This newsletter is published quarterly using a cycle of perspectives on the Integral City viewed from: Planet, People, Place and Power. The theme of this issue is Planet.
When we take the perspective of Caring for Planet, we gain the Overview of a Living System Cosmology that embraces all of the Cares into ONE planet. We discern the deep connections of Planetary Care in VUCA times – using Climate Change as an example that calls on the collaboration of individuals and collectives wearing the hats of the Practical, Political and Personal. We appreciate the power of Spirituality to bring optimism alive and optimization to empower our practices. We learn how a Salutogenic sense of Wellbeing creates the conditions for a Planet of Cities interconnected through science and spirit. We gain insights through the powers of ECOintention to change whole systems through sensing the energies of person, peoples, place and planet.
Hamilton, M. Editor (2021). Caring for Planet, Urban Hub 20, Integral Mentors, Cape Town
Scroll to end of newsletter to access Free Resources.
How Does Integral City Impact 1111 Cities in 10 Years?
It has been over 10 years since Integral City Meshworks set out to wake up cities as living systems – human hives. If we counted 1 city for every 5 persons we are connected with through our website, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter we could estimate that we have “thought” experiments brewing in more than 1000 cities across 5 continents.
2021 marks the start of a new target. We have set out to not just wake up cities – but grow up cities in the next decade. We aim to impact 1111 in the next 10 years: 1001 small cities; 100 medium sized cities; 10 large cities.
Growing up a living city involves not just learning how to sustain the city as a living system, but also how it takes responsibility for connecting to its ecoregion and regenerating the resources it draws from its ecological footprint.
Setting the target, we must then ask our leadership question:
How does Integral City Community of Practice grow up 1111 cities for the purpose of addressing the BIG Global Challenges for the wellbeing of Gaia and all her living beings?
We start by growing our Integral City Community of Practice through training new practitioners, reinforcing the training and practice of existing practitioners into catalysts and meshworkers, and training trainers to expand the field of practice every year. We will seek opportunities to deliver the training in other languages (like Russian School for Mayors; and Urban Hub 20 Spanish – see below).
Training starts with our partnership with Ubiquity University (UU). At UU we deliver these courses and degrees online:
- Beyond Smart: Integral City Practices, Tools and Maps
- Beyond Resilient: Integral City Inquiry, Action and Impact
- Master of Regenerative Action
The BIG Challenges are many but the key ones we start with are these 4:
- Climate Change
- Pandemic
- Social Justice
- Regenerativity
How can Integral City practitioners address these challenges? We commence by considering how the key frameworks bring care, contexting and capacity building to designing approaches to regenerate human hives as contributors to the wellbeing of Gaia.
- 5 Maps
- Master Code of Care: Care for Self, Others, Place, Planet
- 12 Intelligences
- 4 + 1 Voices
In this issue we start exploring how the Integral City 5 Maps can be used for growing capacities for Climate Change and Regeneration. Watch for future blogs and newsletters that explore how Integral City approaches the Big Challenges with our scaffolds of Care and Intelligences, Voices and Maps.
Accelerating City Change in a VUCA World
**New** Spanish Urban Hub 20
Urban Hub 20 imagines how the Power of the Master Code of Care can catalyze city change? Over 20 contributors show how their practices contribute to the wellbeing of the Human Hive as a whole, living, complex adaptive system. In collaborating for this volume, we offer a service to a VUCA World (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) – offering our integrally informed specialities to discover solutions for the world’s BIG challenges. As we emerge into the recovery stages of the pandemic (again), we know that the Integral City’ s Urban Hub 20 approach to People, Place and Planet offers powerful designs for regenerating wellbeing and enlivening the next stage of evolution for the Human Hive.
This e-book is now available in Spanish, with Spanish Translation by Raquel Torrent, Curator Marilyn Hamilton.
“This is a truly brilliant and much needed presentation. The author has brought together an extremely intelligent group of writers and thinkers to apply Integral principles to the problems and creative openings of city, regions, ecosystems, and the biosphere itself. Each one of these areas is treated as a living, complex, integral system, and the ways that they all mutually interact are fully explored, with the added benefit that they are all looked through an integral lens, insuring that a fully whole and complete path is taken. There is really no other approach like this available, and certainly none that give as full and comprehensive and inclusive an account. I can’t recommend this approach more highly, it truly touches a level of genius.” Ken Wilber—Sex, Ecology, Spirituality; The Integral Vision
New links for the e-book in English:
https://issuu.com/paulvanschaik/docs/urbanhub20-vuca3
Links for Spanish will be published here soon.
A Whole New Kind of MBA for the Fierce Urgency of Now
Integral City Partners with Ubiquity U for Master in Regenerative Action (MRA)
Human ecology is as broken and despoiled as Nature’s is. Both must be renewed immediately and synergistically. The nature and scope of our crises, at the center of which is runaway climate change, leave humanity with no other choice. We must regenerate or perish.
To address this challenge Integral City Meshworks joins Ubiquity University (UU) and the University of International Cooperation (UCI) and other partner NGOs and professional organizations, to launch a whole new MBA degree called a Master in Regenerative Action (MRA). At the center of the MRA is Doughnut Economics as well as a range of other regenerative approaches to ecology, economics, politics, consciousness, and culture. The focus is on Knowledge leading to Action to regenerate our world.
Our coalition of content providers and specialists will work together over time with the intent to create a global consensus around the imperative to move beyond Sustainability to Regeneration. We will link learning about Regeneration with what activists and practitioners need on the ground for effective and informed action. Our goal is to build a program grounded in service to bioregional development and the regeneration of cities and the entire political economy. Every sector of human society must be transformed to be regenerative.
As background, GPM, UCI, and Ubiquity came together, the coalition was conceived and has been established through Humanity Rising. This is an initiative of Ubiquity University and over 350 partnering organizations worldwide to create a daily global commons to enable people to share their experiences as we all navigate through the pandemic and take counsel together as to how we can increase our strategic effectiveness. In July 2020, Ed Mueller, Founder and President of UCI, convened a seven-day program on Doughnut and Regenerative Economics and another five-day program in October on Moving Toward a Regenerative World. In January 2021, Integral City Meshworks and Populus Community Planning convened a five-day program on Cities Rising for a Regenerative World. It was out of these programs that the idea was conceived to build a coherent body of content linked to bio-regions and cities. The initial focus will be on a Master in Regenerative Action designed to serve activists everywhere seeking to regenerate community and environment.
Details and Register for Courses/Degree here: https://www.ubiquityuniversity.org/courses/mra-masters-in-regenerative-action/
New Ubiquity U Course with Integral City Meshworker of the Year – City Nestworking
City Nestworking is a course for people who want to learn how to more effectively work with the systems of the city to improve the quality of life in our cities, at any scale. You might be an active citizen, working in the business world or the non-profit sector, or working in one of our public institutions. What you share is a desire to make cities that serve citizens well—and a desire to be citizens who contribute consciously to the city habitat we make for ourselves. (Cities work as well as we make them.)
This course explores how we need to look at the systems of the city and our places in those systems, and our relationships with and within those systems. The course thus explores the quality of “civic practice” and “social habitat” that is needed to accomplish our work addressing the Sustaindable Development Goals (SDGs).
The twelve lessons are organized into three modules. In Module 1 (Lessons 1-4) we will explore city systems and how city-making is a survival skill for the human species. In Module 2 (Lessons 5-8) we will examine the role of tension and conflict in cities as a pull for improvement. In Module 3 (Lessons 9-12) we will delve into how we are each city makers and evolutionary agents for the city.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this course you should be able to:
- Outcome 1: Discern your place in city-systems in a variety of ways
- Outcome 2: Distinguish a variety of roles and “stances” you can take in your city making work to improve your effectiveness
- Outcome 3: Interact with vital feedback loops that enable a city to inquire into the future it wishes for itself, and take appropriate action
- Outcome 4: Describe effective “social habitats” where needed improvements to the city can be advanced.
Faculty: Beth Sanders MCP, RPP – Beth is the author of Nest City: How Cities Serve Citizens and Citizens Serve Cities. She is an award-winning city planner, including the International Integral City Meshworker of the Year in 2013.
Details and Registration for the Course here: https://www.ubiquityuniversity.org/courses/city-nestworking/
Integral City 5 Maps Restory Human Systems & Climate Change
How do the 5 Maps used by Integral City make visible the wholeness of the human hive, when we consider Climate Change?
Each of the maps gives us different perspectives to view the patterns of wholeness – through stories. (Moreover, the Integral City maps reveal the consciousness and culture changes that Doughnut Economics depends on to realize AQAL development that brings human systems back into balance with all living systems.)
This is an extract from the story of Map 5. (Note its story dateline is in the imaginary future).
…It turns out that Map 5 shows how we awakened not simply to a Century of the City – but awakened the City and its Region to a Century of crystal clarity about the holographic, fractal elegance of Evolutionary Care. The Century of clarity revealed that humans have a common language of Care – care that manifests at fractal scales (just like a diamond refracts light) in service to Gaia – care for Self, Others, Places, Planet. …
When we look back over this century from 2100, we see that the sacred caring for wholeness revealed the mysterious coherence of multiple city systems, beliefs and compassion that opened wide the doors for Peace and Unity in the world.
As we celebrate this new Century 2100, we know it must be the Century of Gaia-Care. And we must honour the pioneers of the century just past, who have redeemed the destructive nature of cities and redefined the meaning of Anthropocene to signify the era when the human species matured city-regions as Gaia’s Caring System in service to all Life.
Click here to read the whole article on Map 5. Integral City Map 5 – Century of Awakening: City/Regions Redeem Anthropocene
Read how Maps 1 to 4 contribute to addressing Climate Change here:
Integral City Map 1 is a Set of Climate Change Mirrors
Integral City Map 2 is a Telescope of Climate Stories
Integral City Map 3 Shows Gaia is an Ecological Holographer
Integral City Map 4 Organically Patterns Human Systems as Climate Changers
Russian Living Cities & RANEPA Launch School for Mayors
A first integrally-informed ExEd program for mayors has been launched by the largest Russian university RANEPA in collaboration with Living Cities community of practice. This hands-on collaboration between a huge state university (with campuses in over 50 regions of Russia) and a self-organized “teal” expert community is unprecedented by itself.
On March 17, 2021 they had the first session with participants from 25 cities across Russia. (Some cities sent teams!) Marina Demchenko gave a beautiful introduction into the integral mindset – already one participant later commented:
“I was stunned by how important and groundbreaking was our session today! This holistic view of seeing ourselves as separate whole selves and yet as parts of an integrated organism is exactly what I need in my project [of city center revitalization]. This is the language I will internalize and speak with all our stakeholders!”
The groundbreaking RANEPA School for Mayors is based on work of many experts, authors and practitioners from the Integral City Meshworks and Living Cities. Mayors and city leaders from 27 cities are exploring AQAL, 4 voices, Master Code of Care and many other frameworks well known to the readers of this newsletter. The first program is underway from March 15 thru July 17, 2021 and it will run twice a year thereafter.
Upcoming Integral City & Constellation Events with Planet Purpose
March 20-21, 2021, Caravan of Unity, Co-Creating Europe.Ellen van Dongen and Lifemaps Team leads the Story of Lifemaps in Europe. Click here to participate or obtain recordings.
May 2021, (date/time tbd) Integral Europe Conference Online 2021, The Future of Collective Evolution, Marilyn Hamilton to present, Pandemic as Practice,Finding the Road to Calm Through the Quadrants at Findhorn Ecovillage. Click here for details and registration.
April 9-15 2021, Online Global Ecovillage Summit, Living Solutions for a Regenerative World. Marilyn Hamilton Interview date tba. Click here for details and registration.
Ubiquity University, Independent learning, video-guided course for Integral City Basic Practice: Beyond Smart: Practices, Tools, Maps. Click here for details and registration.
Ubiquity University, Independent learning, video-guided course for Integral City Practitioners/Catalysts: Beyond Resilient: Inquiry Action & Impact. Click here for details and registration.
May 12 – July 28, 2021 City Nestworking. Faculty Beth Sanders. Ubiquity University, Live Course (and Independent learning, video-guided course). Click here for details and registration.
October 2021, Ecocity Online 2021 Summit . Urban Transformations for Nature-Based Solutions. Watch for Program and Dates in months ahead. Click here for details and registration.
- Integral City has started a new YouTube Channel to bring together its videos in one place. Click here to and bookmark the channel.
- Keep abreast of our Integral City Events on the Mighty Network – just click here.
- Join Marilyn Hamilton/Integral City monthly for our free zoom INTER/Views from the Balcony
- Or join Beth Sanders/Nest City monthly for our free zoom Street Corner Visiting – – 8pm BST – 4th Tuesday of the Month.
Celebrating Our Planet in the Coming Quarter of 2021
March 20 marks the start of what Integral City calls the Planet Quarter (from March 20 to June 21 ). As the world emerges into our new seasons, north and south, people everywhere are raising their heads above the “pandemic lockdown parapet”. We are wondering what might happen next? Over the last year we have become conscious of our global interconnections like never before. We are so intimately aware of health on our planet because of the daily news of pandemic updates, that we may have developed a similar expectation for such news in the same way we listen to weather reports. Perhaps the outer awareness of weather combined with the inner awareness of health and wellbeing are the life conditions we need to become really committed to make changes in our lives? Are we ready to regenerate human systems for a climate that aligns with Gaia’s wellbeing? In the last year, what have you reconsidered in your relationship with the planet? When you look up at night to moon and stars, what are you grateful for that your Mother Planet has blessed you with? When you stretch into the rising sun of a new day, what and whom do you look forward to doing? meeting? speaking with? When you share the multitude of resources we have inherited from our evolutionary ancestors, how do you thank our very alive Mother Planet that supports us?
Visit us on our Integral City Website and Blog or post a comment about your city interests on our Mighty Network.
Meshful Blessings of this Season Celebrating Planet …
Marilyn Hamilton and the Integral City Constellation Corps Team
PS Here are some FREE resources for Embracing the Planet we Love:
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- C40 Women for Climatehttps://www.youtube.com/hashtag/women4climatehttps://w4c.org/news/celebrating-women4climate-international-womens-dayhttps://w4c.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=529235039ea48b192727b37a9&id=1585a255ce&e=9e8760d81c
- Video links from Humanity Rising Summit – Marilyn Hamilton Panelist and/or Moderator
- Day 20 Whole Systems Change https://ubiverse.org/documents/humanity-rising-day-20—recording
- Day 56 Healthy Human Habitats https://ubiverse.org/documents/humanity-rising-day-56—recording
- Day 67 Regenerative Economics https://ubiverse.org/documents/humanity-rising-day-67—recording
- Day 159 Rising for a Regenerative World: AQtivating cities at scale. Reframing the role of cities as Gaia’s Reflective Organs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCQuxvfp5Dc&authuser=0
- Day 160 Cities Rising for a Regenerative World: Living in cities as complex adaptive systems. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxXlSQ-sLMo&authuser=0
- Day 161 Cities Rising for a Regenerative World: Governing with life-cycle patterns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TaEPNKFHaQ&authuser=0
- Day 162 Cities Rising for a Regenerative World: Practicing mutual agency. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFDq-q5zcO0&authuser=0
- Day 163 Cities Rising for a Regenerative World: Integrating Coherence for Regenerativity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AijBIkj2n8A&authuser=0
- Graphic eBook Urban Hub 21: Coming of Age – Dare to Dream
- Research:
- Integral City Blogs
- Islands of Calm Meditation in the Spring at Findhorn
- Moments of Mass Mindfulness -MOMM- for Mother Earth & All Mothers
- Climate Change and Integral City 5 Maps
- Integral City Map 1 is a Set of Climate Change Mirrors
- Integral City Map 2 is a Telescope of Climate Stories
- Integral City Map 3 Shows Gaia is an Ecological Holographer
- Integral City Map 4 Organically Patterns Human Systems as Climate Changers
- Integral City Map 5 – Century of Awakening: City/Regions Redeem Anthropocene
- Integral City Series of Talking Books – to listen/download click here:
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- Introductions to Book 1, Book 2, Book 3
- Talking Book 2 (all 16 chapters) Integral City Inquiry & Action: Designing Impact for the Human Hive
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7. Newsletters Past Issues 2020
- Integral City Reflective Organ — December Solstice 2020 – Cities Waking Up, Growing Up
- Integral City Reflective Organ – September Equinox 2020: Places of Unity Peace and Partnership
- Integral City Reflective Organ – June Solstice 2020: Lockdown Wakes Up the Human Heart
- Integral City Reflective Organ March Equinox 2020: Superordinate Goal in a VUCA World
8. Integral City MetaBlog 2020 – A Synthesis and index of all Integral City Blogs from 2020
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