Transformational change depends primarily on changing social systems. A social system — an economic or political system, for example — is how a society is organized. It is a pervasive and powerful pattern of social arrangements that shapes peopl…
Most people — at least in the US — think of wealth as a source of happiness. Rich people can, seemingly, get what they want, secure themselves from suffering, and improve the lives of others through their philanthropy. While this story true in m…
In the debate over tax cuts, it helps to look at the history of U.S. federal income taxes on high-income people. For the last 18 years individuals in the top income tax bracket (those making more than $250,000 to $379,150, depending on the year) h…
With budget-belts tightening at all levels of governance, I have suggested that public engagement is vital to pick up on community and governance functions that official government agencies no longer have enough money to handle well. This goes bey…
I believe that any person or group wishing to catalyze the emergence of a sustainable civilization must take strategic action to enhance the collective intelligence of entire societies. (NOTE: The term “whole society” or “entire society” does not …
Check out this website… particularly its critique of “traditional” sustainability activism and the need for “greatly enhanced capacity for rapid adaptive social learning” — which is largely what my co-intelligence work is all about.
Since Michael Dowd took this piece and posted it on his blog, and added good links, I’ll just send you there… http://thankgodforevolution.com/node/2076
In his closing essay for his April 2, 2010 JOURNAL, Bill Moyers references several works on inequality in America. Among these is THE SPIRIT LEVEL: WHY GREATER EQUALITY MAKES SOCIETIES STRONGER by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, who together h…
The essay below is from Paul Krafel, one of my teachers about systems and nature. Paul, author of SEEING NATURE, one of the more influential books in my life, runs Chrysalis, a nature-based charter school in northern California http://www.chrysali…
A sociology student in France wrote to me, saying I’m interested in the concept of “collective intelligence”. When I referred to Wikipedia, it was explained like this: “the anti-globalization movement relies heavily on e-mail, cell phones, pagers,…