What are the main themes of WisdomSpace Library?

promoting an integral approach to community healing and development.

Traditional approaches to community development have tended to be heavily weighted toward external solutions, such as developing innovative economic policies, housing programs, sustainable technology, and so on. While these approaches are crucial, a truly integral approach to community development will also consider important interior, qualitative dimensions of communities, such as the quality and depth of community dialogue or the inner personal development of community members. We present an integral community development model (adapted from the work of Ken Wilber and other integral theorists) in our chapter An Integral Approach to Community Healing and Development.

placing personal and local issues in a global and historical context

Local issues usually do not occur in isolation, but rather as local expressions of global trends. Yet we can often become so involved in the details of a local situation that we lose sight of the larger context of the struggle. A local logging issue, for example, may involve some issues distinct to a particular local community, but, of course, it is also connected to the global issue of forests vanishing everywhere. Becoming aware of how this is happening globally helps us to understand more clearly how it is happening locally, and what is really at stake.

It can also be helpful to understand the issues we face in a historical context, that is, by grasping the broad patterns of history and evolution that have brought us (human society in general, and the modern West in particular) to this seemingly dramatic moment of global crisis/opportunity. Understanding the big picture of how we got to this point (through the works of leading visionary philosophers, cosmologists, and futurists) can provide a crucial sense of perspective that can help us to maintain our equilibrium during these turbulent times. We list a number of such visionary works in The Big Picture: Putting it All Together.

focussing on building collective wisdom

One of the more exciting fields of research to emerge in recent years is the study of collective wisdom – what it is and how to evoke it. Many of us have had the experience at one time or another of being part of a team or group that ‘clicked,' leading to levels of inspired team functioning in which the group seems to act a whole, coordinated unit. For years music groups, sports teams, and dance troupes have reported stories of extraordinary moments of team synergy during which their performances soared to previously unimaginable levels. However it is only recently that this phenomenon has attracted the widespread interest of a growing band of researchers. These researchers are developing an increasingly sophisticated understanding of how to evoke collective wisdom. The implications of this research for how we work and live together are profound. Since the higher-order potentials that can emerge from collectively-wise groups dwarf even our greatest individual capacities, a number of researchers speculate that we may be witnessing the emergence of a kind of collective survival instinct, calling us to come together to find breakthrough solutions to our global challenges. We provide an extensive list of resources about how to build collective wisdom in groups and communities in Developing Collective Wisdom in Groups and Developing Collective Wisdom in Communities.

fostering an awareness of place

Although we understand that community means different things to different people and is not always related to physical location, we nevertheless encourage folks to make a connection with the place that encompasses their community. For an educational community, that place might be the school campus and the broader regional area in which most of the students live. For a work group, the place might be their work building and nearby environment. For an online community, the place could even be the whole planet. We think it is important for all communities to make a connection with their physical place to counteract our culture's destructive tendency to be blind and deaf to the land. When we are connected to the land of our communities, to its trees, its animals, its soul, we are more likely to care for it, and to learn from its wisdom. One way we will model this emphasis on place is through providing a collaborative database of resources in the San Francisco Bay Area, the place WisdomSpace calls home.

telling the stories of wise communities

Woven through our resource lists are stories of real communities that have successfully applied innovative practices and principles in integral community development. Telling stories of wise communities can be the most effective way to communicate the principles and to show that these good ideas can take root in the real world.