The Regenerative Democracy Project

Feasta, in collaboration with the Environmental Forum, Cultivate (Sustainable Ireland Cooperative), Sustainable Projects Ireland (Cloughjordan Ecovillage), CELT and An Taisce, has launched the Regenerative Democracy project, which aims to clarify and publicise environmental democracy’s governance role in a wellbeing economy that supports sustainable and inclusive wellbeing and intergenerational fairness.

Grounded in principles of social justice, ecological sustainability, and democratic participation, the project will create opportunities to share research, lived experience, and practical initiatives

It will build on the burgeoning global Beyond GDP and Wellbeing Economy movements to develop and advance a positive public narrative on the nature of progress in Ireland - and elsewhere - that reclaims and clarifies concepts such as ‘public interest’, the ‘greater good’, ‘human development’ and ‘the economy’.

Populist attacks on the procedural rights of access to information, participation, and avenues for justice are informed by an uncritical embrace of a dominant and monocultural understanding of the purpose of the economy. As the Government’s Wellbeing Framework has begun to illustrate, a more nuanced set of policy outcomes must move to the heart of our understanding of economic policy, in pursuit of an economy that serves the wellbeing of people and planet.

Outcomes of the project will include a co-created regenerative democracy framework integrating wellbeing economy principles into environmental governance and advocacy, including information on access to justice, as well as increased capacity among civil society organizations to advance environmental advocacy and intergenerational fairness. Participatory and creative engagement will engage the public in a broader discussion, helping to define what progress and development that actually serves the public interest really looks like.

A series of workshops and events will take place over the next twelve months leading to the Go Leor International Conference & Festival on Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity, in August 2027, when the project team will present the framework. The team seeks to instigate a cultural shift that will see Ireland recognized as a leader in participatory governance, where regenerative and sufficiency-based approaches are adopted in public policy and practice, with a stronger public narrative of progress based on care, fairness and regeneration rather than growth and extraction.

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