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 [...]
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 [...]
2017 is moving so quickly it has been difficult for me to seize any day as it has waxed, wholed and waned. The cultural markers of New Year, Presidential Inauguration, Family Day, and Valentines have already come and gone. Wars flare. Peace is threatened. Borders are breached. For me the world outside my doorstep has [...]
Fort McMurray, City of Energy is city of the year 2016. Surviving the worst natural disaster in Canadian history, the city of Fort McMurray endured a fire which engulfed its structures, but not its cultures, acts of super-human persistence, nor its extraordinary human kindness. 88,000 people were safely evacuated from a fire started on May 2, [...]
Morel Fourman and his organization Gaiasoft have been working with cities and nations, for over a decade, particularly in Africa designing and implementing an electronic platform that enables strategic positioning for organizations within cities and across cities in the same country or continent. Morel’s work has provided systematic foundation building to strengthen city systems and [...]