An Integral Approach to Relationality An Integral Approach to Relationality This presentation builds on the principles of Ken Wilber’s integral philosophy to graphically represent

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An Integral Approach

to Relationality

Mark EdwardsGraduate School of Management

University of Western Australia

© Mark Edwards, 2006

For further information regarding this presentation contact Mark Edwards at [email protected]

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““““Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, world, world, world,

do we begin to do we begin to do we begin to do we begin to find ourselvesfind ourselvesfind ourselvesfind ourselves, and realize , and realize , and realize , and realize where we arewhere we arewhere we arewhere we are

and the infinite extent of our relations" and the infinite extent of our relations" and the infinite extent of our relations" and the infinite extent of our relations"

Henry David ThoreauHenry David ThoreauHenry David ThoreauHenry David Thoreau

Agape, or Compassion, Agape, or Compassion, Agape, or Compassion, Agape, or Compassion, ………… tttthhhheeee pppprrrriiiinnnncccciiiipppplllleeee ooooffff eeeemmmmbbbbooooddddiiiimmmmeeeennnntttt,,,,

and bodily incarnation, and relationship, and relational and and bodily incarnation, and relationship, and relational and and bodily incarnation, and relationship, and relational and and bodily incarnation, and relationship, and relational and

manifest embrace, touching each and every being with perfect andmanifest embrace, touching each and every being with perfect andmanifest embrace, touching each and every being with perfect andmanifest embrace, touching each and every being with perfect and

equal grace, rejecting nothing, embracing all.equal grace, rejecting nothing, embracing all.equal grace, rejecting nothing, embracing all.equal grace, rejecting nothing, embracing all.

(K.W., The Simple Feeling of Being, p. 81)(K.W., The Simple Feeling of Being, p. 81)(K.W., The Simple Feeling of Being, p. 81)(K.W., The Simple Feeling of Being, p. 81)

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An Integral Approach to Relationality

This presentation builds on the principles of Ken Wilber’s

integral philosophy to graphically represent social relationships and, in particular, the relationship between

“I” and “You” (2nd person relationality).

Types of relationships considered here are:

1. Singular and plural relationships between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd persons (perspectival relationality).

2. Ecological relationships between human individuals and social groups (micro-meso-macro

relationality).

3. Mediated relationships between individuals and

groups (sociogenetic relationality).

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“The connections continue. Notice that every ‘I’ is in relationship with other I’s, which means that every ‘I’ is a member of numerous we’s. These ‘we’s’represent not just individual but group (or collective) consciousness, not just subjective but intersubjective awareness” (KW, IOS Basic, 2005, p. 18)

1. How can we represent relationality between holons and perspectives?

Although with singular and plural forms the "three persons" gives us six perspectives, for most purposes, those condense down into 4 fundamental perspectives: I, we, it, and its. (Kosmos Vol. 2, Excerpt C, para. 59)

2. How can we show micro-meso-macro relationships?

The micro is in relational exchange with the macro at all levels of its depth. (“Twenty Tenets”, SES, p.73)

3. How can we graphically explore an integral approach to exchange relations?

Each level in the human being is a process of relational exchange with a corresponding environment. (SG, p. 56)


“The connections continue. Notice that every ‘I’ is in relationship with other I’s, which means that every ‘I’ is a member of numerous we’s. These ‘we’s’represent not just individual but group (or collective) consciousness, not just subjective but intersubjective awareness” (KW, IOS Basic, 2005, p. 18)

1. How can we represent relationality between holons and perspectives?

Although with singular and plural forms the "three persons" gives us six perspectives, for most purposes, those condense down into 4 fundamental perspectives: I, we, it, and its. (Kosmos Vol. 2, Excerpt C, para. 59)

2. How can we show micro-meso-macro relationships?

The micro is in relational exchange with the macro at all levels of its depth. (“Twenty Tenets”, SES, p.73)

3. How can we graphically explore an integral approach to exchange relations?

Each level in the human being is a process of relational exchange with a corresponding environment. (SG, p. 56)


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“The important point is that when I engage in hermeneutics and collaborative inquiry, I am lighting up the second-person (and first-person plural) modes of being-in-the-world. Those modes are real, they are there, and they constitute a crucial ingredient in any integral methodological pluralism.”

“All of those intersubjective approaches--there are literally dozens of others--are tapping into the fact that all holons have a Lower-Left quadrant, a holistic web of mutually interpenetrating prehensions across space and time that can be felt and described in a second-person (and first-person plural) perspective.”

(KW, Kosmos trilogy Vol. 2, Excerpt A)

Second-Person Modes of Being in the World


Relationality is fundamentally about:

6Relationality involves “two or more …”

As the following definition says, relationality is:

i) The way in which one person or thing is connected with another.ii) A logical or natural association between two or more things. iii) The mutual dealings or connections of persons, groups, or nations in social,

business, or diplomatic matters. (American Heritage Dictionary)

An integral vision-logic of relationalityHow can we apply the AQAL framework to graphically represent all the quadrants, levels, lines, dynamics and perspectives involved in power relations, mediating processes, personal relationships, workplace relations, communication, etc.?

communication

governance

identity

power

love

war

media

conflict

mediation

relationship

intersubjectivityLL LRLL LR

UL URUL UR


How can we show relationality using Quadrants and the “I-We-It-Its” Model of Perspectives ?

Plural perspectives

(Macro-level)

Singularperspectives

(Micro-level)

1st Person


“We”

“I”

3rd Person

Where is the 2nd person

(singular & plural)

Where are the 1st person exteriors (“My/Our behaviour”)?

Where are the 3rd person interiors

(“His/Her intentions/feelings”)?

“They”

“He/She/It”

This is how!: The Six Basic Perspectives Where each holon has four quadrants

As Wilber puts it:“… with singular and plural forms the "three persons" gives us six perspectives …”

(Kosmos Vol. 2, Excerpt C, para. 59)

“There are not different holons in the four quadrants; the four quadrants are the four

dimensions of every holon.” (Kosmos Vol. 2, Excerpt C, para. 57)

Plural perspectives(Macro-level)

Singularperspectives(Micro-level)

1st Person 3rd Person

“We/Us”

2nd Person

“They”

“He/She/It”“You”

“You(s)”

“I/Me”

The between space

of relational exchange


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Multilevel Scale of Focus

The Individual-Collective (Micro-Macro) Dimension

Interior Exterior

Individual Collective

Agency-Communion is a

qualitative dimension of

each and every holon.

monad dyad team org. unit organisation

singular – individual holon triad

plural - collective holons

industry economy

Micro-Level Holon Meso-Level Holons Macro-Level Holons

Micro-Macro Link

Communion(of one holon)

Agency(of one holon)Individual-Collective is a

“multilevel” dimension linking

micro, meso, and macro

holons, i.e. singular and plural.


Both the interior-exterior

dimension and the agency-

communion dimension

describe the same holon

Using the Individual-Collective

dimension to describe ecological

relations between holons allows

us to represent holons separately

(see below)

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The Integral Holon(for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd person perspectives of

individual and collective holons)

ME

Both individual ANDcollective holons have UL and LL quadrants

Both individual ANDcollective holons have UR and LR quadrants

Agency

ExteriorInterior

Consciousnessis

Interior Agency

Cultureis

Interior Communion

Behaviouris

Exterior Agency

Social Structure is

Exterior Communion

Communion© Mark Edwards, 2006

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Why is this organisation so successful?

effective organisation’s structure

its communications and IT systems

its production systems

transparent financial systems

THE ORGANISATION’S COLLECTIVE SOCIAL SYSTEM

its business culture is in touch with community needs

has a culture of success and corporate responsibility

it provides meaningful work

its collective skill & knowledge base

innovative leadership

progressive management skills

planning and goal setting

THE ORGANISATION’S COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOUR (OB)

THE ORGANISATION’S COLLECTIVE CULTURE

its sense of identity

its collective ideals, vision and spirit

the organisation’smythos & archetypes

THE ORGANISATION’S COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS


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Why is this employee so successful?

his extrinsic incentives

his specific skills

his behavioural efficiency

interpersonal behaviour

THIS EMPLOYEE’S EXTERIOR BEHAVIOURAL IDENTITY

his dedication to the job

his experience of work

his intrinsic motivation

his intention to work well

THIS EMPLOYEE’S INTERIOR CONSCIOUSNESS

(INTENTIONAL IDENTITY)

he’s a “good worker”

his system of working

his workplace role

he likes the male role of “earner”

THIS EMPLOYEE’S EXTERIOR SOCIAL IDENTITY

he finds work meaningful

his cultural background

his personal values

his industrious worldview

THIS EMPLOYEE’S INTERIORCULTURAL IDENTITY


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1. The “Space Between” #1 The Individual-Collective Dimension and Multi-Level Research in Organisational Studies

2. The “Space Between” #2 The Six Perspectives and Basic Methodologies

3. The “Space Between” #3Relationality through mediation

Relationality in Organisations

(“The space between”)

Mediating Factors: power, language, tools,

cultural artefacts

The micro-levels of individual relationships

The meso-world of group relations

The macro-world of organisational relations


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an integral view of an industry

The “Space Between” #1 The Individual-Collective Dimension and Multi-Level Research in

Organisational Studies (ecological holarchy – spatial relations)

The whole AQAL framework can be applied at any point on the micro-meso-macro scale (integral multilevel theory).

an integral view of an employee

an integral view of a team

an integral view of a department

an integral view of the organisation

What is needed is a way of coupling theories and research at different levels into a meaningful whole. We need mechanisms that help us conceptualise complex relations

between units at different levels of analysis … in organisational settings. (House, et al, 1995, p.86)

“The space between”

(e.g. conversation)The space between (e.g.

mediation)

The space between (e.g.

power, status, &

authority relations)


The “Space Between” #2: Perspectives and Basic Methodologies

for studying the interiors & exteriors of the 1st, 2nd & 3rd persons

Plural (Mesolevel

and Macrolevel)

Singular (Microlevel)

1st Person 3rd Person 2nd Person

StructuralismCase Study &

BiographyBehavoural Research

Social Autopoiesis

Introspection &

Autobiography

Hermeneutics

Cultural Studies

Social Structuralism

Psychotherapeutic

MethodsAutopoiesis &

Cognitive Studies

Ethnomethodology

Collaborative &

Participatory Research

Systems Research

& Functionalism

What of the methodologies for studying the relationships between these holons?

The “Space Between” (Bradbury & Lichtenstein, 2000). If we can now model

holons in relationship, how can we apply the whole AQAL framework to the

study of those relationships and do this graphically? To do so we need an

‘integral holonics’ – an integral method for depicting (and studying) relationality

in general and perspectival relationships in particular.


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The “Space Between” #3

How do we explore the relationality “Space Between” of social entities using integral theory, AQAL, holon theory, etc?

“The Space Between”inter-subjective inter-objective

interactive relational

mediationalinterpersonal

co-constitutional

for 1st, 2nd, 3rd person relationships - singular & plural

?

Taking a relational orientation suggests that the real work of the human organisation occurs

within the space of interaction between its members. Thus the theorist must account for the

relationships among, rather than the individual properties of, organisational members …

Such a scholar enters an organisation as if it were an extended set of relationships. S/he

thereby places more attention on the “space between” – the space between subject and

object … Bradbury & Lichtenstein, 2000, p. 551


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The central fact about our psychology is

the fact of mediation. (Vygotsky1982, p. 166)

“Any higher mental function

was external and social before

it was internal” (Vygotsky, 1981b, p.

163)

Mediation, the Sociogenesis of Consciousness, and the Radical Depth of the Exteriors #1

Society, genetically considered, is not a composition of separate individuals; on

the contrary, the individuals are differentiations of a common social protoplasm.

The conclusion is drawn that the individual is a "social outcome not a social unit."

We are members one of another. (J. M. Baldwin, 1930)

Any higher function was first external

because it was social at some point

before becoming an internal, truly mental

function. (Vygotsky cited in Wertsch 1985, p.62)

Individual consciousness as a specifically human form

of the subjective reflection of objective reality may be

understood only as the product of those relations and

mediacies that arise in the course of the establishment

and development of society (Leontiev, 1977, p.8)


To develop an integral model of relationality we need to understand mediation & the communication of exterior depth

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Self-consciousness, as Hegel loved to point out, is,

in fact, always a mutual affair. The idea 'I' is

inseparable from the idea 'you‘. I am I, on the whole,

and in every definite aspect of my self-

consciousness, in so far as I appeal to my fellow to

recognize me. (Josiah Royce, 1894)


The definite concept of the Ego has, in each one of

us, a social and imitative origin. (Josiah Royce, 1894)

My conscious idea of myself

is derived, is secondary, for

instance, to language, to

which all my thinking is so

deeply indebted, and is thus,

oddly enough, a product of

social intercourse. Who I am,

I have first learned from

others before I can observe it

for myself. (Royce, 1894)

The child will not succeed in forming an object of

himself — of putting the so-called subjective material

of consciousness within such a self — until he has

recognized about him social objects. (Mead, 1912)

For Cooley the mind is not first individual and then

social. The mind itself in the individual arises through

communication. (George Herbert Mead, 1930)

Inner consciousness is socially organized by

the importation of the social organization

of the outer world. (Mead, 1912)


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Royce points out that the individual

reaches the self only by a process that

implies still another self for its

existence and thought. Mead, 1930

“In order to explain the highly complex forms of human consciousness one must go beyond the human organism. One must seek the origins of conscious activity … in the external processes of social life, in the social and historical forms of human existence”.

Luria (1981)

The social dimension of consciousness is primary in

time and in fact. (Vygotsky 1979, 30)

An adult's essence is found in

the essence of the environmental

conditions.(Vygotsky & Luria, 1930/1993)


“The child concept of ‘I’ develops out of the

concept of others.” (Vygotsky, 1983, p. 324)

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Mind … lies in a field of conduct between a

specific individual and the environment, in which

the individual is able, through the generalized

attitude he assumes, to make use of symbolic

gestures, i.e., terms, which are significant to all

including himself. (Mead , 1922 – “A Behavioristic Account of

the Significant Symbol”)


For Vygotsky and

cultural-historical

theorists more generally,

the social world does

have primacy over the

individual in a very

special sense. Society is

the bearer of the cultural

heritage without which

the development of mind

is impossible. (Cole & Wertsch, 1999)

“Any function in the child’s cultural development appears twice, or on two planes. First it appears on the social plane, and then on the psychological plane. First it appears between people as an interpsychological category, and then within the child as an intrapsychologicalcategory. This is equally true with regard to voluntary attention, logical memory, the formation of concepts and the development of volition …Social relations or relations among people genetically underlie all higher mental functions [in the individual].”(Vygotsky, 1981b, p. 163)

James Wertsch

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1st person 2nd person

Mediating Holon

The Integral Holon, the Basic Activity Triad and

disciplines that focus on the “space between”

Development is as

much about the mediation of exterior depth (e.g.

Vygotsky) as it is about the unfolding

of interior depth (e.g. Piaget)

Development is as

much about the mediation of exterior depth (e.g.

Vygotsky) as it is about the unfolding

of interior depth (e.g. Piaget)

The developmental (AQAL) profile of

mediating holons is crucial to

understanding individual and collective

development

The developmental (AQAL) profile of

mediating holons is crucial to

understanding individual and collective

development

Theories of Power

Communications Theory

Critical Media

Studies

Peer-to-Peer Theory

Artifact-in-Use

theories

Cultural-Historical

Activity Theory

Developmental work

research

Mediational Semiotics

Sociogenetics


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#1

#2

#3

#4

#5 Mic

ro-m

acro

rela

tio

nsh

ips

(# o

f th

read

s -

“all t

hin

gs”)

indiv

idual holo

nC

olle

ctive h

olo

ns

Reclaiming Indra’s net as a integral model of Kosmic relations:

“Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra,

there is a wonderful net …” (Avatamsaka Sutra)

p1 p3 p2 p5 p4 p7 p6 p9 p8 Perspectives (# of reflections – “interpenetrations”)


The six basic perspectives

Perspectives (“interpenetrating” reflections) crossed with Relations (the threads of “all things”)

generates: “Indra’s Net” - the multiplicity of holonic perspectives in relationship. AQAL’s 4

quadrants and the six basic perspectives are a summary of the interpenetration of all things in

relationship – “Indra’s net”, the Kosmic Mass, Behinnot,

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The Buddha speaks the wondrous sound without obstacle The Buddha speaks the wondrous sound without obstacle The Buddha speaks the wondrous sound without obstacle The Buddha speaks the wondrous sound without obstacle It pervades all lands in the ten directions,It pervades all lands in the ten directions,It pervades all lands in the ten directions,It pervades all lands in the ten directions,

Benefiting the living with the flavour of truth:Benefiting the living with the flavour of truth:Benefiting the living with the flavour of truth:Benefiting the living with the flavour of truth:The Courageous know this technique. The Courageous know this technique. The Courageous know this technique. The Courageous know this technique.

Emanating inconceivable nets of light,Emanating inconceivable nets of light,Emanating inconceivable nets of light,Emanating inconceivable nets of light,Everywhere purifying all conscious beings,Everywhere purifying all conscious beings,Everywhere purifying all conscious beings,Everywhere purifying all conscious beings,He causes them to engender profound faith.He causes them to engender profound faith.He causes them to engender profound faith.He causes them to engender profound faith.

AvatamsakaAvatamsakaAvatamsakaAvatamsaka Sutra (The Flower Garland Sutra)Sutra (The Flower Garland Sutra)Sutra (The Flower Garland Sutra)Sutra (The Flower Garland Sutra)


Documents

An Integral Approach to Relationality An Integral Approach to Relationality This presentation builds on the principles of Ken Wilber’s integral philosophy to graphically represent