Releasing the genius of an individual, an enterprise and a society is a central pre-occupation of the contemporary business environment. A fascinating approach to how we can begin to tackle this challenge is presented by the authors of Integral Polity. Integral spirituality, integral philosophy and the integral age, at an overall or holistic level of consciousness, has therefore become a strong enough idea to form the genesis of a movement over the course of the last half century.
Taking as a starting point the ground-breaking work of the Trans4m Centre for Integral Development this book applies such an `integral’ notion to the realms of business, economics and enterprise. To be successful, an integral approach must recognise the nuances of its environment - an integral approach in India is different from that in Indonesia, or Iceland, and they may in fact complement rather than conflict. Therefore this book also provides a fascinating alignment of such `integrality’ with, and between different `southern’ and `eastern’, `northern’ and `western’ worlds.
Using case studies ranging across the globe this review of a newly integral theory and practice provides a new lease of life to what may increasingly be perceived as the self-seeking, insulated and occasionally violent and corrupt, realm of the political.
Table of Contents:
Contents: Prologue: an introduction to integral polity: nature, culture, society, economy. Part I In Pursuit of Integrity: Disintegrated to integral polity; The origins of political order. Part II Natural and Communal Orientation: Southern Polity: Natural grounding: constituting Africa; Natural emergence: tradition and modernity; Communal navigation: development and auto-centricity; Natural rapoko effect: food security at Zimbabwe’s Chinyika. Part III Cultural and Spiritual Orientation: Eastern Polity: Spiritual grounding: India’s human cycle; Cultural and spiritual emergence: spiral dynamics; Cultural, political and economic navigation: threefolding; Conscious, powerful, economic effect: Sri Lanka’s Sarvodaya. Part IV Technological and Societal Orientation: Northern Polity: Social and political grounding: Europe living in truth; Emergent innovation: technology, management, aesthetics; Navigation: self-management/cooperative association; Social and technical effect: integral green Slovenia. Part V Economic and Environmental Orientation: Western Polity: Environmental and economic grounding: the American soul; Natural, cultural, social, economic emergence: future primal; Political and environmental navigation: politics of nature; Economic and environmental effect: Brazil’s Curitiba. Part VI Nature, Culture, Society and Economy: Centring Polity: Integral ground: holy Qur’an: start sustainable development; Emergent integral: harmony: sustainable development anew; Integral navigation: the potential of the Arab Spring; Integral effect: Sekem - integral sustainable development. Epilogue; Index.
