Integral City – Enemy or Ally of Evolution?

Allies of Evolution was the theme of Integral Europe Conference 2018. Integral City presented with a focus on Placecaring and Placemaking in the Human Hive.

We used our valuable time to build a bridge for the audience. We took them from a widely held misconception that cities are enemies of evolution to a cosmically informed view that cities are allies of evolution.

We started with a meditation to ground our audience in the present time, location and land of Siofok, Hungary to the eco-region, Europe, hemisphere and planet, reminding ourselves of the alignment of our planetary life and cosmic consciousness – and the moment-to-moment choice we have to connect and reconnect with this massively nested set of relationships. Serendipitously this mediation bookended an experiential process designed by Steve Banks, composer of the Integral Symphony, who offered our audience a musical journey from the Big Bang to an emerging evolutionary future.

Next, we introduced, James Lovelock, author of the Gaia Hypothesis who suggests that humans are Gaia’s “Reflective Organs”. If that proposition emerges from the science of living systems, then we are evolutionarily early on our path to serve the greater good of Gaia. Nevertheless, the IEC2018 conference provided ample evidence that we are waking up to our cosmic calling. Speakers inspired perspectives of a cosmic consciousness and an evolutionary impulse to wake up, grow up and clean up. We heard from Ken Wilber (who suggested that our religions need upgrading to reflect worldviews and soul centres that can embrace the complexity of science that is impacting our daily lives). We applauded the whole Teal Track of Organizational Presentations (who revealed the progress organizations are making as they reinvent themselves to reflect Frederic Laloux’s research beyond organizational vision and living systems into evolutionary purpose and courage). We felt strongly aligned with Roger Walsh (who outlined 10 steps to offer service to a higher calling).

To weave the spiritual with the scientific we offered evidence from the contrasting examples of Integral City work in the USA and Russia. In the USA Imagine Durant have created a vision for their city with the core value of Care and the strategies to implement it through embracing Citizen, Community and Economic objectives. In Russia, Living Cities has set out to change 1000 cities by 2030 using the principles of Integral City and the Living Cities’ Charter – and we met last November 311 mayors of Monocities who have initiated those changes.

We concluded our message of positive city emergence by sharing the Master Code – recognizing that we are in evolutionary potent times. For the first time in history we can make decisions that align and enable Care for Self, Others, Place and Planet.

And when we realize that more than 50% of humanity now live in cities, they are the logical place to leverage the differences humans can make as Allies of Evolution. When we consider that the majority of the xx countries represented at the conference hold populations where 75% to 90% of people live in cities, we must mature our cities’ evolutionary contribution as Allies of Evolution or betray our commitment as individuals to wake up, grow up and clean up.

This blog series celebrates presence of Integral City at Integral Europe Conference 2018.

The series includes: