Tools for the Regenerative Renaissance

Header image: New Pioneers by Mark Henson

A seven-week, better-than-free online course

Apply here

We are in the midst of a Regenerative Renaissance.

A rebirth of art, architecture, philosophy, literature, music, science, technology, politics and spirituality every bit as profound as the Renaissance of 500 years ago.

Whereas the original Renaissance asserted the genius of man [and] the unique and extraordinary ability of the human mind, the Regenerative Renaissance is characterised by an awakening to the interdependence and beauty of the natural world, and the role of humanity as its stewards.

Designed by Phoebe Tickell and Stephen Reid (the team behind Don't Go Back To Normal) with support from Rieki Cordon (Ecosystem Facilitator at Hypha, the organisation leading the development of SEEDS), Tools for the Regenerative Renaissance is a seven-week, better-than-free course focused on tools and techniques that can be used and enjoyed right now for healthier, happier lives, thriving local economies, a fairer distribution of power and resources, and the healing of the planet.

The course will take place on consecutive Wednesdays 4pm–6pm UK time from 12th May – 23rd Jun, with a reading week in the middle:

• Session 1, 12th May: Regenerative Agriculture & Thriving Local Economies
• Session 2, 19th May: Digital Tools for Collective Intelligence
• Session 3, 26th May: Decentralised Organising & Horizontal Leadership
• Reading week (no session on 2nd Jun)
• Session 4, 9th Jun : Co-operative Ownership
• Session 5, 16th Jun: Regenerative Money
• Session 6, 23th Jun: Wrap up

Typical schedule for a session:

• Part 1 (55m): Overview, background/history, theory. Led by the facilitators, with the possibility of breakout groups towards the end of the time.
• 10m break
• Part 2 (55m). Conversation with a guest expert followed by Q&A

Guest experts in the first course included:

• Rieki Cordon & Cece Heart (SEEDS)
• Daniel Wahl & Precious Phiri
• Sep Kamvar (Celo) & Sarah Friend (Circles)
• Samantha Slade (Going Horizontal)
• Trebor Scholz (Platform Co-ops Now!) & Derek Razo (Purpose)
• Charles Eisenstein

You will be sent pre-reading/watching a few days before each session (allow 1 hour), and homework at the end of each session (allow 1 hour). To get the most out of the course you should also set aside at least 2 hours per session to go back through the notes, read some of the links provided and make sure you understand everything we've covered. So that's a minimum of 6 hours per session for maximum benefit (2 hours live, 1 hour pre-reading/watching, 2 hours revision, 1 hour homework).

Homework will consist of tasks such as:

• Signing up to and playing with one or more apps/services
  • Watching a screenshare walkthrough video
  • App-related tasks e.g. participate in a Loomio decision, make a SEEDS transaction
• Reading articles on theory/background
• Watching videos/films

Graduation will be subject to participants completing the following:

• Keeping a learning log reflecting on the user experience of featured apps and drawing out key messages of featured articles/videos
• Recording and sharing at least one sensemaking conversation with a small number of other participants on the course (this could be a post-course reflection)
• At least one of the following:
  • Setting up a 4+ week learning journey for members of the participant's community inspired by the content of this one
  • Submitting a Campaign proposal on the SEEDS app to distribute Seeds to the participant's community in exchange for some regenerative action inspired by the course
  • Signing up to the SEEDS Ambassador Academy
  • Helping an organisation/business to accept payment in Seeds
  • Publishing a 1000+ word blog post with reflections on the course

Applications and registration

Applications are now open. Successful applicants pay a registration fee in Seeds (S400/1200/2400 low income/standard/abundant, approx $20/60/120). A number of zero fee scholarship places are also available on request.

Participants completing all assignments receive 4800 Seeds (approx $240, ~$40/session) at the end of the course. In the abundant spirit of the Regenerative Renaissance, we want to pay you for educating yourself and activating your community.

Lead facilitators

Phoebe Tickell (SEEDS username: solarpunkgrl)

Phoebe Tickell is a scientist, educator and 10+ year systems thinker who draws on her background in complexity science and approaches of experimentation, network-building, emergent strategy and moral imagination to serve the transition. She works across multiple contexts applying a complexity and systems thinking lens and has worked in organisational design, advised government, the education sector, cooperative technology and the food and farming sector. Most recently, she has been working  with funders to implement systems-thinking approaches, including at The National Lottery Community Fund. 

She holds a position as Associate Lecturer at Schumacher College UK, an Advisory Board Member to the International Bateson Institute, and Advisor to The Consilience Project. Previously she has been a visiting lecturer at Imperial College London, Royal College of Art and Central St. Martins, contributing interdisciplinary teaching to innovative Masters programmes. She is a Member of the Enspiral Network, co-creator of DGOV Foundation for Distributed Governance and co-creator of Don’t Go Back To Normal.

She is an experienced facilitator of groups, and regularly works with organisations, conferences, decision-making committees and distributed teams to facilitate coherence and collective intelligence. Phoebe is often hired to seed, catalyse and build new networks and communities of sensemaking and intelligence, utilising her skills in digital organising, facilitation, complex pattern matching and highly networked and trans-contextual sense-making.

Stephen Reid (SEEDS username: stephenreid1)

Stephen Reid is a co-operative technologist and cultural changemaker who has trained in the fields of complexity science, physics, software development, meditation, psychotherapy, plant medicine, conscious sexuality and political activism. He is currently a co-director of Dandelion Collective (the not-for-profit worker co-operative behind the Psychedelic Society, which he founded in 2014), the lead developer of dandelion.earth, founder of the Autopia DAO and associated AUT token, teacher of the Tools for the Regenerative Renaissance and Introduction to Crypto & DeFi courses, and a contributor to Enspiral.

Previously, he was the youngest ever board member of Greenpeace UK, was selected as the Green Party parliamentary candidate for Totnes, co-founded the New Economics Foundation's New Economy Organisers Network and worked as a technology consultant for organisations including the Labour Party, the Living Wage Foundation and 350.org. Stephen has an MPhys in Physics from the University of Oxford, where he specialised in quantum field theory, and an MRes in Complexity Sciences from the University of Bristol.