Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive [Paperback]

Marilyn Hamilton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2008

Evolving city intelligences mesh, multiply and integrate all city capacities. This book makes courageous placemaking connections, opens up new relationship pathways, brings hope for solving intractable problems and shows how cities are learning. Integral City takes an evolutionary perspective for city resilience.

Chapters explore:
• 4 meta-maps for city wholeness
• Bio-psycho-cultural-social intelligences for city change
• 12 appreciative inquiries for evolutionary direction
• Meshworking strategies for city learning
• Integral Vital Signs Monitors for city wellbeing
• 12 sets of simple rules for complex adaptiveness

Integral City will appeal to anyone interested in creating conditions in which our cities can evolve intelligently beyond the challenges of the 21st century.

Dr. Marilyn Hamilton is a “meshworker” and founder of Integral City, creating conditions for the evolution of healthy ecologies in people systems. She has over twenty-five years of international experience catalyzing urban community and organizational change and has written numerous books.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Evolving city intelligences multiply and integrate all city capacities

Dr. Marilyn Hamilton introduces powerful, new models that uncover the fractals within human nature and probe into the very "DNA" that shapes human groupings.
Dr. Don Beck, The Spiral Dynamics Group, Global Center for Human Emergence

How are we evolving the human hive? 60% of humanity now lives in cities. Can city dwellers, like bees who pollinate the fields, act so intelligently, they add value to the planet? How can the clash of differences that separate people, purpose, profits and priorities generate fresh energy to solve 21st century problems? Where do we grow the unexpected connections, that propogate new pathways for community learning and give city leaders and citizens fresh hope?

This book explores a new integral paradigm for cities that answers these questions. It traces the evolution of the city's systematic, strategic, social and systemic intelligences and shows planners, policy makers, citizens, civil society and environmentalists how to sense, experience, relate to and live in the city with an integral consciousness. Exploring the contexts of the city's geography, ecology and lifecycles, Integral City guides the reader on an integrated journey through the city's inner, outer, building and storytelling intelligences. Integral City recalibrates intelligences for life-giving evolution on earth and futures in space.

Chapters explore:
* 4 meta-maps for city wholeness
* 12 appreciative inquiries for evolutionary direction
* Bio-psycho-cultural-social intelligences for city change
* Meshworking strategies for city learning
* Integral Vital Signs Monitors for city wellbeing
* 12 sets of simple rules for complex adaptiveness

Integral City will appeal to anyone interested in creating conditions in which our cities can evolve intelligently beyond the challenges of the 21st century.

Marilyn Hamilton amazes us with the depth and breadth of her vision, her mastery of the integral paradigm, and her pragmatic suggestions for creating cities of the future.
Dr. Nancy Roof, Founding Editor, Kosmos Journal.

Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive is a powerful application of the "meta-theory" of integral philosophy. Steve McIntosh author of Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution

...a veritable eco city-region planning and design manifesto for anyone whose business touches on any aspect of city-making, city-managing and city-sustaining. Ian Wight PhD, Associate Professor of City Planning, Faculty of Architecture, University of Manitoba

Dr. Marilyn Hamilton is a "meshworker" and founder of Integral City, creating conditions for the emergence of healthy ecologies in people systems. She has over 25 years of international experience catalyzing community and organizational change and has written numerous books.

About the Author

Dr. Marilyn Hamilton is a "meshworker" and founder of Integral City, creating conditions for the emergence of healthy ecologies in people systems. She has over 25 years of international experience catalyzing community and organizational change and has written numerous books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: New Society Publishers (November 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865716293
• ISBN-13: 978-0865716292
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #770,959 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Changed my unconscious assumptions about cities., August 11, 2009

By 

N. Bullock - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive (Paperback)

I read this book as a volunteer activist interested in community engagement and the dialogical processes. I was expecting to gain insight into the social dynamics of city life as it relates to growth, change, development and problem solving. These expectations were met and exceeded resulting in a personal change of consciousness. I will never again see cities in the same light, or with the same innocence. The analogy of the city as a bee-hive used throughout the book has altered my understanding of the physical, social and spatial nature of cities. On a personal level it has challenged my unconscious assumptions about what entails a healthy, livable city and how personal behavior contributes to collective health.

For those who like charts, diagrams and systematic ways of processing information, this book is full of goodies. I would highly recommend it for city planners, environmentalists, policy makers, social activists and everyday citizens such as myself.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read, August 12, 2009

By 

Jamin L. Stortz - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive (Paperback)

This is a fantastic book... the author has created an 'authentic' view of the city as a holistic space worthy of our respect as a complex and evolving hive. I have not found a more complete and integrative work on the complex relationship humanity has with the city, the community and its institutions.

As a graduate student in Public Administration, this book has shaped and developed my own perspective of community and the next steps that the field of administration must take.

The book offers solutions for the modern administrator from an integral perspective, many of which I am currently using in my own administrative role in the multi-agency environment.

I recommend this book to anyone who is involved with their community and to those 'integralists' out there who will undoubtedly enjoy this application of integral theory to a subject that we are all intimately familiar with.

4.0 out of 5 stars Community Developers, February 3, 2011

By 

DMG - See all my reviews

This review is from: Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive (Paperback)

I read this book with an eye to promoting health and doing community development work in both rural and urban settings. This book provides a wealth of information that is both big picture and holistic and also focuses on practical applications. The book is well organized and strategies are easily implemented on the ground. I have had the pleasure of consulting with Dr. Hamilton on a number of issues related to health in the City and she has provided support, direction and mentoring in applying the principles contained in the this helpful resource!