Reviewing Regenaissance: The Call to Heal by Sharon Gal-or and Daniel Mihai

Regenaissance: The Call to Heal by Sharon Gal-Or and Daniel Mihai is a book about transforming today's economic and social systems by first transforming ourselves. Reading it reminded me of the deep interconnectedness of humanity and how a single flaw or disruption in this connection can lead to widespread issues—many of which we witness today as a result of the promotion of individualism through extractive systems.

To achieve the Regenaissance, we must first understand two key concepts: the metacrisis and the polycrisis. The metacrisis refers to the deep-rooted systemic and civilisational challenges that give rise to and interconnect various crises. The polycrisis, on the other hand, describes the simultaneous convergence of multiple global crises—each stemming from the metacrisis—interacting in ways that amplify their impacts and make individual crises more difficult to resolve.

As Nate Hagens of The Great Simplification podcast stated in an episode with Birgitte Bischoff of the Red Cross, "There is no solution to the polycrisis, only different responses." As I understand it, the Regenaissance emphasises one such response: the adoption of regenerative economies to eradicate the metacrisis and subsequently, the polycrisis. This approach propelled me to read the book from cover to cover. This article recaps all I learned from the book, my reservations about the potential of this new system, and areas that I need clarification on.

Why The Regenaissance?

Sharon Gal-Or and Daniel Mihai define the Regennaissance as the shift from extraction to regeneration in modern living systems. Extraction prioritises resource depletion, often resulting in environmental degradation and social inequality for profit. In contrast, regeneration focuses on building systems that sustain people and the planet, ensuring long-term sustainability.

The urgent need to address the polycrisis with fewer traditional humanitarian responses often results in immediate but superficial band-aid solutions. To eradicate this problem, the authors propose the Regenaissance as an ideology where we move with patience, precision, and presence to provide whole and long-lasting solutions to the polycrisis. Even as a believer, I must admit that this approach seems almost laughable in the face of existential crises.

Quoting Jeremy Grantham on an episode of The Great Simplification, “One thing we fail at as the human species is planning for the future.” We took living in the present so seriously that we would rather implement band-aid solutions as a group because it helps tame the current problem without considering how it might reoccur in the future. In the mid-2000s, we had sceptics clowning climate scientists with the narrative that global warming had paused. Years later, we are suffering its effects. How do we convince those with the capital that planning and implementing regenerative solutions on the current scale could take years? How much patience must we have to achieve the Regennaissance?

SOIL and SEEDs: The blueprint for regenerative economies

A common argument we hear against the regeneration shift is the disruption of the global economic system due to the overturning or replacement of certain economic activities that rely on extraction. The authors provide examples of this disruption, like prohibiting fishermen from fishing in marine-protected areas and a ban on shifting cultivation. Poorly planned executions of regenerative actions can lead to economic displacement and hardship, as we saw in the case of phasing out coal mines in the United States.

To solve this problem, Sharon and Daniel propose SOIL (Stewardship and Optimisation of Intergenerational Lands) and SEEDs (Shared Ecosystems for Equitable Development). Simply put, the SOIL and SEEDs framework allows communities to retain ownership through Community Land Trusts (SOIL) while incentivising investors and builders to utilise the retained land for regenerative activities that benefit the community ecologically and economically (SEEDs).

Although I appreciate the authors’ enthusiasm, a major problem of the SOIL and SEEDs initiative is that it centres on Community Land Trust (CLT). A CLT is a non-profit, community-based organisation that acquires and manages land for the local community. CLTs rely mainly on unsustainable philanthropic acts to kick off, and disagreements can arise quickly between community members over land management. Given the financial and governance complexities already in play, potential investors may run away to avoid long-running legal affairs should things go awry.

For the SOIL and SEEDs strategy to work, it must integrate another regenerative economic model into the CLT that minimises the risk in the applied context. In a scenario where funding is the major problem for the CLT, combining it with varied Collaborative Finance (CoFi) mechanisms may reduce funding hiccups, but aggravate governance problems.

Regenerative living systems

Unlike extractive systems that deplete resources from one economy for the development of another, regenerative living systems are circular, self-sustaining, and abundant. The authors define regenerative living systems as the circulation of water, food, and ecology in a regenerative economy.

Solely focusing on water, food, and ecology implies that we can only achieve regeneration at the grassroots level, where these components are most relevant. Following this logic, it is hard for a small, obscure community to become regenerative, more difficult for a state like California to achieve a regenerative economy, and nearly impossible for a nation like China or the U.S. to transition successfully. This increasing difficulty across government levels leaves a question of whether we can adapt our current political hierarchy to a regenerative approach or whether these regenerative grassroots communities adapt bioregionalism to foster synergistic growth.

Creating wealth for a village economy through ReFi

Because traditional finance (TradFi) has no place in a regenerative economy, Sharon and Daniel introduce us to Regenerative Finance (ReFi): a resource circulation model that heals the Earth and nurtures communities. They further add that ReFi can reshape a village economy by incentivising access over ownership, enabling circular wealth flow, and utilising decentralised governance models to distribute wealth fairly, preventing elite capture.

As idealistic as it may seem, preventing elite capture in a regenerative economy without veering toward communism is unlikely. Wealth disparities will persist in regenerative economies—the key difference being the form of controlled assets rather than variations in the standard of living, as seen today. The wealthy will likely wield greater, albeit subtle, influence over community matters, leading to what the authors describe as the paradox of participation.

Although Sharon and Daniel suggest ways to avoid this paradox—such as participatory budgeting, co-design and co-creation, sociocracy, power mapping, and community scorecards— these methods do not explicitly address these wealth-driven power imbalances.

Redundancy and resilience: a double-edged sword

In the book, the authors describe redundancy as a principle of resilient regeneration that ensures the survival of regenerative communities during climate crises, geopolitical tensions, and other potential problems. Economies that lack resilience or stability have to rebuild their structures regeneratively after a crisis to avert future occurrences.

Interestingly, extractive economies also incorporate redundancy and resilience, making them difficult to replace. Extractive businesses use these principles to maximise consistent resource extraction and safeguard against supply disruptions—primarily to protect their profitability. In contrast, regenerative economies apply redundancy and resilience to create a self-sustaining, anti-fragile system that supports long-term ecological and economic health.

Cultural clashes in regenerative economies

Sharon and Daniel describe cultural clashes as conflicts arising when external models, norms, and values collide with deeply rooted local customs. Ideally, cultural clashes are unlikely in regenerative economies, as local communities tend to be homogeneous, share a common way of life, and largely uphold indigenous wisdom.

Cultural clashes arise when investors enter these communities believing they have all the answers, imposing their perspectives in unfamiliar contexts. They often overlook that locals, with their Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), may have a deeper understanding of the social, ecological, and economic challenges in their comm. This dismissal could lead to cultural alienation, high failure expectancy, and even sabotage from the locals. External investors should strive to align their thinking with the best of local customs rather than simply opposing the worst.

Scaling regenerative models for urban communities

Discussing scaling regenerative models for urban and industrial communities is ironic because the impact of regenerative actions in urban areas often pales in comparison to the extensive degradation caused by extraction in those same communities.

Scaling in this context is the complete overhauling and restructuring of urban communities to enhance regeneration. “Scaling” methods recommended in the book, like green roofs and vertical gardens, urban food forests, community-led housing and shared space design, require complete redesigns of the cities to be implemented. You scale what is existing, and I find it difficult to believe that we even have existing regeneration structures in urban communities to scale.

Politics and regeneration

A recurring theme in the book is utilising political institutions to support and promote regeneration. However, this approach is more likely to succeed in the Global North than the Global South. As a Nigerian citizen, I am deeply sceptical of using politics to drive regeneration, as it often corrupts the ideology with extractive processes. The rule of law is heavily influenced by class status, making the proposed SOIL and SEEDs framework ineffective.

In some communities, directly opposing bribery to facilitate impact projects—despite their benefits—could be seen as “opposing local customs,” potentially leading to alienation and sabotage. Furthermore, the form of democracy practised in the Global South openly enables extraction, even in times of crisis. Although governance plays a major role in quickly embracing regeneration, I’d rather we achieve it slowly than corrupt the ideology with extractive processes we intend to eradicate.

Insufficient funding: the moloch of regeneration

While reading the book, I expected to find an entire chapter dedicated to funding the Regenaissance, so I was disappointed to see only a brief section on the topic. Regenaissance takes inspiration from the Renaissance, a period of artistic and intellectual growth funded by the Medici family and other wealthy patrons in Italy. Today’s regenerative movement relies on unsustainable external funding sources, such as grants and international aid, which create a cycle of dependency rather than long-term support. These funding constraints have led to the downfall of multiple regenerative initiatives like Recommons, Nori, Gaia, and others.

Regenerative funding is heavily concentrated on renewables and ecological credits while rewilding and conservation receive far less support. This is primarily because the former offers a viable profit path, whereas the latter does not. To address this funding challenge, we should explore ways to integrate profitable regenerative ventures with less commercially viable ones—for example, combining renewable energy projects with conservation to create a more balanced and sustainable funding model.

The regenerative call to action

I could write a 2,000-word essay critiquing regeneration and analysing how Daniel and Sharon approach it in their book. However, it would be meaningless if I were not willing to try, fail, and learn in the pursuit of replacing the global hegemony of extractive economic systems with regionally equitable, regenerative alternatives. As the polycrisis intensifies, the need for regenerative action becomes more urgent—a point the authors emphasise throughout the book.

While achieving global regeneration may seem impossible, we can begin within our local communities, using our successes to inspire and spread this way of living to neighboring regions. Even if our generation does not live long enough to enjoy the benefits of planetary regeneration, we can leave the planet in better ecological, economic, and social conditions, paving the way for a more sustainable future for our descendants.

To gain a deeper and wholesome understanding of the concepts discussed here and their applications, read the book here.

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