Integral Centers in the Nordic region

Academy
1

Does anyone know of or is a part of Integral Centers in the Nordics (Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Åland)?

There is a very rich network of Inner Development Goals (IDG) hubs here. Any initiatives concerning explicitly both inner and outer?

I’m currently interning at a Stockholm-based organisation Blivande, among else writing applications for future projects; one “for meetings and networks that strenghten the voice of civil society and provide organisations with opportunities to influence society” whose major requirements is that it contributes to ‘Vision 2030’: Nordic Region becoming “the most sustainable and integrated region in the world”, which displays healthy green values strenghtened by and implemented together with orange - fertile ground for full implementation of integral perspectives. I would love to for both IDG and Integral hubs to be involved.

2 Likes
2

Hi Jitka, I wish I had info for you on this question. One thing my organization is working on is the interconnection across different types of local civil society organizations and hubs. We are seeing the integral groups as good potential incubators for the interconnection between inner development and outer development work and the branching into the hubs that would be focused more specifically on work within one of the quadrants or on left or right quadrants or something like that. Perhaps if there is not yet such integral hubs in the Nordic countries, that the IDG hubs could serve as an incubator for that and the seeds could be planted. I do wish we had tech tools that could map this and could offer connections. For now, I suggest that you might get involved with the IDG hubs and then they might connect you to the groups doing outer work. Also you can email me and I might be able to offer more connections brandon@enlightenedworldview.com

1 Like
3

Hi, Brandon. Thank you for suggestions. Agree IDGs could serve as incubators and will try it along these lines.

There are such efforts - bringing exisitng “2nd tier” initiatives and resources in one place, often not explicitly using the name “integral”. For example as this symbolic map
https://secondrenaissance.net/map or a visual mapping of the ecosystem https://secondrenaissance.net/ecosystem/pip

This should not be hard. Even just pinning locations using “Google My Maps” to begin with would be useful resource. IDG has the same on theier website for all hubs, viz the link in my first post.

I am suprised a source of all Integral-related initiatives, including affiliated or independent individual researchers, doesn’t exist (or are not very visible?). One only encouters them sporadically and spontaneously on the web, for example IFIS in Freiburg, Germany.

A map and a searchable list would be a useful thing to create by someones already familiar with the field, either at Integral Life - @corey-devos?, or by someone organizing European or North American conferences?

1 Like
4

Yes, and I gave a presentation recently to the Life Itself research group (the same organization behind the “Second Renaissance”) on this meta-hubs concept. Here is the presentation deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1UlAIVfuN9IZvdnwqNsiF8e3P98XVTZ-v/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=117491835000953037563&rtpof=true&sd=true I’m still working out more details

As for better tech tools to help people connect to integral groups and such, I definitely think that would be great and I even submitted a proposal to IAM a few weeks ago that involved some of this. Note that IAM is connected with Integral Life. Probably the evaluators thought it was an interesting proposal, but I didn’t get the funding. I’m still trying to figure this out.

2 Likes
5

Updating here, not exactly integral centers per se but perhaps even more valuable and optimistic learnings, while attending a for-youths climate and sustainability focused conference in Åland, the autonomous, demilitarized and neutralized Swedish-speaking region of Finland spread over thousands of islands in the midst of the Baltic sea.

Åland has developed its own concept of ‘sustainable development goals’ independently of the United Nations - seven “strategic development goals for sustainability” - and officially adopted it around the same time the UN did:

Åland embarked on a journey in the early 2010s to make a long-term transition towards a fully sustainable society, a commitment unanimously affirmed by the Parliament in 2014. As a result, in 2016 the Development and Sustainability Agenda for Åland was drawn up by the people living and working on Åland.
– report “Everyone Can Flourish on the Island of Peace”, Government of Åland, 2024

Met with people of the Åland’s “Sustainability Network” Nätverket Bärkraft and the “Development and Sustainability Council” who are tasked with overseeing the goals’ implementation in theory, evaluating the developments towards meeting set targets and reviewing the long-term progress.

It is the most concrete and dedicated government-initiated concrete applications towards sustainability I have seen, and they agree they do not know about any others being as actively committed. However they do constantly strive to get more countries onboards, especially Nordic-Baltic govts and willingness and efforts exist by individuals in those albeit not yet spilling over to system wide actions.

The work of Bärkraft contributed to the 2024 submission to the UN by the Government of Åland “Everyone Can Flourish on the Island of Peace”, a report evaluating the eight years so far as well as introducing the philosophical background of goals, the vision that ‘everyone can flourish’ and how that translates to systemic changes.
I highly recommend reading it, especially Chapter 6 - Policy and enabling environment, Chapter 4 - ‘Everyone Can Flourish’ and experiences from implementation, Chapter 5 - Åland Vision, Strategic Development Goals and timeline. And share critical reflections if you like – they were very eager to hear feedback from as many as possible, I will share with them mine some time soon and would anything else that may come forth from conversations here. We will be staying in communication and see what ideas can be put into realization.

All people I have talked to in the above mentioned networks, councils, parliament members are well aware about inner-outer correspondences, largely familiar with integral framework and the works of many current and past figures.

Quite amazed from the trip, getting a glimpse of the autonomous local-level and thus fairly effective governance, their committment to peaceful development, and genuine striving for full sustainability by 2051 etc, visions and directions that come naturally when being at those stages of development inwardly, even if it is sometimes not explicitly stated in documents and reports.

2 Likes