*Call for Papers: Curating Emergence for Thrivability SIG of ISSS (International Society for the Systems Sciences)*

[Alex8er]

Special Integration Group: Curating Emergence for Thrivability

You are cordially invited to participate in the annual meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS). Specifically, I hope you will consider contributing a paper and/or poster for presentation in the Curating Emergence for Thrivability (CET) SIG (Special Integration Group) that it is my pleasure to chair. For more than a decade, this SIG has held productive meetings as an intact line of inquiry, the first four since 1998 under the name of the Evolutionary Learning Community (ELC) SIG, the next eleven as the Evolutionary Development (ED) SIG, and subsequently as the CET SIG.  We will continue to focus our efforts on issues of timely relevance to which ELCs may best be dedicated in service of ED.

Each year, the conference theme and focus provide an exciting platform upon which to catalyze the collective explorations of the CET SIG.

Inquiry on Curating Emergence for Thrivability involves exploration of the relationship between and evolution from systems planning to systems design to systems curation.  The CET SIG is our action lab where we explore ways to curate emergent nurturance spaces and surface actionable leverage points for systemic sustainability at various fractal levels of planetary thrivability, grounding the outcomes emerged through this process at local and global (aka glocal) levels. Doing more with less, promoting living simply and meaningfully, and creating prosperity where present and future human needs can be met without compromising the natural environment, are some of the concrete objectives involved in Curating Emergence for Thrivability. Evolutionary Learning Communities, as learning environments where people can learn together about the interconnected nature of our world, the ecological impact of our individual and collective choices, and the joy of finding a meaningful way to contribute to the emergence of sustainable and evolutionary futures, are the social units where Evolutionary Development can be set in motion for the ongoing self-organization of human societies in syntony with the planetary life support systems upon which they depend.

The CET SIG invites both theoretical analyses relating to the principles and constructs of systemic sustainability, thrivability and curated emergence, as well as presentation of explorations and practical applications that foster the dynamics of thrivability. This SIG welcomes treatment of themes that include, but are not limited to, consideration of the following topic areas:

◦ Holistic Being

◦ Evolutionary Development (an expression of integral/holistic development)

◦ Transcendent Consciousness (involving an expansion of the identity of "self")

◦ Systemic Thrivability (also known as apithology; patterns of synergetic symbiosis)

◦ The relationship between sustainability, thrivability, and flourishing

◦ Community empowerment and participatory/anticipatory democracy

◦ Design of ELCs as evolutionary guidance systems

◦ Evolutionary Systems Design as praxis

◦ Syntony as an organizing force in societal evolution

◦ Evolutionary Leadership for Thrivability

While all of the topics listed above are within the domain of consideration of the CET SIG, of particular interest are explorations that consider the question of WHAT ARE THE SYSTEMIC LEVERAGE POINTS AND NURTURANCE SPACES FOR CURATING THE EMERGENCE OF A GLOBAL ECO-CIVILIZATION? Such explorations would involve inquiry on the pragmatic ideal of integrating the economic, ecological, social, cultural, and spiritual aspects of thrivability through considerations that include:

• evolutionary thinking and envisioning a thrivable society or protopia
• personal leadership and taking transformative stands
• systems thinking and understanding the dynamics of complexity
• socio-ecological intelligence and the evolution of consciousness
• thrivability principles and their application to organizations and communities
• coherence of intrapersonal, interpersonal, trans-species and trans-generational relationships
• language, metaphor, and narrative in service of strategic conversations that shape reality

The CET SIG is run as follows: During the conference itself, no formal paper presentations are made, even though acceptance of both abstracts and full papers and/or posters is required. So as to be congruent with the general theme of the conference and the specific focus of our inquiry, our sessions are conducted as learning conversations focused on the intersection of, and emergent insights derived from, the presentations made. In order to maintain this focus, we ask presenters to be brief (5-10 minutes maximum, using no more than 3-5 slides, if any), with each presentation concluding with the question(s) the researcher is currently asking themselves.  In this manner, after a half hour of generative conversation in which participants have the opportunity to share the core ideas of their work with each other and the group attains a basic collective cognitive map of the research and constructs represented in the room, we divide the remaining hour into a strategic conversation (to identify areas of synergy, common themes and directions) and an evolutionary conversation (to create new knowledge and insights, and propose further collaborations).

Of course, if there is anything I can help clarify for you with respect to the above, please do get in touch.

SIG Chair: Alexander Laszlo

Email: the...@me.com 

For historical background on the CET SIG, visit The ELC Archives.

More information about the ISSS Special Interest Groups (SIGs) can be found at the following link: http://isss.org/world/SIG-call-for-papers