Finding the Center in Field Building

Field Building

In a time between worlds, new language, concepts, and practices are required. A meaningful way that this can happen is through 'field building', making new fields which allow people, organizations, and energy to gather around a coordinated goal or problem.

One of the fields that Life Itself is currently in the process of building is the field of deliberately developmental spaces. We have defined deliberately developmental spaces as Physically colocated groups together for a sustained period of time with a conscious engagement in multidimensional developmental praxis. We also view them as having three distinct features:

1. Space. These environments are spaces in both a physical and temporal sense. They are a site for a group to live, work, practice and engage with one another with shared time that can be dedicated to these ends.  

2. Developmental. These environments are explicitly developmental spaces: their practices and activities revolve around fostering the growth of participants “ontologically”, both individually and collectively. As discussed above, ontological development is a shorthand for sustained development in the capacities which enable us to make sense of and engage with the world around us, particularly in how this relates to our own inner states. This can extend to more traditional education but also, and arguably more importantly, the domains often covered by spirituality and personal development such as emotional intelligence, self-knowledge and so on.

3. Deliberate. Development is intentional in that both the creators and participants are consciously orientated towards ontological development. This may not be the exclusive focus (as it is with. traditional monasticism, for example). However, it should be a clear, conscious and central component of their participation.

At the moment, we are bringing together a community of people and organizations who are taking part in, coordinating, researching, and involved in this wider area of deliberately developmental spaces, so that together more precise conversations and coordinated efforts can emerge. In short, we are in the process of trying to 'find the center' of this field, so that it might eventually grow and develop from this core.

Examples

Here we have identified three examples 'close to the center' of the field, and one 'close the boundary', for you to get a sense for what this looks like. A more complete list of examples, including the ones mentioned below, can be found here.

Monastic Academy

Monastic Academy is a Buddhist retreat center in the United States, which allows for a number of different residencies. They use the Daśabhūmika Sūtra, or the ‘ten stage model’ from the Mahayana Buddhist tradition to guide their efforts. Recently, they have narrowed their efforts to focus more on the intersection of AI and wisdom, but they are still primarily concerned with developing the skills and capacities to manage the growing complexity of the world. Indeed, it is worth emphasizing here that deliberately developmental spaces, even though they are focused on individuals, have a unique role in societal transformation, that individual and social transformation go hand in hand.

Montaia

Montaia is a regenerative co living laboratory located in California. While less rigorous than Monastic Academy, they have similar goals: namely, to co-create a way of life that allows for the thriving of both the human and the Earth community around us. Importantly, a lot of these spaces are concerned with experimenting with different life styles and different ways of being. They are not merely places to 'improve' or 'heal' oneself, but laboratories to explore and develop different ways of relating to the world, which might be later used on a larger scale. In many ways, these are the kinds of places we are interested in: places that are ontologically experimental and purpose driven, and concerned with finding new models of being and living.

Sleep awake

Sleepawake is a 4-week residential intensive 'camp' for 18-27 year olds to explore ways of authentic living. The program last 4 weeks and is meant to be an immersive experience in which one learns to 'show up fully in life.' The program points out that traditional educational institutions don't teach us a number of skills to manage our lives, particularly emotional ones. Sleepawake thus highlights the ways in which deliberately developmental spaces are to some degree 'educational', in the sense that they provide the conditions to learn meaningful life skills. There of course is a bit of a paradox here, which is that traditional educational institutions are not directly concerned with things like emotional intelligence, agency, creative expression, relating to others, ecological awareness, and other relavent capacities. It should encourage us to ask: in the context meta crisis, what is worth learning, and how can we share that with one another?

Center for Systems Awareness

The Center for Systems Awareness is a global group of changemakers, based primarily in Boston, which puts together workshops, events, and curriculums to help with systems transformation. Indeed, even though they are concerned with ontological development and societal transformation, they do not offer sustained programs in space. Nonetheless, they seem to be an important and relevant organization that should be within the broader conversation. Examples like these, which might have one or two of the above criteria for a deliberately developmental space, can help us identify more consciously the 'center' of the field. Importantly, we don't do this as to exclude organizations like these, but to further refine the center.

Finding the center

From these examples, we might say that deliberately developmental spaces are concerned with the link between individual and social transformation; experimental ways of being and relating to the world, and encourage us to reconsider what we mean by 'education' in the metacrisis. Indeed, more threads and patterns might be identified, and these three are highlighted merely to show some common themes which might emerge in the building of this field.

Additionally, even though our efforts are mainly concerned with identifying the center of the field, examples from the ”boundary” of the field can be meaningful and worthwhile to consider. Indeed, the boundary offers a unique way to further position and define the center.

It is also important to emphasize that finding the center is not only a matter of finding the common language, themes, and practices of the field. It is about identifying and connecting the practitioners, stakeholders, and resources that already exist and finding and creating webs of connection. It is about carving out a space and building a network.

We encourage you to read and sign our manifesto, and to contribute to the discussion on Github.