Understanding the Tragedy and Triumph of the Commons

How do we let go of the sense of scarcity, separation and powerlessness that defines the ways we live, care and do business together? How can we best equip our young people for the world that is coming - which is so, so different from the future we grew up believing was possible?

This week's guest, Jennifer Brandsberg-Engelmann is an educator, regenerative - and I would say renegade - economist who is Project Lead at the Regenerative Economics for Secondary Schools and Lead Author of the online textbook of the same name. Jennifer has taught economics for nearly thirty years, but as you'll hear, the Global Financial Crash led her to rethink the rules and structures of the system and now she's one of the world's leading thinkers on Regenerative Economics - how we can refocus away from business, markets and the structures of neoliberalism towards ways of being that are grounded in reciprocity, respect and responsibility, in the realities of being human in the twenty-first century. 

In 2023, Jennifer stopped working as a teacher and is now focused full time on shifting the paradigm in the education system and beyond, moving us away from the toxic mindset of scarcity, competition and the rise of oligopolies, towards an understanding of our place as integral nodes in the web of life. Her new two year curriculum is one of the most ambitious I've ever seen. It builds a solid, damning critique of the old paradigm and offers credible, structured routes through to a new one that would allow us all to flourish within a thriving ecosystem, to have not just an economy, but a way of being that is predicated in reciprocity, care, sharing and the kinds of lives we yearn to lead, but don't yet know how.

Truly, this is evolutionary and if we can spread these ideas far enough, wide enough and root them deep enough in all that we are and do, I genuinely believe this is at least part of the key to the continuation of complex life on earth. Because, yes, we are that close to extinction. And yes, there is still time to veer from the cliff's edge.

So if you do nothing else this week, please share this conversation and the links within it to anyone and everyone you know who cares about shifting the paradigm - or even is involved in the education system at any level.  Enjoy.

Jennifer on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-brandsberg-engelmann/
Regen Economics on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/regenerative-economics-for-secondary-schools/
Regenerative Economics for Secondary Schools - Project website (including online textbook with a creative commons license). 5/7 topics have been published + a Topic on systems thinking. https://www.regenerativeeconomics.earth/home

Reimagining Economics: Five Transformative Shifts for Secondary Schools (Version for England) - A discussion paper to help curriculum authorities consider key changes to economics curricula. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R8e3wRmHYzqPl0Mfvv34oHv610F2RH8xveQ79xoZzYs/

Regen Economics online Textbook https://www.regenerativeeconomics.earth/regenerative-economics-textbook/about-the-book
Regen Economics Open Letter on D.E.A.L https://doughnuteconomics.org/stories/open-letter-for-a-course-in-regenerative-economics
Doughnut Economics book https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Kate-Raworth/Doughnut-Economics--Seven-Ways-to-Think-Like-a-21st-Century-Economist/21739630

Teach the Future - Curriculum for a Changing Climate (Track Changes) Project

Where the Regenerative Economics for Secondary Schools got its start

https://www.teachthefuture.uk/tracked-changes-project

How captured economics stole our climate — and how we can reclaim it (Part 4/4)

Katy Shields' article in Medium with a brilliant causal loop diagram showing the reinforcing feedback loops that prevent change in the economics discipline

https://medium.com/@katyrshields/how-captured-economics-stole-our-climate-and-how-we-can-reclaim-it-part-4-4-6de66f5255af

Katy is also the co-producer of the Tipping Point podcast, a true-crime style podcast about the Limits to Growth report and how it was undermined by economists https://tippingpoint-podcast.com/

David Bollier, the expert support for Topic 2: Commons, recently released the second edition of his book Think Like a Commoner

https://thinklikeacommoner.com/

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