Vision, Master Code, Mission, Values

Vision

Integral City holds a Vision that is planetary as well as city-level.

Imagine Gaia as Thriving Planet

Imagine Gaia is flourishing in her new golden age, in the universe of planets, as a thriving mature living system where human contribution reflects how magnificently Creation has evolved on Planet Earth.

Imagine Gaia has awareness of all her evolutionary life and we have complete awareness of her on a spiritual Cosmo-Bio-Anthropo-centric basis.

Imagine that Integral Cities are aware of our contribution to the evolution of Gaia as her Reflective Organs.  Imagine that individuals are cells, organizations are organelles, cities are organs of Gaia’s Reflective Organ System.

Imagine an Integral City

1. Imagine the city as a human hive – a living organ of Gaia who has a Purpose that is in service to Gaia’s wellbeing and sustainability and is embraced by its citizens.

2. Imagine the human hive as an intelligent, living, evolving innovation eco-system, practicing the Master Code – where the four voices of the city, – Citizens, Civil Society, City/Institutional Managers, Business – thrive today and create a legacy of life conditions for the next generations to evolve and thrive.
   1. Imagine an Integral City who appreciates its values, history, traditions and culture so that people conserve what works well and teach (or share) with others, including children, youth, seniors, business, civil society, and city hall and replace what does not work well with what can work better, and even inspire people to want more change.
   2. Imagine an Integral City that understands its Purpose and how it adds value to the economy and positions itself strategically in relation to other cities in the region, the eco-region and country. As a result, it has an innovation eco-system that provides it with a thriving economy that draws on its history of success in [product(s)] manufacturing and co-creates new opportunities through innovation laboratories in universities and businesses.
   3. Imagine an Integral City that integrates education and training sectors with business and civil society, and commits to high school graduation as a minimum target for its children; provides coop and intern opportunities for youth; and with governments, creates the conditions for full employment for all adults. All students learn in school mutual trust and respect; how to dialogue with others; how to cooperate through teamwork with others; and how to coordinate projects and processes to produce life-giving results.
   4. Imagine an Integral City that designs information systems to support its sustainability plan so that it measures, tracks and exchanges sustainability data related to energy, water, food, finance, economic production and climate, and shares wellbeing information internally with city stakeholders and externally with other cities in the region.
   5. Imagine an Integral City that responds to stresses (economic, physical, cultural, social, psychological) at all levels of scale to create a resilient city with Care, Compassion and Evolutionary Wisdom, because all stakeholders work together (in a meshwork) to create the conditions for everyone in the city to communicate willingly and regularly in service to the city’s Purpose, the Greater Good and Gaia’s wellbeing.

Master Code

Imagine that we, humans and our hives (cities), are all aware of being part of an evolving Earth (along with other species) – in a resilient ecology of all living beings. That as Cities, being Gaia’s reflective organ means, we balance giving and taking through the practice of the Master Code.

The Master Code enjoins us to:

Take Care of Self

Take Care of Others

Take Care of our Place(s)

Take Care of our Planet.

We have a responsibility for stewardship, at the level of all voices in the Human Hive, as well as at the individual level. Imagine that we are responsible for Earth’s foot-mind-heart-spirit-print in the universe.

Mission

The Mission of Integral City Meshworks is: to Wake Up the Human Hive as it evolves through the Traditional, Smart, Resilient and Integral stages, by Reinventing How Cities Work to Nurture Life, Optimize Life Conditions and Care for People, on a Planet of Integral Cities.

1. Wake up the Human Hive so/as we live the Master Code: when we take care of our Selves, each Other, our Places and our Planet. This connects our Caring Capacity to our Carrying Capacity and is the core of Wellbeing (and Happiness).

2. Build on the metaphor of the Human Hive because it offers us an integrated whole picture of the city aligned with the Master Code (Self, Others, Places, Planet) and City Purpose.

3. As the Human Hive, embrace the relationship between 4 types of cities and how they are interrelated: Traditional Cities, Smart Cities, Resilient Cities and Integral Cities.

4. Recognize and empower 4 Internal Voices (and 1+ External Voice) in the Human Hive to contribute to city and eco-region wellbeing.

5. Align each type of city with its relevant energy sources (Traditional @ bio-fuel; Smart @ carbon; Resilient @ renewable; Integral @ evolutionary/spirit) by using IC GPS for recalibrating our cities with the Master Code, City Purpose and key indicators.

6. With Integral City GPS align City Types, City Voices, City Energies and City Purposes with the Wellbeing indicator of the Master Code (Happiness). Align the natural evolutionary potentials and Purposes of the Traditional City, Smart City, the Resilient City and the Integral City. Create conditions for the feedback to recalibrate Capacities for Strategic Carrying, Ecological Contexting and Human Caring for a Planet of Integral Cities.

Principles

Integral City applies Principles that could guide a Planet of Integral Cities:

• the evolutionary context of the life-giving Principles of  Anthro-Bio-Cosmo emergence (thanks to Integral Geographer Dr. Brian Eddy).
• the Principles of Living Systems (developed by Evolutionary Biologist Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris)
•  the Complex Spiral of Anthropic Principles , derived from developmental evolutionary research of Spiral Dynamics integral (initiated by Dr. Clare Graves and Dr. Don Beck).
• the core Principle of the Master Code (derived from my exploration of the principles underlying the 12 Integral City Intelligences).

Values

Values are built into Integral City Principles. Integral City Values evolve through multiple scales in individuals, organizations, communities and the city itself (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Integral City Values (adapted from Spiral Dynamics (1996))

Our values for business are the same values that drive Integral cities in the world, especially the Master Code – Take care of Self / Others/ City / Planet.

Continuous learning drives and evolves our values.