This project, running from September 2022 to August 2025, was a partnership between five European organisations: Life Itself (France), Emerge (Germany), the Ekskäret Foundation (Sweden), the Institute for Integral Studies (Germany), and The Hague Center for Global Governance, Innovation, and Emergence (Netherlands).

If you’re a practitioner in the field of inner-led change, or curious to learn more about this ecosystem, read on for some of the project highlights and to access some of the essays, reports, and free educational resources created as part of this project.

Surveying the field

Mapping the ecosystem of “paradigmatic social change” initiatives in Europe and beyond

Life Itself led the research and ecosystem mapping portion of the project, creating a directory and interactive visual map of 300+ organisations and initiatives taking action for transformative, deep-rooted, or regenerative social change in Europe and beyond.

You can add or edit profiles in the map following the instructions in our contributors’ guide, or suggest an organisation to be included in future iterations of mapping here. We’d also love to hear your feedback on the map via this forum discussion.

Please note: our research team made their best effort to select and represent organisations accurately using publicly available information. We apologise if there are any inaccuracies. We welcome both direct edits and any feedback, so that the map may grow and improve thanks to collective intelligence.

Making sense of a novel and emerging landscape

Drawing on our mapping research from both this project and previous years’ work (Life Itself have been mapping this ecosystem since 2020), we wrote three essays to help newcomers and explorers begin making sense of this diverse and rapidly evolving field, supporting the ecosystem to become more recognisable and accessible:

• An overview of different names used to refer to the ecosystem

• An overview of related mapping efforts

• ‘The Second Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction’ (an introduction to “Second Renaissance” as a framing for the growing network of people and organisations who are acting to steward and accelerate a new cultural paradigm, in response to profound current crises)

Diving deeper

Research report: Investigating inner capacities needed for changemakers to respond to the crises of our times

Life Itself interviewed leaders from across the ecosystem to investigate: what inner capacities do change agents in the emerging ecosystem need to develop to enhance the ecosystem’s collective capacity to contribute to life-serving socio-ecological transformation?

Synthesising our interview findings, we identified three key ecosystem-level challenges: 1) Developing healthy relational cultures; 2) Cultivating emergent ways of working together; and 3) Reckoning with dominant cultural paradigms.

We then outlined six key “capacities for the future” that individuals and groups within the ecosystem should focus on developing:

1. Ease with uncertainty and complexity

2. Critical inquiry into existing mental structures

3. Addressing reactivity, tension, and conflict

4. Agency and capacity to implement vision

5. Acting in service of the greater whole

6. Collective inner resourcing

Read the full report here: Catherine Tran and Elisa Paka, 'Emergent Power: Key Challenges and Capacities for Paradigmatic Change Agents' (2024).

Profiles of visionary changemakers and essays on methodologies for transformative social change

Cohere+ project partner Emerge dug deeper into some of the pioneering work and rich learnings from around the ecosystem in a series of profiles and essays.

Highlights include:

• Kateryna Yasko on ‘Collective Bildung for Ukraine’

• Anne Caspari on ‘The Trouble with Participative Group Processes’

• Emily Poel on ‘Embodiment as a “Door to Presence and Possibilities”’

• Nathan Vanderpool on ‘Convening a Network for Wisdom’

• A multi-voice profile of the Cohere+ project team, ‘Reflecting Back on a Three-Year Investigation of Coherence’

See the full list of articles and essays here.

Field building

The Cohere+ project partnership convened a wide range of in-person and online learning exchange and field building activities, from: Integral Political Salons, which invited transnational conversations about more holistic ways of doing politics and explored existing case studies; to generative dialogue sessions for civic action in Germany; to hosting workshops which integrated playful creativity with dialogue to support attendees to digest a rich conference experience at the Inner Development Goals Summit in Stockholm in 2023 and 2024.

Educational resources

An online learning platform to develop “capacities for coherence”

Cohere+ project partners The Hague Center and the Institute for Integral Studies led the development of a free online learning portal to empower changemakers to develop their capacities for individual and collective coherence.

Drawing on the findings of the aforementioned research report by Life Itself, which identified key “capacities for the future” for changemakers in the ecosystem, the Cohere+ team developed self-paced mini-courses in five key learning series: Personal Coherence; Wise Relating; Communities of Coherence; Social Architecture; and Collective Voice and Impact.

A guide to coherence and its role in creating effective systemic change

The Cohere+ project team published a guide exploring the nature of coherence and its potential for supporting the global movement of paradigmatic systems change: Communities of Coherence: A Guide for Practitioners (lead author: Claudine Villemot-Kienzle).

The guide identifies factors that support or prevent coherence in individuals and communities involved in regenerative societal transformation; and offers tools and practices for building capacity to consciously design social contexts for the manifestation of coherence.

Read the full guide here.

I HATE GROUP PROCESSES.

I’m an introvert by nature. As an empath, I feel a multitude of things all at once, but I’m not great at translating what I sense on the spot. Group processes tend to overwhelm me. I sense the tensions, the awkwardness, the intentions, but also the power-moves. At the same time – damn – when a group lands in real coherence, it can be incredibly rewarding.

Back in 2013, after an Integral Theory Conference in the US, a group of friends and I were frustrated with the ‘developmental agenda’ and were inspired to do things differently. With my friends Mushin Schilling from Berlin and Bonnitta Roy from Connecticut we came up with an enticing idea: let’s meet with a group of people who are also curious about what a group process can do, with not much of an agenda, not much structure, and little to no facilitation. Let’s look into finding new answers, new questions.

We’d invite the right people. People who’ve done their homework. Integral thinkers who understand complex concepts. Change practitioners who’ve been around the block. People who can differentiate between schools of thought, take multiple perspectives and distinguish between the self and the experience the self is having in this moment.

Wouldn’t it be fun to get this much "horsepower" – intellectual, spiritual, relational – in one room and see what we could come up with as a group? Our intention: exploration into the power of group and process. We were after new ideas – and, ultimately, new categories of ideas.

So we met at Bonnie’s place in Alderlore, Connecticut, USA as a group of twenty curious people from all over the world. For three days, we stabbed at the beast, not even knowing what kind of beast it was. We let the process loose on itself. Just before we were ready to admit failure, on the afternoon of day three, the process gelled and we got somewhere. Up until that moment? Pure agony. My worst nightmare confirmed.

What I’d never experienced before: my body picking up all the incongruencies, tactics, pretence and power moves in the room as pain. Worse, it was a transpersonal pain, so I couldn’t even do “own it away”. All I could do was mirror it back to the group, like a weather report. Pain, interest, confusion, searching, exploring, confusion, pain, anger, more anger – relief.

We finally got to a place of real coherence, despite all our best efforts to get there. We threw everything at it: willpower, exercises, “follow my lead”, appeals to “come from Source”, desperate attempts to create coherence, power moves, withdrawal, theory downloads, emotional outbursts, complaining, chanting, facilitation, no facilitation. Looking back, all of it just prolonged the process.

Most people left on Monday. My friend Mushin (Mushin Schilling) and I stayed with Bonnie. We had to know what the hell hit us. We had the best intentions. No priming, no heavy-handed facilitation, brilliant people in the room. So why did it go so wrong for so long?

Over the next few days, we did the most generative digging, the best post-mortem ever. We went deeply into the nature of group processes, exploring emergent properties such as coherence and what actually enables insight to emerge. So much became clear in hindsight, things we just couldn’t see in real-time. Still today, I draw on the emerging wisdom from those days with Bonnie and Mushin.

Here are some of our findings.

Group processes have distinct phases

We saw the typical phases of a group process (outlined in more detail in Cohering the Integral We-Space: A We-Space Ecology):

1. Politeness – The phase where social conventions rule, and everyone avoids conflict.

2. Authentic chaos – The rebellion against politeness. Social dynamics and power plays surface, people get uncomfortable, and the lack of structure starts to bite. Attempts to fix or facilitate the chaos too soon only drag it out (see also Scott M. Peck).

3. Silence – A moment of surrender. The burnout after trying to control the process. A really strange and new space. Willingness to let go of the purpose. Feels like failure.

4. Authentic clarity – The fog begins to lift. It starts with sensory clarity—the social self steps back, and boundaries blur. An extraordinarily ordinary space. This can deepen into emotional, intersubjective, and conceptual clarity. This is where coherence starts to set in.

5. Emergence – From clarity, new insights and possibilities arise organically.

The dust settles

One thing has become obvious: emergence and full participation don’t happen without navigating the authentic chaos phase. The only way to navigate it is going through it, hopefully with as little resistance to the inherent discomfort as possible. Efforts to skip, short-cut or over-control this phase leads tend only to prolong the chaos phase. Smart facilitation of the “rapids” (such as trying to smooth out resistance, explain concepts to the group, offering to heal somebody who seems hurt, have a meditation because there is too much tension or even aggression in the room) all leads to a much shallower process, or a predictable outcome colored by the facilitator’s preference and the facilitation techniques used. In these scenarios, nothing truly new emerges.

The most rewarding stages of the process are indeed when the dust settles and clarity sets in. There are no filters anymore of any kind – sensory, cultural, conceptual, or emotional. All have been “burned out” in the endothermic chaos phase. This is the most extraordinary, clear space to sit in with others. Paradoxically, this is, at the same time, the most ordinary space ever, since you see things just as they are. It is filterless. There is no perceiving or acting through any identity: the ‘body-mind drop’. It is extraordinary only because we hardly ever spend time in this clarity.

In our case, the sense of coherence was palpable for the first time. Language and grammar shifted, pronouns moved from I to it, to we. I’d felt that kind of coherence before in nature, in a forest, hanging out with animals, with family, with close friends – but never like this, in a group of strangers.

Combined with that clarity, it felt like a crack wide open, the one where the light gets in. Light in the form of new ideas, new perspectives, new concepts. One feels unobstructed by anything already ‘known’, by resistance, by pattern entrainment. It’s a truly innovative space, and it feels like a blessing.

This is the exquisite context you can milk for ideas and in which you can witness emergence in real-time. Ideas are born, not from brainstorming or clever frameworks, but from the depth and resonance of shared clarity. The filters – emotional, conceptual, cultural, sensory – are gone, or, if there, at least in service to something greater than the individual.

And now, in that rare clarity, we can drop any question into the resonant field: how to address climate change on a regional level? What about monetary systems? Organisational stuckness? Polarisation? Artificial intelligence? We can feel the group orient around the question, not from opinion, not from theory, but from a kind of collective seeing.

The diversity in the room – people from all walks of life, cultures, disciplines, and continents – now becomes a real asset. It nurtures a kind of holographic intelligence. We’re no longer talking at each other or over each other. The filters have dropped. The signal is clean.

In this space, we can tap into – for lack of a better word – mass consciousness. We begin to sense how the world works, what solutions are crystallising, and what might be wanted tomorrow. It’s extraordinary and exquisite: a shared capacity to recognise things as they are.

Start-ups are born here.

What’s next?

Just as the dust settled and clarity set in, another set of questions emerged. If coherence is so elusive, yet unmistakable when it arrives, how do we tell it apart from other group phenomena? From cohesion? From just feeling good together? From processes that seem to work, but actually short-circuit what wants to emerge?

What followed was a deeper inquiry which looked not only at what worked but at the traps we fall into: mistaking structure for substance, method for meaning, or cohesion for coherence. The next essay will take you into some of these finer distinctions - some messy, ambivalent, but also necessary to name if we care about true emergence. Stay tuned.

This is the first in a series of three essays by Anne Caspari exploring the concept of coherence. Read the second essay in the series: ‘The Trouble with Participative Group Processes’. Read the third essay in the series: ‘Transformative Processes at Scale’.

References & Links

Caspari, Anne & Schilling, Mushin. (2016). “A We-Space Ecology”. In: Cohering the Integral We Space: Engaging Collective Emergence, Wisdom and Healing in Groups.

Caspari, Anne & Schilling, Mushin. (2014). “Beziehungsdynamiken, kollektive Transformationsprozesse, „we-space“- ein Vergleich integraler Landkarten und der dazugehörigen Territorien”. In: integrale perspektiven 28 – 6/2014.

Peck, M. Scott. (1990). The different drum: Community-making and peace. Simon & Schuster.

Roy, Bonnitta. (2016). “Open Group Practice: Eight Social Selves”. Kosmos Journal. Accessed 22.03.25.

Roy, Bonnitta. “Collective Insight Practices”. Futures Thinkers Podcast. Accessed 27.05.25.

(Bonnitta was host for several group sessions over the years at her retreat center in Alderlore, Connecticut, USA. Our first encounter was in 2012. Bonnitta hosts Collective Insight Practices for groups who are experimenting with new ways of being)

Snowden, Dave. (2017). “The Power of the Facilitator” Blog post. Accessed 22.03.2025.

Apply Now

Global catastrophic risks like climate change and AI are accelerating, governance efforts are faltering, and collective action is becoming central. There’s rising interest in better cooperation and governance, yet limited tools for enabling it. This summer school offers a new, complementary approach. It’s still grounded in reason, but takes an enlarged perspective — drawing on complexity science, the inner dimension (informed by cognitive science and developmental psychology), and the growing field of cultural evolution.

We’ll explore the concept of the Metacrisis as a frame for understanding why our current challenges — including the AI arms race — are so difficult to address and so interconnected. We’ll introduce the idea of a Second Renaissance, a paradigm of deep renewal and systemic transformation that integrates cultural, institutional, and individual change.

Participants will learn how humanity has scaled cooperation in the past — and how we can do so again. You’ll gain practical tools and conceptual frameworks that can be directly applied to cause prioritization, governance strategy, and cooperation theory.

Apply Now

Key Information:

• What: A week-long intensive, exploring new approaches to existential risk, collective action, and governance. It will draw on concepts like the Metacrisis and a Second Renaissance, as well as Complex Systems, Integral Theory, Effective Altruism, Metamodernism. Finally, the week will integrate intellectual training with embodied practices.

• Who: 20 participants, primarily early-career researchers, practitioners and changemakers, interested in how we can powerfully address catastrophic risks and create a flourishing future. Second Renaissance, Metamodernism, and Integral approaches.

• When: Wednesday 17th-Wedesday 24th September (with optional project collaobration days afterwards). The core program runs from Wednesday to Wednesday. Whilst we will prioritise those who can make the full week if you really want to come and can only make a part let us know. Optional follow-up days for project collaboration up to Saturday 27th.

• Format: Morning seminars based on dialog and discussion of pre-readings, afternoon open-space sessions, optional project development and heart/body practices.

• Curriculum: Core sensemaking concepts (Metacrisis 101, Integral 101, Complex Systems, Wicked Problems, Collective Action Problems) plus advanced dialogues and special topics.

• Cost: Sliding scale between €250-€750. Includes food, accommodation and curriculum.

Apply Now

Overview

The SenseMaking Summer School 2025 is an intensive week of collective learning, practice, and community for those passionate about making sense of the challenges and opportunities of our time. Inspired by models like the École des Houches physics summer school and adapting them to today’s intellectual and existential crises, this gathering offers a comprehensive education in key concepts and methods of sensemaking.

Participants will explore and integrate frameworks and ideas such as Integral Theory, Metamodernism and the Second Renaissance. The focus will be on practical and embodied sensemaking. Core themes will include:

• The Metacrisis and its dimensions: ecological, technological, socio-political, spiritual.

• Complex Systems, Wicked Problems, and Collective Action Challenges.

• Integral and Metamodern frameworks for understanding transformation.

• The Second Renaissance as a cultural and civilisational rebirth.

• Embodied sensemaking practices: heart work, somatic awareness and group process.

Rather than a purely didactic event, the summer school emphasises co-creation. Participants will learn both from and teach each other, building a shared foundation for intellectual and practical development.

Apply Now

Structure and Schedule

Arrival Day (Wednesday 17th September)

• Arrivals, orientation and an opening circle to begin the program.

Core Program (Thursday, September 18th - Tuesday, September 23rd)

• Mornings:
  2-hour facilitated dialogues based on pre-assigned readings or recorded lectures.

• Afternoons:
  Open space for co-created sessions, workshops, and participant-led talks.

• Evenings:
  Informal discussions, fireside chats, or collective practices to deepen engagement.

Departure/Optional Follow-ups (Wednesday, September 24th - Onwards)

• Most participants will depart on Wednesday, September 24th, following the conclusion of the Core Program.

• An optional follow-up will be available for 2–3 additional days of collaborative project work or deeper inquiry.

Who Should Apply

This summer school is ideal for:

• Early-career researchers, practitioners, and changemakers with an interest in Metamodernism, Integral Theory, and the Second Renaissance.

• Individuals seeking both intellectual depth and embodied practice in understanding and addressing the Metacrisis

• Those motivated to develop both an analytic understanding and pragmatic strategies for navigating complex global challenges.

Prior experience with these frameworks is welcome but not necessary; pre-materials will ensure a shared conceptual foundation.

Apply Now

About the Life Itself Hub

The Life Itself Bergerac Praxis Hub is a greenhouse for the Second Renaissance: a deliberately developmental space for people to gather and experiment with the embodied presence and practical action needed to bring forth a new paradigm in the face of the Metacrisis.

We see this space as a place for experimentation, exploration and learning, where people can engage in self-work, creative work and spiritual practices within a supportive and structured framework. We believe that this framework, which combines elements of monastic and secular practices, can facilitate the development of a new paradigm of living and being, one that is more connected, embodied and expansive

.

About Bergerac

Bergerac is a beautiful town in southwest France, known for its medieval old town, vineyards and peaceful riverfronts. The town provides a quiet and inspiring backdrop for reflection, creativity and connection. The Dordogne River is just steps away, perfect for swimming or riverside walks. The town is easily accessible by train from Bordeaux.

FAQS

Q: Do I need to be an expert in Metacrisis, Metamodernism, Integral Theory, etc., to attend?
No, the summer school is designed to create a shared foundation for all participants through pre-materials and core sessions. There’s no need to worry if you’ve never encountered these concepts before.

Q: Is there a participation fee?
The participation fee ranges from €250–€750, depending on the participant's ability to pay. If this is outside your budget, please reach out to us - we may be able to offer discounted places in certain cases.

Q: Can I attend only part of the program?
Priority will be given to those attending the full core week to maintain group cohesion and ensure a meaningful experience for everyone.

Q: Will food and accommodation be provided?
Yes, on-site accommodation and meals are included in your participation fee.

Q: Where is the SenseMaking Summer School taking place?
At the Bergerac Hub, 11 Pl. Barbacane, 24100 Bergerac, France

Ready to join us? Please fill out our interest form or email us at finn@lifeitself.org for more information.

Apply Now

About the call

When thinking about how to do the most good, or best to ‘contribute to the world’, we face massive uncertainties which are hard to integrate with the formal decision-theoretic approaches typically used in Effective Altruism.

Jonah shows how recent work in the cognitive science of rationality - in particular John Vervaeke’s work on the notion of wisdom as integrating formal rationality and relevance realisation - offers insight here, and suggests a more integral approach he calls ‘Wise Altruism’.

This talk is an accessible summary of Jonah’s recent substack post, which offers a more in-depth view:

The Wider Angle

Wise Altruism: Doing Good under Radical Uncertainty

Questions about how to do the most good, or best to ‘contribute to the world’, are beset with massive uncertainties. Different models of the nature of this uncertainty suggest different practical approaches. Recent work in the cognitive science of rationality offers insight when dealing with especially radical forms of uncertainty. This has implications…

Read more

a year ago · 6 likes · 9 comments · Jonah Wilberg

About the call

This presentation is a brief summary of my research into sense-making, blindspots and the process of surfacing contradictions in the society to generate tensions necessary for systemic change.

I make a case that we collectively suffer from Emotional Incoherence Blindspot that stops us from effectively challenging incoherence in the system. Then I introduce Software Interface vs Implementation Analogy to highlight verification asymmetry between explicit and implicit specifications. Finally I propose a scenario based inquiry tool called Spec Drift Dialogues.

About the call

Ontological Commoning is a key area of ’s research, and he defines it as “the process and practice of finding common ground between different perspectives on a complex situation; finding ways to make sense of each other’s conceptual models, without erasing differences, but generating a wider perspective within which individual perspectives can be inter-related”.

In this interview with and the discussion that follows it, we cover the historical context and political relevance of this idea, and explore what the practice could look like in more concrete terms.

https://wiki.simongrant.org/doku.php/t:ontological_commoning

Visit Metacrisis.info Website

We’re happy to announce the release of a draft version of a new white paper: “From Polycrisis to Metacrisis: a short introduction”.

Download the White Paper

UPDATE: Sep 2025. We have released a short video of a presentation of these ideas in June 2025.

UPDATE Aug 2025: “beta” version of the paper released with some additional material and a variety of minor changes. Thanks to everyone who has provided feedback so far.

Download the White Paper

Our world shows signs of multi-systemic breakdown. In this context, polycrisis names an entanglement of interconnected crises that affect one another. Metacrisis, by contrast, identifies foundational conditions that generate these crises.

A metacrisis is a crisis at the “meta” layers of civilization, and especially at the cultural base.

This paper offers an accessible introduction to the polycrisis and metacrisis: what they are, how they are distinct, how they are related and why it matters. Short case studies demonstrate the polycrisis-metacrisis frame as applied to three real-world issues: climate breakdown, runaway AI and populism.

Download the White Paper

This is the third whitepaper in the Second Renaissance series. Authored by two members of the Life Itself Sensemaking Studio, Rosie Bell and Rufus Pollock, it was created with the support of Commonweal to whom we are very grateful. Thanks also to members of Life Itself Research for their comments and review on early drafts, and the scholars of the wider sensemaking community whose foundational work on metacrisis informs this synthesis.

Summary

Our world shows signs of multi-systemic breakdown. In this context, polycrisis names an entanglement of interconnected crises that affect one another. Metacrisis, by contrast, identifies foundational conditions that generate these crises. Just as symptoms signal an underlying illness, polycrisis points to metacrisis. While the reality of a global polycrisis is increasingly acknowledged, awareness of metacrisis is less common.

Noticing the interactions between our symptoms is an important first step towards addressing them. However, deeper diagnosis of an issue is vital to effective strategies for healing. This essay investigates how dominant worldviews, particularly within a dominant cultural paradigm of modernity, lie at the root of systemic failures — and offers a number of case studies for rethinking polycrisis as symptoms of metacrisis.

Within a metacrisis frame, the deep stories foundational to our modern worldview shape our ways of relating to self and world, in ways that produce dysfunction.

Polycrisis to Metacrisis: three layers

Fig 1: A simplified schematic logic of the relationship of polycrisis to metacrisis.

The symptoms of polycrisis share common roots in the meta layers of our civilizational systems and worldviews. Scholars of the metacrisis identify its features among the lower two layers depicted here. We emphasise primary causes in the bottom layer: in deep-seated human tendencies and foundational ideologies.

Even ‘meta’ issues such as collective action problems can be understood as symptoms of deeper causes - contingent on a fundamental worldview.

Download the White Paper

While polycrisis can be perceived in manifest forms from climate breakdown to inequality and more, metacrisis itself can be more difficult to see: we commonly mistake the core ideas of modernity for reality itself. As such, adopting the frame of metacrisis requires more than learning new facts. Typically, this is not the kind of change that occurs only because we learned new facts, but results from some experience, practice or lifestyle shift that has loosened our earlier way of looking…

Register here

Join us this Friday for our next Life Itself Research Collabothon: a focused, collaborative virtual gathering where we come together to build, explore, and deepen our shared inquiry.

When: Friday 4th April

Time: 3pm - 8pm CET

Where: Online - register to receive the link

What: Come to as much or as little as you would like, to co-create on one of the areas listed below.

This edition will spotlight two foundational resources for the wider ecosystem:

• the Limical Lexicon, a living glossary of key terms

• and the Second Renaissance Wiki, our evolving knowledge commons.

You’re also invited to bring your own project! Anything aligned with the spirit of transformation, regeneration, or collective sensemaking - to either work on by yourself in a communal space, or open up for collaboration with others.

Whether you’re returning or joining for the first time, the Collabothon is a space to experiment, contribute, and connect across disciplines.

You can join us for the whole event, or for the amount of time that works for you within the 5 hours. All welcome!

Register now via lu.ma: https://lu.ma/8ghrwk4m

About the call

Drawing on the framing of 'Epistemological Delirium' from Bruno Latour, Matthew explores how existing modes of knowledge production require a re-imagination at the intersection of being, knowing, and valuing. He opens up different themes for making sense of this shift, among them focusing on the integration of 'common sense' and 'practical sense'. Matthew also touches on some of the emerging themes throughout recent research calls, and the research group discusses how these questions might be further investigated and embodied in practice.

Matthew is currently exploring some of these questions in his PhD research at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and has recently created a publication for a more informal inquiry into some of these questions in more detail.

About the call

In this Research Community call Momcilo (Martin to his friends) shares an introduction to Pierre Bourdieu and his analysis of society as a continuously spinning cycle of re-production of itself and its participants.

Individuals are born into the society and through socialisation adopt the norms, values, practices, and expectations of the social environment.

While we think of ourselves to be rational and logical beings, Bourdieu claims that the very sense of what's rational, neutral, natural or common sense is a social construct.

The society consists of social structures and social fields and within those there's a continuous struggle for power and influence.

Individuals engage within social fields to earn different types of capital and assume objective positions that give them a say in the shaping of the world.

This entire process is shrouded in mystery and he calls it Misrecognition.

Understanding those blindspots can shine light on unexpected opportunities and help us steer the society towards a better world.

My research is around self-actualisation, psychological safety, systemic corruption, absolute potentials of human relationships and modelling execution paths and future scenarios, to name some…

Chapters

01:00 Introduction

08:50 Key Antropological Concepts

17:00 Transforming passivity into activity

28:00 Open Discussion

About the call

In this Community Research call Jonah Wilberg explores the idea of progress in cultural evolution, in relation to Thomas Kuhn’s notion of paradigm shifts in science.

Jonah considers whether Kuhn’s model of paradigm shifts can be applied more broadly to cultural paradigms, and how this connects to the ‘transcend and include’ model of progress within metamodernism. He suggests that metamodern approaches could apply insights from post-Kuhnian philosophy of science, such as the notion of structural realism.

The subsequent lively dialogue raises questions about the differences between scientific and cultural progress, the perspectival nature of knowledge, and the dynamics of cultural shifts.

Chapters

02:00 Metamodernism as a paradigm shift

13:00 Decentring as progress

25:00 Metamodernism Theory of Progress

26:30 Open Discussion

About Jonah Wilberg

Jonah Wilberg is a philosopher and interdisciplinary thinker, and co-creator at Life Itself and the Second Renaissance initiative. Writings at https://thewiderangle.substack.com/

What: Our first-run “Intro to DDS” course.

When: 6 sessions Wednesday 5th- Wednesday 12th February 2025 1700-1830 CET.

How: This series is invite-only to help us in the development of the material.

This course is an opportunity to explore the ideas connected to Deliberately Developmental Spaces together in a small group and for the presenters to develop and distill this material with the benefit of a deadline and audience.

Our longer-term intention with this material is to distill it into a white paper and a more polished, openly accessible course. This approach is inspired by what we did at Life Itself for the Second Renaissance Pilot Course in December 2023.

Overview

Deliberately Developmental Spaces (DDSs) are environments consciously supporting cultural and ontological development (and, at the cutting edge, experimenting and innovating in this).

These spaces focus on deliberate, conscious cultivation of inner capacities, informed by multi-dimensional models of development. They can have a wide range of foci, from advanced spiritual growth to conscious parenting experiments grounded in attachment theory.

DDSs have similarities with existing institutions ranging from Harvard Business School to Buddhist monasteries. However, they also are different, or at least offer a different frame. For example, they emphasize the inner dimensions of development, including the spiritual, far more than traditional education institutions. They differ from (some) traditional monasteries in taking a more multi-dimensional approach to development and having a greater “lay” emphasis. Finally, these spaces are informed by rich ontological models and go beyond basic practices (e.g., mindfulness in schools), aiming for significant cultural and ontological transformation.

DDSs are not uniform, and there is significant variation and experiment in form and focus. For example, while some DDSs may focus on spiritual advancement, others may center around community flourishing or education. The broader DDS lens allows us to see how diverse environments can contribute to the learning and practices necessary for cultural and ontological innovation.

Course Outline

Here is our current outline for each session in brief.

Session 1: Metacrisis motivation

Why do we want DDSs? Why do we desire cultural and ontological innovation?

• Introduction to the concept of cultural and ontological innovation.

• Why traditional institutions fall short in addressing deeper developmental needs.

• Case for urgency: societal challenges and the need for innovation in human development.

Session 2: Domain, Maps, Rafts

What is ontological and cultural “development”? Theoretical frameworks and key terminology.

• Introduction of the terminology of Domains, Maps, Compasses and Rafts

• Exploration of multi-dimensional models of development.

• Key theoretical underpinnings (e.g., spiritual, psychological, and social frameworks).

• Examples from Ramana Maharishi, Lester Levinson, and attachment theory.

Session 3: What Are Deliberately Developmental Spaces (DDSs)?

• Existing examples and analogies: Case studies and inspiration from diverse domains.

• What makes a Deliberately Developmental Space different: Characteristics, goals, practices and distinguishing features.

• Defining DDSs and their core principles: conscious cultivation, innovation in techniques, and deeper engagement.

Session 4: How to create and sustain DDSs

• Practical guidance for initiating and supporting these environments

• Ecologies of practices for example the Praxis Ecology developed at the Life Itself Bergerac Hub by Valerie.

• Key questions to consider.

Session 5: How do we build a field/network?

• We'd like to see DDSs network together, exchanging knowledge, exchanging learnings etc across the broader network of DDSs.

• Sharing knowledge, methods, and learnings among spaces.

• Vision for a broader impact: connecting diverse spaces under a unified lens.

Session 6: Broader Lens, Applications and Future Directions

• Ecumenical vision: there are many different forms of DDS and whilst we can identify a core for this specific emerging field we can also use the DDS as a lens to look at the wider field of educational environments.

• Applying the DDSs framework to fields like education, parenting, public health, politics and academia community building.

• Envisioning the future: how DDSs can transform culture and society.

Conclusion

We need new cultural experiments, and those that are both developmental and integrative. They’re not just developing the individual; they’re integrating. They’re cultivating wisdom. They’re also cultivating a deeper relationship to life. They’re about integrating the mind, body, and spirit. We need cultural experiments that are transformative. We need them for our own lives and society at large.

About the Call

In this talk, Jamie Bristow explores the critical role of psychosocial resilience in the face of crisis and collapse. Drawing on his extensive experience in climate change advocacy and inner development work, Jamie delves into the evolving landscape of societal resilience research, and the intersection of sustainability, psychology, and societal transformation.

He outlines three key fields of action - ongoing adaptation, preparing for systems failure, and seizing the open window of partial collapse. Jamie examines the current gaps in policy and academic focus, highlighting the urgent need to prioritize the inner, psychosocial dimensions of resilience building.

Through examples and frameworks, Jamie shares why strengthening social capital, civic engagement, and collective agency is essential for navigating an uncertain future.

Chapters

0:00 Trajectories of Crisis and Collapse

09:16 Defining and Measuring Societal Resilience

18:00 The Importance of Psychosocial Factors

25:04 Challenges and Opportunities in Building Resilience

35:00 The Path Forward: Research and Collaboration

You can read the aforementioned post in the presentation here.

This October, I attended the Inner Development Goals (IDG) Summit in Stockholm, on behalf of Life Itself. We were invited alongside our collaborators from the Cohere+ project — Emerge, The Hague Center, Institute for Integral Studies Freiburg, and Ekskaret — to lead a workshop on the final, “Integration” day of the Summit which offered spaces for Summit participants to make sense of and integrate the rich programme and experiences of the previous two days.

Cohere+ is a field-building project, co-funded by Erasmus+, which maps the paradigmatic social change or “Second Renaissance” ecosystem and supports inner capacity development for change agents.

The Inner Development Goals

The Inner Development Goals is a framework of 23 “inner” skills needed for sustainable development. Grouped across 5 dimensions — Being, Thinking, Relating, Collaborating, and Acting — they include things like: Self-awareness, Presence, and Integrity & Authenticity (Being); Complexity Awareness and Long-term Orientation & Visioning (Thinking); Empathy & Compassion and Humility (Relating); Communication Skills and Trust (Collaborating); and Courage and Creativity (Acting).

The IDG Summit

The IDG Summit convenes leaders from across business, education, civil society, non-profit, and government sectors to bring inner, human development and outer, structural change closer together. 2024 was the third edition of the Summit and sought to explore “how inner development can help us find better solutions to global challenges”.

The Summit took place from 16th-19th October 2024 in impressive venues across Stockholm such as Cirkus, Fotografiska, and Kulturhuset, with a Pre-Summit “Unconference” on the 15th October.

The first day of the Summit was unified in one location with a Main Stage programme of different speakers and artistic performances moving through the five IDG dimensions. In the breaks and evening, there was a programme of workshops across different spaces dedicated to the five dimensions, including things like guided meditation, storytelling, connection activities, and other creative workshops.

The second day of the Summit split participants into five themed tracks, each of which delved deeper into exploring the IDGs in a specific context, such as business, climate innovation, education, and AI.

The third day of the Summit was an Integration day, aimed at weaving together and integrating experiences and learnings from the past two days.

Highlights & Reflections

The scale of the event was impressive and inspiring, especially to see so many people (around 1500 attendees) come together united by recognition of the need for integration of inner and outer change. The production was very slick and high quality — a lot of care and heart had clearly gone into producing and programming such an event which interweaved speakers with artistic performances with spaces for mindfulness, connection, creativity, as well as thinking and collaboration, and fun!

On Day 1 of the Summit, in the main auditorium filled with over 1000 people, it was joyful to watch as moments of connection were fostered even in such a big crowd — from being invited to raise our hands during the opening talk to show whether we felt sleepy or anxious or excited (for example) and seeing how many others shared that experience, to inventing a handshake with the person sitting next to us in 5 minutes, to dancing all together following the artist on stage.

The programme of the Summit was also quite intense and jam-packed — others whom I spoke with shared the experience of it being very stimulating and tiring. Although there was “ma time” (Japanese concept of a pause, break, or emptiness in time or space) in the schedule on Day 1, this only meant a break in the Main Stage programme. In these breaks, there were multiple workshops happening in the five Dimension spaces to choose from, as well as hundreds of people you might meet and chat with!

In general, I’d say the overall energy of the Summit was one of uplift and positivity. Across various talks and workshops, a theme which people noticed came up a lot was “love”. There was a lot of talk of love and care — for others, for society, for Mother Earth… This contributed to a feel-good vibe, a kind of galvanising “hey, let’s just tap into our love and care for the world and Mother Earth and do everything we can to save the world we love”. There’s a beauty and warmth in this idealism, and yet at times I wondered… What about everything we will not be able to and already cannot save? What about sacrifice, loss, and grief — what part do they play in our responses to the crises we face? How might we need to confront them? What about the ways in which we are powerless? Yes, let’s bolster our collective agency — and where might humility and sober acceptance of the things we cannot control be important too?

One of the most moving moments for me from the whole Summit — and I heard this shared also by many others — was a talk by two representatives from Combatants for Peace, an organisation committed to peace-building in Israel and Palestine, through education and creative activism. In the sea of excitement and positivity (which of course are also valuable ingredients for social change), their stories were grounding and sober and truly powerful. The end of their talk was met by a standing ovation lasting some minutes.

Cohere+ workshop at the IDG Summit

As part of the Cohere+ team, we co-hosted an event on the final day of the IDG Summit to support sensemaking and integration of the Summit’s rich programme.

Our intention was to create an imaginative and playful space for participants to share personal stories and reflections from the previous days through the lens of coherence and incoherence. Over 40 participants attended; unfortunately, many more who wanted to attend could not come due in part to an inflexible event booking system. Our workshop also supported a request from the IDG Hubs Coordinators group with collective sensemaking around the IDG principles.

The workshop included: a deep listening and vocal expression exercise to explore a felt sense of coherence and incoherence; an exploration of the IDG principles and to what extent they felt in coherence with personal experiences of the Summit; a dance activity inviting a somatic experience of relational coherence; a small group activity creating “living sculptures”, i.e. an interwoven sequence of gestures or movements portraying meaningful moments from the Summit; and sharing reflections and insights all together.

Many participants appreciated the space for non-verbal expression and sensemaking as well as discussion and welcomed the way in which creativity and playfulness fostered connection between those present.

About the Call

In this Community Research call Nicholas Wilkinson dives into the complex relationship between humans and nature, with a focus on the concept of mass extinction and its implications.

Nicholas shares how we can think of our place in the world, and our relationship to nature, if we look at the story of an ongoing mass extinction, rather than the very different stories about the collapse (or triumph) of civilizations. An important difference is that the mass extinction did not start with industrialization, the enlightenment, or even agriculture, and it has not been caused by a particular human culture.

The discussion also touches on the challenges of reconciling modern scientific discoveries with traditional spiritual cosmologies, and the potential for nihilism or hopelessness in the face of environmental collapse.

Chapters

00:03:09: Towards a mass extinction

00:11:07 The myths of Easter Island

00:23:26 Nature, Power, and Social Justice

00:29:16 Challenges in Sustainable Culture Creation

00:35:48 Nature, Human World, and Meaning

00:42:17 Nihilism, Environment, and Human Responsibility

00:48:59 Finding meaning, and balancing collapse and creativity

In it, I talked about how Alexander is a pioneering second renaissance (aka integral, metamodern etc) thinker and practitioner. Specifically in:

• ⁠(Re) Introducing value and beauty as real - specifically in a domain of architecture and aesthetics dominated by modern/post-modern relativism

• Providing a rigorous evidencing for this claim — one that includes and use reason

• Whilst … transcending reason and including the transrational, mystical element (see luminous ground etc)

• Providing practical techniques for applying this in building - pattern language, nature of order etc

Slides

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Christopher Alexander Second Renaissance Pioneer V0

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Cartography and Inner Development

Trying to find language to adequately describe human development is not an easy task. Each human being, as well as the environment in which they are embedded, are so unique and complex that models and simplifications always seem to miss something essential. 

That does not mean, however, that the language and models to better understand it are impossible to find or create. It just means that we are at a very early (even infantile) stage of our understanding of, and language for, human development. 

Within Life Itself, the language we like to use comes from a Buddhist metaphor of ‘maps and rafts', as outlined in this post here. Within our group, we have found it useful to expand on this metaphor using more cartographic terms. In this language, 'maps' refer to models of human development; 'domains' refer to specific domain of human development; ‘locations’ refer to specific spots on the map; and ‘rafts’ refer to specific practices which help one to get to different locations. Within this post, we will build on this metaphor by discussing the importance of 'features'.

Features

While there is much work and discussion to be had for clarifying and developing this language, a recent discussion within our research group highlighted the importance of 'features'. A 'feature' of a map refers (unsurprisingly) to a specific 'feature'- or quality, or state in that map. The metaphor makes more sense when one considers it as a process: if, for example, one is travelling across a certain region and spots a certain species of tree (which is not common in another area) this 'feature' signifies that one is a new location, or region. 

The same might be said about human development. If the domain is agency, then certain features might be said to suggest that one is at certain location on a map, based on different features- determining ones routine, or taking responsibility for ones actions, might be features of the domain of agency. While these features might vary depending on the different domain one is discussing, features can be a good way of pointing to a specific location or region on a map. Indeed, we might even go on to say that it is through features that maps are made. 

Alchemists and Early Navigators

‘Features’, then, can be a meaningful way of better describing the complexity of human development within this ongoing metaphor of cartography and human development, which is still evolving. We might even say that the situation we are currently in- studying human development and trying to find an accurate language for it- is not so different from early cartographers- as map makers who paved the way for modern navigation. Indeed, many 'maps' have been made of human development, and all of them are of a specific area or terrain: ego development, stages of faith, or levels of complexity are, for instance, some examples that many people are familiar with. Crucially, early maps, before being integrated into a more holistic atlas, existed as regions of the World, and through comparing and integrating many different maps, more detailed and complete atlases were eventually made, which allowed for a more complete picture of the terrain of the World. 

It is also worth pointing out that before more detailed and complex maps were made, features were also what inspired and helped guide early navigators. One of our inspirations in our ongoing dialogue has been early Polynesian sea navigation, which was possible through advanced, almost supernatural, sensemaking of certain features. By looking at the stars, the patterns of birds, the waves of the ocean, and other, seemingly mundane things, early Polynesian navigators were able to wayfind across the pacific with masterful skill- at least for their time. 

Along with early cartographers and navigators, we might also position our current context as similar to 'alchemists' in the medieval era, who were the forerunners of chemistry. Before chemistry was made into a more unified and complete science with a coherent language, alchemists experimented to the best of their ability with what they had and what they knew, and their learnings eventually paved the way for chemistry to emerge. As alchemists were concerned with the transformation of matter,  we might say that those who study and pioneer human development are more concerned with the transformation of inner life- or 'consciousness'. 

Even though ‘inner life’ seems inherently more complex and mysterious than metals and geographic terrain, those who are looking for language to describe the complexity of this development are not all that different from alchemists, or early cartographers, or navigators. We are in mostly uncharted regions, but making useful maps; we are looking at transformation, but not exactly sure how it works, or what an accurate language might look like. Indeed, we might be inclined to look into these earlier disciplines and draw on key lessons. While there might be many, we might be reminded of a well known one from alchemy: nothing can be magically turned into gold.

Springboards recently published white paper

In Springboard’s first White Paper on Distinctive Pedagogies that address the meaning crisis in higher education, they posit that it is possible, even imperative, to instill in young people a durable sense of meaning and purpose by creating opportunities to experience and practice living meaningful and purposeful lives.

Doing so goes against the grain of most higher educational programs, even though higher education is the ‘place to look for solutions’. With this in mind, programs like Living and Learning Institutes and Micro Colleges are experimenting with and implementing educational programs which emphasize ‘new ways of meaningful living’. 

The paper highlights four examples of innovative programs and their pedagogical practices which help to address the meaning crisis: Seguinland Institute, Thoreau College, Outer Coast, and Tidelines Institute. The conditions and practices used at these four institutes encourage students to create shared goals and codes of conduct, see themselves as a significant player with rational purpose, and develop an intelligible connection with their environment.

Read the paper

You can read the full paper here, and learn more about the project on Springboards website here.

To join the seminar online or in-person:

When: Friday May 17, 2024 from 15:00 until 17:00 h 

In-person: VUB campus Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Elsene. Building I, room  I.1.01 

Online: You can follow the seminar online via Zoom. You may need a Meeting ID and passcode to enter. 

Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89884269123?pwd=MZbgHkwQJNhEyTUaQeCgSA0QWTIhNw.1

Meeting ID: 898 8426 9123 

Passcode: 3sX20D 

About the seminar

The period between the decline of an old regime and the rising of a new way of life offers a space of both risk and opportunity. How do we present what is happening and some key ideas of this “space" in a way that is succinct and accessible, also to people not yet "in the space"? In this talk, Rufus Pollock and the Life Itself Research Collective will present the concept of a Second Renaissance as one framing of this "time between worlds" to set the stage for constructive dialogue about what's going on in the world and what's needed for a radical transformation.

About the speaker(s)

Rufus Pollock is a systems researcher, cultural activist and social entrepreneur working to make a digital information economy that works for everyone. He has been a leading figure in the global open knowledge and open data movements, starting with his founding of Open Knowledge in 2004, a pioneering international non-profit that empowers people and organizations with access to information and the tools and skills to make sense of it. Pollock is an associate of the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law at the University of Cambridge and continues to serve on the board of Open Knowledge International. He is an Ashoka Fellow, a Fellow of the RSA, a recipient of the Shuttleworth Foundation Fellowship as well as the Mead Fellowship in Economics at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge. He has advised national governments, IGOs, companies and NGOs on how to succeed in the digital world. 

In 2016, Pollock also co-founded the non-profit Life Itself, an organisation of pragmatic utopians exploring practical paths toward a civilizational transition. Over the years, Life Itself has been mapping out an emerging ecosystem of changemakers, profiling over 200 organisations ranging from politics, wellbeing, arts, and technology. This community of artists, researchers, technologists, and community builders has been bestowed with various labels, including metamodernism, integralism, and the regenerative movement. Yet, regardless of nomenclature and the variety of backgrounds, each member shares a commitment to taking practical action to solve the collective challenges facing our society and culture. 

You can watch the full presentation below.

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About Boaz Feldman

Boaz is a practical visionary, a clinical psychologist and trainer, a Dharma teacher and transdisciplinary researcher acting for personal and political empowerment. He has worked with numerous international organisations (UNOCHA, WHO, Doctors Without Borders) in a variety of humanitarian contexts and conflict-affected regions. Boaz first ordained as a Buddhist Monk in Thailand in 2004, studied MBCT/MBSR at University of Oxford/Bangor, has over 7 years of compounded retreat experience and graduated from the Bodhi College Teacher Training program and now leads meditation retreats across Europe. He assisted Somatic Experiencing trainings and taught as the main faculty in Europe for Organic Intelligence, and founded NeuroSystemics, a Swiss-based NGO providing somatically-centred multi-level capacity building around the world. He is an Associate at Life Itself Research.