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“Theory and Practice of Integral Sustainable Development: Part 2”

Last post 08-10-2006, 1:13 PM by randomturtle. 1 replies.
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  •  08-07-2006, 8:24 PM 3686

    • heikkinen is not online. Last active: Thu, May 29 2024, 7:25 AM heikkinen
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    “Theory and Practice of Integral Sustainable Development: Part 2”

    Here are some suggested discussion questions for Barrett Brown’s “Theory and Practice of Integral Sustainable Development: Part 2.” As time goes on and we get a groove going as applied integral practitioners, we might moderate the forum more or less intensely with fewer or more questions. For now you can think of these questions as suggestions and we'll see how it goes from there. I’ve tried to lean the questions towards real-world application instead of theoretical analysis, but theory talk is welcome here as well.

     

    1. Barrett talks about the “High Road” and the “Low Road” of working with values—trying to transform people to a higher level or translating your message to the level where people are.

       

      Can you think of a few examples of initiatives (even ad campaigns) that attempt to transform people, and other that do a good job of translating their messages to different value sets?

       

      Bonus: If you’ve seen Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth…. Does the film do more translating or attempts at transformation?

    2. “On its deepest level, this approach to sustainability is a giant relaxation, a profound acceptance of who people are and the state of our world. It operates from this depth—not in a laissez-faire way that allows anything to happen—but with a fundamental acceptance and recognition of the incredible value that each perspective adds to the tapestry of life. From this position and with this knowledge, we might then passionately strive to improve our world in every way that we can envision.” (page 42)

       

      How does this perspective—in Ken’s (approximate) words “the only people fit to do anything about the environmental crisis are those who know that nothing needs to be done”—fit with the also real perspective that the crisis is dire, urgent, and in need of immediate action?

       

     

     


    Katie Heikkinen

    Integral University Presents
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  •  08-10-2006, 1:13 PM 4048 in reply to 3686

    Re: “Theory and Practice of Integral Sustainable Development: Part 2”

    I'll take another stab at answering these great questions...

    1. Again in my bicycle education work, I helped create a Public Service Announcement for the Governor's Highway Safety Bureau in my state. The short ad featured a father and daughter in a car, with a cyclist in front of them on the road. The father, who's driving, slows down and waits until there is plenty of room to safely to pass the cyclist. We included some solid Blue rule discussion: "Bikes and cars - Same roads, same rules, same rights". And we gave a good Orange reason for leaving the cyclist plenty of room: just as the car approaches the cyclist she has to swerve further out into the travel lane to avoid getting hit by a car door that is suddenly opened into her path. And, of course, we appealed to Green's love of diversity by casting a cute soccer-playing African-American girl and her sensitive dad, as well as an older, non-skinny woman cyclist wearing casual clothes. So we really did our best to cover many of the common SD stages (though we were unaware that this was what we were doing) by taking the "low road". Yay for us!

    We also included a bit of a level-raising plot twist: the daughter starts out complaining about the cyclist, who she believes is "slowing them down", and ends up asking her dad, "Next time, can we ride our bikes?" So we did a good job taking the high road, too.

    Too bad this PSA only aired at 2 o'clock in the morning...

    And for question #2:

    I'm not sure. It's a great question, and I can't wait to hear other answers. My only thought here is similar to my problem in the “Theory and Practice of Integral Sustainable Development: Part 1” thread: too much emphasis on UR (and LR, too, I suppose) leads to inattention to the UL (and LL) quadrants. In other words, people get too emotionally attached to the issue, and aren't able to see the need for finding realistic solutions to the practical and social aspects of the problem. But that may not be what KW is intending to mean.

    Peace, Love, and (multi-leveled) Bicycles,
    Turtle
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