Are you "seeking inspiration about the untapped potential of city dynamics"? If so the Canadian Journal of Urban Research (Winter 2010) observes that the book Integral City "opens up a gallery of visionary futures". While the CJUR book reviewer has some reservations about using the Integral model as a viable framework for viewing the city (see Endnote [...]
Congratulations to Barrett Brown who just defended his dissertation on Leadership for Sustainability. Barrett designed an integral methodology to study integrally-informed leaders working in sustainability. His Findings differentiate amongst leaders who work on the system (Strategists), with the system (Alchemists) and as the system (Ironists). This research illuminates the path of both consciousness and action as [...]
Last week Almere Netherlands was the location of my learning and the focus of my attention. Attending the fifth Centre for Human Emergence, NL, fifth Spiral Dynamics Integral Confab, Almere was featured in case studies to explore the city with Integral City related lenses. Almere was created as a New Town, 30 years ago, using [...]
At Royal Roads University, the inaugural Sustainable Community Development (SCD) cohort has just completed their first Potentials for Adaptive Change Residency on RRU Campus. In the first week of February, after three weeks online, a cohort, with professions as varied as municipal forester, downtown revitalization director, tourism instructor and sustainability officer, whose members come from [...]
I spent last week at Royal Roads University delivering the first Residency of the Sustainability Graduate Certificate. Ten students from across Canada provided a rigorous proving ground for the Integral City approach to sustainability. Using the Integral City Compass to prove the design with three leverage points, here is what we did. Integral City Compass [...]
Terry Patten, Founder of Integral Spiritual Practice and a lifelong activist recently spoke at the Integral Theory Conference at JFKU on Integral Activism. I found Terry's approach to be very relevent to influencing and delivering change in the Integral City. Terry's three part strategy is refreshingly practical. It embraces a personal commitment to develop one's capacity and [...]
In the last decade the concept of the city as a human habitat that is mapped in terms of bricks and mortar, managed by fiat from city hall and developed by entrepreneurs for corporate profit has given faint signals of change. This has happened because we have witnessed the city collapse underneath the weight of [...]
When on the same day I receive news from Integral Heart/Life leader Terry Patten and Economist Hazel Henderson about a recent US Supreme Court decision, I pay attention. The impact the Supreme Court's decision on funding political adverstising will not just be felt in the USA, but will impact decision making, corporate conduct and ethical guidelines [...]
In the Human Hive, we need truth, beauty and goodness to sustain our capacities and encourage creative impulses. It is not always easy to find them in cities designed from pre-modern, modern and post-modern design principles. Someone who is committed to changing that is Mark Dekay, Director of Graduate Studies, School of Architecture, University of [...]
As we travel our journeys of purpose, on purpose, with purpose, it is so comforting to know that others are doing the same. It releases the burden (and hubris) of thinking that you have to do it all. Today I am thinking of four events going on in the world simultaneously in four different cities and three different [...]