Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘research’

Meshwork City Research, Planning & Management

Posted in D. Strategic Intelligences, Meshworking, tagged , , , , , , , on August 17, 2012 | 3 Comments »


Meshworking intelligences contribute to research, planning and management in the city.

Meshworkers and meshweavers can create the conditions for aligning purposes, priorities, people and planet.  They can engage individuals, groups and sectors as stakeholders from each of the integral quadrants and focus on issues and purposes (like Millennium Development Goals).  Meshworkers can help these stakeholders to “connect the dots” and align their intentions so systems flow.

What are the principles meshworkers should use? Three simple rules for applying Integral City Meshworking Intelligences are:

  1. Catalyze fractal connections within the human hive.
  2. Build communication bridges across silos, stovepipes and solitudes.
  3. Enable meshes and hierarchies that transform, transcend and transmute capacities.

===

This blog is a prologue to the Integral City webinar conference  City 2.0 Co-Creating the Future of the Human Hive . We are inventing a new operating system for the city.  Click to get more details re the Free Expo and eLaboratory membership  scheduled September 4-27  2012. You are invited to attend and participate.

Read Full Post »

Neuroimaging Research Confirms Values Preferences Are Visible in Brain Patterns

Posted in B. Individual Intelligences, C. Collective Intelligences, Outer, Storytelling - Cultures, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on April 24, 2011 | 1 Comment »


Dr. Clare Graves(1) (and many researchers since) proposed that human values systems emerged in alternating stages of Individualistic expression and Collectivist embrace. He had the insight to propose that evidence would be found in the biological domains (as well as psychological and social) long before technology like fMRI scanning had been invented.  Graves proposition is fundamental to the framework (developed by Dr. Don Beck) that has become Spiral Dynamics integral.

Now Dr. Marc Lucas and his research colleagues in Cologne Germany are proving Dr. Graves’  propositions were quite correct. In a just published article they summarize their findings, showing that distinctive brain patterns can be associated with Individualistic versus Collectivist preferences .  With permission, we have reprinted the Abstract below. Click on the title to access the full article.

Moral Concepts Set Decision Strategies to Abstract Values

Abstract

Persons have different value preferences. Neuroimaging studies where value-based decisions in actual conflict situations were investigated suggest an important role of prefrontal and cingulate brain regions. General preferences, however, reflect a superordinate moral concept independent of actual situations as proposed in psychological and socioeconomic research. Here, the specific brain response would be influenced by abstract value systems and moral concepts. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying such responses are largely unknown. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a forced-choice paradigm on word pairs representing abstract values, we show that the brain handles such decisions depending on the person’s superordinate moral concept. Persons with a predominant collectivistic (altruistic) value system applied a “balancing and weighing” strategy, recruiting brain regions of rostral inferior and intraparietal, and midcingulate and frontal cortex. Conversely, subjects with mainly individualistic (egocentric) value preferences applied a “fight-and-flight” strategy by recruiting the left amygdala. Finally, if subjects experience a value conflict when rejecting an alternative congruent to their own predominant value preference, comparable brain regions are activated as found in actual moral dilemma situations, i.e., midcingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Our results demonstrate that superordinate moral concepts influence the strategy and the neural mechanisms in decision processes, independent of actual situations, showing that decisions are based on general neural principles. These findings provide a novel perspective to future sociological and economic research as well as to the analysis of social relations by focusing on abstract value systems as triggers of specific brain responses.

Citation: Caspers S, Heim S, Lucas MG, Stephan E, Fischer L, et al. (2011) Moral Concepts Set Decision Strategies to Abstract Values. PLoS ONE 6(4): e18451. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018451

————————–

Reference:

(1) Graves, C. (2005). The Never Ending Quest: A Treatise on an Emergent Cyclical Conception of Adult Behavioral Systems and Their Development. Santa Barbara, CA: ECLET Publishing.

Read Full Post »

Sense in the City News Update November 2010

Posted in A. Contexting Intelligences, C. Collective Intelligences, climate, Global/Worldcentric, tagged , , , , , , on November 30, 2010 |


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

Today’s Integral City Sparkie for the City Brain :

… a tension in favor of the values and behavior that are most coherent with the current life conditions will tend to be maintained. The flip side of this behavior is that the dominant culture will protect itself against diversity generation. When life conditions finally require the solutions that diversity generation can offer, the problems created by the conformity enforcer values will usually have become so acute that the majority are willing to change. It appears that these natural evolutionary cycles are fractal and emerge at all levels of scale …

Hamilton, M., 2008, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive, p.187

What a difference a month makes. From October’s jubilant Chilean miners’ rescue to November’s desperate Irish economic rescue. We must ponder, how do we know if an eruption of the underworld brings nutrients to the surface or merely toxic discharge? Is it the season of Advent, regrouping, full body scans, pat downs, WikiLeaks, shadows, surrender, pollination, dormancy, climate change or long economic emergencies? We live in a world where tensions, seasons, cultures and expectations are so jumbled we need an integral map to sort out mind, brain, heart and body – so that we can notice the pattern language of the evolutionary impulse as it emerges more resilient meshes.

 

So amongst the seeming disruptions, this month’s newsletter notices signs of hope from Ireland (yes!), Sweden, and Canada.

  1. This month I spent a week in Ireland. While the media reported on the jaded negotiations of the EU and IMF with the Dail, Integral City was contributing to Globe Forum Dublin, witnessing 200 of Ireland’s best researchers and innovators demonstrate Ireland’s real recovery plan in their innovation, ideas and intellect. Listen to our interview with Globe Forum Founder Johan Gorecki and see the Innovating Ireland that Globe Forum catalyzed in November. 
  2. Also check out here Globe Forum Dublin’s Highlight coverage.    
  3. Integral City spoke on Cities as Innovation Ecosystems. Click here for the summary and a great video of our evolutionary teachers, the honey bee.
  4. Nominate your City for Globe Forum, Sustainable City Awards 2010 (deadline in Feb. 4, 2011). This award focuses on a holistic approach to Sustainability  in cities and integrates different types of capital for a better future in cities around the world. If your city can demonstrate one or more special initiatives that it has undertaken in the last two years in one or more of the various types of capital (environmental, intellectual, social, financial, technical, cultural, political) to reach a more sustainable future, then Click here to find the details and invitation links .  
  5. Review the new Research by three Graduates of the Master’s of Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability Program (Bleckinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden). Juan Carlos Kaiten, Kara Stonehouse and Sonja Niederhumer describe their work in  The Magic Canoe – Large Scale Collaboration Towards Sustainable Development. Click here to download a summary and full thesis.   In resonance with the PhD Researchers and Innovators in Dublin the authors say this about their Findings:

The magic canoe is a story about a collaboration process that magically expands in size to include any participants wanting to help in the effort towards achieving a common goal.

In order to ensure the actions taken in the complex system are not accidentally counterproductive, a strategic approach to sustainable development can be undertaken.

The concept of backcasting from basic sustainability principles using systems thinking is the core of strategic sustainable development, and can be can be applied to the collaborative body….

This research attempts to further the body of knowledge for collaboration in complex social systems, as well as link it directly to Strategic Sustainable Development. [The Research Question was:]

How do we foster effective collaboration for systemic sustainable development?

  • Sub Question 1: What are the conditions of success for collaboration?
  • Sub Question 2: How can a process of collaboration be described?
  • Sub Question 3: Based on the process, what guidelines lead to success?

 6. Download PDF of Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Community Development Grad Certificate at Royal Roads University, January 2011– July, 2011 – click here.

 7. Register for Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC, Feb.14, 2011 The Human Hive Creating Intelligent Livable Cities.  

 8. Click on these links for ongoing Integral City Resources:

…meshful blessings for the light that inevitably emerges from the depths in the evolutionary cycle of Life … 

 Marilyn

======================

Marilyn Hamilton PhD CGA

Founder & President, Integral City Meshworks Inc.

www.integralcity.com

Read Full Post »

July-Dec. 2010 Sense in the City Where Why How

Posted in Classroom course, D. Strategic Intelligences, Dialogue, F. Training, Inquiry, Meshworking, Navigating - IVSM, Telecourse, tagged , , , , on July 4, 2010 |


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

We are already into the second half of 2010! Happy 4th of July to American readers! This is a quick link summary of what we have been up to in the first half of 2010 and where we will be going in the second half of 2010. (These are also posted on the blog marilyn.integralcity.com .)

  •  We are happy to announce new research and new podcasts that have been posted to the website (see items 1 and 2).
  • Also below are some of the events and places where we will be contributing until the end of 2010 and into 2011.
  • As usual we look forward to seeing you as we seek to catalyze evolutionary intelligences in the Human Hive

Today’s Integral City Sparkie for the City Mind/Heart:

In the history of the city, human systems have too rarely asked, what ought to be the conscious intention of citizens (or even what is the conscious duty of citizens)?

 Hamilton, M., 2008, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive, p.179

  1. New Research on City Values and Integral Vital Signs Monitor – check it out at http://www.integralcity.com/discovery-zone/research.html
  2. New Podcasts – Preface and 12 Chapters of Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive – download mp3’s http://integralcity.com/Podcasts/podcasts.html
  3. Integral Theory Conference: Enacting an Integral Future – JF Kennedy University, Pleasant Hill, California http://www.integraltheoryconference.org/default.html
    1. July 29, 2010 830am – 12pm Guest of Bert Parlee on Sexual Boundaries in the Integral Community: A Process Workshop
    2. July 29, 2010 1245-415 Generational Cycles, Saecula & Cities: What do Integral Boomers Gen X,Y, Z Need to Let Go Of & Create Anew? Presenter with Cherie Beck
    3. July 30, 2010 200 – 300pm Meshworking Integral Intelligences for Resilient Environments: Enabling Order and Creativity in the Human Hive.  Presenter
    4. July 30, 2010 – 330 pm Panel Moderator: Spiral Dynamics in Academia: The Transdisciplinary Dance of Dissonance
    5. July 31, 2010 1230 – 1:45pm Ginger Group Collaborative, ACE-Its
    6. July 31, 2010 200 – 300pm Panel Member: Women’s Panel: Creating a Full-Spectrum Ecology for Women’s Development
  4. Next Step Integral Conference: Integral Education and Integral Ecology – Presenter, 12 Intelligences of the Human Hive http://i-edu.org/
  5. The Map, The Mesh and The Human Hive – Telecourse, September 2010 – forward inquiries to map@integralcity.com
  6. Royal Roads University, September 13, 2010 – April, 2011 Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Community Development Grad Certificate – Designer, Co-Developer and Faculty for Residency and Distance Learning Courses. http://www.royalroads.ca/program/graduate-certificate-sustainable-community-development
  7. Renaissance2,  Designing a Resilient Civilization Oct. 21-23, Conscious Evolution 24-25 2010. http://www.renaissance2.eu/events/event-detail.php?id=498975449
  8. What if we aren’t planning to survive?  Asks Alberta Association of Canadian Institute of Planners at their annual conference, Lake Louise AB, October 17-19, 2010. Join us.  http://www.aacip.com/public/conferences.html
  9. Business Innovation for Sustainable Growth. Globe Forum Dublin in November 17-18, 2010. Keynote Speaker on Integral City Innovation, Evolution & Resilience http://www.globeforum.com/
  10. Globe Forum, Jury of the Globe Sustainable City awards (in Stockholm in May, 2011). http://www.globeaward.org/

 

…meshful summer blessings … and see you soon.

 Marilyn

Read Full Post »

A Convergence of Capabilities

Posted in Global/Worldcentric, tagged , , , , , , , on August 6, 2009 |


As we travel our journeys of purpose, on purpose, with purpose, it is so comforting to know that others are doing the same. It releases the burden (and hubris) of thinking that you have to do it all. Today I am thinking of four events going on in the world simultaneously in four different cities and three different continents:

In Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Jim Garrison and Peter Merry and team are working with the city and country to catalyze their energy around initiatives for climate change. This kicks off the State of the World Forum Climate Change ten year initiative.

In Toronto, Canada Dr. Don Beck is presenting to the American Psychological Association his views of a new psychology — Large Scale Psychology.  This helps explain human behaviour in large agglomerations like cities, cultures and communities. Our intensely local, trans-local, and  global interactions demand new frameworks to understand how life conditions are triggering our actions and shaping our adaptive responses to change.

On Whidbey Island, WA, USA, the Integral Education Conference is convening for the third year to explore how best to teach humans of all ages to live, work, play in the integral paradigm.

In Tuscany, Italy, Andrew Cohen and his EnlightenNext team are in the midst of a 20 day Discovery Cycle retreat where participants are discovering the depths of practise to Be and Become, so that they can activate their roles as Evolutionaries — active contributors who embody the evolutionary impulse.

The study of Climate Change, Human Behaviour, Capacity to Learn/Teach, our Spiritual Evolution – all give me great hope for the species. The Integral Worldview is opening up new ways for us to survive, connect with our environment and reproduce our memes (as well as our genes) — in other words to LIVE at a new order of being/becoming, that embraces sustainable, intelligent whole systems thinking.

Interestingly the venues for these events are a combination of alive cities and resilient eco-regions – reminding us of the co-creative emergence of our human hives in the context of their re-source-ful environments. I can see many ways that Integral Cities will benefit from each of these undertakings.  I am deeply grateful to Don Beck, the Integral Education Conference Convenors (the Martineau team et al), Andrew Cohen and EnlightenNext, and Jim Garrison, Peter Merry and team, for being inspirations as we travel along the Via Integral — each encouraging and inspiring the others.

Read Full Post »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 780 other followers

%d bloggers like this: