Learning network
Bioregioning in Practice
This new programme has two components, online and in place. Online, the international Bioregional Learning Alliance (of which BLC is a founding member) is currently running a 10-week webinar series with Gaia Education. In place, BLC is launching the South Devon Bioregional Summer School in July where a small number of participants can be part of a deep-dive into the full spectrum of how to work bioregionally, with South Devon as our classroom and local and international tutors sharing their work and practice.
Photo: "Bioregioning with the Burren" by Melissa Stiefel.
Foregrounding the practice rather than the theory of bioregioning
The Bioregioning in Practice Webinar Series, April-June 2025
The Bioregional Learning Alliance is an international circle of bioregional practitioners who have been collaborating for two years and are committed to growing the field of bioregioning. Bioregional Learning Centre is both a founder member and lead convenor. Together we have designed a webinar-based course called Bioregioning in Practice with varied entry points for whatever level you are at.
Through the spring of 2025, in partnership with Gaia Education, this introductory online series of 10 webinars will cover the full spectrum of bioregional practice. You will be able to meet us, learn and gather resources, and from there move on into a residential, a learning lab, working with a mentor, a learning journey, group discussions and knowledge sharing, or further online learning.
Find out more and sign up for the course here. Have a look at our latest blog post for background on the Alliance.
South Devon Bioregional Summer School at the Rill Estate near Totnes, 18th-25th July, 2025
Our first course for the South Devon Bioregional Summer School is designed to be a collaborative experience that gives the flavour of how we practice bioregioning in South Devon. Bioregioning is the bundle of practices for working regeneratively with landscapes and whole systems in a given bioregion. We do this work in the context of climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, failing economies and political instability. Because we see bioregioning as a relational practice, we pay a good deal of attention to increasing the capacities of vitality, viability and evolution of the networks, flows and relationships that make up the landscapes and human systems such as health and food that we engage with.
The course brings together eight long-term bioregioning practitioners to share their experience and knowledge of how to do this work. We will be covering almost all aspects of bioregioning from economies to ecologies, from culture to politics. There will be a focus on how to start and how to continue; the capacities needed to lead this work; the many entry points into bioregioning and how different places around the world are tackling this work. You will:
- walk through the steps of animating a bioregion
- be introduced to regenerative design for systems, and bioregions in particular
- make deep dives into case studies from around the world
- consider the producer role and the competencies needed for this work
- get into our place-shaped bodies and minds, guided by 'Pattern Mind'
- dip into the workings of a bioregional economy
- explore a model for bioregional governance linked to a matrix of indicators for bioregional health
- unpack the complexities of bioregional finance and how to resource our work
- experience first-hand the role of art and ecology in deepening a bioregional culture
- enjoy wonderful food and the South Devon countryside
There will be space for asking questions, designing, trying things out, reflecting, asking better questions and sketching out pathways to action. We welcome you bringing your own places, questions and experiences. As well as teaching/learning sessions, discussions and field trips there is the opportunity for 1:1s with the tutors.
