How might we include and experiment with practices within our research group which go beyond discussion of ideas, and are more focused on embodiment, practical application, and other ways and forms of understanding?
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Thanks for creating this thread. One suggestion I’d have here is that a specific embodied practice could be referenced within a discussion of ideas - either an existing practice or perhaps more interesting would be a new practise or new variant - and could actually be practiced in the session.
Alternatively and this brings us closer to the ‘action research’ previously discussed, the discussion of ideas could suggest a practice to be done outside of the suggestion, which could be reflected on in a future session.
I’d want to be clear that anyone who wants to simply present ideas without suggesting a practise is still welcome to do that though!
I think it depends whether there is a context. Like, for example, you have an idea like -say -'common sense is not natural but is determined by history and agenda of current and past elites,
… and you have a practice like… I am thinking of the ‘bus’ exercise from Vanessa Machado de Oliveira’s book Hospicing modernity, where you see yourself as a community of people (parts) on the same bus…
…Do you also have a specific issue, like ‘the rise of the far-right’ or ‘how to resolve conflict in a community’ or ‘what kind of research outputs might we produce’ or ‘what is my favourite dinosaur?’ -
…Or are you asking everyone to think of their own example?
One way would be to do something (related to sensemaking), especially something which involved teamwork and collaboration. By doing things with others one would inevitably get “embodied” e.g. frictions would arise etc etc and then (hopefully) get transcended and integrated.
Examples of things we could do
- Create a Second Renaissance “Dictionary” (or Glossary)
- Write papers collaboratively or even if individually it could be with review and input from others
- Building applications e.g. Wiser Metrics project and dashboard (as just one small example)
- Making maps (or improving them) e.g. Second Renaissance Ecosystem Map
- (Collaboratively) creating a structure for our enquiries e.g. an issue tree or similar that would allow us to map each week to week enquiry into a bigger pattern
Sensemaking intensives
You could engage in some specific structured sensemaking experiments. These could experiment with the structure, process etc e.g. one could try a classic debate style, another which is almost quaker style (just listening and sharing from the heart) etc etc.
One idea we’ve had for a while was to pick some particularly controversial / emotionally charged topic (e.g. israel and gaza, or conspiracy theories, immigration) and then try and make sense about it.
Particularly good if you have a motivating question e.g. “Is what is happening in Gaza genocide”.
The point would be you’d be seeking to engage as much to work on the emotional / ego side as the “rational/analytic” side here.
By picking a topic, and even having at least two distinct (initial) positions one could actively work with the energetic field of the group (including welcome tension and difference – in a constructive way).
You’d also want a topic with a bit of intensity to it …
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Yes, that’s the kind of thing I mean.
I’d be open to it. How about creating a sign-up sheet, some concrete ideas and a voting mechanism. My high level questions would be - Who are we? What are we capable of? This is somewhat related: How We Keep Our Internal Workings Secret and The Question of True Self · life-itself · Discussion #1166 · GitHub
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When I think of embodied and practical experimentation, I think about my physical lifeworld. The two main dimensions of that right now include an information technology teaching job for adult learners (an hour from home) and a spiritual community much closer to home. How do either of these relate to 2R, one might wonder?
As connective tissue, so to speak, I also participate in this group, which is directly affiliated with 2R: https://www.intentionalsociety.org/ My local spiritual community is a sort of face-to-face variation on Intentional Society. I also try to bring Intentional Society values and practices into my workplace setting. With respect to the experimentation dimension of all this, I’m a connoisseur of action learning models and do all sorts of continuous improvement micropractices all the time.
So let’s try to pull some threads together … it seems to me embodied practices are best experimented with in physical spaces. Where virtual spaces like this shine is in comparing notes and working out theoretical frameworks. There are some things happening in my physical communities that may be of interest to others around the world. There are also very likely things being done around the world that might be worth attempting in my more local environments. An experimental design in which we try certain activities in different locations and compare notes on outcomes might be worth consideration.
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