{"title":"Awareness-Based System Change for Elevating Education and Reshaping Development","authors":"Shobi Z. S. Lawalata","doi":"10.47061/jabsc.v2i1.3362","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v2i1.3362","url":null,"abstract":"Much of the work that I do in the field of leadership capacity building for transformative systems change, is bridging the gap between the skills that our formal education system has equipped us with, and the skills that we actually need in order to shape our future into the results that we truly want. In this commentary, I expand on how Awareness-Based Systems Change can complement and transform our current formal education system. The “awareness-based” portion of this approach shines a light on a dimension very rarely explored in our schools and universities: the inner dimension of the observing self from which our thinking, being, and doing arise. The “systems change” portion highlights a broader and deeper understanding that befriends the complexity of how humanity has evolved through our societal institutions. This whole-human, whole-system perspective would complement the relatively narrower way of seeing the world that our formal education system tends to reinforce through logical reasoning and scientific inquiry skills alone. I argue that many traditional knowledge systems are as rich and rigorous as a western way of knowing, and that bringing these different ways of knowing into conversation with each other may help us to provoke deeper mindset shifts and rethink what it means to be “developed”. Lastly, I highlight the role of this Journal for creating the platform for more stories, examples, and learnings from around the world to make visible our collective body of work in societal renewal.","PeriodicalId":243406,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123820457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Telling Sauna Stories","authors":"Erin Alexiuk","doi":"10.47061/jabsc.v2i1.1976","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v2i1.1976","url":null,"abstract":"Autoethnography is a qualitative research methodology that centers self in social and cultural analysis. Building on the emerging study of inner work in systems transformations, this article explores the potential contributions of autoethnography as a methodological companion to systems analysis. By layering excerpts from an autoethnography exploring my maternal family’s history as Finnish immigrants to northern Ontario, Canada with conventional academic prose, I model what this approach might look like and discuss its relationship with established systems approaches. In writing this piece, my intentions are exploratory: what can we learn from those who study and practice systems change if they turned their gaze inward and revealed their journey for others to learn from? Using an autoethnographic approach, I surfaced nuanced understandings of highly complex social and cultural processes. In particular, a previously unexamined connection to ancestry and cultural identity emerged through sauna stories told by female relatives and my own introspection into a life-long relationship with sauna bathing. The partial, dynamic narratives resulting from this work better match our incomplete understandings of complex systems and can even transform the lives of those engaged in systems change.","PeriodicalId":243406,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133729792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Oliver Koenig, M. Seneque, B. Sharpe, Zahra Ash-Harper, Stefan Bergheim, A. Hodgson, A. Odugleh-Kolev
{"title":"Three Horizons Meets Presencing for Inclusive, Just and Equitable Futures","authors":"Oliver Koenig, M. Seneque, B. Sharpe, Zahra Ash-Harper, Stefan Bergheim, A. Hodgson, A. Odugleh-Kolev","doi":"10.47061/jabsc.v2i1.3355","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v2i1.3355","url":null,"abstract":"The In Dialogue piece in this issue, brings together Oliver Koenig, Megan Seneque, Bill Sharpe, Zahra Ash-Harper, Stefan Bergheim, Anthony Hodgson, and Asiya Odugleh-Kolev to explore the links between Presencing and Three Horizons in the context of creating inclusive, just and equitable futures. The conversants explore what it means to avoid totalising structures (however well intended), as we work with a plurality of perspectives in the kind of reflexive futuring processes that are contained in both the Three Horizons and in Presencing. This exploration around the nature and quality of structure required for authentic presence and for the emergence of collective insight from a plurality of perspectives, drew the conversants to the nature of structuring that love brings.","PeriodicalId":243406,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change","volume":"78 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115671882","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"MAPA Social Innovation Lab","authors":"Jose Romero Keith","doi":"10.47061/jabsc.v2i1.3379","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v2i1.3379","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000The purpose of this commentary is to invigorate the theoretical approach used by the MAPA Social Innovation Lab in its effort to elaborate a gender equality narrative for the 21st century. To this end, I examined the intersection of Otto Scharmer's Theory U with the main postulates of Paulo Freire's critical pedagogical method, as reflected in the MAPA Social Innovation Lab process. The discussion passes through three axes: the construction of collective consciousness, the role of culture, and the theory-praxis dilemma for social transformation. I make the case that Scharmer (Thoery U) and Freire agree that the search for authentic or generative consciousness is an indispensable step in the reshaping of society. Freire offers a comprehensive methodology for the understanding of culture and social transformation which can been seen as complementary to Scharmer's co-sensing. Taken together they address the issue of \"historical viability\". The aim of these reflections on the intersection of Theory U and Freire is that they will nurture MAPA´s—and other social innovation labs'—action research, political activism, and praxis towards a vigorous gender narrative for the 21st century. \u0000\u0000","PeriodicalId":243406,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115324007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Relational and Embodied Epistemologies in Peace Education","authors":"Daniela Lehner","doi":"10.47061/jabsc.v2i1.2022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v2i1.2022","url":null,"abstract":"In this contribution, I am exploring from a theoretical perspective, relational and embodied epistemologies in peace education. The question that guides me: How can we create an individual and collective transformation of our worldviews and perceptual habits towards peace? I argue that the complex challenges, the dividing structures of our time, and the various forms of separation that promote violent structures, ask for (new) forms of being, knowing and acting that are based on interconnectedness. A relational understanding of life is crucial for peaceful and caring ways of living. I believe that especially dualistic and binary modes of being and knowing need to be transformed towards relational epistemologies. Therefore, I try to approach relational and embodied epistemologies combining indigenous, phenomenological and feminist ideas. I discuss embodiment as a possible approach to describe the intertwining of self and world, including the intelligence of the heart, as a form of presence to sense deeper levels of perception. I end the paper with a feminist pedagogical approach of care. ","PeriodicalId":243406,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114608128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Renata Sbardelini, D. Almeida, Liliane Moreira Ramos
{"title":"MAPA: Co-Creating New Narratives for the 21st Century","authors":"Renata Sbardelini, D. Almeida, Liliane Moreira Ramos","doi":"10.47061/jabsc.v2i1.2727","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v2i1.2727","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents the MAPA Social Innovation Lab and elaborates on the elements that influenced and/or led to constructing new narratives based on a plurality of views and multiplicity of people from different classes, gender and age, in different positions of power. It addresses the short period during with the lab itself was held, the tensions that arose on account of the very characteristics / particularities of the group’s participants, and the breadth and complexity of a co-constructed narrative. The social innovation lab was held in 2019 and was based on Theory U. It consisted of 37 leaders invited to rethink a social model anchored in the feminine-masculine duality starting from the central question: What does the new narrative of feminine and masculine values for the 21st century look like? We present three central principles that underpin the process and, from the point of view of a movement still under construction, we consider important issues for developing a MAPA experience as well as the limitations and possibilities that became (and have become) evident over the course of our MAPA journey.","PeriodicalId":243406,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129695596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Waddock, Steve Waddell, Peter H. Jones, Ian Kendrick
{"title":"Convening Transformation Systems to Achieve System Transformation","authors":"S. Waddock, Steve Waddell, Peter H. Jones, Ian Kendrick","doi":"10.47061/jabsc.v2i1.2023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v2i1.2023","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Transformation (T-) systems are innovative collections of initiatives and efforts geared to bringing about a flourishing socio-ecological system in a given context. They comprise of the totality of initiatives, people and organizations who are collectively seeking to transform a particular issue or geography in a common direction, when they attempt to align their efforts for greater effectiveness, as a result of that growing identity and self-awareness. This article explores the concept of transformation (T-) systems, and how they can become impactful organizing frames for change agents. Another innovative type of entity, the Transformation Catalyst (TC), works to connect, cohere, and amplify the work of actors and initiatives, who generally work independently, into coherent T-systems. We use evolving work in the sustainable seafood arena to illustrate these ideas.\u0000","PeriodicalId":243406,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129392282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Realizing Collective Capacities to Navigate Complexity","authors":"R. Rajagopalan","doi":"10.47061/jabsc.v1i2.1966","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v1i2.1966","url":null,"abstract":"In describing one experimental approach to building organisational capacity for navigating complexities, an evocative testimony about the shift to discovering a collective capability is embedded in a report on a sensitive research inquiry – into how sensing and perceptionsshape unfolding patterns of behaviour and prescribe or circumscribe action potential. The commentary discusses sensing as a tool and the potential role of action research as scientific inquiry into sensing. ","PeriodicalId":243406,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change","volume":"496 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134511834","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Seneque, Sue Miller, Ermal Kirby, J. Marsh, Charity Nzegwu, Bevan Powell, A. Roux
{"title":"Striving for Justice","authors":"M. Seneque, Sue Miller, Ermal Kirby, J. Marsh, Charity Nzegwu, Bevan Powell, A. Roux","doi":"10.47061/jabsc.v1i2.1950","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v1i2.1950","url":null,"abstract":"Black ministry has historically found itself at the intersection of theology and racial justice. In this dialogue, a group of people, both ordained and lay, discuss their work in the Methodist Church in Great Britain, taking a deep look at self and system through the lens of justice and inclusion. The Methodist Church has a long history of grappling with issues of (racial) justice. In 2019, at a Racial Justice Symposium convened by the Methodist Church, participants engaged in an awareness-based systems change process to take a deep dive into what it means to shape inclusive community. Theory U (Scharmer 2016, 2018; Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013) provided the overarching framework and key principles for this journey of co-inquiry.","PeriodicalId":243406,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129512281","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Embodied Experiential Learning","authors":"Vivianna Rodriguez Carreon, Penny Vozniak","doi":"10.47061/jabsc.v1i2.1179","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v1i2.1179","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a craft in experiential teaching and an experiment in embodied learning for peacebuilders and change-makers. The theories, practices and experiments are part of the postgraduate course in Peace of Mind. The intention is to invite the reader to see experiential learning and awareness-based practices as a tool that enables a possibility to evolve our humanness. Interdisciplinary abstract methodologies from Indigenous and phenomenological philosophies support the argument that granular and qualitative knowledge emerges through the embodiment of human expression. It addresses the concept of fragmentation of the self, the importance to pause to give voice to knowledge that words cannot convey. Through the arts, the paper shows non-linear forms of communication with visual experiments. The purpose of this collaborative work is in the craft, in the process, and beyond the authorship.","PeriodicalId":243406,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127151820","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}