This chapter is part of the book Imagining, Designing and Teaching Regenerative Futures: Art-Science Approaches and Inspirations From Around the World co- edited by Julia Bentz and Jelena Ristić Trajković . Building Communities in Action is a relational framework that supports communities in coming together around shared challenges to imagine and co-create meaningful change. It emphasizes trust, adaptability, and collective creativity, placing relationships at the heart of the design process.
By fostering understanding and creating space for multiple perspectives, Building Communities in Action cultivates inclusive and generative spaces for shared learning and innovation. It moves beyond reliance on external “experts” and encourages collaborative processes rooted in lived experience, collective agency, and mutual responsibility. It supports transformative, community-led action that honors and embraces diverse knowledge systems (Leibowitz 2017).
This framework is especially valuable for addressing complex, systemic challenges, such as, climate change, social inequities, and fragmentation, where technical solutions alone are not sufficient. Building Communities in Action offers a pathway for educators, students, and communities to co-create regenerative responses and contribute to a more just and flourishing future (Camargo-Borges and
Gergen 2022; Bodiford and Whitehouse 2020).
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