahl

Author:Daniel Wahl [Wahl, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: SOC037000 SOCIAL SCIENCE / Future Studies
ISBN: 9781909470781
Publisher: Triarchy Press
Published: 2016-04-25T22:00:00+00:00

Collective visioning and design conversations change culture

Vision without action is useless. But action without vision does not know where to go or why to go there. Vision is absolutely necessary to guide and motivate action. More than that, vision, when widely shared and firmly kept in sight, brings into being new systems.

Donella Meadows et al. (1992: 224)

Any activity that involves a community, a business or an entire region in an open dialogue aiming to envision a more desirable future is the beginning of a design conversation that has the potential to become culturally transformative. Visioning invites us to not be restrained by the limitations we perceive in the status quo and to let go of linear predictions of what our ‘unavoidable’ future will be like on the basis of yesterday’s and today’s prevalent trends. Visioning opens up a space where we can have a multi-stakeholder conversation about the future we want, where we can design an ideal future and set clear intentions for what we would like to co-create.

Visions can serve as lighthouses that guide us towards a regenerative culture. Just as lighthouses are rarely the point of arrival, but only the beacons that direct us towards a goal that lies beyond them, so our current visions of regenerative cultures are unlikely to be accurate reflections of the regenerative culture we will co-create during the 21st century. Visioning together can serve as a catalyst for collective intelligence engaging all of us in a design-based conversation about a more meaningful and healthier future. Visioning processes educate and transform those involved in co-creating them.

The point is not to create a fixed vision. If we are truly ‘living the questions’ as we approach what we have envisioned, the vision will continue to evolve. Nevertheless, visions can help us to make sure we are going in roughly the right direction. It is important to understand that in the process of creating a vision of a sustainable community, society and civilization we should not be restricted by what may be perceived right now as insurmountable obstacles. The initial formulation of a vision has to be idealistic, creative, poetic, aesthetic, ethical, intuitive and imaginative. The process of creating it has to be inclusive, collaborative, non-dogmatic and participatory. The design conversations that are part of the visioning process invite us to listen to multiple perspectives, value the contribution of diverse points of view, and co-create the common ground from which we can move forward together, with mutual understanding and respect.

Reasoning from only one particular perspective should not restrict the integrative and participatory process of creating the initial vision. First, the best-case scenario, the winwin-win optimal future state has to be clearly envisioned. This creates a collective goal desirable to everyone and provides the basis for engaging the participation of diverse stakeholders in the long-term process of turning such a vision into reality through appropriate design.

While scenario planning and forecasting are ways to look at the trends we observe in the present and extrapolate them to the future,

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