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Metaphorical Geometry in Quest of Globality
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Produced on the occasion of the G20 Summit (London, 2009)
Summary of Engaging with Globality -- through cognitive lines, circlets, crowns or holes (2009) and its detailed discussion of the cognitive implications of Dimension 1: Cognitive Realignment: making points and aligning a target; Dimension 2: Cognitive Circlets: learning/action cycles; Dimension 3: Cognitive Crowns: all-encompassing, well-rounded experience; Dimension 4: Knowing Thyself: embodying engagement with otherness
Metaphorical Geometry in Quest of Globality
References
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Table of metaphors
There is a curious embodiment in common metaphorical phrases of seemingly fundamental intuitive understanding relating to globality -- expressed in terms of abstract geometrical forms. The current international focus of efforts to "fix" the global financial system is through an approach of dimensionality inadequate to the complexity it represents -- if only in terms of the metaphors used to communicate the challenge. The "initiatives", that are "targeted" on sectors, within a global "plan" are best described in terms of Dimension 1 and Dimension 2 in the table below. The "global" challenge is best understood in terms of Dimension 3. Unfortunately the kinds of initiatives currently conceived (whether of Dimension 1, Dimension 2 or Dimension 3) fail to take into account cumulative dynamic effects (typically vigorously denied). These can only be recognized in terms of Dimension 4.
"Higher" dimensions to the right are:
- associated with greater, longer-term value/worth, but more amorphous/intangible,
- less precisely measureable or communicable
- more challenging to understanding and associated with greater metaporical impoverishment
- only potentially implicit in those to the left (as the "sparkle" or "glow" associated with the latter)
| Indicative array of geometrically-based metaphors Presented as a tentative sketch, recognizing that distinctions made are not absolute. Content might overlap between cells of the array Each row could be split in two, indicative of functional and dysfunctional possibilities | ||||
| . | Dimension 1 point and line | Dimension 2 area and circle | Dimension 3 globe (and polyhedral approximations to a sphere) | Dimension 4 torus, etc |
| geometry | shooting a line, lining up support, bottom line, deadline, in line with our thinking, stepping over the line, holding the line | planning, in the plan, according to plan orbiting around an axis, innovation (R&D) cycle business cycles fashion cycles left-right politics circling the wagons | interlocking: | complexity chaos dynamic systems uncertainty ambiance paradox |
| product | making a point scoring a goal, hitting the target making a profit lending/borrowing | balancing the budget | package/portfolio of spread risk dividend, share value, worth | ? |
| strategy | target/goal (development, or environment, or growth) "you are with us or against us" | reconciliation of strategic dilemmas (sustainable development) | recognition of constraints (resource overshoot, climate change) | mirroring, self-reflexivity, "them is us" |
| bonding | relationships, links, contacts, well-connected | circle of contacts, peers, friends (trust, confidence) | community of peers (friends, etc) "our world", dynamically gated communities | self-community relationship (school shootings, scapegoating, etc) |
| outcome | globality as the light at the end of the tunnel (scoring, killing) action/initiative | globality encircled by the process work/exploitative cycles | "self-regulation" | unexpected consequences, surprises |
| action | initiative career path | work/family (im)balance experiential cycles (daily, weekly, annual, life), work/recreation (im)balance | health, maturity, well-rounded, gravitas | wisdom, psychological health, senility, "screwed-up", perverted needs |
| conformity | running around with sticks (batons, rockets, skyscrapers) | ensuring submission to the plan (singing from the same hymn "sheet") budget (spreadsheet), input-output analysis grid planning | wrap into a concept "package" image, label | ? |
| communication | text(ing) | video(ing) image map, systems diagram | blogosphere, cyberspace, Facebook, YouTube | meaning? |
| discourse | comment aphorism, truism question | story/plot, narrative | sets of folk tales (Nasrrudin, Aesop), 108 Upanishads | ? |
| technology | message (LinkedIn, Plaxo) individual feedback in response to general message (asymmetric communication) propaganda, televised "fireside chats" | message plus feedback (symmetric communication) | resonance ("bell") knowledge cybernetics | ? |
| innovation | idea, innovation | property, copyright territory | body of knowledge | ? |
| emotion value | consume, excrete, greed, want, grasp, ambition, desire | give and take checks and balances | worth, respect, honour, dignity | self-esteem, self-worth, self-respect, sense of (in)dignity |
| maths | linear equation (providing for velocity and accelaration) along a line | curves approximating to a circle (and velocity and accdelration around it) | curves describing spherical volumes (and approximations to them) | complex equations such as those on which the development of financial derivatives were based |
| references | Getting to Yes (1981) | Hannah B. Higgins (The Grid Book, 2009), Thomas L. Friedman's The World Is Flat (2005) disagreement? | book? dymaxion map unity in diversity? | wisdom literature? |
| brains | "Brain 1" | "Brain 2" | "Brain 3" | "Brain 4" |
| This table is itself an example of a Dimension 2 grid -- posing the challenge of how to comprehend it as a whole (globally), to enfold it, and embody it | ||||
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