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Integral City Map 5: Embracing Spirituality in the Human Hive

Posted in C. Collective Intelligences, E. Evolutionary Intelligences, Ego, Emergence, Ethno, Global/Worldcentric, Master Intelligence, Spiritual intelligence, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 22, 2013 | 8 Comments »


Integral City how do I capture your spirit? Map 5 gives us a glimpse into the spiritual energy of love, that is ever-present in the Human Hive, as we live on the edge of evolution.

Integral City Map 5: Spirituality in the Human Hive

Integral City Map 5: Spirituality in the Human Hive

Where is it possible to sense the spirit of a city? Is it in the quiet of a chapel, or the chanting on a prayer mat? Is it from a vista that discloses the miracle of light and form that is the city at night? Is it while doing good deeds in the service of those in need? Or is it in the tumult and din of a play-off game for our favourite sport?

Of course, spirit is expressed in all of these ways because spirituality is a universal life force that cycles through existence as an involutionary and evolutionary impulse (Wilber, 1995). The first stage of the cycle, called involution, originates at the non-dual “source” that lies at the centre of existence where it descends from the invisible to the visible; from the immanent to that which is presenced; from the unmanifest source to manifest “re-sources”. The second stage of the cycle, called evolution, attracts all creation back to source so that it ascends from the manifest to the source; from the visible to the invisible; from gross physical bodies to subtle and causal energy fields to non-dual source. Spirituality is not outside of city creation but embedded in it as the source, flowing through it as energetic fields and manifest in its emergent re-sources (Hamilton, 2012).

James Lovelock has called humans Gaia’s Reflective Organ. I take his insight one step further and suggest that cities are the actual organs and individuals are cells within it.

As Reflective Organs we may know spirituality (or God) in all four quadrants of our integral reality (reflected in Integral City Map 1) as: spiritual experience (UL) ; action flow state (UR); collective ecstasy or ethos (LL); and collective creation (LR). Spirituality is also an UL and LL intelligence (or line) that is capable of growing from ego to ethno to world to kosmic levels of development for individuals and cultures. As well (paradoxically), it is the Absolute source of stillness at the centre of existence (Map 1) and the Relative evolutionary impulse that drives all city manifestation (Maps 2, 3, 4).

The city as spiritual container holds not only the spiritual lives of citizens at three scales (Self, Culture and Nature), but also the artefacts of spiritual expression including all the systems, structures and infrastructures within the LR built city. Ironically, although we tend to point at the physical cathedrals, mosques and synagogues as centres of spiritual life, in fact these are mere expressions of the mystical “soul” of the city in all its built form and business.  But it is this very busy-ness that incites people to seek the Space, Place and Grace in a spiritual refuge where coherence can emerge from the over-stimulation of the senses, and spiritual reconnection can occur.

As the city matures through the exchange of energy between spiritual Source and Re-Source a spiritual energy Field emerges. Evidence about spiritual behaviors, attitudes, shared practices and systems, suggest that a field effect is emerging in the city (McTaggart, 2001; Sheldrake, 1988). The field probably arises because the city as container causes the multiplicity of chaotic exchanges (Map 3) within and across holons and social holons to converge into patterns that sustain. A kind of “spiritual groove” becomes carved in the energetic field, that through repetition reinforces itself.

Finally, when we admit all three faces of God (expressed as the Master Code) as the essence of spirit in the city, we make room for an ever evolving field of spirituality.

The perennial values that all spiritual wisdoms share appear to contribute to the human hive as a Reflective Organ. Spiritual guides see Beauty, Goodness and Truth as core values that imbue spiritual life at all expressions of Self, Culture and Nature (DeKay, 2011, p. xxvii; McIntosh, 2007, p. 300; Wilber, 2007, p. 70).

Within an integral frame these values co-arise and their interior and exterior modes seem to cross-connect and rotate or even interchange as they stimulate multiple routes to the emergence of Grace, Place and Space. In tracing the cycle of spirituality in the human hive, we come to a final spirituality map that reveals Grace, Place and Space as outcomes from the dynamic interconnections of Beauty, Goodness and Truth. Perhaps it comes as no surprise that the integration of these core spiritual values is apprehended as the meta-value of Love in all the horizontal and vertical zones of the Integral City (as illustrated in Map 5)?

The Source Zone of city spirituality exists as the Absolute, ever-present non-dual infinite ground of spiritual abundance. Here the core value of Beauty may be accessed through the Interior Portal of Appreciation and enacted through the Exterior Practice of Expression. This results in the spiritual outcome of Grace.

The Field Zone of city spirituality arises through the subtle and causal memory patterns created by evolutionary spiritual practise. Here the core value of Goodness may be accessed through the Interior Portal of Stillness and enacted through the Exterior Practice of Service. This results in the spiritual outcome of Place.

At the Resource Zone of city spirituality emerges the relative manifest qualities of the evolutionary container of the human hive. Here the core value of Truth may be accessed through the Interior Portal of Learning and enacted through the Exterior Practice of Teaching and Construction. This results in the spiritual outcome of Space.

Integral City how do I not just capture your spirit – but embrace it?? Map 5 suggests Love is the spiritual pulse through which Gaia’s Reflective Organ makes:

Grace – In Taking Care of Yourself.
Place – In Taking Care of Each Other.
Space – In Taking Care of This City.

References:

DeKay, M. (2011). Integral Sustainable Design: Transformative Perspectives. London, UK: Earthscan.
Esbjörn-Hargens, S., & Zimmerman, M. (2009). Integral Ecology: Uniting Multiple Perspectives on the Natural World. Boston: Shambhala Publications Inc.
Hamilton, M. (2011). Integral Spirituality in the Human Hive: A Primer Trialog. Retrieved from http://www.integralcity.com/wiki.html
Lovelock, J. (1972). Gaia As Seen Through the Atmosphere, Atmospheric Environment, (Vol. vol. 6, p. 579).
Lovelock, J. (2009). The Vanishing Face of Gaia. New York: Harmony Books.
McIntosh, S. (2007). Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution: How the Integral Worldview is Transforming Politics, Culture and Spirituality. St. Paul, Minnesota: Paragon House.
McTaggart, L. (2001). The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe. New York: Harper Perennial.
McTaggart, L. (2011). The Bond: Connecting Through the Space Between Us. New York: Free Press.
Sheldrake, R. (1988). The Presence of the Past: Morphic Resonance and the Habits of Nature (1995 ed.). Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press.
Wilber, K. (1995). Sex, Ecology and Spirituality: the spirit of evolution. Boston: Shambhala Publications Inc.
Wilber, K. (2001). Marriage of Sense and Soul. New York: Random House.
Wilber, K. (2006). Integral Spirituality. Boston: Shambhala Publications Inc.
Wilber, K. (2007). The Integral Vision. Boston: Shambhala Publications Inc.

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Integral City Map 3: Relating Change to Exchange

Posted in Building - Structures, Ego, Ethno, Global/Worldcentric, Inner, Lifecycle, Outer, Storytelling - Cultures, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 15, 2013 | 9 Comments »


Integral City how do we relate to your constant changes and exchanges? Map 3 reveals the cycles that flow through and around your prolific eco-system.

Integral City Map 3: The Scalar Fractal Relationship of Micro, Meso and Macro Human Systems

Integral City Map 3: The Scalar Fractal Relationship of Micro, Meso and Macro Human Systems

In the city, as individuals we grow our capacities. When life conditions trigger us to change, our life’s journey adds new layers of values, worldviews and competencies. Like tree rings we can symbolically map how a person grows capacities that expand from ego-centric to ethnocentric to system-centric to world-centric (Cluster 1 on Map 3).

I have been fortunate enough, teaching at Royal Roads University, to co-create the conditions where individual leaders become high performance teams, where each team member challenges the others to draw on these full set of capacities.  This gives them capacities to impact spheres of influence that can grow to global-size, making impacts on and for future generations. This team capacity is represented in Cluster 2 on Map 3.

When these leaders and teams return, with advanced capacities, to their organizations and communities, they  encounter other people and groups who do not have the same breadth or depth of competency. In this respect, their capacity becomes diluted (and explains the challenge all high performance teams have interacting with those outside such teams). On the other hand, the advanced capacities of these individuals bring new skills and perspectives to their organizations and communities, positively “infecting” their social and cultural environments, with change. (Cluster 3, in Map 3).

We can see the same paradoxical effects (of dilution and infection) when the high performers interact in even larger scales at nation or global contexts. (Cluster 4, in Map 4).

Integral City Map 3, shows how the human systems are constantly interacting in exchanges that emerge from natural cycles, values exchanges, and complex processes. We can see the role of both agents and collectives and the mesmerizing outcomes of interactions in self-organizing systems of exchange.

I have described the merits of this map in the audio (and printed) book, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences in the Human Hive. I also discussed it with Ken Wilber during our Integral City 2.0 Online Conference (and Integral Life) Interview. Map 3 as a whole captures the Integral Intelligences of the city: Inner, Outer, Cultural and Social, as well as Living and Ecosphere  Intelligences).

Map 3 in the Integral City demonstrates strong patterns that relate to the natural designs in Tim Winton’s Pattern Dynamics (TM) Structure , Creativity and Dynamic Patterns. But the Pattern of Exchange seems to capture best the flow of interaction that influences interlocking human systems at micro, meso and macros scales inherent in Map 3. The Pattern of Exchange in the city shows us how human systems produce capacity both for the benefit of themselves and for the benefit of the systems with whom they trade. At its core the Exchange Pattern is the pattern that drives economics, sustainable growth and eco-system balance.

Map 3 captures the relationship patterns of the city at a much more granular level of the city than Map 2′s nested holarchy of holons. It adds to Map 1 the path of emergence and the interrelationship of multiple scales of human systems.  Map 3 allows us to peer more closely into the inner life of individuals and the dynamic characteristics of the social holons they belong to. The conditions for generative trade between systems is reinforced, because inequities exist between different individuals and organizations.

Exchange PatternMap 3 reveals aspects of the Pattern of Exchange because it reveals seven qualities identified by the language of Pattern Dynamics (TM):

  1. Cycle: Map 3 shows how individuals grow in natural cycles. Also it implicitly suggests the generational cycles where individuals and groups learn from older more experienced people. Thus a cycle of knowledge exchange occurs.
  2. Balance: Map 3 conveys how the encounter of team members with differing skills but equally matured capacities creates well-balanced teams, able to give and take as they engage to produce results.
  3. Capture: Map 3 shows the scales of human systems, that “capture” within their boundaries the skills and competencies needed for their team or organizational system to achieve their goals.
  4. Trade: Map 3 implies that the reason human systems prosper in the city is because humans trade bio-psycho-cultural-social information, matter and energy. In a healthy economy, such trades improve the life conditions of both traders and provide positive feedback for repeat performances.
  5. Uniqueness: Map 3 implies that the larger human systems of team, organization, community and city are inevitably unique because no two people express their competencies, capacities or talents in the same way as any other. Thus both the combination of structures, and the emergence of self-organizing creativity can produce uniqueness that offers selling propositions and values exchanges that can only be discovered through trade and exchange.
  6. Process: Map 3 hides the processes that are better expressed in Map 4 (explained in a future blog). Nevertheless the basic systems frame of input – process- output is essential to the operation of any productive exchange. That can be as “intangible” as a creative thinking brainstorm that results in new ideas for a whole new industry (e.g. the concept of music distribution on the internet); or it can be as tangible as publishing and selling newspapers on the street corner.
  7. Flow: Map 3 clearly shows the flow of the exchange of the neural network within individual minds (Cluster 1) and the flow between people in teams, organizations, communities and the city (Clusters 2, 3, 4).

Integral City how do we relate to your constant changes and exchanges? Map 3 shows that exchange of energy, information and matter flow through the neural network, of the brain, economy and ecology of human systems. The key to city sustainability is that these exchanges between the human hive and its environment flow in renewing cycles which creates a metabolism where exchanges continuously flow through the entire system.

In future blogs we continue the exploration of Integral City Maps 4 and 5 and show how each adds further depth to Maps 1 , 2 and 3.

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Sense in the City Summer 2012 – Co-Create the Future of the Human Hive

Posted in Dialogue, F. Training, H. Research, Level 5 Orange, Level 6 Green, Level 7 Yellow, Telecourse, tagged , , , , , on July 5, 2012 |


July Greetings, Integral City-zens and Friends of Integral City  

Today’s Integral City Sparkies for City Co-Creators:

Architect Christopher Alexander is experimenting with the “Phenomenon of Life,” co-designing living worlds where building centers, hulls and space are co-created with the stakeholders and future users of the buildings. He and his team are doing this with everyone from poor Mexican workers, to Japanese university students, to groups of house owners in rural and highly urbanized community settings.

Hamilton, M., 2008, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive, p.156

How do we design the city so that I, WE, IT and ITS can co-exist in a vibrant way?

 

We invite you to help us co-create the Future of the City conference by taking 10 minutes to complete this survey: https://www.jitsulab.com/197/0065/The Future of the City Survey. Thanks for returning it by July 15.

Below some of the questions that provoke, engage, question and cross connect co-creators of the Future of the Human Hive!!! We are building a huge excitement and momentum as we ask them with everyone we encounter – in person, online, internationally, through the Blog, in Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.   Let us know what are your burning questions for how to co-exist in the city on our planet of cities?

 

What role are cities playing, as 2012 shifts through the longest/shortest days of its year (depending on your location on the planet)?

  • How are cities surviving the turbulence of life everywhere? How do  cities adapt to polarities of shadow and light in constant play?
  • In the shadows, how do cities survive the misery of the Syrian war, the seeming futility of the EU economic tactics, the searing heat in eastern North America or the disappointment of Rio+20?
  • In the light, what are the implications for cities of the discovery of the Higgs-Boson particle (and the promise of deep understanding of dark energy and dark matter)? What does it mean for cities that human lifecycles are extending beyond 100 years?  What are the lessons for cities about the densifying connections emerging from social media that defy all traditional political assumptions in places like Rangoon, Cairo and Montreal?

How does 2012 call forth new paradigms in just about every sphere of knowledge we care to examine?

  • Where is the kiva for the city where new conversations about city wellbeing can engage City-Zens with scientists, artists, designers, practitioners and faith leaders?
  • How can we discover a new paradigm for the city together? How might we co-create new solutions to: the city’s relationship with its eco-region, indigenous peoples and immigrants from the four corners of the globe; the city’s access to and use of energy, water and food; and the maturing of the city’s collective intelligence?

With more than 50% of people living in cities, how are they the seed pods for the human species where intentions, actions, relationships and productive output collide and co-create our collective habitats?

  • What shifts in our thinking are needed to not only track the quantities of all these interactions, but also to notice the quality and complexity of these exchanges?
  • We wonder, if we take the pulse of more than 50% of humanity in city activity, can we track each city’s essential wellbeing? How does each city’s capacity to achieve wellbeing simultaneously become its measure of resilience?
  • How do cities develop new governance to interact sustainably on a planet of cities?

We invite you to become part of the Brain Trust to design an eLaboratory where we can research new capacities for an Integral City. Start by giving us your ideas and suggestions here: https://www.jitsulab.com/197/0065/The Future of the City Survey

 (BTW, If you are interested in volunteering on the team forming to deliver the conference (rewards provided!!) – find out more here: https://www.jitsulab.com/271/0005/Integral%20City%20eLab%20Volunteer%20Application

 

  1. New Integral City Connections & Resources:

 

  • Integral City joined the Energetic City 2050 in Antwerp in April.  Check out how Alliander (with Partners and Freedom Lab facilitation) have challenged three teams to discover how individuals can generate their own energy in 2050. http://www.energeticcity2050.nl/#slide=expeditie (in Dutch)

 

 

  • Integral City has published - Integral Spirituality in the Human Hive –  the “thirteenth” chapter of the book, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligence for the Human Hive. The new chapter has been published by the German Engineering Journal, Trialog. A pdf is available (with permission) from our Wiki link:   http://www.integralcity.com/wiki.html .  Reference: Hamilton, M. (2012). Integral Spirituality in the Human Hive: A Primer. Trialog, 2010(4), 10-17.

 

2. 2012 Learning Events:

  1. Dr. Don Beck delivers THE MOMENTOUS LEAP in Dallas-Forth Worth Texas September 6-9, 2012. Join him for Spiral Dynamics in Action:Deciphering the Master Code in the Age of Complexity, Collaboration and Emergence. A Functional, Integral Pathway to a Sustainable Future For details and registration click here: 13th Annual SDi Confab
  2. Join us at the October – December, 2012 for EMBODY INTEGRAL SUSTAINABILITY Conference sponsored by Experience Integral in the Netherlands. We are honoured to be part of an extraordinary international faculty leading change-makers and practitioners in the field of SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP. The three month long intensive program is customized to meet personal and organization needs, blending group learning and individualized support. Find out details here: http://www.experienceintegral.org/cl4s

 

3. Marilyn Blogs about Integral City Intelligences through the framework of What, So What, Now What . As a prologue to the September 2012 eLaboratory, check out all our eLaboratory Blogs here http://www.integralcitycollective.com . These are the topics we’ve covered:

Ecosphere Intel Vital to Planet of Cities

  • Designing Ecosphere Economies for Planet of Cities
  • Earth Day: Let’s Celebrate Ecosphere Intelligence Arising in Planet’s Fortune100!!

Hello Human Hive: Welcome Emergent World

  • Emergent Designers Seek Energetic City 2050 for Arnhem
  • Emergent Intelligence Frames Whole System Design

Living Intelligence Renews City Value Proposition

  • Principles for Living Intelligently in a Healthy City
  • Living Intelligence – Are You the Center of Aliveness in Your City?

Integral Intelligence Reveals Whole City Vitality

  • Connect City-Eco-Regional Holarchy: Improve Health
  • Integral Intelligence – Psycho-Activates Gaia’s Reflective Organ

Inner Intelligence – The Reflective “I” Power of the Human Hive

  • Cherry Blossom Happiness Factor of City-Centric Inner Intelligence
  • Inner Intelligence is Seedbed of City’s Intuition, Insight, Innovation

…meshful blessings for this season of Co-Creating Futures for the Human Hive … 

 Marilyn

Useful Links:

www.integralcity.com ; Vimeo Interviews on the Integral City   “What is an Integral City?”Twitter: integralcity ; Integral City Blog  - read new articles, archives and Sense in the City archives

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Sense in the City Spring 2012 – Generating Change in the Human Hive

Posted in Global/Worldcentric, Inquiry, Storytelling - Cultures, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 22, 2012 |


Spring Equinox Greetings, Integral City-zens and Friends of Integral City  

Today’s Integral City Sparkies for City Diversity Generators:

What city in the world has developed a course of study and practise that enables a person to methodically progress from cradle to peak prformance at the defined levels of complexity that deliver leadership to the powers 1 through 8?. p.120

Preparing leaders to the Power of 8, involves capacity development with a curriculum and experience that aligns knowledge, values, structures and life conditions.. p.123

We may be standing on a whole new threshold of human capacity emergence that will make the Level 8 leadership competencies (which we explored in some detail in Chapter 5) look primitive.p.140

 Our senses, our learning and our science now tell us that behaviors in the city can become more intelligent. Our aspirations tell us that we must become more intelligent. p.144

Hamilton, M., 2008, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive

2012 is a year pregnant with the anticipation of change. Many look to the storylines presaged by the Mayan calendar, that this year is the end of an old way of Being, and the beginning of a new way of Becoming. The shifts from theatres of war to congresses of peace; the revisiting of the first Rio sustainability conference; the many tensions of the 2012 US election; the craziest aberrations in weather patterns; and the continued ambiguities of the old monetary system – all these life conditions call attention to the scale of change that is occurring at a global level. We sense the uncertainties of the future, the non-linear jumps in our experience of time, place and moral influence, the continuous flow of scientific discovery that reveals the amazing miracle of life and the surprising practise of compassion that embraces the deepest tragedies of human and kosmic shifts.

It is a time for the Diversity Generators of the Human Hive to intensify the messages in their dance that show new resources, new directions, and new potentials for the City – the most complex of Human Systems. It is time for the intelligence of the Human Hive to be recalibrated to the Power of 8 and beyond. In 2012 Integral City will initiate the course of study that enables the City to learn through the lenses of the Integral Paradigm. We are ready to open the doors of an eLaboratory where we invite all who are part of the Brain Trust to collaborate on designing and putting into practise a new operating system for the City.

Integral City will leverage the change climate of 2012 to meshwork the What, the So What and the Now What of action learning, to integrate scientists, philosophers, designers and practitioners into a community of People, Purpose, Practise and Priorities in service to the wellbeing of our Cities and our Planet.

 1. INTEGRAL CITY e-LABORATORY 2012:

See the invitation and mark you calendars for September 2012  - Integral City Meshworks in partnership with Integral Initiative and Integral Leadership Review is sponsoring the Integral City e-LABORATORY throughout September 2012. Modelled on the smash-hit of 2011 the Integral Leadership Collaboratory the e-LABORATORY will explore how Integral Frameworks and Best Practices are evolving intelligences in cities around the world. With Keynote Speakers from City Leaders and the Integral World; Design Labs with Global Developers and Civic Managers; and Community Circles Lead by Activists and Civil Society Entrepreneurs we will deliver four weeks of non-stop exploration about the City, that will open your eyes to environmental breakthroughs, career opportunities and evolutionary collaborations, all at the convenience of your nearest e-screen. Details will be released in the months ahead. Let us know if you’d like to volunteer, support, sponsor and/or be part of our powerful list of speakers and panelists already confirmed (including Hazel Henderson, Don Beck, Bill Rees, Bob Willard, Richard Register, Ann Dale). Get on our Early Bird update list by sending an email to eLAB@integralcity.com

2. 2012 Learning Events:

  1. Birth 2012: Co-Creating Planetary Shift – Join Evolutionists, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Jean Houston, Stephen Dinan and the Shift Team on Conception Day – April 22, 2012 to celebrate and plan for December 22, 2012 to create a planetary shift. Free Registration is at: http://conceptionday2012.com . Let’s create a wave for change that exceeds the 100 million people this event intends to attract.
  2. Apply Integral City principles to a Community of Interest in April, 2012 at Royal Roads University Sustainable Community Development Graduate Certificate. The Capital Regional District of Victoria will be our Community of Interest and we will be working with them on their Master Pedestrian and Cycling Plan for our second Graduate Certificate Course. Click here for Registration Details. Or contact us if you’d like to nominate a location for a Community of Interest rru@integralcity.com . You supply the place, we supply a cohort of highly motivated Action Learning researchers!
  3. Join Dr. Don Beck at the Adizes Graduate School in Santa Barbara for his timely Spiral Dynamics: The Quest for the Master Code . April 9-14, 2012. For registration, contact stephanie@adizes.com
  4. Foresight Canada www.foresightcanada.ca is offering a course on systems mapping as one of the foundational skills for seeing and shaping the future, March 22 & 23, 2012 in Calgary. They are also offering in Ottawa, April 26-27 Is our Civilization Sustainable;  May 10-11, in Victoria, New Tools for Foresight; and October 18-19 in Calgary, Governing Whole Systems for our Shared Future. Contact Ruben Nelson, ED at foresightcanada@shaw.ca
  5. Center for Human Emergence is sponsoring a Global/Local Change series in October/November 2012. Send inquiries to CHEChange@integralcity.com . Stay tuned for dates and locations.
  6. Order the DVD of the August, 2011 Embody Integral Sustainability Conference sponsored by Experience Integral at Venwoude, NL. This DVD includes presentations by Barrett Brown, Marilyn Hamilton, Irini Rockwell, Anouk Brack +++.

2. Recent Blog Postings from marilyn.integralcity.com include:

…meshful blessings for this season of Birth and Generativity … 

 Marilyn

Useful Links:

Twitter: integralcity; LinkedIn: Marilyn Hamilton

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Almere Principles Guide City Growth

Posted in A. Contexting Intelligences, B. Individual Intelligences, C. Collective Intelligences, D. Strategic Intelligences, E. Evolutionary Intelligences, Ego, Ethno, tagged , , , , , on April 20, 2011 | 3 Comments »


Almere NL, a city of 190,000 is getting ready for a “scale jump” to double in size by 2030. Seeking guidelines to renew and transform itself, in 2008, it invited Cradle to Cradle authors William McDonough and Michael Braungart to craft principles by which the city could grow sustainably in balance with its unique polder environment and with its challenge to settle people and grow jobs that contribute to an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable future.

The seven Almere Principles are intimately connected with “an act of culture and the expression of an optimistic approach of the future (1)”. Like the Integral City intelligences the Principles describe the need for Contexting, Capacity Building, Strategy and Evolution. Using the Integral City sequence, but quoting verbatim from the manifesto (1), here are the Almere Principles:

CONTEXTING:

Connect Place and Context: To connect the city we will strengthen and enhance her identify. Based on its own strength and on mutual benefit, the city will maintain active relationships with its surrounding communities at large.

Combine City and Nature: To give meaning to the city we will consciously aim to bring about unique and lasting combinations of the urban and natural fabric, and raise awareness of human interconnectedness with nature.

CAPACITY BUILDING:

Empower People to Make the City: Acknowledging citizens to be the driving force in creating, keeping and sustaining the city, we facilitate opportunities for our citizens to pursue their unique potential, with spirit and dignity.

Cultivate Diversity: To enrich the city we acknowledge diversity as a defining characteristic of robust ecological, social and economical systems. By appraising and stimulating diversity in all areas, we can ensure Almere will continue to grow and thrive as a city rich in variety.

STRATEGY:

Design Healthy Systems: To sustain the city we will utilize “crade to cradle” solutions, recognizing the interdependence, at all scales, of ecological, social and economic health.

Continue Innovation: To advance the city we will encourage improved processes, technologies and infrastructures, and we will support experimentation and the exchange of knowledge.

EVOLUTION:

Anticipate Change: To honour the evolution of the city we will incorporate generous flexibility and adaptability in our plans and programs, in order to facilitate unpredictable opportunities for future generations.

Since their inception The Almere Principles have a provided strong framework within which to make difficult decisions related to infrastructure development, green space management and re-negotiating relationships between the municipality and the residents. As the new “scale jump” for the city comes on stream, it is hoped the principles continue as the backbone for minimal critical structure that enables the full blossoming of the city coming of age.

Reference:

Feddes, F. (Ed.). (2008 ). The Almere Principles. Almere, NL: The Municipality of Almere.

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Songpa South Korea Awarded the Globe Sustainable City Award 2011

Posted in Building - Structures, C. Collective Intelligences, Level 7 Yellow, Navigating - IVSM, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 29, 2011 | 1 Comment »


STOCKHOLM, March 28, 2011 − The South Korean district Songpa wins the Globe Sustainable City Award 2011 for excellent sustainable urban development.

The Globe Sustainable City Award is now presented for the third year. The aim of the City Award is to recognize cities and municipalities, which excel in sustainable, urban development, and to set a positive example for others. The general mission of the Globe Sustainability Awards is to highlight and acknowledge particular cases and initiatives within the sustainability arena.

Songpa is an Asian City with a 2000 year-long history, as well as a recent history of Sport Olympics in 1988. It is now becoming a regeneration front-runner as it pioneers with the implementation of many innovations for Sustainability. Songpa employs a suite of significant sustainability metrics, which are branding it as a Sustainable Eco City. Among other indicators, environmental governance by the Green Songpa Committee demonstrates unique leadership.  Along with Eco Technology and Eco Leadership, the impressive Solar Power Plants qualify Songpa for the Globe Award.  Their application states:

“A modern City is not designed simply to facilitate convenience of human life, but to allow people of every group to mingle harmoniously with each other in order to work hard to preserve the environment for the next generations…”.   Aligning with this framing of Songpa’s philosophy of sustainability, the Globe Award jury affirms Songpa’s qualifications to receive the Award.

The competition was strong and the runners-up were such remarkable communities as: Araçuaí in Brazil, Murcia in Spain, São Paulo in Brazil, and Tampere in Finland. “Strong passion for a more sustainable city in combination with a high level of innovation of building effective processes between stakeholders is the backbone of the application from Songpa”, says jury group Chairman Jan Sturesson.

“Songpa has approached sustainability on a grand scale where its success with river restoration has expanded to solar energy production, resulting in completely re-patterning life for its citizens. The strong collaboration between different sectors of society – private, public and NGO – together with a holistic approach in building an environment-friendly solar power plant is a winning concept. Songpa had a really strong application in this contest – not the least of which was because the project involved NGO and private industry in support of a charitable purpose, i.e. cheap electricity for the poor. All of the contenders for the award this year, realized that human and social capital is critical to keep city dwellers in a harmonious relationship with each other”, emphasises Chairman Jan Sturesson.

The prize ceremony will be held virtually at the Globe Forum Sustainability Conference in Stockholm on May 11th. The winner and the jury will co-present the winning project. There will be an online chat after the prize ceremony so anyone who wishes can put forward questions directly to the laureates.

More information about the program is available at: www.globeforum.com/stockholm

The Globe Sustainability Awards have been given out since 2007 in four categories: Sustainable Research, Innovation, Reporting – and since 2009 – Sustainable City.

More information about Globe Award and other winners, is available at the Globe Award Website.

About Songpa:

Songpa has been effectively pursuing Green Policy with the aim of making their comprehensive environmental vision happen. Trying to become a Sustainable Low Carbon & Green Growth Leading City, Songpa has been taking many initiatives, such as: Green Energy, Ecological Urban Environment, recycling of resources, etc.  the level of implemented innovations is remarkable as well as short- and long-terms objectives which have been under way for years. By engaging the residents in implementing the innovative programs and raising public awareness about the environment and fulfilling green governance Songpa has been creating a multi-dimensional sustainable city.

The Jury:
The jury for the Globe Sustainable City Award consists of highly experienced and internationally recognized experts. The overall chairman of all four jury groups is Lars-Olle Larsson, Partner at PwC Sweden.

 

Jan Sturesson – Chairman of the jury, Partner at PwC and Global Leader of Government and Public Service, Sweden member of World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council of Urbanization.

Carlos Arruda – PhD, Chairman of the Unicon, Director of the International Relations and coordinator of the Innovation Center Fundação Dom Cabral (FDC), Brazil

Lawrence Bloom – Deputy Chairman of Noble Cities Plc., Former Chair and Current Member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Urban Management, Chairman of the UN Environmental Programme, Green Economy Initiative, sector on Green Cities, Buildings and Transport. and the UK Chair of the Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organisation

Marilyn Hamilton – PhD, CGA is the founder of Integral City Meshworks Inc. and TDG Global Learning Connections, Canada 

C. S. Kiang – professor, Chairman of Peking University Environment Fund, China

Leif Edvinsson – Adjunct Professor of Intellectual Capital at Lund University, Sweden

Hazem Galal – Globe Award Ambassador, Partner at PwC, Brazil

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Globe Award was founded in 2007 in Sweden by the international business network and marketplace Globe Forum. Globe Award 2011  acknowledges prominent researchers, innovators, cities and companies – from all parts of the world – within four categories Sustainability Research Award, Sustainability Innovation Award, Sustainable City Award and the Sustainability Reporting Award.

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Spiritual Practices for Dealing with the News

Posted in C. Collective Intelligences, Emergence, Global/Worldcentric, Integral Maps, Level 8 Turquoise, tagged , , , , , on March 23, 2011 |


As a follow up to my blog on the Systems and Resilience Cycles for the Restoration of Sendai, Integral City Spiritual Advisor, Terry Patten blogs a much needed set of practices for dealing with the News – good, bad and otherwise.  Terry says:

“The news so far during 2011 has been particularly electrifying: Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, and the whole Middle East.  Budget crises worldwide, and in the USA, bitter battles including dramatic moves to rewrite the social contract. Japan’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis. The brutal civil war and international intervention in Libya. And there will be more electrifying and heartbreaking news soon, undoubtedly.

It stirs our hearts and our fears, distracts us, fascinates us, and confuses us. There are several ways to practice with this kind of news, and I want to share three perspectives about how we can work with it as a practice.” 

Terry outlines three practices that work at every level – from the macro-world scale to the deeply personal experience.  Click here to read his full blog.

These practices can help us find how to respond to news in ways that tap into our capacity to find out how we can offer our greatest service to the world’s greatest needs - whether that be holding a compassionate heart-space and/or taking appropriate action.  Following, Terry’s wisdom releases us from addictive reactions into designing proactive responses. This is a whole system win because it creates relationships with self, other, Gaia and the Kosmos that make possible an evolutionary emergence. For those who follow these practices in the Integral City it opens up the channels of healing, resonance and collective intelligence.

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Merchants & Philanthropists Creating & Using Diasporas

Posted in C. Collective Intelligences, Emergence, Ethno, Global/Worldcentric, Meshworking, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 4, 2011 |


The weak signals that diasporas emit into and outside of systems reported earlier this week is the subject of a new book. Parag Khanna, a Distinguished Visitor at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto has just released “How to Run the World”.

Excerpts in today’s National Post read:

“In the Middle Ages, diverse merchant communities were a driving force of diplomacy, managing to translate languages, exchange currencies, and trade a cornucopia of goods across Eurasia. … Corporations now have the grand strategies just like countries. … Technology and finance have torn apart the relationship between borders and identity. … What will the politics of Arab monarchies look like if the Indian government starts demanding a political voice for its millions of guest workers who outnumber the local populations by five to one?”

One wonders what kinds of inter-group tournaments are on the verge of emerging between human hives and national clusters of human hives?

Read the whole excerpt here: Our Ne0-Medieval World

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RRU Faculty & Students Sustain Community Development Using Integrative, Integral & Evolutionary Models

Posted in A. Contexting Intelligences, D. Strategic Intelligences, E. Evolutionary Intelligences, F. Training, Global/Worldcentric, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on February 28, 2011 |


At Royal Roads University, the inaugural Sustainable Community Development (SCD) cohort has just completed their first Potentials for Adaptive Change Residency on RRU Campus.

In the first week of February, after three weeks online, a cohort, with professions as varied as municipal forester, downtown revitalization director, tourism instructor and sustainability officer, whose members come from geography that spans from Port Hardy to Ottawa and eight other locations in between, met face to face for the first time.

As a backbone of their studies they will be working with one Community of Interest throughout the program. In 2011 it is the Royal Roads University City of Colwood. The cohort accepted a challenge from Colwood to develop strategies for implementing a Climate Action Plan. Using Colwood’s Official Community Plan as a guide for framing a strategy, over the next five months, the cohort will complete two distance learning programs as they determine their recommendations. 

The first distance course will focus on Building Community Engagement and the second with explore Foundations for Resilient Systems.  Throughout the program, the cohort is using ideas, tools and models with a distinctive RRU flavor – from the work of Dr. Ann Dale, Canada Chair of Sustainable Community Development, Dr. Marilyn Hamilton’s Integral City model and Dr. Graeme Taylor’s evolutionary views of global transformation.

By the time the SCD cohort meets again for their Capstone Residency in July, 2011, they will have designed an “integrative model, with effective, implementable tools to engage community stakeholders to strengthen communication and create a culture of resilience regarding climate change and the community’s future.” Echoing, the City’s Mayor Saunders, the cohort believes, “This is an opportunity for our community to be a leader in sustainability”.

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Death of Personal Responsibility & Nanny State => System Social Responsibility?

Posted in B. Individual Intelligences, C. Collective Intelligences, Level 7 Yellow, tagged , , , , , on January 31, 2011 | 1 Comment »


Last week the National Post (NP) ran a most interesting series on the death of personal responsibility . Many of the reporters spoke nostaligically of a time when life was determined by the decisions of individuals and families unmitigated by the so-called  nanny state .

This vociferously argued dialectic seems to me a false one. It seems to glorify the condition of individual responsibilities at the expense of the role of the state. The articles went a long way to extend the argument in defense of the rights and freedoms of individuals into reclaiming the requisite responsibilities that are needed to balance those qualities of life. Not surprisingly (given the NP’s conservative editorial bent) the nanny state was painted as an interfering bureaucracy that created the conditions where citizens not only used it as a means of gaining unearned entitlements, but that its very existence made citizens dependent on the state, like an addictive substance that robbed them of personal will and responsibility.

What is missing from these well written (and entertaining) stories is any perspective that might transcend and include both personal responsibility and the nanny state. Using an integral lens (and particularly the Spiral Dynamics developmental framework)  it is possible to see that values relating to both these conditions of life alternate in individual human development and social evolution. In fact they emerge in tandem with one another.

The cycle of personal development starts with the most basic condition of being able to survive at birth, which is enabled by the mini “nanny state” of the family (or surrogate) that supports young life. The next stage of personal development emerges as personal expression (very ego-based with few constraints) which can be bounded by the duty, rules and good government of the institutions of (even budding) democracies (or the dire strictures and threats of fundamentalist states). The third stage of personal development desires sufficient personal responsibility to reap the rewards of efforts and success – a condition that has ironically in the democratic world, produced such wealth that it can fund the emergence of the so-called  nanny state. And the purpose of the nanny state according to many of the NP authors is to curtail personal responsibility because the success of the individual threatens the greater good of all – and especially the greater good of the state bureaucracy.

Somewhat lacking in the NP examination of this topic is the emergence of an organization that is neither individual person nor state – the rise of the corporation – an organization that has the rights and freedoms of the individual, but until recently, little of the ethic of personal responsibility. The rebellion against corporate irresponsibility – especially in its intrusion into the rights of the commons - has raised the hackles of both those who defend personal rights and freedoms and those who resent the corporations’ intrusion into traditional state territory.

While the NP writers bemoan the loss of personal responsibility, they do not expound on the virtues of corporate responsibility – and it is this kind of responsibility that the world needs to encourage now. It must transcend and include personal responsibility and the nanny state and  sweep in the missing elements of corporate responsibility. (Indeed it should also include the whole area of civil society that embraces not-for-profits, NGO’s, and social enterprises.)

The key to this next stage of emergence is that it will be a systemic responsibility – one that not only embraces the four pillars of sustainability (economic, environment, social and cultural) but that also reveals responsibility in the four quadrants of an integral life – individual thoughts and actions and collective cultures and systems – all embraced by the environmental imperative that is under attack by all levels of irresponsibility - personal, state and corporate.

So thanks to the NP for raising these important issues on the decline of personal responsibility. But when will we hear next about an entirely new view of the relationship between the individual and the state and the corporation? This is a call for systemic responsibility that would emerge a true ecology for personal transformation and a state governance that relinquishes the inadequacies of nanny-ism to grow up into an effective instrument that can defend the common good for the co- and-inter-dependence of  individuals, corporations and the environment ?

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