From Systems of Control to Cultures of Resilience and Reconciliation
From Systems of Control to Cultures of Resilience and Reconciliation
How communities, organisations and public institutions can shift from reactive problem-solving toward more regenerative ways of working and decision-making.
Starts October 26th, 2026
in partnership with
Course Summary
Most governance systems are designed to solve problems rather than cultivate the potential of communities and organisations. Regenerative governance shifts this paradigm by strengthening the capacity of people, place and systems to evolve together over time.
This six-sessions online course introduces participants to different paradigms of governance before exploring practical approaches that community and organisational members, facilitators and leaders can apply in their own contexts.
Participants will learn how to read and respond to place, identify and engage key actors, and cultivate the conditions needed for community-led and purpose-driven systemic change.
The facilitators are seasoned practitioners drawing on more than 25 years of experience in community and organizational governance, including the co-design and facilitation of over 3,500 community-led processes in more than 15 countries.
Course Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
Understand the different governance paradigms and their implications for organisations, businesses, municipalities, and territories.
Become familiar with the first four phases of organisational and community governance cycles from a regenerative lens.
Apply a decolonial and intersectional lens to governance processes and structures, recognising patterns of structural violence, power concentration and social exclusion, and how to transform them.
Design small but catalytic interventions that shift governance processes and structures towards more distributed and place-based approaches.
Work from the unique qualities, relationships and potential of place, using governance as a means to support the long-term vitality and coherence of our organisations, businesses, municipalities and territories.
Benefits to the Participants
Participants will:
Understand why governance systems often become stuck or disconnected;
Learn how to identify hidden potential within organisations, communities, and systems;
Develop practical tools for more participatory and resilient governance;
Learn how to work with power and conflict without increasing division;
Explore how culture, identity, and relationships shape decision-making;
Strengthen the ability to lead systemic change in complex contexts;
Identify one concrete governance shift they can apply in their own work;
Key Benefits
Open your awareness to the future potential of the present moment
Get into action in the face of uncertainty
Mobilise your inner capacity to be a source of hope
The Three Horizons Thinking opens a visionary and practical method to articulate sought for future qualities and values, so that measures to bring them about can be deliberately, collaboratively and effectively pursued in the present.
Is the Regenerative Governance Course for You?
Organisational and business team managers and directors;
Municipal, regional and national public servants;
Community, organisers, facilitators, leaders and politicians;
Regenerative practitioners;
Governance consultants;
Cooperative and solidarity economy networks;
Community-led and bioregional initiatives;
Municipal, regional and national public workers, directors and politicians;
It is for those who feel:
“We are working hard, but the structure itself is not evolving.”
Course details
Starts:
October 26th 2026
Course format:
6 live sessions of 2 hours
Asynchronous materials and interactions
Price:
200 GBP - Low income
250 GBP - Regular price
300 GBP - Abundant
There´s a limited number of scholarships spots, you can apply here by May 24.
Live Sessions:
Thursdays at 5 PM UTC
Course Structure
The Social Dimension is one part of Gaia's unique 4D Model, which integrates social, ecological, economic and worldview dimensions to create lasting change.
SESSION 1: Paradigms of Governance
From controlled to living systems (from extractivism to stewardship)
Short Summary:
An introduction to the four paradigms of governance - centralised, decentralised, distributed (polycentric), and bioregional, and how each shapes power, identity and territorial vitality.
Question:
Did you know that the structure of your community often reflects unresolved conflicts accumulated over time? And that roads, institutions and shared infrastructures are expressions of conflicts that societies found ways to navigate or resolve?
Short Summary:
An introduction to the four paradigms of governance - centralised, decentralised, distributed (polycentric), and bioregional, and how each shapes power, identity and territorial vitality.
Question:
Did you know that the structure of your community often reflects unresolved conflicts accumulated over time? And that roads, institutions and shared infrastructures are expressions of conflicts that societies found ways to navigate or resolve?
Cultural technologies are expressed everywhere—often unconsciously—shaping how we relate, organise and make decisions, sometimes reproducing fragmentation and harm. But when we learn to recognise how these patterns work, we can begin to consciously design the cultural technologies we embody and the futures they generate.
Learning Objectives:
Understand the four governance paradigms
Identify where your system currently operates
Recognise how structural violence is perpetuated
Structure / Content / Main Ideas:
CONTENT:
• Introduction to the four paradigms of governance:
. Centralised governance accumulates power and generates extractivism
. Decentralisation activates participation but often maintains central logic.
. Distributed (polycentric) governance allows multiple decision centres.
. Bioregional governance evolves from the uniqueness of place and distributes power according to subsidiarity
• Governance must express the unique potential of place, not replicate models (Mang, 2017).
STORYTELLING:
• ARTIGA: From small autonomous consumer cooperatives to an ecosystemic agroecological cooperative supermarket
BREAKOUTS
Disruptive Koan
• What if the problem is not lack of participation, but where power actually sits?
Reflections for Different Structures
• In organisations: Where are decisions bottlenecked?
• In communities: Who holds narrative power?
• In governments: Is subsidiarity real or symbolic?
SESSION 2: Diagnosing
Storytelling of Place
Short Summary:
Diagnosis is not data extraction. It is collective storytelling of place.
Questions:
• Organisations: Do you diagnose from metrics or lived experience?
• Communities: Who is excluded from diagnosis?
• Governments: Are marginal voices shaping the narrative?
Short Summary:
Diagnosis is not data extraction. It is collective storytelling of place.
Learning Objectives:
• Shift from desk-based analysis to place-based diagnosis
• Recognise intersectionality in territorial narratives
• Surface invisible tensions
Structure / Content / Main Ideas:
CONTENT
• In centralised paradigms, diagnosis is technical.
• In regenerative paradigms, diagnosis is relational.
• Bill Reed speaks of working from the “essence” of a system.
• Diagnosis asks: What is this place trying to become?
STORYTELLING
• In La Garrotxa, an economic revitalisation process began with SDG analysis. It shifted only when elders, youth, migrant workers and farmers co-created a narrative of identity loss and potential restoration. Policy followed story.
BREAKOUT STRUCTURE
Disruptive Koan
• What if the territory already knows what it needs — but we are not listening?
Reflection questions
• Organisations: Do you diagnose from metrics or lived experience?
• Communities: Who is excluded from diagnosis?
• Governments: Are marginal voices shaping the narrative?
SESSION 3: Mapping
Revealing the Living System
Short Summary:
Mapping reveals relationships, not just stakeholders.
Questions
• Where are natural clusters emerging?
• Where are critical yeast actors?
• Where is connectivity excessive or insufficient?
Short Summary:
Mapping reveals relationships, not just stakeholders.
Learning Objectives
• Move from stakeholder lists to stewardship ecosystems
• Identify diversity and redundancy (Principle 2)
• Detect over-centralisation
Structure / Content / Main Ideas:
CONTENT
• Mapping in regenerative governance identifies flows:
. Power
. Resources
. Knowledge
. Trust
• It asks: where is connectivity too rigid? (Stigmergy principle)
STORYTELLING
• The Fem Garrotxa story leading into the Bioregional Observatory
BREAKOUT
Disruptive Koan
• What if your role is not to lead the system, but to reveal it?
Reflection questions>
• Where are natural clusters emerging?
• Where are critical yeast actors?
• Where is connectivity excessive or insufficient?
SESSION 4: Planning
From strategy to evolutionary direction
Short Summary
Planning becomes evolutionary when rooted in purpose, not reaction.
Questions
• Are you planning for outputs or vitality?
• What slow variables are you ignoring?
• Does the plan increase autonomy?
Short Summary
Planning becomes evolutionary when rooted in purpose, not reaction.
Learning Objectives
• Shift from reactive planning to developmental planning
• Work from potential rather than scarcity
• Design for slow variables
Structure / Content / Main Ideas:
CONTENT
• Centralised planning optimises efficiency.
• Regenerative planning aligns with long-term cultural and ecological processes.
• Carol Sanford: “Do not fix problems. Develop people and systems.”
STORYTELLING
A rural tourism strategy shifted from growth targets to regenerating watershed health. Economic outcomes improved — because ecological coherence was restored.
BREAKOUTS
Disruptive Koan
What if planning is not about predicting the future — but maturing the system?
Reflection questions
• Are you planning for outputs or vitality?
• What slow variables are you ignoring?
• Does the plan increase autonomy?
SESSION 5: Coordinating
Complementarity over control
Short Summary
Coordination in living systems is about complementarity, not command.
Questions
• Where are you over-coordinating?
• Where is coordination absent?
• Are you confusing unity with uniformity?
Short Summary
Coordination in living systems is about complementarity, not command.
Learning Objectives
• Understand distributed subsidiarity
• Avoid homogeneity through over-connection
• Activate distributed leadership
Structure / Content / Main Ideas:
CONTENT
• Polycentric complementarity teaches that strong centres cooperate without collapsing into one.
• Coordination should:
. Increase diversity
. Maintain autonomy
. Enable shared direction
STORYTELLING
A regional cooperative ecosystem formed second-degree cooperatives to coordinate without centralising authority. The result: stronger autonomy and shared resilience
BREAKOUTS
Koan
• What if leadership is the capacity to distribute power well?
Reflection questions
• Where are you over-coordinating?
• Where is coordination absent?
• Are you confusing unity with uniformity?
SESSION 6: Coevolving
The Great Reconciliation
Short Summary
Integration of paradigms and phases. Personal application.
Questions
• What is your territory asking of you?
• Where must you remove control to restore coherence?
Short Summary
Integration of paradigms and phases. Personal application.
Learning Objectives
• Identify one structural shift to initiate
• Articulate your territory’s regenerative edge
• Commit to a distributed action
Structure / Content / Main Ideas:
CONTENT
• Bioregioning reconciles:
. Local and global
. Identity and intersectionality
. Autonomy and interdependence
• It is not ideological — it is ecological.
STORYTELLING
In one post-conflict rural territory, polarised actors co-designed water governance. The process shifted not through consensus — but through shared custodianship.
BREAKOUTS
Final Koan
• If legitimacy emerges from life itself, what must you stop doing to allow it?
Reflection questions
• What is your territory asking of you?
• Where must you remove control to restore coherence?
Meet your facilitators:
Òscar Gussinyer
Co-founder of Resilience.Earth and a bioregional governance practitioner working at the intersection of territorial strategy, cooperative ecosystems, and regenerative system design. With nearly three decades of experience accompanying municipalities, rural networks, and community-led initiatives, he focuses on redesigning governance structures to distribute power, activate subsidiarity, and cultivate living territorial ecosystems.
His approach is deeply influenced by Carol Sanford’s regenerative paradigm and the work of Regenesis, grounding governance in the essence and evolutionary potential of place. Òscar works structurally — evolving architectures of decision-making so that communities can metabolise complexity rather than centralise control.
He has co-led short courses on regenerative cultures and cultural mentoring for Schumacher College, Findhorn College the ALT program in Thailand, and is a certified trainer in Gaia Education eco-social design. With his wife Deborah Benham, he has delivered trainings on Sociocracy, Positive Leadership, Social Entrepreneurship, and Culture Repair. Former Training Coordinator for Transition Network, he is the co-author and curator of Transition resources on Personal Resilience, Conflict Resilience, Group Culture, and Social Justice. He has been part of teams in the UK offering programs introducing the Connection 1st framework, and has co-led the Connection 1st online courses: “Introduction to Regenerative Community Building,” “ Designing for Peace ,” and "Pathways to Village Building.” With Jon Young and Deborah, he is co-authoring a series of e-books on regenerative community design. With his ear to the ground, Root’s guiding question is: “What is most needed here now?”
The importance of words to Bill and the meaning we make as we live them. The patterns that we stand for and the freedom we have to make small or big acts that stand apart from the current patterns of our lives. Working with challenge, how we show up. Dealing with stage fright with love. The art of facilitation as setting up a field of consciousness in which something emergent can manifest.
Erika Zárate
Co-founder of Resilience.Earth and a regenerative practitioner specialising in community development, identity healing, and collective processing at territorial scale. Her work weaves decolonial and intersectional lenses with Quechua Indigenous knowledge systems to support communities in reconciling historical trauma, restoring memory, and reclaiming collective agency.
Drawing from regenerative theory as well as ancestral and relational worldviews, Erika focuses on the cultural and relational dimensions of governance, ensuring that transformation is not only structural, but embodied in narrative, reciprocity, and lived practice. Her approach invites governance to evolve not only in design, but in consciousness and belonging.
She started learning about the 8 Shields model (Connection 1st) with Jon Young and Shore Charnoe in 2019, continued with Deborah Benham and Root Cuthbertson (Regenerative Community Building, Designing for Peace, Pathways to Village Building), as well as diving into Cultural Emergence with Looby Macnamara. She designed and led a live training (Community Roots) on regenerative culture & transformational leadership for an organisation holding Rites of Passage. Trained in Transition Training and Gaia Education ecovillage & social design, including Regenerative Cultures with Daniel Wahl, she is working toward her Masters degree in Design for Sustainability and Regeneration. An avid student of Nonviolent Communication, Authentic Relating, Collective Trauma (Thomas Hübl), rites of passage and sacred ceremony. A psytrance-lover and divemaster, she practices Reiki, breathwork, sound healing, and Trance Dance. She is fully alive, creative, joyful, and curious what comes next!
What Our Learners Say.
I realize I am more capable than I had assumed. I am grateful for the learning format to facilitate speedy learning. Our project planning now includes more depth and detailing thanks to this course."
– K. U. S.
The course content was very comprehensive, detailed and practical. I appreciated how the facilitators brought a focus on real-world applications from the very beginning. They both modelled the principles of harmonious and supportive group-working that we were learning."
– N. B.
Freedom and flexibility. Meaningful content. Great facilitation. Inspirational and diverse group of other students.
Loved the mix of self study and live sessions."
– E. C.
Have questions? We’ve got answers.
No previous experience is required. All you need is a passion for community building and collaboration.
The course is designed to fit busy schedules with around 10 hours per week of flexible study. Though highly encouraged, Live Sessions are not mandatory and are recorded to be watched later.
Yes! The course provides hands-on tools you can apply immediately in your community.
A comprehensive programme covering four dimensions of sustainability: social, ecological, economic, and worldview.
No prior experience is required. This course is designed for both beginners and advanced learners. Whether you’re new to sustainability or looking to deepen your expertise, the course provides accessible and actionable content for everyone.
Entirely online with live sessions, group discussions, and self-paced assignments. You’ll have access to experienced facilitators, a supportive learning community, and rich resource materials.
Yes, each dimension can be taken as a standalone course, so if you are interested in specific dimensions, you can take them separately. Enrolling in the full course provides a holistic understanding of sustainability and is more cost-effective.
The Design Studio is the integration piece of the GEDS Full programme that you can join after complete the 4 Dimensions.
Participants have life-long access to the course material. Though the course has a defined length, participants can go back to the material any time after the course completion.
