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Kathia Laszlo -- Evolutionary Learning Community Inquiry: Theoretical background
and core definitions
ISSS Meeting at Asilomar, June 28-July 2, 1999
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Special Integration Group on Evolutionary Learning Communities
These participant's notes
were created in real-time during the meeting, based on the speaker's presentation(s)
and comments from the audience. These should not be viewed as official
transcripts of the meeting, but only as an interpretation by a single individual.
Lapses, grammatical errors, and typing mistakes may not have been corrected.
Questions about content should be directed to the originator. These notes
have been contributed by Ian Simmonds at the IBM
TJ Watson Research Center ( http://www.research.ibm.com ).
Doing a doctorate on the theme of Evolutionary Learning Community
(ELC). Also involved in an organization for fostering ELC -- Syntony Quest.
Goals are very pragmatic, but presenting the theory here.
Bela Banathy Sr is her advisor.
Purposes of ELC inquiry:
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catalyze the emergence of new ways of thinking by facilitating new ways
of learning
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expand the notion of education by creating the conditions for transformative
and evolutionary learning to empower individuals and groups to respond
to the contemporary social and ecological challenges
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ethical: explore the unlimited possobilities ahead of us, develop the human
potential and create ways of living in harmony with each other and the
natural world
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design new forms of community where people can experience self-empowerment
and an integration of learning, work, and enjoyment of life
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create the conditions of consciousness for this learning.
How do we get out of the [current] spiraling entropy towards a new harmony?
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From global crises to evolutionary learning and design
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Unlimited evolutionary possibilities
Q. Are there examples of ELCs? A. Not clear.
Evolutionary understanding ...
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"an appreciation and understanding of evolution .. can provide a map for
the future of humanity" (Chaisson)
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...
"Having become conscious of evolution, we must now make evolution itself
conscious. If we so willed it, the next leap in the development of human
society can ..."
So, the educational [...]:
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"We have to learn to think in a new way" -- Einstein & Russell, 1957
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Learning is "the greatest source of social systems" -- Banathy Sr.
Distinction between maintenance and evolutionary learning.
Evolutionary learning is about collaborating to create new forms of social
systems.
Transformative and Evolutionary Learning.
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Transformative learning is more of an individual process
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Evolutionary learning is a social process
Community:
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"A group of two or more individuals with a shared identity and a common
purpose committed to the joint creation of meaning." Laszlo and Laszlo
ELC is more than authentic community.
Types of community:
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traditional community -- indoctrination, but needs to be extended to embrace
diversity
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surrogate community -- for example, when traditional community dies in
industrial societies, you get cults, political movements, and so on stepping-in
to provide community
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learning community -- Senge, etc, bringing learning into social systems,
but without the ethical component
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evolutionary learning community -- has ethical component, trying to adapt
to the environment
The conceptual context of ELC inquiry
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is part of Systems Thinking
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overlaps with sciences of complexity
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overlaps with human sciences, eg social sciences
Three components: Banathy's (Philosophy, Theory, Methodology)
Methodology: System of Systems Methodologies
Sciences of Complexity:
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provide some [additional] legitimacy for the work
Selected Human Science Perspectives:
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Critical Theory
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Feminist Thought
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Participatory Paradigm
Q. How much of this is about self-organization?
Q. Have you heard of Herbert Broom. Composer of electronic music, electronic
drawings and challenges. "Agreement is a form of violence," since you are
not engaging in learning -- valuable disagreement. School for designing
a society: Champain-Urbana.
Q. Can't overstate the importance of the [problematic nature of the]
current educational system. A. We see the educational system as a dinosaur
that will still be extinct. But, it's not an either/or situation -- need
both.
Q. Interesting place to look is neighbourhoods, e.g., in Baltimore.
Questioning legitimacy of neighbourhoods.
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