[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Regenerative Economics (open-access textbook), Section S.2: Systems thinking patterns

## Details

**Authors** Jennifer Brandsberg-Engelmann

**Year** 2025

**Publisher** regenerativeeconomics.earth / Doughnut Economics Action Lab

**Kind of work** book, course

**Discipline** Economics

**Secondary disciplines** Environment & Sustainability

**Reading level** beginner

**Kind of engagement** applications

[Read it](https://doughnuteconomics.org/tools/regenerative-economics-for-secondary-schools-742ea255-dc6c-4093-abf6-9fd10ca06666)

## In authors' words

### Abstract

An open-access, student-centred textbook for reimagining economics education. Enough material for a 2-year course! We have developed a free, online, open-access textbook that brings the principles of Regenerative Economics into secondary classrooms. The resource supports both students and teachers who want to rethink what the economy is, what it's for, and how it can serve people and planet.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

Brings regenerative economics into secondary classrooms as a free, open-access, student-centered textbook with enough material for a two-year course, for students and teachers who want to rethink what the economy is and what it is for.

### How they did it (methods)

An online textbook covering households, markets, commons, and the state, with sections on money and finance and on international exchange still to come. A dedicated strand on systems thinking and models runs alongside the economics content, teaching feedback loops and the dynamics of change. Licensed Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0, published July 2025 and still being updated.

### What they found (results)

The section presents DSRP as the student's basic toolkit for reading economic systems, paired with diagrams and classroom activities.

## Commentary

### In short

A free secondary-school economics textbook teaches all four DSRP patterns as its systems thinking unit, defining identity-and-other, part-whole nesting, labeled relationships, and point-view, then working them through economic examples such as provisioning institutions and the wider economy.

### In more detail

This is a full two-year secondary economics curriculum. The systems thinking strand that runs alongside the economics content is built on DSRP, and chapter S.2 teaches the four patterns from first principles with examples pitched at teenagers: a football team for distinctions, a cord carrying electricity for a physical relationship, teacher feedback and student motivation for a conceptual one. The chapter sends students on to the lab's own materials, including the Master the Moves video shorts and the Thinkquery tool. The textbook is listed in the Doughnut Economics Action Lab tool library, which is how most teachers will find it, and it carries a Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license, so schools can adapt it freely.

### Response

Curriculum adoption evidence. DSRP arrives here as the systems thinking method inside somebody else's subject, chosen by an economics educator building a course for teenagers. The open license and the Doughnut Economics listing both widen the reach, since any school adapting the book carries the DSRP chapter along with it.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R, P

**Added** 2026-09-15

**How to cite this** Jennifer Brandsberg-Engelmann (2025). Regenerative Economics (open-access textbook), Section S.2: Systems thinking patterns. regenerativeeconomics.earth / Doughnut Economics Action Lab.