Pathways to Regeneration

* Book: Pathways to Regeneration: Hope and Resilience through Anticipatory Design. Stephen Demeulenaere and Scott Morris. Allo Capital, 2025.

URL = https://www.allo.capital/resources/pathways-to-regeneration pdf

Description

"Facing escalating ecological and financial crises, Scott Morris and Stephen DeMeulenaere propose Anticipatory Design, a proactive methodology for creating regenerative economic systems based on what we can predict about the future, as a critical tool to address root causes rather than symptoms.

Drawing from R. Buckminster Fuller, E.F. Schumacher, Michel Bauwens, Jem Bendell and others, the authors advocate moving beyond GDP-focused growth toward comprehensive wealth building across all forms of capital.

The authors challenge conventional economic narratives by revealing how ancient systems prioritized community welfare through gift economies and shared resource management, contrasting sharply with today's extractive models. Historical examples, from Depression-era emergency currencies to the Wörgl experiment's "economic miracle," demonstrate communities' capacity to create alternative economic systems during crises.

Central to their framework is monetary diversity and optimizing for circulation over wealth concentration. Like natural ecosystems, resilient economies require multiple exchange mechanisms rather than dependence on single currencies. The book introduces analytical tools (the Iceberg Model for systems thinking; the NEAT Method for participatory design), enabling communities to architect economic systems aligned with their values.

Blockchain technologies, particularly Ethereum's programmable capabilities, represent powerful tools when grounded in regenerative design principles and community wisdom. Without this ethical foundation, blockchain risks replicating extractive patterns rather than enabling genuine systems transformation.

The book provides practical frameworks for communities to design fairer governance structures, capital formation mechanisms, and economies that serve authentic local needs while connecting to broader regenerative movements. Combining anticipatory design with regenerative economics creates systems for a more viable future."

Excerpts

Preface

Scott Morris & Stephen DeMeulenaere:

"We have written this book for everyone interested in what is possible, not only with the technical capabilities of web3 but also with the power of people wielding their hope for better futures in the face of ever-compounding crises. We believe very strongly in both personal autonomy and collective sovereignty, and in having the tools we need to defend against the various ways those are being compromised. Those of you who are interested in web3 and in alternative economics systems of any kind can appreciate the necessity of bringing these values and technologies together into more powerful federations of political and economic significance. Our hope is that this book will help you find your way and find those you can count on to come through when there’s much at stake.

For those who don’t know where we’ve come from, we were among the first community currency practitioners to see and talk about the value blockchain technologies held for the community currency space. These days we often find ourselves preaching about the long history and great potential of community currencies to a blockchain/web3 oriented audience. While we specialize in community currency history and design, we work at the intersection of blockchain and all kinds of attempts to shift into a more regenerative economy. As some of the first so-called “Ethereum Localists” we see the arrays of mechanisms available via blockchain as expanding the global toolkit for place-based economic redesign.

As more legacy capital made its way into web3, the cultural focus shifted towards catering to money instead of toward the deeper potential to recreate money. Nowadays there’s a lot more funding for technology development than there is for on the ground implementation. This needs to change. Instead of selling tokens to rebuild wheels, we must invest more time and energy into implementation: working to codesign solutions with communities that want and need these tools.

As the blockchain space has evolved, more people with an interest in the technology for its own sake, the possibility of making large sums of money, and those with less than admirable aspirations brought a whole lot of yap and flooded the space with basically every kind of shitcoin or token-for-its-own- sake imaginable. We offer an invitation back to the roots, where helping real communities tackle real world issues and reclaiming their power is the point of having these capabilities. Making money is cool and all, but... bro, have you ever liberated a community?

We invite you to look into the field of community currencies and the decades of experience it contains, and we believe you’ll find there is a lot there that is useful for designing all kinds of alternative and regenerative economic systems, including those using blockchain and any number of other technologies. Web3 has the potential to help community currencies achieve the low costs and ease of use necessary for significant change. Together, they are a powerful combination that enables people everywhere to build resilient local economies, anticipate crises, and accept response-ability for their shared futures.

A quick note about the book: we don’t use traditional footnoting in this book; footnotes are both citations and recommended reading. Instead of filling the page with citations, we try to mention each source only once except where required and adds significant value.

If you find yourself compelled into hopeful action and would like our assistance, we invite you to reach out. We have worked with organizations from community groups to Credit Unions, from City and State governments to the United Nations. We would be happy to assist you with advising, consulting, training teams and supporting efforts to create a better future for yourselves and your community.

In order to be available to deliver this book we used a variety of AI tools that helped us stay on track while managing the day-to-day reality of our lives: supporting our families, traveling long distances, organizing events, working with multiple clients, etc.. Make no mistake, this was an intensive process we both took seriously: developing the core narrative structure, curating the resource library, writing and reviewing content, adding citations, etc. all happened manually as well. We stand by every word and accept responsibility for any mistakes that slipped by us and our amazing review team."

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