I have been following the work of Geoffrey West through the scholarly articles that have been sent my way, by Integral City readers who could see the application of his research to the frameworks, patterns and dynamics I had described in Book 1, (Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive) and applied in Book 2 (Integral City Inquiry & Action: Designing Impact for the Human Hive) along with my own scholarly articles and ongoing blogs (which you can find on this website www.integralcity.com/Resources).

The original framework for Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive was fractal; it depended fundamentally on the concept of scale. My career had lead me through the scales of human systems including the development of individuals, teams, organizations, sectors, communities and cities. I had personal experience at noticing that the patterns of one scale reflected the patterns in the other scales. I set out to explain why, and offered a framework of 12 Intelligences that cities must use to become and remain sustainable and resilient. The 12 Intelligences provide explanations for the dynamics, interrelationships and cohesion of cities through 5 core capacities that Cities must demonstrate for their sustainability and resilience, namely; Contexting, Individual, Collective, Strategic and Evolutionary.

Having now read Scale, I observe that besides fractalness and complex adaptive systems, the inspirations, patterns and conclusions the two books share seem to include (page numbers from Scale):

  • Instruction from social insects – fyi I privilege the honeybee more than other insects to give us instruction (p. 282-3)
  • Non-linearity
  • Collective human mind (I call it Human Hive Mind) (p.31)
  • Framing of physics and biology in terms of energy, matter/resources, information
  • Spirituality as expression of natural order (and/or vice versa) (p. 172)
  • Humans have emerged as “consciousness and culture of the evolutionary process” (p.178-9)
  • Relevance of lifespan (C.4)
  • Cities are people (p. 346)
  • Fate of cities is fate of planet (p. 262)
  • Soulless ghost towns of China, Brasilia (C.6)
  • Fractal network patterns of microcosm and macrocosm (p. 291)
  • The multi-trans-cross-disciplinarily of our data sources and influences. I can’t say enough, about what a joy it is to tap into the radically informed and optimistic views and data you offer. (Some of my trans-disciplinary influences are in the Endnote below [1].)

Endnote: Significant Transdisciplinary Sources for Integral City – an informal list

Wilber – all his writings on Integral Framework

Graves/Beck/Cowan – Human Psychology as CAS; Spiral Dynamics

James Grier Miller –Living Systems of Biology from Cell to Nation State

Eliot Jaques – Requisite Organization

Ichak Adizes – Corporate Lifecycle

Gunderson & Holling – Panarchy – evolutionary cycles of living systems

Rupert Sheldrake – Morphogenic energy fields