Marilyn Hamilton's Blog, page 65

Integral City Map 5: Embracing Spirituality in the Human Hive

Integral City how do I capture your spirit? Map 5 gives us a glimpse into the spiritual energy of love, that is ever-present in the Human Hive, as we live on the edge of evolution. Where is it possible to sense the spirit of a city? Is it in the quiet of a chapel, or [...]

Integral City Map 4: Shape-shifting Structures That Fit

Integral City how do we honor the many systems, structures and infrastructures that have emerged to shape you ? Map 4 offers us a cartography of organizational forms so we can appreciate how many functions serve the complexity of city life. The built structures of the city are often the first boundaries that an observer remarks [...]

Integral City Map 3: Relating Change to Exchange

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. In the city, as individuals we grow our capacities. When life conditions trigger us to change, our life’s journey adds new layers of values, worldviews and competencies. Like tree rings [...]

Integral City Map 2: Evolving Gardens of Creativity

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 Every relationship we [...]

Integral City Map 1: Loving the Polarities in the City

Integral City how do I map thee? Let me count the ways … starting with Map 1. When I started to explore the Integral framework for cities I was influenced both by the work of Ken Wilber and Don Beck’s Spiral Dynamics model. Meshing the insights from both, I settled on what is now called [...]

Systems Patterns – a Language for Living

The patterns embedded in human systems have evolved for hundreds of thousands of years. Indeed, as living systems, the patterns have emerged from the 4 billion years that Life has vibrated on the dance floor of the Planet, as single cell microbes to  multi-organ persons. These patterns emerge from expressing the simple rules (or principles) [...]

Systems Thinking – A Primer

Systems thinking is fundamental to understanding systems. So to understand systems, let’s start with exploring, what are systems? 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 our [...]

Guiding Step 5: Dream, Vision, Imagine Your City

Make no small plans for they do not have the power to move human souls! One person can dream a Vision that empowers his/her soul. But to dream a Vision that attracts the souls of others is a necessary step in the whole approach to evolving an Integral City. Many cities market their unique attractions [...]

Guiding Step 4: Systems Thinking Shifts Perspectives

How can I shift my perspective of the city when I am not aware of the perspective I hold? A shift in perspective assumes that a change in my view occurs. Unpacking such a shift requires the answers to some basic questions: What is my current perspective? Why would I change it? How can I [...]

Guiding Step 3: Make Better Sense of the City – Provide Integrally In-formed Information

Is information in your city easy to come by? or is it difficult to make sense of your city because information is scarce or misaligned? Information in the Integral City is critical to the city’s functioning, wellbeing and thriving. But when we are overwhelmed by electronic news blasts it can be difficult to know what [...]