The Regeneration Lab
Welcome to The Regeneration Lab. The podcast of the Regenerative Thinking research group at the the Mission Zero centre of expertise at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, where we conduct integrated research to come up with regenerative solutions for a more sustainable future. Each episode features a leading educator, activist, professor, or researcher who is already engaging in more regenerative forms of higher education. Join us on this journey as we discover how these educational innovations emerged, how they are practiced, and the beautiful futures that are envisioned for more regenerative higher education. Along the way we will explore the systemic and personal challenges, barriers and opportunities that our awesome guests are facing to do this. You can reach out through mission-zero@hhs.nl to respond or connect to any of the episodes!
The Regeneration Lab
What If We Started With Potential, Not Problems? A Conversation with Charles van de Kerkhof
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Charles uses the metaphor of animal tracking—where many different paths lead to the same animal, and complexity increases the more you zoom out—to describe the intricate work of regenerative entrepreneurship education. Inspired by witnessing value-based entrepreneurship in Africa, where money wasn't the first priority, Charles challenges the mechanistic worldview dominant in the West and instead emphasizes living systems thinking and interconnectedness. "Regeneration is about finding your potential after unpacking the complexity of entrepreneurship and understanding the world's problems," Charles explains. In this episode, we explore why regeneration means going outside, why having the same vocabulary is essential before we can move forward together, and why Charles believes that entrepreneurship—with an entrepreneurial, critical, and regenerative mindset—is the tool to put a paradigm shift into action. Change means taking risks, being curious, and staying uncomfortable.
Key themes: Living systems thinking, complexity, ecological literacy, going outside, paradigm shift, value-based work