introduction

This is the central question of the Erasmus Grand Challenges programme. It weaves all the sessions, assignments and your main project together. But what does it imply and what makes it urgent? To answer that, we will try to unpack it.

The first section of the question – how might we – signifies the start of a design-oriented research question: a type of research that culminates in some sort of design. Because we ask you to show us how to do it.

Throughout the program you - together with experts and city-partners – will explore, inquire and investigate different dimensions of city-life in Rotterdam and what regeneration might look like. You will look at the key challenges and approaches to navigate and transform the city. As we put Rotterdam as our backdrop, we ask you to identify your own research topic within the ‘Rotterdam city-life’ context. What do you care about? What kind of Rotterdam would you want to live in? How do we overcome the challenges that are related to your preferred future? Together with your group-members you will create your own how might we question that guides your own project. This place-based topic requires a form of engaged research, in which you engage directly with people in the city who affect or are affected by your chosen topic. It could be people that experience these challenges daily or with people responsible for dealing with them. You need to actively reach out to the city, desk-research only will not give you the insights you need. Your teachers will pull you into the city and unpack the question from different thematic angles: social enterprises, civil iniatives, ways of belonging, and ecological (re)wilding.

This research is part of your main project, called Erasmus CTRL+N. Based on your own how might we question, you will design a learning experience: a 1.5 hour place-based experiment or intervention for which you invite an intended public and aim to transform their way of thinking, doing or feeling about regeneration in Rotterdam. You do this in an engaging and original way. You will facilitate this learning experience at a relevant location that complements the flow or the objectives of your learning experience. During the programme you will decide what about Rotterdam you want to regenerate, and what regeneration means to you. That means that the research you do should provide you with information on why, what, who, where and how regeneration should take place. But what is regeneration –the second part of the main question of the Honours Program 2024-, and what exactly is the relation between sustainability and regeneration?

Sustainability, as a science, practice, and a movement has made some progress in the last decades, but we are still increasingly destroying our world (or, in other words, degenerating our three ecologies -mental ecology, social ecology and environmental ecology) for the sake of economic growth (Guattari 2000). Our current approach will eventually lead to a system collapse, and even a focus on zero impact (the core of sustainability) is problematic. We (humans and more-than-humans) are running out of time and therefore need a different approach. Regeneration is a concept that currently gets a lot of attention within the sustainability discourse, some researchers even presenting it as ‘next wave of sustainability’.

The figure below positions regeneration in relation to sustainability (e.g., circularity, sustainable development), green (capitalism) and conventional practices of capitalism.

Inserting image...Source: The image is an adaptation from Mang & Reed (2012) by Gorissen (2020).

The figure illustrates that both conventional and green capitalism will lead to system collapse (it is impossible to solve the problem with the mindset and tools that created the problem in the first place), that sustainability is not enough (it focuses on making zero impact while trying to sustain a certain –problematic- way of living, being unable to have a positive impact), and that regeneration is both a program that aims at positive impact and “a process of renewal that leads to a higher order of health, wealth, vitality and viability.” (Gorissen 2020).

Regeneration comes with a different relation to nature (human and more-than-human actors), a different configuration of the mode of production, new ways of living our daily lives, new modes of designing and deploying technology and a different worldview (mental conceptions of the world). Compared to conventional and green practices, Leen Gorissen notes that:

“Technical systems design (left) sprouts forth from an anthropocentric worldview where humans are viewed as separate from and better than nature. This worldview allowed us to develop a degenerative economic model in which the logic of value creation is based on the ‘for-profit’ imperative, capital accumulation, and the relentless expanding process of commodification and financialization. Such a model is unsustainable in the long run as it fuels processes of decline and deterioration.

Living systems design (right) is based on a worldview of biocentrism that sees humans as part of nature and acknowledges the intricate existential interdependencies and relationships that underpin all living systems. This worldview helps us to develop a regenerative economic model in which the logic of value creation is based on the 'for-life' imperative, the accumulation of health, balance and integrity and an ever-expanding developmental process of increasing the systemic wealth-generating-capacity of living systems." (Gorissen 2020)

In sum, regeneration comprises both a problematisation of a particular world-ecology (Patel & Moore 2017) based on practices of 'extractivism' (exchange based on underlying mechanisms of exploitation and expropriation) that are life-negating and therefore unsustainable, and a program of action based on a practices that are life-affirming and regenerating (Klein 2014). Learning from, for example, indigenous peoples, regeneration is action-oriented, providing ecological models in which communities can flourish in synergy with the planet. “If done right, such a model (regeneration, red.) can be sustainable in the long term as it fuels processes of evolution, renewal, and revitalization which increase the systems' ability to survive and thrive despite change and disruption.” (Gorissen 2020). Thus, sustainability is not enough, we need regeneration (Wahl 2023).

Regeneration requires not only a different organization of power but also a different organization of the field of knowledge production and knowledge transmission (including universities), and this includes a different organization of the content and competencies of the curriculum. That is exactly what this Honours Program is about.

The third part of the question - city life in Rotterdam – is about the context. This programme is about grand challenges, and we want to make them tangible by focusing on what that means in the city we study and/or live in. How do global challenges manifest in this city? How does what happens in Rotterdam influence the national or global level? To address global challenges, it looks like we need to focus on local and regional regeneration (Wahl 2021). He says: “Just like the health of your body depends on healthy cells and organs, planetary health depends on healthy communities, ecosystems and bioregions.”

Another point that he makes is that to solve global challenges, we can not just scale-up universally applicable and permanent solutions. “Rather, the focus is on improving our capacity to co-create and keep transforming in response to changing context. When we talk about co-creating ‘regenerative futures’ it is best to let go of the notion that we will arrive and live happily ever after. Co-creating regenerative cultures is an ongoing community and place-based process of learning.

Participation and inclusion are not just social ideals to aim for, but fundamental prerequisites for the emergence of diverse regenerative cultures everywhere. Co-creating a regenerative future is about supporting people, places and cultures to express their unique contribution to the health and vitality of the nested complexity in which we are embedded. To do so simultaneously serves ourselves, our communities and life as a whole."

In this programme, focusing on Rotterdam gives us the opportunity to learn and co-create with and within the city. It allows us to do research in the physical environment we are in, to engage with the people and other living beings, and to connect with our surroundings on a deeper level.