From Enshittification to Regenification: Design for Regenerative Technological Futures

Regenification is a transformative design approach which seeks to make today’s extractivist internet and its many techno-dependents – devices, software, the Cloud, GenAI – more environmentally sustainable, socially inclusive and economically just. Emerging from the sangam of Regenerative Design, More-than-Human materialism and Perma-computing ideals, regenifcation challenges the hegemonic barbarity, ‘enshittification’ and systemized obsolescence that fortifies an internet controlled by Big Tech e.g., the so-called Magnificent Seven and BATX. Regenification aims to go beyond ineffective mop-and-bucket practices like recycling, carbon offsetting and ‘greenhushing’, which merely sustain the capitalist status quo rather than restoring any sustainable socio-digital harmony. This talk argues that regenification offers a more hopeful vision for future technology design, one is regrown from the compost of today’s unsustainable and inequitable internet.

About the speaker:

Michael Stead is Lecturer in Sustainable Design Futures at Lancaster University. His practice-led research explores the environmental, social, and economic opportunities and challenges emerging technologies including AI, IoT and Digital Fabrication pose for redressing climate change and engendering climate justice. Advancing approaches including Regenerative Design, Speculative Design and Participatory Futuring, he is developing innovative regenerative tools and strategies with local community partners, policymakers, and wider industry.