Echoes of wisdom - Regenerative practice as professional practice
Author: Finn Boyle
Supervisors: Steve Henry Samuel Mann
8 September 2023
Boyle, F. (2023). Echoes of wisdom - Regenerative practice as professional practice. (Unpublished document submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Professional Practice). Otago Polytechnic | Te Pūkenga, New Zealand. https://doi.org/10.34074/thes.6401
Abstract
Regenerative Practice has slowly emerged since the 1960’s as a discipline formed at the confluence of fields such as Ecology, Systems Science, Sustainable Development, and Agriculture (Mang & Reed, 2011; du Plessis, 2012; Swanson, 2006). Regenerative Practice is a holistic discipline being applied across many fields (Hes and du Plessis, 2014), where practitioners engage with all layers or lines of work: the personal, the group, and the wider systems these are nested in (Regenesis, 2015). A simple framework, called the Three Lines of Work (Regenesis, 2015) describes these layers. Much of the discourse within Regenerative Practice is focused on the system, the project, the product (Third Line) where the theory and practices are aimed at outward facing things, producing effects in the world. There is also considerable discourse around developing the social applications and implications of the discipline in group work (Second Line). However, despite the naming and framing of the personal (First Line) as a key part, perhaps even the core, of Regenerative Practice (Regenesis, 2021), there is a gap in attention and discourse about this more personal and internal aspect; the practitioner in the practice. Plaut & Amadée’s Becoming a Regenerative Practitioner – A Field Guide (2018) serves as a comprehensive “map that illustrates the territory” such a practitioner might seek to explore, but it does not offer much in the way of practical steps or guidance on how to explore and enact this.
This research builds upon the work of Plaut & Amadée (2018), Regenesis (2016), Sanford (2018), Wahl (2016), and others in the discipline of Regenerative Practice. Centering on the deeply personal aspect of Regenerative Practice, this work explores how, when sufficiently developed and integrated with other areas, a more mature First Line of Work can offer profoundly rich and life-giving insights for the individual practitioner. The ripple effects of this personal focus are explored, articulating more cohesive group-work and more effective project work (Second & Third Lines of Work). This research was undertaken as an auto-ethnographic inquiry, in action-research cycles played out across a range of professional contexts and vocations, including Leadership Development, Drug Harm Reduction, and Ecological Sustainability. A board game called Echoes of Wisdom was crafted in this thesis. The game serves both as a research method (Mayer et al., 2014) and to communicate the findings through performance of its gameplay (Spry, 2001). Echoes of Wisdom is explained, exemplified, and outlined in a way that invites others to play it for themselves as a tool for both reflection and for ongoing development as a regenerative practitioner. This thesis explores tools which support people engaging with Regenerative Practice to become more fully realised as Regenerative Practitioners through techniques which are in themselves life-giving and fun.
Supplementary material
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PfphfWgNzqoGaKUbIEYWa5GAqhuFWJtB/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10SebLcg5U4XS9pKYglDSVA00jqquPgwD/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pj3KOPmRqy9-Dt4fCpXOnxkuxWsNq_m2/view
Keywords
regenerative practice, serious games, regeneration, sustainable development
Licence
A copy of the thesis is publicly available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
This licence applies except where otherwise indicated, especially for images.
