Five areas where we can transform our societies
When it comes to taking action, we should focus on the five key areas that will have the most transformative impact: communities, food production, urban development, education, and the economy.
When it comes to taking action, we should focus on the five key areas that will have the most significant transformative impact: communities, food production, urban development, education, and the economy. Each of these areas holds the potential to deliver a unique societal shift, so we should think about the overarching objective we want to achieve when choosing how and where to take action.
Communities: the center of transformation
We typically view communities as groups of people gathering around a common interest, goal, or belief. However, the communities we need to create are different: they are local communities defined by place—communities that welcome diversity, difference, and variety. Only these local communities can be truly resilient. They can help their members navigate upheavals, find and share purpose and meaning, and build strong and nourishing relationships. Only these communities can understand and harness the unique power of their local histories and traditions to create a new form of indigenous wisdom. It is these communities that serve as seeds for greater transformation by gradually influencing and shaping the society in which they are embedded.
Agriculture and food production
Our nutrition connects our own health with the health of the planet, and any change we make in our food production will affect both. Changing our food system has the potential to help regenerate nature while making us healthier, building our resilience, creating meaningful work, and building local and regional networks.
Three aspects of food production are central:
Repositioning farming with a focus on organic and permaculture, using local seeds, and restoring farming traditions to rebuild healthy soil and biodiversity.
Deindustrializing food production will make food healthier, help people reconnect with nature, and make food production a central part of the local economy.
And as we are bodily and spiritual creatures, food can connect us with other forms of nourishment that are equally important. Restoring the spiritual dimension of our lives will help us build our societies on healthy paradigms and create an integrated humanity.
Urban development
City and regional planning is based on destructive economic terms, creating spaces and structures that destroy and disconnect us from nature, build unhealthy and unliveable areas, create tension and problems in communities, and destroy agency and participation. Being able to take care of and shape the place where we live and the development of the neighborhood is central to agency and creativity. It is a way to foster and develop strong communities, to help people understand and navigate the current situation and the changes we have to face. It will unleash an unknown transformational power. Once people realize how far their agency can reach, they will shape and change their lives in ways they never considered before.
Education
It takes a village to raise a child. We need to turn back to this insight, as it is not only the child who thrives. Done properly, the village will thrive, too. Creating communities where our children can self-direct their learning, where they are invited to discover their talents and abilities, dreams, and potential, will alter the lives of everyone who takes part in that journey. Raising our children invites us to free ourselves from dysfunctional beliefs and patterns.
We must alter our understanding of education and learning structures, and implement approaches like community-embedded learning (→ link).
Economy
We need to build an economy that serves the community. This is contrary to our current situation, where the economy is shaping communities and societies to its own advantage. This shift requires a new understanding of the economy itself as one that creates abundance both for humans and nature, instead of one that is built upon the extraction of natural resources and creates lack as the main driver for economic growth. The new economy will create local cycles, different money systems, and a different understanding of work, sense-making, and craftsmanship.
None of these areas are isolated from the other, nor can they be treated separately. Everything is deeply interconnected. Community-embedded learning is based upon and works within a local economy, which farming and food production are part of. Farming itself, brought back into communities, will alter urban development and the communities themselves. And so on.
Whatever action you take will affect at least three of these areas. You can use the Five Dimensions Of Transformational Work to understand the connections and explore the possibilities. But the most important things is to simply start. Everything will fall in place once you take the first step. With that in mind, let's begin together.
Further Readings:
1. What is it that we are facing?
2. What extraordinary opportunities lie within our situation?
3. What actions must we take to seize those opportunities and solve the challenges?