by Dr Liam Kavanagh Since its 2009 publication, many have been captivated by Iain McGilchrist’s The Master and His Emissary (TMAHE). The book, whose jacket is decorated by approving quotes from famous thinkers and neuroscientists, provides a compelling exploration of the curious division of the brain into two hemispheres. It also relates this hemispheric divide, […]
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Wiser Policy Forum: Launch Bulletin
Life Itself is excited to announce, in collaboration with our partners at Untitled, and UCL Professor of Collective Intelligence Geoff Mulgan, the Wiser Policy Forum. This initiative brings together stakeholders from across the spheres of civil society, policy and beyond to explore how we might take a wiser approach to some of the most pressing […]
We are currently embarking on a project to map the space of organisations similar to ourselves, that broadly share our core values and beliefs, and that are trying to change the world around us. Recently, we had a great chat with Joe Lightfoot, about his work and the space that we exist in. Joe Lightfoot […]
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Life Itself Bulletin – June
Hello and welcome to our fortnightly Life Itself news bulletin. Here is a quick update on everything we have been doing recently. Go and check it all out: Compassionate Mental Health Coming Home to Ourselves is a two day virtual gathering to explore alternative approaches for living and working with mental distress, running June 23-25th 2021. […]
Last month we were joined at the Bergerac Hub by Olivia Nater from Population Matters, who came to experience what it was like to be part of an intentional community. She was kind enough to share her reflections with us, which we publish below. My short stay at the Life Itself Bergerac hub certainly gave […]
Notes on Diana Leafe Christian’s Creating a life together: practical tools to grow ecovillages and intentional communities (2003). An excellent handbook on how to create intentional communities. Extremely useful with telling anecdotes, concrete practical steps and a lot of wise advice based on long and diverse experience — not only did Christian live in community […]
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Life Itself April Update
Hello to all! As May floats gently along and the days are longer and brighter, there is plenty more news to report to you. We have been busy behind the scenes at Life Itself, as well making more frequent public appearances on podcasts and seminar discussions. Life Itself co-founder, Sylvie Barbier has been discussing her […]
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Wise Metrics
We have started thinking about a Wise Metrics Project. Our current metrics for social progress are simply not up to par. As our historic fixation with GDP shows, not only have we been measuring the wrong things but these measurements have been distorting our behaviour. To adequately guide our progress we must re-evaluate both what […]
In 1804, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, African-born former slave and military leader of the uprising of slaves in the French colony of Saint Domingue, proclaimed a declaration of independence. He, and those fighting alongside him, rejected Emperor Napoleon’s attempt to reintroduce slavery, and attested that ‘we have dared to be free’. 28 years before this proclamation, in […]
8/10. Laloux has done a great service bringing together multiple case studies, and drawing out commonalities in practices, attitudes and behaviours. Potential improvements: Those unfamiliar with Wilber and culture/values stage theory (as I was when I read the book) may find the initial sections on “amber/red/green/teal” a bit hard-going. I’d suggest this be moved toward […]