This is our mission — regenerate ALL degraded lands on Earth to restore planetary health. Coordinated through bioregional learning centers that organize efforts locally while collaborating with each other across regions.
Guiding the Emergence of Humanity's FutureJoe Brewer
This document is a synthesis of inquiry that incorporates ideas and inspiration from many people. It grew out of conversations with Federico Bellone, Eduard Müller, Juan Sostheim, Melina Angel, Pramod Parajuli, Luis Camargo, Daniel Wahl, Stuart Cowan, and several others. What I learned from this diverse dialogue—accompanied by extensive reading—is that pedagogy is the most important thing to get right for any educational initiative that seeks to cultivate bioregional regeneration.
Pedagogy refers to the many ways of learning and how people evolve in their thoughts, feelings, actions, and social arrangements. It is a multifaceted concept that draws attention to capacities for cooperation, ability to trust others, perspective-taking, and a lot more that must be carefully addressed (and elegantly integrated) in the design of education programs. Pedagogy is often framed as a way to teach a particular concept or subject. I prefer to turn this around and employ it as a design perspective for how to assist the learning process, even if no teacher happens to be involved.
Shared here are some of the key pedagogical insights and thematic elements that have arisen so far in this inquiry. This learning journey is far from complete and will continue well after these words are written to the page. It is my earnest belief that Bioregional Regenerative Training Centers must emerge all over the world as integrative programs that help spread the practices and mindsets for regeneration of human communities and the ecosystems on which they depend for their survival.
This is a project outline for the creation of a School for Applied Cultural Evolution that works with the growing network of territorial hubs for bioregional regeneration being launched right now in Costa Rica. It’s purpose is to cultivate and continually improve learning ecosystems spanning across communities that organize their efforts around geographically defined locations where people strive to increase the functional capacities for their landscapes while simultaneously increasing the wellbeing of people living in harmony with them.
This is a summary document for a training program we are creating at Rancho Margot in northern Costa Rica -- as part of a global effort to birth "bioregional learning centers" for the spread of regenerative practices.
Graduate Program in Applied Cultural EvolutionJoe Brewer
This document is a grant application submitted to the John Templeton Foundation proposing the creation of masters and doctoral programs in applied cultural evolution. We have not heard back about whether we will receive funding from them but felt it is worthwhile to share more of our vision with others who might like to collaborate in making this vision a reality.
Creating A School of Applied Cultural EvolutionJoe Brewer
This slide deck presents an early draft of ideas for creating a school that is dedicated to helping communities learn how to guide their collective evolution toward health and resilience.
Guiding the Emergence of Humanity's FutureJoe Brewer
This document is a synthesis of inquiry that incorporates ideas and inspiration from many people. It grew out of conversations with Federico Bellone, Eduard Müller, Juan Sostheim, Melina Angel, Pramod Parajuli, Luis Camargo, Daniel Wahl, Stuart Cowan, and several others. What I learned from this diverse dialogue—accompanied by extensive reading—is that pedagogy is the most important thing to get right for any educational initiative that seeks to cultivate bioregional regeneration.
Pedagogy refers to the many ways of learning and how people evolve in their thoughts, feelings, actions, and social arrangements. It is a multifaceted concept that draws attention to capacities for cooperation, ability to trust others, perspective-taking, and a lot more that must be carefully addressed (and elegantly integrated) in the design of education programs. Pedagogy is often framed as a way to teach a particular concept or subject. I prefer to turn this around and employ it as a design perspective for how to assist the learning process, even if no teacher happens to be involved.
Shared here are some of the key pedagogical insights and thematic elements that have arisen so far in this inquiry. This learning journey is far from complete and will continue well after these words are written to the page. It is my earnest belief that Bioregional Regenerative Training Centers must emerge all over the world as integrative programs that help spread the practices and mindsets for regeneration of human communities and the ecosystems on which they depend for their survival.
This is a project outline for the creation of a School for Applied Cultural Evolution that works with the growing network of territorial hubs for bioregional regeneration being launched right now in Costa Rica. It’s purpose is to cultivate and continually improve learning ecosystems spanning across communities that organize their efforts around geographically defined locations where people strive to increase the functional capacities for their landscapes while simultaneously increasing the wellbeing of people living in harmony with them.
This is a summary document for a training program we are creating at Rancho Margot in northern Costa Rica -- as part of a global effort to birth "bioregional learning centers" for the spread of regenerative practices.
Graduate Program in Applied Cultural EvolutionJoe Brewer
This document is a grant application submitted to the John Templeton Foundation proposing the creation of masters and doctoral programs in applied cultural evolution. We have not heard back about whether we will receive funding from them but felt it is worthwhile to share more of our vision with others who might like to collaborate in making this vision a reality.
Creating A School of Applied Cultural EvolutionJoe Brewer
This slide deck presents an early draft of ideas for creating a school that is dedicated to helping communities learn how to guide their collective evolution toward health and resilience.
The project “Including the Elderly in Community Gardens” was designed to encourage this population group – senior citizens in their “golden years” – to participate in a variety of activities in community gardens and nature sites around Jerusalem. Through these activities the project seeks to increase the active, voluntary participation of the elderly in the greening of Jerusalem, to raise their awareness and commitment to the environment, and to solidify their engaged participation as a cohesive group within the broader community.
The project was initiated and led by the Municipality of Jerusalem, JDC-ESHEL (the Association for the Planning and Development of Services for the Aged in Israel), the Jerusalem Foundation, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the Society for the Protection of Nature, with the participation of the Jerusalem Association of Community Councils and Idan, an NGO operating within this sector. (A full list of partners can be provided.)
Development, Environment and Sustainabilty–the triumvirate on Geographical FrameProf Ashis Sarkar
Development, Environment and Sustainability form the triumvirate of present day World. If human is to survive and development is to remain sustainable, the geographical issues and concerns should be the thrust of analysis.
The project “Including the Elderly in Community Gardens” was designed to encourage this population group – senior citizens in their “golden years” – to participate in a variety of activities in community gardens and nature sites around Jerusalem. Through these activities the project seeks to increase the active, voluntary participation of the elderly in the greening of Jerusalem, to raise their awareness and commitment to the environment, and to solidify their engaged participation as a cohesive group within the broader community.
The project was initiated and led by the Municipality of Jerusalem, JDC-ESHEL (the Association for the Planning and Development of Services for the Aged in Israel), the Jerusalem Foundation, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the Society for the Protection of Nature, with the participation of the Jerusalem Association of Community Councils and Idan, an NGO operating within this sector. (A full list of partners can be provided.)
Development, Environment and Sustainabilty–the triumvirate on Geographical FrameProf Ashis Sarkar
Development, Environment and Sustainability form the triumvirate of present day World. If human is to survive and development is to remain sustainable, the geographical issues and concerns should be the thrust of analysis.
In Tanzania, Community Forests International has worked to plant over 1.5 million trees for fruit, timber and conservation to date. CFI has built solar energy micro-grids and rainwater harvesting systems for entire small island communities, developed new regenerative agricultural techniques, and innovated new low-carbon household technologies.
These successes have coalesced with the launch of the of the world’s first Rural Innovation Campus on Pemba Island, Zanzibar.
The Rural Innovation Campus model has proven successful in promoting positive change abroad, and Community Forests International believes that by replicating the approach in New Brunswick it may serve as a catalyst for the creation of much needed regenerative solutions here at home as well.
This design brief describes the vision for creating a Rural Innovation Campus in rural New Brunswick, Canada.
Gaia Education promotes a holistic systems approach to education for sustainable development by:
• developing curricula to empower change makers with inner and outer skills to redesign human presence in a sustainable world.
• facilitating the delivery of transformative learning programmes in response to emerging needs
• disseminating grass-roots wisdom through learning communities.
I believe that revolution and change in interior designing to sustainable standards should be an effort by everyone...more people are working from home, most people spend their time indoors, more people are adhering to indoor activities; creating designs to help humanity thrive in a clean atmosphere should be the main goal.
A review of the Noosa Biosphere Management has been initiated by the Noosa Shire Council. After submissions were made a number of presenters were invited to present to the Councillor Working Party and interested public. This is the presentation made on behalf of Noosa Biosphere Ltd on Tuesday 4 March, 2013.
Green school, Dekalb Academy of Technology and Environment presentation on sustainable classrooms. This unique school features a recycling program that even recycles cooking grease to biodiesel and soaps.
Origin of Spaces - Research Brochure - innovative practices for sustainable m...Christiaan Weiler
Organisations from five European countries have joined forces on a three year journey to share existing know-how and explore new practices related to coworking ecosystems. However, as with every journey, the project began with a period of reflection and preparation, an opportunity to learn new work languages, structures and methods: “Where have we come from?”, “Where are we going?”, “What should be taken forward?”. In addition there were specific questions and discussions on the meanings behind our coworking ecosystems themes, namely multidisciplinary coworking, local partnerships, ecological transition, participatory governance and social entrepreneurship. This report provides the history of our preparation for constructing a coworking toolbox. It focuses on the wealth of local background material unearthed by the partners and, by identifying the most relevant points, helps explain how the map to guide our journey began to take shape.
The information you are about to discover will help explain why we believe that coworking and the creation of multidisciplinary creative clusters (also known as ecosystems or the Third Place) provide an innovative approach for European entrepreneurs and professionals to work collaboratively through improved communication and networking, in order to create new economic opportunities and benefit society.
Data Con LA 2022-Pre-Recorded- XR Interactions for Water Sustaining Behavior ...Data Con LA
Suzan Oslin, Experiential Director at UXXR Design
Elektra Grant, Lecturer at California State Polytechnic University-Pomona
Laura Garcia, Director of Clinical Design at Found
Emerging Tech
Immersive media has been shown to be more effective for learning. It captivates the mind with interactions, involves the whole body through movement, requires eye-hand coordination, absorbs attention with learning by doing, and engages more of the senses. It’s a much stronger sensory experience, it's more memorable, and provides a greater opportunity to lead a participant through some form of transformation. Gamification becomes possible and reinforcements, both positive and negative, can be used to shape behavior. Concrete Oasis is a persistent, city-scale, augmented reality, civic exhibit intended for Pershing Square Park that addresses the water crisis with the intention of engaging the audience with interactions that will lead to lasting behavior change. Hear from the team designing this immersive exhibit about how they are using augmented reality to help shift the collective mindset towards a sustainable water future for LA.
This is an introduction to the cooperative ownership model for bioregional regeneration in Barichara, Colombia. It explains how we are structuring a relationship between external donors and local stakeholders to engage in territorial-scale reforestation and water security.
Billion Dollar Proposal for Applied Cultural EvolutionJoe Brewer
Let me begin by acknowledging those who came before me. The runner-up for a 1 billion euro grant from the European Union nearly a decade ago was FuturICT with their vision for modeling complex social systems to avoid (or manage) future economic collapses. So I am not the first person to propose that a massive effort is needed to (a) integrate the social sciences; and (b) do so with motivation to apply what is learned to address extremely difficult problems in the world. With that said, let me now offer my billion dollar proposal that follows in FuturICT’s footsteps. At the time they were competing for substantial funding, I was working with the International Centre for Earth Simulation to build its billion dollar (over a decade) vision for a high-performance computing facility that models the entire Earth in its full complexity. It is from these projects that I draw inspiration for this essay.
Also, a fact that should cause you to sit up straight. The annual budget for CERN (the high-energy particle accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland) was roughly 1.2 billion dollars in 2017. So what I am calling for here is what the European Union spends every single year on the search for fundamental particles for all of humanity to instead address the global ecological crisis and safeguard the future of our species.
Think about this for a moment before you continue reading this essay. It really should cause you to pause and reflect about our current priorities as human beings.
What I propose now is a framework for guiding humanity through the sustainability bottleneck as we navigate the planetary-scale systemic collapse outlined in the previous two essays in this series. If you want to hear me talk through this proposal in a recorded talk, I invite you to watch the 90 minute video on YouTube for a version that I presented to the cognitive science department at the University of California, Merced earlier this year. This essay will go into more detail about the vision I’ve been cultivating for a global network of culture design labs that—as argued in previous essays—I no longer believe is possible to build in the world.
Why I Am No Longer Attempting to Build A Rigorous Science of Social ChangeJoe Brewer
Let me start by saying that literally every social problem humanity now confronts will benefit from taking a rigorous, evidence-based approach to developing interventions that work. If I believe this—you might wonder—why would I title an article this way?
The answer is simply that I have been trying to manifest into the world a science of large-scale social change for 18 years. During that time I have repeatedly found that almost no one gives preference to being effective over the feeling of “being right.” This has been true as I’ve interacted with academic researchers, the staff of numerous nonprofit organizations, program officers and boards of directors at foundations, government personnel providing public services, and among social-impact businesses of various kinds.
So I am shifting gears and no longer attempting to build this grand visionary work. I simply don’t see it as feasible anymore and am going to introspect deeply about what I might do that is of service in times as serious as these when in my heart I now accept that my life’s work cannot succeed. In the spirit of the foundational challenge named in the opening of this essay, I invite you to prove me wrong. Critique and analyze my assumptions. Gather your own data to confront and challenge the argument laid out here. See if you can find a way to birth such an ambitious vision where I have failed to do so.
I would much rather be wrong and see effective solutions emerge than to be right and feel the hollow gratification of saying “I told you so” as the world goes into full-scale systemic collapse in the next few decades.
Onward, fellow humans.
This is an overview report on a 2013 study we conducted of social media content about global warming. It shows that underlying psychological drivers can be discerned from large data sets to reveal implicit structures of a major social discourse.
Culture Design Research Center - A Strategic PlanJoe Brewer
The key to birthing this is human scale. This document outlines a plan and business model for creating the Culture Design Research Center using a simple format and vetted model. The model is “old school” meaning a teacher creates a school of thought by attracting excellent students. It is the students who bring prominence and prestige to the school through their accomplishments.
Seeing Wetiko: Tracking the Spread of Memes on Social MediaJoe Brewer
Our team at /TheRules set out to birth a meme—the concept of “wetiko” from the Algonquin tradition—in a unique campaign earlier this year. We did this by recruiting artists and writers from around the world to create expressions that capture it. As this report shows, we found the meme has qualities that create resistance to spreading. In the process of watching how various people reacted to it, we learned a great deal about the larger cultural patterns that our work seeks to influence.
Our hope was to cultivate a diversity of expressions for this concept, which roughly translates as cultural cannibalism because it describes how pathologies of culture do psychological and environmental harm. In this regard we can call the campaign a success—an online gallery of photographs, songs, 3D interactive constructs, masks, and more can be found on the campaign website.
Yet when we monitored social media activity and other indicators of popularity, it was equally clear that this is an idea with properties that make it feel alien, mushy, too spiritual or exotic to resonate with many audiences. We ran parallel tracks for content that explicitly named Wetiko and content that expressed its conceptual features (like the core logic of cannibalism) without using the term.
What we learned was that the word itself hinders its spreading. At the same time, the deep cultural critique it offers is highly resonant with people around the world who feel anxiety about the ecological crisis, or have been marginalized and excluded by the dominant economic paradigm.
Read on to learn with us. Together we can apply this knowledge in future social change efforts that connect the dots across social movements and issues around the world.
Cultural Evolution Society 2016 Election ResultsJoe Brewer
We are excited to announce the results are in for our inaugural election—with clear winners for each of the 13 positions on the Executive Committee. This report provides an overview of the outcomes with commentary on the global nature of participation for our membership.
The election was held online for a six week period starting on Monday, July 11th and ending August 22nd. We choose this extended period for voting as many of our members engage in summer field research projects and we wanted to be inclusive for those who might be delayed in responding to email notifications inviting them to vote.
After receiving 379 completed ballots, the results are in.
Cultural Evolution Society 2016 Voter's ManualJoe Brewer
The inaugural election will be held online starting on Monday, July 11th and ending six weeks later on August 22nd. During this time, CES members will have the opportunity to fill out a ballot to select their preferred candidates for the 13 positions on the Executive Committee.
You can use this manual to do the following:
1. Learn about the selection process for nominating and recruiting candidates for this election.
2. Read personal statements from each of the candidates to make informed decisions about which candidate you prefer for each officer position.
The first section, titled Full Disclosure of Election Procedures, explains the steps we took to ensure a fair election while striving to meet an ambitious set of diversity criteria. It is written in the spirit of radical transparency and inclusion to get this society started with the openness and integrity that will be essential to our long-term success as a multidisciplinary scientific (and practitioner) community.
This is followed by another section, called Get to Know Your Candidates, that provides brief bios and personal statements from the 23 candidates running for office in this election. Use these materials to become familiar with the excellent lineup of people who have expressed the passion and commitment to run for one of the officer positions: president, secretary, treasurer, member-at-large, or student representative.
This manual was prepared by the CES Elections Committee to assist with inaugural elections. We hope you find it helpful as you vote for the first Executive Council of the Cultural Evolution Society.
What Are the Grand challenges for Cultural Evolution?Joe Brewer
An ad hoc steering committee initiated steps to form the Cultural Evolution Society (CES) in the summer of 2015. As part of the inaugural proceedings, a survey of CES members was conducted to identify a suite of "grand challenge" problems of broad scientific and social interest that can drive cutting-edge research and practice within the field of cultural evolutionary studies for future decades.
Over the course of several weeks, a total of 236 CES members from around the world completed an online questionnaire in which they could nominate up to ten such challenges, providing a brief description and rationale for each. Additionally, CES members were also asked to indicate their level of understanding and mode of training in core domains (cultural studies and evolutionary theory), how they see their current work fitting into the wider world of cultural evolutionary studies, and how they see themselves contributing to the grand challenges facing the society.
The responses to the initial grand challenges survey are summarized below.
As you read these words there is a group of people shaping how global humanity will think about the economy for the next few decades. No, there’s not a conspiracy theory unfolding here. What I am referring to is the United Nations process for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)—where a course is being set for the next fifteen years of intergovernmental coordination for our economic system. This process has been quietly unfolding in the background for several years and will come to completion this fall in New York City.
I am a language researcher who cares about the future of humanity. And I share concern about the risks associated with globalization that currently threaten our collective future—climate disruption, soil depletion, widespread inequality and poverty, regional conflict, rigged financial systems, and more—the very same risks that concern many of the people involved in the SDG process. My primary responsibility at TheRules.org is to study cultural patterns of understanding and unpack their significance. This includes the use of frame analysis where I closely scrutinize the words used to think and talk about important issues.
Frame analysis is the study of mental models for human understanding. The concepts we have in our minds are structured in ways that can be systematically explored to reveal implicit assumptions, logical inferences, value judgments, and moral sentiments. An example relevant to the SDG process is the diversity of mental representations for poverty.
Poverty can be conceptualized as a disease that spreads like an epidemic, a prison to be liberated from, the condition of being incomplete or broken, a magical number measured in some predefined way, and more. We might talk about poverty eradication (treat it like a disease) or as a war (battle with and defeat it). Each meaning brings its own basic assumptions, constraining what poverty is understood to be about and how to deal with it.
Importantly, these meanings can be incorrect, inadequate, and problematic yet still be widely used. Poverty can be treated as merely a part of the natural world, for instance, which conceals the history of poverty creation throughout the last few hundred years where it came into being as a core feature of economic development.
When I looked at the language used to talk about the SDGs I was struck by how much hidden meaning can be found there. The analysis that follows is based on written text for the proposed sustainable development goals. It reveals a great deal about the faulty assumptions that remain uncritically accepted in the process. These assumptions jeopardize the entire effort by leaving out many of the structural factors that create poverty and directly contribute to ecological devastation.
No credible use of the word sustainable would perform in this way. In the following pages I make the case that the SDG process is fundamentally compromised and carries within it the seeds of its own
Exploring the Tools for Meme PropagationJoe Brewer
In this research report, I explore how we currently monitor cultural trends in our campaign efforts. I also want to begin mapping out the tools and capabilities that will be needed to fully operate as a “meme spreading” organization in the days ahead. We recently launched the One Party Planet pamphlet and have gathered a suite of social analytics that reveal much—both as indicators of spreading and as a demonstration of how much deeper and more nuanced our understandings will need to become as we adopt more sophisticated tools for cultural research moving forward.
The approach I take is to compare the spreading of One Party Planet with several memes that went viral as the United States experienced major racial conflict in the last two weeks. By doing so, we can begin to articulate what kinds of monitoring and analytic tools will be needed to fully implement our mission of taking radical ideas into the mainstream.
Why the Framing of Globalization MattersJoe Brewer
This report looks at the different ways globalization has been framed and offers suggestions for how to address systemic risks in our rapidly changing world through better storytelling.
Winning frames of the scottish independence movementJoe Brewer
Here's an analysis I did of the narratives and internet memes that seem to be driving Scotland toward independence. How might we all learn from this about the science of social change?
This report explores the framing of solidarity, and specifically the misleading ways that terms like "Middle Class" and "Global South" conceal more than they reveal about the structure of power in social movements around the world.
Seattle Innovators - A Case Study in Culture DesignJoe Brewer
This case study presents the design process for achieving large-scale collaboration around the vision of making Seattle the first carbon-neutral city in the world.
In this report we analyze the public discourse on poverty, inequality, charity, and aid to show how to get beyond the broken narratives that have hindered foundations and NGO's for the last three decades.
Recommendations are given for running campaigns based on our key findings...
White wonder, Work developed by Eva TschoppMansi Shah
White Wonder by Eva Tschopp
A tale about our culture around the use of fertilizers and pesticides visiting small farms around Ahmedabad in Matar and Shilaj.
EASY TUTORIAL OF HOW TO USE CAPCUT BY: FEBLESS HERNANEFebless Hernane
CapCut is an easy-to-use video editing app perfect for beginners. To start, download and open CapCut on your phone. Tap "New Project" and select the videos or photos you want to edit. You can trim clips by dragging the edges, add text by tapping "Text," and include music by selecting "Audio." Enhance your video with filters and effects from the "Effects" menu. When you're happy with your video, tap the export button to save and share it. CapCut makes video editing simple and fun for everyone!
Storytelling For The Web: Integrate Storytelling in your Design ProcessChiara Aliotta
In this slides I explain how I have used storytelling techniques to elevate websites and brands and create memorable user experiences. You can discover practical tips as I showcase the elements of good storytelling and its applied to some examples of diverse brands/projects..
2. How do we design a pathway to regenerate the Earth?
3. This is our mission — regenerate ALL degraded
lands on Earth to restore planetary health
Coordinated through bioregional learning
centers that organize efforts locally while
collaborating with each other across regions.
5. Our vision is to weave a tapestry of regenerative campuses
across bioregions — linking them to each other around
planetary goals.
6. There are several global action networks dedicated to
regeneration that lack coherence and risk fragmentation
across efforts.
7. Weave a Tapestry of
Regeneration
Offer a traveling “design
institute” for existing learning
centers
8. It supports immersive learning
experiences for regenerative design
with holistic projects for community
development.
This design institute aspires to be
part of an emerging network of
bioregional collaboratives dedicated
to Earth regeneration.
9. We seek to anchor in many places a strategy for weaving
together the permaculture camps, ecosystem restoration
projects, retreat centers, and ecovillages around the world
that provide learning experiences.
Interwoven with project-based learning for regenerative
design that is able to partner with universities, nonprofits,
social enterprises, impact funds, philanthropy,
governments, and local communities.
Developing shared curricula and navigation pathways
between locations so that students and practitioners can
teach each other in diverse settings.
10. We have identified 42 thematic elements* for the
curriculum that can be shared across learning centers.
*Find them at https://www.slideshare.net/joebrewer31/guiding-the-emergence-of-humanitys-future
11. Now is the time to create a collaborative design network
that supports this emerging movement.
Design Institute for
Regenerating Earth
12. You can help by:
Provide seed funds to support the planning phase for
launch of this network.
Partner with us to engage learning centers you are
affiliated with that do regenerative work.
Join us on the ground to co-create this design school with
your passion, knowledge, and commitment.
Send inquiries to brewer@culturalevolutioncenter.org