Beyond Meta-Modernism Part 2: Balancing Complex, Evolving, Living Systems for Thriveability

In Part 1 of this article, we began by examining some of the critiques and confusions surrounding terms such as “Meta-Modernism”, “Integral” and the vertical development movement in general, including the love/hate relationship many have with Spiral Dynamics. This includes my critique of “altitude sickness” and “the danger of unintegrated polarities”.

In Part 2, we’ll get into how viewing human development from the perspective of complex, evolving, living systems can get us out of this mess, and provide some clarity about what works and what we need to shift to address the polycrisis we find ourselves in.

As a lawyer for social justice in my youth and as someone who co-led 14 South African universities in campaigns to “Free Mandela” and “End Apartheid”, I remain a passionate advocate of social justice. As co-founder of Renaissance2, the Thriveability Foundation, and the Balancer App, I am also committed to social innovation and ecological justice, hence I look at human and social development from a very different perspective from those in the vertical development game. I’m up for triple wins- planet, people, and prosperity, not the win-lose game of accelerated, hyper-financialised, digitized late-stage capitalism.

Plexus and Complexity in Human Development

plexus [ plek-suhs ] — a network, as of nerves or blood vessels, any complex structure containing…