By: Enrico (EJ Wensing), US Virgin Islands ejwensing@ecosphere.net
This presentation tracks the evolution of ideas regarding the role of human identity in a transition toward a sustainable global future through my doctoral work in psychology and learning for global sustainability as presented at previous Chaos meetings.
From the first presentation called “I Am Sustainability” at Winter Chaos 2008, to the more recent descriptions presented last year of how that identity can be emergent in the complex adaptive systems of collaborative learning communities, described in general terms in Carlos Torre’s “An Ecology of Education” model (Torre & Wensing, 2009a, b) and in the specific real-world case application of bringing sustainable development to Pakistan (Wensing, 2009; Wensing, Khan, Zaman, & Ali, 2009). Most recently, I have described sustainability in terms of leadership and identity emergent in corporate social responsibility (CSR)/complex adaptive system development (Tytel & Wensing, 2009).
This year’s presentation expands on these ideas and provides the theoretical basis of a 360 degree assessment instrument currently in development called the Global Sustainability Inventory (GSI) which seeks to help link those dimensions of human attitudes, behaviors, and values deemed most equitable with a sustainable future with their integration into identity and citizenship. The GSI describes the global citizen from the sustainable future in terms of the characteristics of their personal sustainability and their participation in community based adaptive learning networks (complex adaptive systems). While the GSI dimensions link individual with collective sustainability, I group them within the context of individual and collective identity characteristics as "I Am Sustainability" and "We Are Sustainability" respectively to describe how development in both categories would contribute to a sustainable global citizenship. The GSI is being developed as a cross-cultural quantitative measure by which the relative individual progress toward these identity dimensions, that is, personal and social development goals for sustainability may be monitored over the long-term. In the short-term the GSI may be used to help further develop the efficacy of current leadership for global sustainability.
This year’s presentation may be of particular interest to fellow snowflake/sponge meeting participants as it touches upon the role of the protean self (VanderVen), an ecology of education (Torre), emergent v. managed democracy (Dennard), CAS’s/organizational leadership/development (Tytel), and the human rights of happiness/eudaimonia/well-being (Mosca) in generating a sustainable global future.
References
Torre, C.A. & Wensing, E.J. (2009a). The Ecology of Education: Knowledge Systems for sustainable development and sustainability. Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability, 11, 3-17.
Torre, C.A. & Wensing, E.J. (2009b). The Ecology of Education: Knowledge Systems for Sustainability. Presented at Winter Chaos 2009 http://impleximundi.com/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=54
Tytel, M. & Wensing (2009). Corporate Sustainability: A systems approach to evaluating the Triple Bottom Line. Presented at the American Evaluators Association annual conference November, 2009 Orlando, FL. http://www.eval.org/eval2009/
Wensing, E.J. (2009). A Transition to Sustainability for Pakistan: How Chaos Can Help Prevent Anarchy.
Presented at Winter Chaos 2009. http://impleximundi.com/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=63
Wensing, E.J., Khan, S.U., Zaman, M.A. & Ali, A. (2009). A Transition to Sustainability for Pakistan: Add Water, Science, Technology, CSR and Social Learning. Paper presented July, 2009 at the 15th Annual International Sustainable Development Conference, University of Utrecht, Holland. http://globalchallenge2009.geo.uu.nl/