Research Community

NB: this was the original version of updated research home page in early 2023. Archived here for reference purposes. May want to back-blog.

👋 We're researching paths to a radically wiser, weller world – to "awakening societies"🌻. We produce reports, papers, methods and tools. We welcome participation.

About the Community

For us, research has a broad meaning. It includes systematic inquiry as well as more formal academic-style work.

Topics

Any topic is welcome with a clear connection to making a wiser, weller world and awakening socieities¹. At the same time, we do have the following focal areas in order of priority:

• Inner development and cultural evolution (Ontology and culturology): the rigorous study ("science") of personal and collective development – inner development and cultural evolution. We are particularly interested in development through the lifespan and across cultures over time. For example, whilst a rich literature documents the growth in cognition, emotions and worldview of children, much less known about what is possible for us as adults – can we continue to develop and in what ways?
• The politics of paradigmatic change: collective action and movement building for a foundational shift in our onto-socio-economic systems. For example, how have large scale paradigmatic changes occurred in the past, for example the transition from pre-modern medieval societies to modern ones?
• Systems transformation: major shifts in socio-economic (eco)systems. For example, the move from a proprietary digital economy to an open one, or from a carbon-based energy economy to a post-carbon one, or, from capitalism to post-capitalism.

Read more below

Principles

The following principles & practices inform our approach:

• Rigor: critical inquiry and empirical evaluation.
• Open-mindedness: we value wisdom and contemplative self-enquiry approaches as much as knowledge produced from traditional scientific methods.
• Generous listening and steel-manning: we look for the best version of any view or approach. Participation is a chance to exchange with peers engaged in rich and varied ecologies of practices.
• Integrity: we operate with honesty and treat our and each other's commitments with respect.

Projects

• Exploring Web3 & Crypto: a year-long project to evaluate the transformative aspirations and claims made for web3 and crypto.
• Mapping an Emerging Ecosystem: an ongoing multi-year project to map actors in a novel emerging ecosystem focused on integral, paradigmatic social change.
• Collective Wisdom and Shadows of the Enlightenment
• Open Database of Intentional Communities: incubating project to create an open database of intentional communities.

Participate

We conduct our work primarily online and in the open and anyone can observe and contribute to discussions in the forum and elsewhere. We also have bases in our Bergerac Hub and there are in person gatherings from time to time.

Monthly Forum

We organize a monthly open meeting that anyone can join:

• When: 3pm European time on the second Friday of the month.
• Where: online on google hangouts https://meet.google.com/rks-pfqv-dbz

The meeting is a chance to:

• Learn about the community and connect with others
• Get updates on ongoing work and hear brown bag talks
• Coordinate across interest groups and activities

Check out the recordings of our previous research forum calls to experience what a research forum can be like!

Participation Levels

So people have a sense of the dynamics of the community we define two levels of participation.

Guests

• Can observe and contribute to discussions on the forum (we work in the open)
• Can attend the monthly open forum
• Can apply to become full members
• Agree to the general Community Guidelines

Members

• Access to research whatsapp group
• Listed on site
• Access to resources such as the library
• Opportunity to share your work e.g. brown bag talks
• Can start interest groups and projects

To become a member you usually need to:

• Have participated actively in the community
• Be nominated by one or more existing members
• Have proven ability to engage in systematic inquiry and present the results. This could be (but need not be) academic style research.

Membership is usually for one year, indefinitely renewable.

Topics

Ontology and culturology aka the study of inner development and cultural evolution

Our primary topic focus is ontology and culturology i.e. the study ("science") of personal and collective inner development.

Specifically their nature and causes:

• What is our nature and potential?
• How does development happen?
• What is culture and cultural evolution?
• What are the causes and the factors such practices/environments that influence these?

Regarding the latter item, we have a particular interest in conscious collectives and deliberately development spaces.

We are also particularly interested in contemplative science, that is rigorous empirical inquiry into contemplative practices and experiences.

Finally, we are also very interested in the consequences of being and culture in relation to wellbeing and wisdom/performance at the personal and collective level (e.g. teams, coliving communities, societies etc). For example, how do culture influence the innovativeness or happiness of societies?

Systems transformation

A secondary and complementary theme is paradigmatic shifts in socio-economic (eco)systems. For example, a shift from a proprietary digital economy to an open one, or a carbon-based energy system to a post-carbon one.

Politics of paradigmatic social change

A tertiary theme is the politics of paradigmatic change as in collective action and movement building for a foundational shift in our onto-socio-economic systems.

This integrates the previous two areas in that paradigmatic shift incorporates a substantive evolution in both our cultural and socio-economic systems. This theme is also a concretizing one where the ideas in the previous two areas turn into concrete policy and practices for transformative change.

Within this broad area a specific and active sub-area is ecosystem mapping and field-building i.e. delineating a field/ecosystem, identifying actors, weaving them together etc.

FAQs

What topics do you work on?

See above.

Is there funding?

Groups within the Research Community can potentially apply for funding or consultancy work via the Life Itself organization. For example, we have previously been granted funding for a collaborative European H2020 project and a variety of other projects.

Footnotes

1. An awakening society is a society oriented to awakening: personal and collective development towards greater peace, freedom, insight and wisdom. It is a society prioritising inner growth rather than outer growth. Similar or resonant terminology includes integral, metamodern, or deliberately developmental, ecological societies or civilizations. For more, see the awakening societies page. ↩