INSIGHTs

Expert analysis and commentary to help you to make sense of what’s emerging.

Climate Change

Dark Hope and the Climate Crisis

Jonathan Rowson

Why aren't we rising up? Because the effects of climate change are distant in four dimensions: not here, not now, not me, and not clear. But here’s the dark hope: It is here. It is now. It is me. And it is clear.

Myth

Missteps as a Redemptive Path to Destiny

Kristina Dryza

We all blunder into the Grail Castle, exactly as Parzival did, before we can even hope to formulate and ask the question that may end our exile. And yet everything can be redeemed.

Emergence

Cultivating an Emerging Paradigm

Tomas Björkman and Rufus Pollock

Context, challenges and a thesis.

Politics

Move Over

Indra Adnan

Most of us are still stuck in a conception of vertical power. How can we truly find a voice for the wider population, rather than simply seeking to replace the current leaders as sources of knowledge and wisdom? And how can we avoid celebrity cults in our own network?

Climate Collapse

We are the Comet

Zhiwa Woodbury

"Don't Look Up" is a powerful counter-cultural statement that taps into something deep in our collective psyche. It shows us that we have been looking to all the wrong people and institutions to solve our problems. Will it have the power to bring about a sea-change in our death-phobic culture?

Education

The Transformative Power of Peer-to-Peer Learning Networks

Carolin Goethel

A plea for rhizomatic learning in community.

Philosophy

Playing and Creating in an Infinite Way

Peter Limberg

Like the player of life who expands the notion of game along with what it means to play, the artist of life expands the notion of art along with what it means to create. On meta-gaming vs. creating in the liminal web.

Energy

Powering the City: Energy Transition in Berlin

Tarn Rodgers Johns

Nothing is more urgent than the global energy transition. Across Europe, solar parks and off-shore wind farms are being ramped up in the drive towards carbon-neutral. At the same time, many countries are facing an "energy crisis" because of rising costs. How can we localise our energy supply, so that we all benefit from this transition?

Society

Christmas, Consumerism and Confusion

Jonathan Rowson

Christmas is the season of shallow critique. We lament the commercialisation around us as if it were a seasonal problem, but lurking inside the wrapped presents, juicy puddings and roasted birds there are deeper questions about ethical drift and the social logic of our entire economic model.

Climate Change

What if We are all We've Got?

Zhiwa Woodbury

We urgently need to move from a blame- and victimhood model towards one of shared responsibility for the climate catastrophe. What might happen if all of us became ‘climate influencers’ by acting every day as if our lives depended on minimizing our carbon footprints?

Emergence

Mapping for Emergence

Theo Cox, Rufus Pollock and Anna Katharina Schaffner

Life Itself and Emerge will join forces to map the emergent metamodern ecosystem. But what is so great about social network mapping? Why does it matter, and how can it help?

Systems Thinking

Systemic wisdom for and beyond Systems Change

Louis Klein

A critical systems perspective allows for exploring the universality of indigenous wisdom traditions and their understanding of the interconnectedness and interdependence of the flow of the world.

Society

Learning to Walk Together: Small Steps towards the We of Us

Joe Ross

What is the calling that pulled us from the sea? Whatever will become of you and me? And how to become WE?

Myth

The Beautiful, Hidden Harmony of Chaos

Kristina Dryza

It is unhelpful to believe that chaos exists only outside of us. And that this external chaos presses in upon our internal lives in an intrusive and disruptive manner. Almost all creative processes happen in a space between order and chaos. Nothing new can emerge unless we learn to dance with the chaos within.

Psychedelics

‘Mama Ayahuasca told me to invest in crypto’

Jules Evans

There is an overlap between crypto and psychedelics: Both operate at the margins of legality, are popular with libertarians who are suspicious of governments, and are symptoms of despair with the State of Things. Both are moonshots for a better way of living, and seem to inspire a similar fervour that a new age of love is dawning.

Psychology

The Art of Self-Improvement: Ten Timeless Truths

Anna Katharina Schaffner

When it comes to self-improvement, we have much to learn from our ancestors and other cultures. What is more, self-improvement practices provide powerful barometers of the values, anxieties, and aspirations that preoccupy us at particular moments in time and expose basic assumptions about our purpose and nature.

Emerge

On Weltschmerz and Weltanschauungen

Jonathan Rowson

Our challenge is to channel world pain into worldviews that clarify who we are, and how we should act, to inspire a shared sense of hope for the future.

Ecopsychology

RECLAIMING OUR INDIGENEITY: A Cure for Climate Trauma?

Zhiwa Woodbury

With only a limited window of time to bend the emissions curve, adapt to changing climate conditions, and halt the rapid decline in biodiversity, the values and wisdom of Indigenous Peoples can help us achieve this transformation.

Inner Development

"We need Inner Development Goals to reach the SDGs"

Jan Artem Henriksson

We may be lacking crucial inner skills to tackle our most urgent global action problems, of which the most pressing is the climate crisis. In this interview, Jan Artem Henriksson, the CEO of the Inner Development Goals Initiative, discusses with Waleria Schüle why inner work is needed to achieve a more sustainable global society.

Society

The Future of Philanthropy

Louis Klein

What kind of philanthropy does our world need right now? Why venture philanthropy doesn't work, and how community and social value philanthropy can contribute to a global civil society realising the love for humanity.