Integral City Inquiry and Action: Designing Impact for the Human Hive

By Marilyn Hamilton and Paul van Schaik

How do you inquire about, act in and impact the city as self, other and place?

This is a book of: burning questions that deepen your reflective capacity; injunctions that guide your practice as a city AQtivator; and frames for designing impact on, with and as the city.

Learn through a series of methodological

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amaranth Press
• Release date: Dec 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781953754028

Marilyn Hamilton

Marilyn Hamilton is Founder of Integral City Meshworks and author of the Integral City Book Series-Book 1-Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive, Book 2-"Integral City Inquiry & Action: Designing Impact for the Human Hive" and Book 3-"Integral City 3.7: Reframing Complex Challenges for Gaia's Human Hives." Marilyn produced the Integral City 2.0 Online Conference 2012 and was Guest Editor/Curator for Integral Leadership Review-Canada Issue, January-February, 2015. A city evolutionist, prAQtivist, author, researcher, and academic, Marilyn co-creates a global constellation of Integral City Meshworkers, Learning Lhabitats, Peer Associations, and City Institutes. She incubates resilience and transformation strategies with Civic Leaders, Civil Society, Business and Community Voices that enable the Human Hive-Gaia's Most Reflective Organ-to balance Place Caring with Place Making. She and her teams have been guiding cities for over 20 years, to develop long term visions, values and missions, organizational capacities, and the strategies to improve city well-being that looks after Self, Other, Place, and Planet. www.integralcity.com Tw: @integralcity Blog: marilyn.integralcity.com

Book preview

Praise for

Integral

City

Inquiry & Action

Integral City Inquiry and Action continues Marilyn Hamilton’s (and her colleagues’) rather unique exploration into the application and extension of Integral Metatheory (and related disciplines) into the entire urban landscape and all of its dimensions, aspects, functions, and qualities. The modern city is the most complex social structure that exists, as far as we know, anywhere in the universe, and as such it is made to order for an Integral approach. This is exactly what Marilyn and her team do. The results are illuminating, novel, insightful, extremely useful and urgently needed. What Integral City tells us, among numerous important specific insights, is that any approach that is less comprehensive or less integral is doomed to failure, because only an integrally pluralistic theory and practice will cover all the truly important bases. These important bases are carefully elucidated in 16 chapters, each one covering a significant ingredient of a genuinely integral approach to city planning, living, exploring, discovering, applying. My congratulations to the authors for another profound, timely, and superb work!

— Ken Wilber, Philosopher, Integral Theorist, Author: The Integral Vision, Sex Ecology & Spirituality, Integral Psychology, A Brief History of Everything

The unusual and captivating hero of this book is the city. Not an inert mass of buildings, but a collective, a hive, a holarchy that brings people and processes of inquiry together in action. This human centered approach to systems of a city offers well chosen sticky concepts, grounded in practice and expressed with a simplicity that belies their complexity. What’s more, the book offers tons of great questions and grounded frameworks that help us articulate Gaia’s reflective capacity. It’s a resource for action researchers in the field of urban planning and perhaps for all whole systems/integration oriented professionals.

— Hilary Bradbury, PhD, Professor (OHSU), Editor Handbook of Action Research & Action Research Journal, Convener, AR+.

After urban planning, what’s plan B? Given the scale, complexity and interdependencies of our global crises, 20th century urban plans and solutions are simply inadequate. This leading edge and thoroughly practical contribution to inquiry and impact on the crucial dilemmas faced by cities today, is a gift to next generation urban change workers. It’s elegant and accessible structure, fresh models and integrating tools are the product of iterative testing over many years in contexts of place-based yet globally shared challenges faced by 21st century architects, planners, city managers, developers, designers, communities, investors and activists.

— Lisa Norton, Professor of Design Leadership and Associate Dean, School of Design Strategies, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY

Integral City Inquiry and Action is a complex compendium of ideas and processes to bring about a new vision of the city. This approach is not about having one singular vision of our city win out, but, rather, the on-the-ground methods for achieving the illusive integration of many voices today’s cities seek. It’s about measuring and monitoring the performance of cities, yes—and also about the emerging form and order cities will take as expressions of designing them for our human experiences and expressing our collective values. The methods here tell us how to move beyond participatory design, how to transcend the gridlock of competitive pluralism, and how to evolve the collective urban consciousness to create the city we want. That city will manifest and take shape to solve climate change, to nurture our collective welfare, to connect us to nature and beauty, and to be a crucible for individuals’ potentials.

— Prof. Mark DeKay, author of Integral Sustainable Design: Transformative perspectives, Professor of Architecture, Director of Graduate Studies, College of Architecture and Design, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Integral practitioners will benefit from this book by seeing concrete practices they can do to transform integral theory into integral action. City specialists will benefit from finally having a comprehensive map and set of methodologies that can engage the many crucial dimensions of the city in an integrative way.

— Sean Esbjörn-Hargens PhD, Author Integral Ecology: Uniting Multiple Perspectives on the Natural World, Coauthor Metatheory for the Twenty-First Century, Founder and Chief Design Officer MetaIntegral Associates

We are living in a fast-paced mode toward uncertain futures. Dr. Marilyn Hamilton, and her colleagues teach us how to converge the city´s four voices +1 toward a common superordinate goal to evolve in an integral and harmonious way. This book is what we were expecting in Mexico and Latin America, as a very comprehensive practitioner’s handbook, to inquire about current realities and to design and build better futures for our highly diverse cities. I consider this research as a bright awakening call for measurable actions. It shows us the map of how to activate local intelligence and resources in an ongoing change needed for any human hive (aka city).

— Roberto Bonilla, Organization Co-pilot and Social Innovator at Novarum Innovation Lab, Leon, Mexico

In the process of lifelong learning, sharing and caring we need evolutionary intelligences for the human hive in the integral city. This book gives us not only the ‘top down’ view but also from the ‘bottom up’ practical point of view and easy to understand examples about real life by city activators.

— Cees Donkers, Urban Designer (Retired), City of Eindhoven, Netherlands

This is a ‘how to’ book for practitioners. From preparing yourself spiritually and attaining a state of integrated connectedness with fellow practitioners to practical on-the-ground community projects, this is a book about making a difference. It covers all the elements necessary not only for sustainable development of the city but also to give it enhanced life and nurture its well-being.

— Keith E Rice – Sociopsychologist, Master Practitioner, Professional Guild of NLP, York, UK

This book is truly a feast of insight, innovation and simplicity on the other side of urban complexity.... The bottom line is that if you feel in over your head regarding catalyzing cities to thrive, then upgrade not only your head but also your heart and skills by reading and using this book.

— Barrett C. Brown, PhD, Executive Coach and Author of The Future of Leadership for Conscious Capitalism

The poetry in this book is palpable and invisible. Maybe this is how Rumi writes when reborn as a designer, architect, or metaphorical bee herder … through, this workbook on creating happy, healthy cities, there is a fragrance woven of joy, service, promise, affirmation, love.… This is truly a masterful intellectual, how-to mapping, of the greatest experiment human collectives have ever attempted. And, I finished the book… with that rising tide in my heart that says, Maybe we really can be as great as this.

— Tom Christensen, Broker, Realtor, ABR, GRI, CRS, SRES, RECS, Editor, Innovative Development, Developmental Innovations

In what could only be described as an official desk reference for the design of the future of cites, Dr. Hamilton and her colleagues have penned, what I consider the most authoritative work on the subject.… Essential to this model of sustainable cities, is the placement of the community back at the center of all actions that empower family, personal development and human relationships to produce resilient institutions that can handle humanity’s increasing challenges…and creates a system of distributed intelligence that empowers each one of us to have a voice in shaping the future of humanity.

— Said E. Dawlabani, Author, MEMEnomics, the Next Generation Economic System

This is a comprehensive hands-on guide that connects up the dots so you can take as much of the city into account as possible—in your research, decision-making and interventions. A must for all those working in the cities of today’s world.

— Peter Merry, Chief Innovation Officer, Ubiquity University

Integral City Inquiry & Action: Designing Impact for the Human Hive

Copyright © 2020 by Marilyn Hamilton

All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

Amaranth Press, LLC

5123 W. 98th St. #1081

Minneapolis, MN 55437

amaranthpress.net

[e-mail]

ISBNs

Softcover: 978-1-953754-01-1

eBook: 978-1-953754-02-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020952787

Publisher’s Cataloging-In-Publication Data

Names: Hamilton, Marilyn, 1947- author. | Douglas, Diana Claire, contributor.

Title: Integral City inquiry & action : designing impact for the human hive / Marilyn Hamilton ; contributors: Diana Claire Douglas [and 8 others].

Other Titles: Integral City inquiry and action

Description: Edition 2. | Minneapolis, MN : Amaranth Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: ISBN 9781953754011 (softcover) | ISBN 9781953754028 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Sociology, Urban. | City planning. | Human ecology. | Cities and towns. Classification: LCC HT151 .H36 2020 (print) | LCC HT151 (ebook) | DDC 307.76--dc23

Cover and Interior design: Kathryn Lloyd

Second Edition

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

This book is dedicated to the evolution of the Human Hive Mind, Gaia’s Reflective Organ.

CONTENTS

DEDICATION

FOREWORD by Paul van Schaik

INTRODUCTION

Inquire. Act. Impact.

What is an Integral City?

Foundations for Understanding Integral City

Placecaring Enables Placemaking and Well-Being

Practice the Master Code

Happiness Indicates the Caring Road to Well-Being

Action Co-Researchers Learn Together

Integral City Activates Practitioners, Catalysts, Meshworkers

DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR NAVIGATING THE BOOK

Placecarers and Placemakers Will Benefit from this Book

Sequence of Chapters: Part 1 and Part 2

Methodology Clusters

Chapter Design

Integrated Reflective-Action Practices & Questions

Consistent Chapter Format

How to Engage with Inquiry, Action, & Impact in this Book

PART 1: PLACECARING

SECTION I – Activate Inquiry in the Knowing Field

1 – ACTIVATE INQUIRY FOR KNOWING CITIES

Inquiry Objectives

Introduction to Inquiry, Action, and Impact in Integral City & the Knowing Field

Framing Inquiry for Knowing Field: WHO, WHY1

SCW Case as Practice WHAT, HOW

Conclusion: WHY2

Reiteration of Inquiry Objectives

Action Plan for Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Impact Questions: Deep, Wide, Clear, High

Chapter Resources and/or Links

2 – CULTIVATE WE-SPACE INQUIRY FOR HUMAN HIVE MIND

Inquiry Objectives

Introduction to Inquiry, Action, and Impact with Systemic Constellation Work and We-Space as the Human Hive Mind

Framing Inquiry for Human Hive Mind: WHO, WHY1

Template to Create We-Space Container: WHAT, HOW

Conclusion: WHY2

Reiteration of Inquiry Objectives

Action Plan for Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Impact Questions: Deep, Wide, Clear, High

Chapter Resources and/or Links

SECTION II – Embrace the Master Code

3 – AMPLIFY CARING CAPACITY WITH MASTER CODE

Inquiry Objectives

Introduction to Inquiry, Action, and Impact with Integral City Master Code

Framing Inquiry Practice with the Master Code: WHO, WHY1

Framing Practice of the Master Code—5 Templates: WHAT, HOW

Conclusion: WHY2

Reiteration of Inquiry Objectives

Action Plan for Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Impact Questions: Deep, Wide, Clear, High

Chapter Resources and/or Links

4 – INSPIRE SPIRITUAL COMMUNITIES TO SERVE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN HIVE

Inquiry Objectives

Introduction to Inquiry, Action, and Impact with Spiritual Communities

Framing Inquiry for Spiritual Communities: WHO, WHY1

Inquiry Practice for Spiritual Communities: WHAT, HOW

Conclusion: WHY2

Reiteration of Inquiry Objectives

Action Plan for Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Impact Questions: Deep, Wide, Clear, High

Chapter Resources and/or Links

SECTION III – Assess the 12 Intelligences of the Integral City

5 – FIND THE 12 INTELLIGENCES IN THE CITY

Inquiry Objectives

Introduction to Inquiry, Action and Impact for Discovering the 12 Intelligences

Framing Inquiry for the 12 Intelligences: WHO, WHY1

Inquiry Practice for Discovering the 12 Intelligences: WHAT/HOW

Conclusion: WHY2

Reiteration of Inquiry Objectives

Action Plan for Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Impact Questions: Deep, Wide, Clear, High

Chapter Resources and/or Links

6 – USE THE 12 INTELLIGENCES TO ASSESS BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

Inquiry Objectives

Introduction to Inquiry, Action, and Impact in Using the 12 Intelligences

Framing Inquiry in Using the 12 Intelligences: WHO, WHY1

Inquiry Practice for Using the 12 Intelligences: WHAT/HOW

Conclusion: WHY2

Reiteration of Inquiry Objectives

Action Plan for Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Impact Questions: Deep, Wide, Clear, High

Chapter Resources and/or Links

SECTION IV – Discover and Map City Values & Vital Signs

7 – DISCOVER INTEGRAL CITY VALUES

Inquiry Objectives

Introduction to Inquiry, Action and Impact Understanding Values in the City

Framing Inquiry: WHO, WHY1

Inquiry Practice: WHAT/HOW

Conclusion: WHY2

Reiteration of Inquiry Objectives

Action Plan for Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Impact Questions: Deep, Wide, Clear, High

Chapter Resources and/or Links

8 – MAP & MONITOR VITAL SIGNS IN THE INTEGRAL CITY

Inquiry Objectives

Introduction to Inquiry, Action and Impact in Mapping IVSM

Framing Inquiry for IVSM: WHO, WHY1

Inquiry Practice for IVSM: WHAT/HOW

Conclusion: WHY2

Reiteration of Inquiry Objectives

Action Plan for Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Impact Questions: Deep, Wide, Clear, High

Chapter Resources and/or Links

PART 2: PLACEMAKING

SECTION V – Engage the 4 Voices of the City

9 – ATTRACT THE 4 VOICES OF THE CITY

Inquiry Objectives

Introduction to Inquiry, Action and Impact that Attracts the 4 Voices

Framing Inquiry for Attracting the 4 Voices: WHO, WHY1

Inquiry Practice for Attracting 4 Voices: WHAT/HOW

Conclusion: WHY2

Reiteration of Inquiry Objectives

Action Plan for Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Impact Questions: Deep, Wide, Clear, High

Chapter Resources and/or Links

10 – DIALOGUE WITH THE 4 VOICES OF THE CITY

Inquiry Objectives

Introduction to Inquiry, Action, and Impact for Dialogue with the 4 Voices

Framing Inquiry for Dialogue with the 4 Voices: WHO, WHY1

Inquiry Practice for Dialogue with the 4 Voices: WHAT/HOW

Conclusion: WHY2

Reiteration of Inquiry Objectives

Action Plan for Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Impact Questions: Deep, Wide, Clear, High

Chapter Resources and/or Links

SECTION VI – Prototype Design for Learning Lhabitats, Pop-ups and Sustainable Community Development

11 – EMPOWER PEOPLE WITH LEARNING LHABITATS AND POP-UPS

Inquiry Objectives

Introduction to Inquiry, Action, and Impact with Lhabitats and Pop-Ups

Framing Inquiry for Learning Lhabitat: WHO, WHY1

Inquiry Practice for Learning Lhabitat: WHAT/HOW

Conclusion—Learning Lhabitat: WHY2

Framing Inquiry for Pop-Up: WHO, WHY1

Inquiry Practice for Pop-Up: WHAT/HOW

Conclusion—Pop-Up: WHY2

Conclusion: Harvesting Prototyping Outcomes from Learning Lhabitats and Pop-Ups

Reiteration of Inquiry Objectives

Action Plan for Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Impact Questions: Deep, Wide, Clear, High

Chapter Resources and/or Links

12 – PROTOTYPE SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Inquiry Objectives

Introduction to Inquiry, Action, and Impact for Sustainable Community Development

Framing Inquiry for Sustainable Community Development: WHO, WHY1

Inquiry Practice for Sustainable Community Development: WHAT/HOW

Conclusion: WHY2

Reiteration of Inquiry Objectives

Action Plan for Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Impact Questions: Deep, Wide, Clear, High

Chapter Resources and/or Links

SECTION VII – Meshwork Purpose, People, Place, and Planet

13 – REALIZE MESHWORKING CAPACITIES IN THE HUMAN HIVE

Inquiry Objectives

Introduction to Inquiry, Action, and Impact for Meshworking in the Human Hive

Framing Inquiry for Meshworking in the Human Hive: WHO, WHY1

Inquiry Practice for Meshworking in the Human Hive: WHAT/HOW

Conclusion: WHY2

Reiteration of Inquiry Objectives

Action Plan for Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Impact Questions: Deep, Wide, Clear, High

Chapter Resources and/or Links

14 – MESHWORK A NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Inquiry Objectives

Introduction to Inquiry, Action and Impact for Meshworking a Mature Neighborhood Strategy

Framing Inquiry for Meshworking a Mature Neighborhood Strategy: WHO, WHY1

Inquiry Practice for Meshworking a Mature Neighborhood Strategy: WHAT/HOW

Conclusion: WHY2

Reiteration of Inquiry Objectives

Action Plan for Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Impact Questions: Deep, Wide, Clear, High

Chapter Resources and/or Links

SECTION VIII – Evaluate Impact

15 – EVALUATE INTEGRAL CITY IMPACT WITH INTEGRATIVE EVALUATION PROCESS

Inquiry Objectives

Introduction to Inquiry, Action and Impact with Integrative Evaluation Process

Framing Inquiry with Integrative Evaluation Process: WHO, WHY1

Inquiry Practice with Integrative Evaluation Process: WHAT/HOW

Conclusion: WHY2

Reiteration of Inquiry Objectives

Action Plan for Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Impact Questions: Deep, Wide, Clear, High

Chapter Resources and/or Links

16 – CONCLUSION—INQUIRY AND ACTION FOR IMPACT IN THE HUMAN HIVE

Inquiry Objectives

Recapitulating the Purpose for Inquiry, Action and Impact in the Human Hive

Summarizing Inquiry Intentions: WHO, WHY1

Summarizing Action Practices: WHAT/HOW

Summarizing Impact Questions by Quadrant and Chapter

Continuous Learning for Placecaring and Placemaking

Reiteration of Inquiry Objectives

Meta-Action Plan for Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Chapter Resources and/or Links

PROFILES: AUTHORS & CONTRIBUTORS

GLOSSARY

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Integral Quadrants

Appendix B: Integral City Maps (1–5)

Appendix C: Integral City 12 Intelligences

Appendix C1: Definitions of 12 Intelligences

Appendix C2: Assessment Worksheet for 12 Intelligences

Appendix C3: Integral City GPS Locator

Appendix D: Sample Values Survey Form

Appendix E: Systemic Constellation Work

Appendix F: Whole System Methodologies

Appendix F1: Action Inquiry

Appendix F2: Action Learning

Appendix F3: Action Research

Appendix F4: Appreciative Inquiry

Appendix F5: Integral Inquiry

Appendix F6: Logic Models

Appendix F7: MetaIntegral Four Quadrant Impacts

Appendix F8: Polarity Management Examples

Appendix G: Integral Vital Signs Monitor—Composite Set of Indicators

Appendix H: Qualities of an Integral Designer

Appendix I: Team Charter Form

Appendix J: Integral City Scope of Work Logic Model

Appendix K: Abbotsford Values Flower Map

Appendix L: Integrative Decision-Making

REFERENCES

INDEX

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Integral City Map 1–4 Quadrants, 8 Levels

Figure 2: 4 City Voices in the City as a Whole

Figure 3: Master Code of Placecaring & Placemaking

Figure 4: Integral City Methods

Figure 5: Inquiry, Action, Impact Chapter Design

Figure 6: Activator Impact Questions

Figure 7: Integral City Map 1–4 Quadrants

Figure 8: Steps to Building We-Space Prototype

Figure 9: Master Code: Perspectives in the Integral City

Figure 10: 4 Lenses for Quality of Life

Figure 11: 4 Voices of the City

Figure 12: Scales of Complexity in the City

Figure 13: 5 Sets of Intelligences on Integral City GPS Locator App

Figure 14: Different Values in Different Neighborhoods

Figure 15: Governance Framework from IVSM Process

Figure 16: Feedback Cycle for Salutogenic Indicators

Figure 17: Integral Vital Signs Monitor 9 Scales—Municipal Home Page

Figure 18: Municipal Traffic Light Display

Figure 19: IVSM Web of Interconnections

Figure 20: 4 Quadrants and 4 Voices of the Human Hive

Figure 21: 4 Voices: 2 for Placecaring and 2 for Placemaking

Figure 22: Meshworking as a Simplified Linear Process

Figure 23: Sherwood Park Project Timeline, 4 Voices, Locations (MNS, p. 18)

Figure 24: Sherwood Park Stakeholder Wheel

Figure 25: Reality Check—What, So What, Now What

Figure 26: Kellogg Logic Model Cycle

Figure 27: Logic Model Overview

XXX LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Profiles of Integral City Activators: Practitioner, Catalyst, Meshworker

Table 2: Levels of Complexity for Caring for Others

Table 3: Place-based Objects of Caring

Table 4: Citizens Practice Master Code

Table 5: City and Institutions Practice Master Code

Table 6: Business/Organizations Practice Master Code

Table 7: Civil Society Practices Master Code

Table 8: Levels of Values Complexity

Table 9: Summary of Positive Values Descriptions

Table 10: Summary of First Spoken Languages in Sample City

Table 11: Population Gender & Age Distribution

Table 12: Survey Results by Gender, Age, and Language

Table 13: Qualities of Citizen Voice

Table 14: Qualities of Civil Society Voice

Table 15: Qualities of Civic Managers

Table 16: Qualities of Voice of Business

Table 17: Summary of Sustainable Community Development Program Elements

Table 18: Summary of Sustainable Community Development Course Key Content

Table 19: SCD Typical Program Schedule

Table 20: Summary of Learning Competency Outcomes

Table 21: Project Timeline

FOREWORD

for Integral City: Inquiry & Action: Designing Impact for the Human Hive, Edition 2

by Paul van Schaik

When I first heard of Marilyn it was in connection with complexity theory way back at the turn of the century. We then started to realize that this in itself was a true view but oh so partial. In fact, as we took faltering moves into an integral world, we saw how partial this was, just a small part of the framework being developed. At the level of perspective, only one of four essential domains—the others being Culture, Behaviour, and Intention or Values. These all evolve though stages of development.

The next time I came across Marilyn she was completing her first book in this series of three to date (Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive). The major change in thinking at this stage was that the complexity of understanding was now greatly increased, and the Master Code of Self, People, Place and Planet had become core.

This first book is in a sense the evolution from a complexity framework to an integral framework. The complexity theory describes the physical world and all its process and integral includes this and so much more.

I then started working with Marilyn first by showcasing her work in the integralMENTORS Urban Hub series on Thriveable Cities, then as a fellow director of Integral Without Borders and lately Marilyn became the first guest curator of an Integral Urban Hub series book - Urban Hub 20: Accelerating City Change in a VUCA World.

Her work follows in the footsteps of such pioneers of urban planning as Patrick Geddes, Lewis Mumford, and to a degree Jane Jacobs to name a few.

As Geddes wrote:

But a city is more than a place in space, it is a drama in time.

Patrick Geddes—1904

This second edition of Marilyn’s second book entitled Integral City Inquiry & Action takes her people-centred co-creation on integral cities from theory into action. It is a how-to-do it book that has been enthusiastically adopted around the world with a great following and users in Russia, Europe and the Americas.

As the integral framework shows so clearly, in order for healthy human development, and thus City development to occur, our individual and communal personal development becomes key.

Lewis Mumford wrote of this in 1960.

Before modern man can gain control over the forces that now threaten his very existence, he must resume possession of himself. This sets the chief mission for the city of the future: that of creating a visible regional and civic structure, designed to make man at home with his deeper self and his larger world, attached to images of human nature and love.

Integral City Inquiry and Action is more than a toolkit for action—it is also a manifesto of how to proceed if we seriously want to build sustainable thriving cities that take into account the myriad voices and worldviews of all people, communities, organizations and care for the planet. It is a must have book for all who want to join or lead the exciting evolutionary journey of making our cities a joyous place to live, grow and thrive. Read it, and then use it for ongoing reference and inspiration.

Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.—Jane Jacobs

—Paul van Schaik, Founder/Creator and Managing Curator of Urban Hub: Thrivable Cities Series; Founder of IntegralMENTORS; Co-Founder Integral Without Borders; Founder/Principal Associate iSchaik Development Associates; Founding Member of the Integral Institute

INTRODUCTION

INQUIRE. ACT. IMPACT.

When I am called to action for a city change project, I want to achieve impact that makes a difference to the well-being of generations to come. Like, how do we change the headline in my own city of Abbotsford, BC from the shocking declaration of, Murder Capital of Canada to Youth Leadership Capital of Canada? (Bolan, 2009)

Perhaps your interests are not quite as dramatic—but you want to re-energize your city center, inspire a thriving economy, eliminate homelessness, green the supply chain, or overcome gridlock?

I am a student of how human systems change, develop, and evolve. My career has taken me through the study and practices of developing individual adults (how to operate computer systems), leaders (how to manage global insurance brokers), teams (how to construct auto testing sites), organizations (how to supply an international hotel chain), sectors (how to merge regional credit unions), communities (how to engage multi-community support for walking-biking trails), and most recently, cities (how to craft visions and implement strategies for sustainability and resilience).

Not surprisingly, with this history of relationships and interactions, the filters I bring to look at the city arise from this spectrum of human systems development which has taught me that the patterns I observed at the individual scale, were repeating at the larger scales. Teams, who unfolded through the stages of form, storm, norm, perform (Tuckman & Jensen, 1977) were mirroring a similar process of developmental stages that the individuals who made them up undergo (D. Beck & Cowan, 1996; Graves, 2005; Kegan, 1994; Wilber, 2000a). Likewise, organizations cycled through lifecycle stages that reflected human system life patterns of startup, growth, go-go, maturity, prime, old age (Adizes, 1999).

On an even larger (and more universal scale), I have learned that living systems of all species—including cities—seem to adapt to their environment by cycling through stages of exploitation, conservation, breakdown, and redistribution (Gunderson & Holling, 2002). As these cycles of development and adaptation continue, the systems tend to become more complex in their structure and relationships. A natural hierarchy of organizational complexity emerges that embodies and supports the purpose of the living systems. When we are trying to understand a city where murder happens or how leadership emerges, we can look around us in the city and see family hearths, kinship circles, power gangs, ordered bureaucracies, results-based companies, social safety enterprises, flexible biomimicry systems, and global networks, all designed to serve different purposes and functioning, like organs in a human being.

So I look at the city not just as a single living human system but a system that is made up of multiple human systems—individuals, families, clans, groups, workplaces, neighborhoods/communities. As such, the city is a special class of living system—it is a social system—where all the subsystems coexist and influence one another all the time as they function within an ecology of human systems.

Perhaps because my grandfather was a beekeeper, I visualize this whole system with a metaphor that seems easier to grasp; namely, that the city is the social habitat for humans just like the beehive is for bees. That’s why I call the city the human hive. The hive and the humans it holds are adapting and evolving together so that the city is as much in me and you (as an internal mental model we are usually not aware of), as we are in the city (as an external environment we inhabit every day). As a social system, we have a reciprocal relationship with each other and with the city as a whole. It both cares for us and makes us as we care for it and make it together.

A basic definition of a city then, is that it is a place that cares for us and a place that makes us as we care for it and make it.

However, you choose to care and make what matters to you in the city, in order to achieve impact that is deep, wide, clear, and high, you need to start with a question. Finding the right question is a more powerful guide for city change than an immediate answer. Asking the right question, with the right people in the room can set up the conditions to enable action that even transforms a habitat for murder into a habitat for youth leadership—sometimes remarkably quickly.

If you are an action-oriented problem solver like me, framing the right question can seem like a waste of time. But when I began to see the city as the human life writ large, then I realized the city is a dynamic, integrally interconnected living system that functions because of how I (and all others in the city) think, act, relate, and create. Asking the right questions can help us discover the mental models that lie behind the assumptions that cause the problems we wish to solve—whether that be how to prevent murder or promote leadership.

My inquiry into what makes human systems develop capacities to care has been informed by my growing fascination for the beehive. What started as a useful metaphor to describe the human hive, has become a series of lessons in biomimicry from another species—the honey bee. For example, I have learned that somehow the honey bees have figured out how to care for themselves and their habitat (hive) in a way that not only sustains them (by producing 40 pounds of honey per year), but through their acts of pollination, impacts their eco-region to provide a renewable energy supply for the hive year after year. (Read more about this in Chapter 4: Spiritual Communities to Serve Evolution of the Human Hive.) On learning this story of resilience, Alexander Laszlo, a colleague of mine has asked, The Earth knows what bees have to contribute to the Planet’s well-being—what is it that humans contribute? I reframed this startling question into a line of inquiry that relates to human purpose: What is the purpose of humans and their cities?

Then I heard James Lovelock, author of the Gaia Hypothesis (that the Earth herself is a living system) postulate that the contribution that humans make to Earth’s well-being is as Gaia’s Reflective Organ. That amazing proposition caused me to speculate that the purpose of human hives (aka cities) might be to act as the planet’s reflective organs, while individual humans and their variety of organizations are like cells and organelles (the subsystems that enable organs to function). A Planet of Cities then, might act as Earth’s Reflective Organ System.

Therefore, one of my deepest inquiries regarding the capacity of cities to serve the planet’s well-being has become, what is the equivalent metric for the human hive (aka city) of the 40 pounds of honey for the beehive? How can we create a double sustainability loop that ensures city survival at the same time that the city contributes to eco-regional survival—and even planetary survival?

As corollaries to these questions related to city purpose and metrics, I wonder if we can pose questions that help us to understand how the nest of city subsystems from individual and family through organizations and communities can sustain murder or leadership?

WHAT IS AN INTEGRAL CITY?

In pursuing these inquiries, over the last decade, I have found ways to experiment with designing and delivering a series of methods for my own and other cities, with an emerging community of practice and local core teams.

This book looks at the city as a human system. Its practical design guidance draws on the Integral City Systems that have evolved as we have tested this approach in the world. These inquiry systems attempt to know the city not just as a third-person object but also as a first-person experience and second-person relationship. Through the multiple twists of the quadrants where these persons can be located (see below) we push beyond inquiring about or acting on the city to inquiring and acting with and as the city. Such an approach is only possible when our inquiry is designed to enact our roles as Gaia’s Reflective Organs, organelles, and cells (as discussed in Chapter 4).

An Integral City¹ brings together first, second, and third persons as the 4 Voices of the city—Citizens, Civil Society, Civic Managers, and Business—and builds on their intrinsic qualities to create optimal conditions for human innovation, emergence, and eco-regional resilience. Together with the 4 Voices, we have developed 5 maps of the Integral City (see Appendix B) each of which shapeshifts to reveal key aspects of the city.