When a city accepts an Integral City proposal we seal our agreement with a contract. As team leader, I consider my role as AQtivator to be both a catalyst whose main job is to develop capacities for both Placecaring and Placemaking in the human hive and an aligner of the capacities with resources to [...]
One of the most beautiful opportunities that Durant offers is that it is what the astrophysicists (who are looking for earth-like planets in the universe) call a “Goldilocks” size. Durant is just the right size to be able to work with the whole city system in the room – not too big and not [...]
When we first visited Durant in 2013 we asked for a tour of the city. That gave us a feel for the outer space of the city – its geography, built city and economy. But more importantly we organized with our Tour Guide 4 ways to get to know the inner space [...]
It’s time to share the story of Imagine Durant with a wider audience. Tamarack Institute’s Conference, Collective Impact 3.0 on May 9-11, 2017 will give me a chance to tell the story of collective impact through the lives of Imagine Durant’s leaders, Executive Director and 4 Voices of the city. Imagine Durant has [...]
4/22 – Jeannie Carlisle with Marilyn Hamilton: Integral City, Inquiry & Action April-June 2017 / Integral Publishers' Bookshelf ILR’s Jeannie Carlisle interviews Marilyn Hamilton, author of the new work, Integral City Inquiry & Action: Designing Impact for the Human Hive JC: Hello Marilyn, and welcome! In a few sentences, please describe the premise [...]
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. The design for this Integral City prototype [of sustainable community development] places emphasis on the development of the people skills in sustainable communities because this [...]
Aliveness requires three processes: surviving, connecting to my environment and regenerating. Grief has a way of interfering in the practice of all three activities that make aliveness feel no longer attainable and seemingly not winnable. But grief also calls forth a recovery process that uses the relationship between these three practices like a scaffold that [...]
If the first injunction of aliveness is to survive, the second is to “connect with my environment”. Survival may seem like a one-person job, but that is mere illusion – for I survive in an ecology of relationships, actions, structures and infrastructures and nature herself. This “I/me/mine” depends on right behaviours, responding to cultures and [...]
When we lose a companion from our lives, the shock or grief can disconnect us from our very sense of self. My husband’s recent passing, raised many questions. Who am I without this person? How do I fill this “spouse-shaped” space within me? How does daily life continue without him? How do I survive without [...]
The experience of grief is deeply personal. It is so all consuming, that the world shrinks to a very self-centered size. But the experience of grief is also universal. No consciousness nor culture is untouched by it. Pet owners know that not only do they grieve for lost pets, but pets – like apparently [...]