Envisioning Regenerative Communities

Abstract

This interview asks how we can move to the next era of urban design, away from extractive capitalist models towards a more connected and equitable society. While there is disagreement over what exactly might come next—Young favours a new ‘compassionate capitalism’, while Nash argues for the importance of imagining non-capitalist models—both argue for regenerative economic models that empower people at the community level. Nash argues that Pākehā need to overcome their addiction to individual, exclusive land and property ownership, and to recognise how the violent history of colonialism underpins the ongoing commodification of land. The unfolding Covid-19 crisis lays bare the failings of our current economic model and prompts us to radically reimagine what might be possible. Young and Nash’s dialogue suggests that this involves both a reckoning with our past and taking a stand in the future—imagining the world we want to inhabit as a first step towards transforming it.