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 People. International developer Gail Hochachka proposes that people’s feelings, beliefs and worldviews affect how they are ready and willing to participate in sustainable behaviors (2005, p. 1). Moreover, she [...]
Pope Francis thinks as big as a Planet of Integral Cities. Pope Francis has gifted the world with a Kosmic view of the environment and the implications for climate change. He instructs the faithful that God has not given dominion to man to dominate the environment but to respect all Life. He explicates what Integral [...]
Pope Francis is calling for an ecological reframing for the faithful in his sweeping new encyclical on the environment. In “Laudato Si,” or “Be Praised” (or “Praised Be,”). He addresses issues that individuals must take responsibility for, as well as larger collectives - including cities. Pope Francis warns of harming nature, the costs of industrial pollution, resource [...]
Can you invent Tier 2 organizations without being embedded in an ecology/economy of Tier 1 organizations? Dojos of Oranizations (Adapted from Spiral Dynamics, Beck & Cowan, 1996) As I consider how Reinventing Organizations casts light on Reinventing the City, I am speculating that so-called Tier 2 organizations cannot exist without the competencies of [...]
Integral City how do we relate to your constant changes and exchanges? Map 3 reveals the cycles that flow through and around your prolific eco-system. Integral City Map 3: The Scalar Fractal Relationship of Micro, Meso and Macro Human Systems In the city, as individuals we grow our capacities. When life conditions trigger [...]
Integral City how do I create thee? Perhaps Map 2 can reveal how ... There are points of time, of distant memory, when the soul unites within the pattern of the universe. That union brings forth the understanding of life's harmony. So it should be within the [city] garden … Author Unknown [...]
Systems thinking is fundamental to understanding systems. So to understand systems, let's start with exploring, what are systems? (1) Systems are evolutionary structures. They are characterized by boundaries that contain system elements. Those elements have evolved across deep time, from the Big Bang until now. The basic evolutionary strata that we can point to on [...]
Evolutionary intelligence is the capacity to transcend and include the intelligences we currently demonstrate, in order to allow new intelligences to emerge. Evolutionary intelligence looks backward at our evolutionary history and forward to our evolutionary future. It assumes that life conditions will continue to change and the human species will change and adapt and evolve [...]
The city has the qualities of aliveness. It springs from the fact that each person in the city is alive, but also because all the people are alive together in the city - interconnected as individuals, families, groups and generations. How vibrant is the health of your city? What do you notice about the vitality [...]
Ecosphere intelligence is an awareness and capacity to respond to the realities of a city's climate and eco-region environment. Just as honey bees adapt themselves to different geographies, Integral Cities in different locations must adapt different solutions to the same infrastructure problems. Ecosphere intelligence is fundamental to our energy security, food security and water security. If we [...]