Living Systems in Policy
Note: Integration challenge discussed by David Witzel during his check-in on the OGM 2025-11-06 call.
The Problem
Public policy typically:
- Doesn't focus on living systems
- May talk about "systems" but not living ones
- Focuses on optimization and efficiency
- Uses proxies for "good"
- Gets "trapped into making things a little bit better"
- Rarely achieves positive-sum abundance
David's Question
How to integrate:
- Regenerative notions (emerging knowledge)
- Living systems thinking
Into:
- Technocratic public policy (his background)
- Traditional economics frameworks
Living Systems Characteristics
That policy typically ignores:
- Cyclical patterns
- Growth and consolidation phases
- Self-organization
- Emergence
- Relationship-based functioning
- Resilience through diversity
- Adaptation and evolution
The Bridge
Using growth as connecting concept:
- Both economics and living systems care about growth
- But they understand it differently
- Finding metaphors and principles from biology
- Applying to economic/policy thinking
Examples
Sourdough metaphor: Living growth requiring care and conditions
Regenerative agriculture: Policy aligned with living systems
The Challenge
Retrofitting living systems thinking into existing frameworks without discarding accumulated wisdom.
Related Concepts
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