Viktor Frankl
In this rare clip from 1972, legendary psychiatrist and Holocaust-survivor Viktor Frankl delivers his powerful message about the human search for meaning — and the most important gift we can give others. TED.com ted.com/talks/…
I just unfolded some thoughts in a forum debate, provoked by some statement of Jón Þór Olafsson from Iceland. Thank you Gabriel Shalom (http://ks12.net/) for your mindfulness and work!
Jón Þór says, that in the context of arab spring etc. the observation is: Facebook makes possible that everybody knows, that everybody knows, that everybody is discontent. Great! Some points come to mind:
a) power history as media history
b) Technological connectivity results in the emergence of political connectivity
And this makes Jón Þór’s statement so dramatic – the technological connectivity induces a first order emergent property – social connectivity; the latter then induces political connectivity (aka tele(em)pathy, if you like).
So the transparancy tools make the political buildings and machinations transparent, WikiLeaks or not … The Emperor’s new clothes … This is the catalyst of change we see day by day now.
Social Capital World Forum 2011
“The term social capital is still not widely understood outside of academic or political circles, however there are many organisations delivering social, economic and environmental benefit as an outcome of their work, without using the term. The SCWF believes that greater knowledge of social capital, the terminology and the structures, can help demonstrate the value of such work and facilitate progress in our communities socially, environmentally and economically to bring about a more sustainable and prosperous society.”
SCWF 2011 in Dornbirn/Austria
The 3rd Social Capital World Forum took place on 23-24 September 2011 in Dornbirn, Austria. The event has been organised by Assist Social Capital, Buro fur Zukunkftsfragen and the University of Applied Science in Dornbirn, in collaboration with the Austrian Government’s Department for Life and Evangelisches Tagungs- und Studienzentrum in Boldern, Switzerland.
Insights
It was great to meet these great folks from different countries with very specific perspectives and multi-disciplinary insights. I realized that Social Capital has to be a central aspect in the “social wave observatory” of social foresight. Think about e.g. the riots in London in this year to understand the destructive power of negative Social Capital. And understand the role of trust and relation building in the Arab spring dynamics resulting in political transformation. The interesting question is to understand the complex dynamics of Social Capital in different contexts and settings. How to wisely create, modulate, “curate” or gardening it.
Drawing about process analogies emerging during a workshop. Neologism: "pracademics" - between practitioners and academics
Foresight Thinking. Source: http://dthsg.com/3rd-partnerworkshop-foresight-thinking/
It was great pleasure to attend the BETTER BETA | Design Thinking @ HSG in Lüneburg (some time ago, yes). I learned to know new people, passions and methods. Have to add an update later, for now only the hint to the fusion of design thinking and foresight in the Foresight Thinking approach. This method is very important for the social foresight toolbox I want to build here step by step.
More: http://foresight.stanford.edu/methods.html
Foresight thinkers In action at BetterBeta, adjusting a biography of a persona. Source: Willi Schroll
Program of BetterBeta: http://www.slideshare.net/sniggy/better-beta-11
Empathy inside – how we can hope to survive using our sociability
Here is Jeremy Rifkin about empathy, very nicely animated. To be more concise, this is about the grand view of the “empathic civilisaiton” which is unfolding in historical steps, starting with our biologically inbuilt empathy. From tribes to religious communities to nation identities and finally the consciousness of planetary connectedness. This is definitely worth to watch. It is time to adapt our thinking (and how we build our systems, educate kids ….) to the fact of homo empathicus.
PS: This is a great talk. Adding only some critical remarks: The issue of empathy, love, altruism have been not only neglected, but fighted by “hard science” for too long. It is fine that science acknowledges, what intelligent observation has told us for thousands of years and what is codified in a secondary step in wisdom literature, the mythological storytelling and commandments of many (if not all) religions.
Philosophers for centuries did not need MRI scan to understand this basic traits of nature. Today, since we live in a scientific civilisation the legitimation mechanisms are based on “scientific storytelling” and objective measurement. Historical irony: Empathy has been “discovered” (mirror neurons firing), in exactly the paradigmatic “modern scientific” lab situation of experimenting with animals as if they did not feel anything, i.e. supressing the empathy (what has been the hybris of a branch of modernity – Descartes and his disciples).
Update 2011-07-27
Interesting discussion about how hardwired empathy is in mirror neurons: www.dysorganization.com/2011/07/limits-of-empathy.html. Anyway, if socialisation has more contribution in it, this just means that we cannot lean back, we have to be more deliberate to change the societal structures e.g. the learning contents and methods in our schools. It is of minor importance, whether the role of the mirror neurons is basic in the process or not.
Watching the social wave in the domain of economy we referenced to Vanessa Miemis some days ago (The Evolution of People-Powered Markets: 60 Resources). Here is a interview with Rachel Botsman in the context of the symbionomics project, where awesome people are interviewed about the emerging new structures beyond failed conceptual pathways and collapsing macro-institutions.
“Rachel Botsman is a social innovator who writes, consults, and speaks on the power of collaboration and sharing through current and emerging network technologies, and on how it will transform business, consumerism and the way we live. She is the co-author of the influential book What’s Mine is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption Is Changing The Way We Live. Collaborative Consumption was named by TIME as one of the “10 Ideas That Will Change The World”. …” symbionomics.com/interview/rachel-botsman
Update 2011-07-19: There is a domain for that – and a first mind map of the essential idea. planetschool.net
planet school - mind map
I just applied the following text at awesomefoundation.org. Under time pressure I could write this in minutes 
M Y _ A P P L I C A T I O N _ T E X T _
( t o _ a w e s o m e f o u n d a t i o n . o r g )
I have been working for the progress of corporates for 16 years. 2009 was a wake-up call for me. UN Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009 demonstrated the “systemic failure” of the political class. The PLANET is used beyond the natural limits. I know that as a foresight expert for years.
We have to thoroughly re-wire and re-educate politics, economy, society. Planet schools will be developed as serious starting points into a sustainable metabolism with the planet.
It is not enough to know and to lament.
There are countless initiatives of change all over the PLANET, great local and global communities and changemakers.
BUT the elite of tomorrow, the leaders in politics and economy are educated “as usual”. The mindset in 10.000 business schools worldwide is Continue reading
