Regenerative-Focused Evaluation: Centering Place in Evaluation Theory and Practice
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Abstract
The intensifying polycrisis — marked by interacting crises across climate, inequality, and political instability — is surfacing deep social and ecological challenges that demand evaluation move beyond business-as-usual approaches toward more transformational, relational, and regenerative practice. Regenerative-focused evaluation has emerged as one response — centering Place as a living, sentient participant rather than a geographic backdrop. Drawing on living-systems thinking, Indigenous epistemologies, and decolonizing approaches, this article explores regenerative-focused evaluation through the twin lenses of relational validity and relational accountability to the people, communities, and living systems where evaluation is conducted. It argues that conventional place-based evaluation frequently overlooks the deep relational, historical, and ecological dimensions of Place — and that Place-sourced practices, such as centering Indigenous sovereignty and the wisdom of living systems, offer the evaluation field a path toward truth, healing, reconciliation, and regenerative futures for all relations.
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