Integral City Ecosystem: 10 Years Incubating Gaia’s Human Hives

10 years ago, Integral City sponsored the first major outreach project after the publication of the first book in the Integral City book series (2008, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive).

We called our online initiative Integral City 2.0 Online Conference or ELab 2012 for short. Before Zoom was ubiquitous, we used the Meeting Maestro to design and deliver a 30-day online lab. Each of 4 weeks featured 3 of the Intelligences explored in the book, interviewing Thought Leaders, Designers and Practitioners related to each Intelligence.

You can find the details of the conference proceedings in these (free downloadable) publications of A Radically Optimistic Inquiry into Operating System 2.0.

• Executive Summary(85 pages)
• Interviews Appendices A1-12(659 pages)
• Harvest Weeks 1-4 / Days 1-12 /  Appendix A13(32 Pages)

We remember with affection and appreciation (and not a little awe at our hutzpah) the doors that we opened at that time, introducing the world to the Thought Leaders, Designers and Practitioners of Integral City’s 12 Intelligences.

We could never have succeeded with this endeavour without the team that gathered to co-create this conference.

It is heart-warming to report that the majority of that team has remained together as Gaia’s Human Hive Integrators – affectionately shortened to DG’s – the Divine Gaians and our invaluable Constellation Team. We have convened monthly for more than 10 years holding the space for Integral City to incubate and mature our various callings to be shared, supported, nurtured and appreciated.

At the end of 2021 when the post COP26 world is still gasping and grasping for ways to respond and reverse Code Red, our DG’s have good reason to celebrate a growing lineage of Care, Complexity and Capacity for Gaia Human Hives. So many manifestations have come from our relationships to Integral City and one another. This powerful team has founded organizations and websites, authored books, blogs and videos, created games and spawned their own communities of practice. (Not surprisingly, 4 of these talented co-creators have been honoured as Integral City Meshworkers of the Year – Beth, Diana Claire, Ellen, Anne-Marie.) As a result, it appears that we have co-created the conditions for an Ecosystem of Integral City Practice.

Beth Sanders, founder of Nest City, has published Nest City: How Citizens Serve Cities and Cities serve Citizens. supporting her work in the world through the website, a series of delightfully illustrated blogs and podcasts.

Diana Claire Douglas, founder of Knowing Field Designs, is on the verge of publishing Whole Systems Design (see short introduction and link to pdf of Chapter 6 here) – sharing her experiences with Integral City both as an organization and as an example of inspiration for Systemic Constellation Work in social contexts, capturing the fractal nature of IC’s complex adaptive patterns.

Ellen van Dongen founder of Lifemaps has created Lifemaps, with 6 scenarios based on Integral City’s Master Code of Care and 4 Voices. (Explore more in the March 2021 Newsletter here.)

Alia Aurami Chief Editor of Enlivening Edge has just curated an e-book on Reinventing the Teal Organization (see Newsletter December 2021). Furthermore, she is in the last stages of publishing the first of a trilogy of books that develops many of Integral City’s core frameworks – her first one will focus on Worldviews.

Anne-Marie Voorhoeve co-founder of The Hague Center of Global Governance, Innovation and Emergence continues to use the Integral City GPS in many venues from The Hague Centre’s initiatives to World Unity Week, UN Peace Youth Assemblies, Co-Creating Europe and Evolutionary Leaders.

Pieter Wackers Integral City Training Faculty, and videographer has been using Integral City 4 Voices and 5 Maps to introduce Social Architecture to architectural students and supporting The Hague Center to build regenerating capacities for Peace Youth Assemblies.

Linda Shore and Joan Arnott serve the Integral City Ecology of Practice as gifted “space holders” who presence the Evolutionary Impulse to hold our many endeavours in sacred space wherever and whenever we are serving around the world.

Patrizzia Rocha, Integral City Intern created the IntegralCity EcoRegion YouTube Channel – accessible here. (She is also serving the youngest generations in our Integral Cities as a gifted Montessori Teacher embarking on creating Forest Schools.)

In this sacred season it is a wonderful time to celebrate the dance of integration and differentiation that flows through our Integral City DG’s and the ecosystem that is emerging.

The inspiring mystery of how we DGs continue to flow and impact each other and the world, augurs well for our intention to create Integral Cities as Gaia’s City Regeneration Hubs (the next stage arising from our Schooling for a Planet of Integral Cities).

I can sense the Overlighting Evolutionary Impulse (that lies at the centre of our Integral City GPS) calling us together into a global garden seeded by many co-creative expressions of local and trans-global manifestations. We are incubating a whole seedbed of organs (Gaia’s Reflective Organs!)  ready and willing to collaborate with other regenerative ecosystems.

We invite you to celebrate the Integral City breakthroughs from 2021 – click on the links above. Appreciate the many ways we have lived into our Master Code of Care in the Meta Blog 2021. Then follow us down the many paths to the future we are tracking on all the Integral City Maps as we walk, run, fly and attune to the wellbeing of Gaia’s Human Hives.

Join us at our gateways into 2022. As Human Hive incubators, we are co-creating regeneration energies over the next 9 years, for Integral City to change the climate colour of Gaia’s Human Hives from Code Red into Code Green.

Out Beyond the Smart City, Out Beyond the Resilient City … lies the Integral City … there is a Knowing Field … we will meet you there.