IDEAS, NEWS AND RESOURCES
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April 2020
The Taos Institute's mission is to bring together scholars and practitioners concerned with the social processes essential for the construction of reason, knowledge, and human value, and their application in relational, collaborative and appreciative practices around the world.
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The Many Ways to Get Involved!
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Brief Encounter with The Taos Institute
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"We are realizing as never before the profound ways in which we are all related."
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"Let us instead pursue the vision of a world of relational process, a world in which there is no fundamental separation between persons and environment, but a communiverse responsible for the very possibility of life itself."
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The Taos Institute Associates' group held a conversation with almost 80 people on April 1, 2020 related to this topic of
Crisis, Collaboration and the Communiverse
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To view the video:
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Crisis, Collaboration and the Communiverse
By Kenneth J. Gergen, Taos Institute Board, President
We all share in the adversity and anguish of the times. Yet this common sharing has also brought with it an acute consciousness of connection. How often do we find ourselves re-connecting with friends, relatives and colleagues from the past, and how sweet these affirmations of relationship are. We also witness inspiring acts of caring across communities and countries. As many see it, we are realizing as never before the profound ways in which we are all related. We may exalt in the sense of global communion, but now what?
I ask this question because the present crisis is a potent wake-up call for the future. Developments in technology are generating the conditions for increasingly rapid global change, thus unleashing potentials of staggering and unpredictable force. And this is to say nothing of the devastating impact of climate change. Even now scientists are discovering that the melting of arctic ice will release bacteria and viruses from long past. In effect, the future of global well-being is at hand!
Where, then, are the guardians of the common good, those individuals or institutions possessing mankind’s mandate to deliberate and mobilize for the good of all? To be sure, we have long realized the need for such guardians, but the meager residual provided from the past is the United Nations. Yet, even the UN is an ineffectual guardian of the common good, given that its members are chiefly pursuing the self-interests of the governments they represent.
Importantly, we must ask, how could it be otherwise? We generally understand the world in terms of bounded units - individual persons, families, communities, organizations, nations, and the like. Isn’t it common sense that such units are chiefly invested in their own well-being? Caring for the other is applauded; caring for the whole is exotic.
Let us then abandon the logic of bounded units. Let us instead pursue the vision of a world of relational process, a world in which there is no fundamental separation between persons and environment, but a communiverse responsible for the very possibility of life itself. Whether this possibility is realized depends on our care for the communiverse.
I marvel at the kind of work in which so many who are connected with the Taos Institute are engaged. Created and shared are practices bringing people together in generative ways. These are practices of collaboration, coordination, conflict reduction, collective creativity, and the like. All contribute to the well-being of relational process.
Is this sufficient? If global well-being hangs in the balance can we rest easy in our locally focused efforts - an organization here, a school system there, and so on? I would love to think so, but history is not on our side. How can we, then, scale up these attempts, so as to transform our current institutions of governance, and foster new institutions for the ultimate care of the communiverse? This profound challenge lies before us.
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Professional Development Opportunities
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Upcoming Events
Working from home? This is a great time to join our online programs!
April 21 - June 8, 2020
A 6-week online course with Celiane Camargo-Borges
See what participants are saying about this online course:
"I would like to thank you all for the learning journey. I learned a great deal and it feels more as a beginning then an ending. A begin that is longing for more to explore and to process."
"I would like to say how unexpectedly powerful this course has been for me. In fact I took the course without knowing exactly what it was about, trusting my intuition as I bought Ken’s book 'The saturated self'."
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REGISTRATIONS IS STILL OPEN
April 21 - June 8, 2020
A 6-Week Online Course
with Celiane Camargo-Borges, Ph.D.
This 6-week online course introduces common premises and orienting ideas central to dialogues on social construction. The ways in which constructionist ideas differ from traditional, realist understandings of the world are explored. The course is facilitated by Taos Institute Board Member, Celiane Camargo Borges, Ph.D.
This course features videos and writings of Ken Gergen, Mary Gergen, Sheila McNamee, Harlene Anderson, Barnett Pearce, John Shotter, Saliha Bava and more.
The course consists of: Weekly live calls, assignments, readings, videos, activities, learning partner conversations, online commenting, and writing. There will be "live" conference calls on Mondays from 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM New York time/Eastern US time.
Orientation to the course is April 20.
Everyone is welcome! Some people even take this course several times and get something new from each experience.
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Do you want to expand your professional potential, explore a vision, follow your curiosity, bring about an innovation for a more promising future? Would you like a mentor, coach and conversation partners who will support, inspire, and challenge you to reach your goals? Would you like to work from the comfort of your own office, home or work environment and be part of a global community of learners?
At the Taos Institute, we support and mentor creative practitioners to form the future through relationship, collaboration, and ethical action. The International Diploma in Social Construction and Professional Practices exposes you to expertise from multiple disciplines, all focused on collaborative and relational approaches to generating meaning, values, and practices of significance. Your advisor, mentor or coach works with you to design a learning plan that addresses your goals, with feedback and learning tailored to your situation and project. You will receive support and inspiration from a broad network of conversation partners.
- There are no grades.
- You create your own deadlines.
- You design your own learning goals.
- You work virtually with scholars/practitioners around the world.
- You join a cohort of learners who support each other.
- You participate in a learning relationship with an advisor, mentor, coach.
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In Spanish and Portuguese Only
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You are invited to participate in an exceptional space of learning, reflection and exercise. – International teaching faculty. – Innovative practices in various areas of application: therapy, management of conflicts, communities and organizations, education, coaching, among others. This diploma is available in
Spanish and Portuguese
and provides you with the knowledge and tools needed to work with generative dialogues.
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After careful consideration of the global impact and official recommendations related to COVID-19, The Taos Institute Board Members and Planning Committee are saddened to postpone the Taos conference originally scheduled for November 2020. We believe it is the best decision in the interest of the health and safety of our community.
However, it is with great enthusiasm and a spirit of resilience that we invite you to save the date for next year's event in November 2021 in Puerto Rico. We believe that at that time, more than ever, we will want to come together to nurture our relationships, reflect on our learnings, and co-create new theories and practices to move on together into an even better future.
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From the local to the global, the challenges of relating are everywhere with us - increasingly complex and potentially volatile. Social constructionist ideas and practices have offered new insights and inspired wide ranging practices addressing these challenges.
Come share, explore, and co-create with practitioners, scholars and students from around the world as we generate conversations and actions for community collaborations through local and global resources.
New dates available soon at:
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Free Webinar
April 30, 2020 - 10:00-11:30 AM New York time
Authors - Luc Verheijen, Saskia Tjepkema, Joeri Kabalt
In their book
Appreciative Inquiry as a Daily Leadership Practice,
the authors explore how we can make choices in how we enter our everyday relationships that lead to more connected, more rewarding collaborations whether they are linked to a specific change process, or to everyday working life. The book, a collection of shorter chapters, is filled with stories and helpful principles or models, both from people who have been interviewed, as examples from the authors’ experiences. These illustrate how, especially with small gestures, we can take our part in establishing generative connections. All these stories show that the ‘leadership’ in the books’ title not only refers to those in a formal leadership position, but invites all of us to contemplate on how we can be leaders that help realizing change in our contexts, one conversation at a time.
During the webinar, the authors will share some of their favorite stories and anecdotes from the book. The ones that they enjoyed most, or that they learned the most from when writing. They will also share some of the experiences that shaped their understanding of Appreciative Inquiry and the way in which they practice it. As such, the webinar will give a personal perspective on both AI and the book from the viewpoint of the authors. This will serve as an invitation for participants to join in the conversation and reflect on the same questions for themselves.
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NEW Podcast Series Announcement
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The Taos Institute and Positivity Strategist Podcast
are thrilled to announce
Launching Week of May 4, 2020
A beautiful collaboration between the Taos Institute and Positivity Strategist has emerged to create this podcast series
– a first for the Taos Institute!
We invite you to listen to authors of the forthcoming
Sage Handbook of Social Constructionist Practice
as
they share stories of innovation in their respective fields across the world: education, healthcare, therapy and more.
If you are curious and new to social constructionist ideas, this season will give you a lovely introduction. You will be exploding with possibilities and ah-ah moments. Discovering the ideas of social construction is a liberating and freeing way of living, as our guests share over and over. Our impressive line-up includes:
- Janet Newbury, CA – Community Building Practices that Attend to Difference
- Lois Holzman USA – Social Therapeutics as Play, Performance and Becoming
- Scherto Gill, UK – Approaching Educational Evaluation from a Relational Perspective
- Pavel Nepustil, Czech Republic – Recovering from Addiction by Mobilizing Relational Processes
- Gro Lund, Denmark – Creating School Harmony with Social Constructionist Practices
- David Hooker, USA – Transformative Community Conferencing – A Constructionist Approach to a More Hopeful Future
- Mary Gergen, USA – Positive Aging through the Lens of Social Constructionist
- Gail Simon, UK and Leah Salter, Wales – Transmaterial Worlding as Inquiry
- John Winslade, New Zealand – Community Building from a Social Constructionist Lens
- Celiane Camargo-Borges, The Netherlands and Sheila McNamee, USA, – Introduction to the Sage Handbook of Social Constructionist Practice
To ensure you receive notifications of these shows as they go live every two weeks, please visit
Season 5 Podcast
and sign on.
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Featured Book - Free Download
This book is a compilation of contributions from participants and presenters who attended the Taos Institute’s 25th Anniversary Conference in Cancún, Mexico, November 7-10, 2018. With pre-conference and conference sessions taking place over four days, the conference was full of dialogue, conversation, sharing, exploring, relationship building, and celebration. As the Taos Institute celebrated 25 years since its founding, we remembered its beginnings, acknowledged the founders, met new participants, and welcomed all to share in the learning.
We invite you to enjoy the ongoing flourishing and abundance of practices described in the pages of this book. We are both delighted and humbled to bear witness to the emergent insights, expanding activity, and diverse relational collaborations that point to an unending stream of creative possibilities for social construction that we can imagine and work toward, together.
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For centuries we have lived in divided worlds - organizing ourselves into self-protective units such as nations, religions, ethnicities, professions, political parties, families, and more. A common consciousness now emerges in which we realize that human existence depends on transcending such divisions. How can we now construct a communiverse - a world in which well-being is not the outcome of competition but a cherishing of the whole?
This video reflects a conversation with almost 80 Taos Associates gathered. Ken first shares his thoughts and then opens up for conversation and each small group shares a short summary of their conversation.
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International Journal of Collaborative-Dialogic Practices
This free journal brings together members of a growing international community of practitioners, scholars, educators, researchers, and consultants interested in postmodern collaborative practices. Issue 8 is now available.
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WorldShare Books
FREE downloadable books in 12 different languages.
With over 30 books in English and many more from around the world, you will enjoy reading about education, spirituality, organizational life, community building, group dynamics, leadership and more.
Order your free book today!
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Positive Aging Newsletter
FREE
newsletter
in 9 languages sent right to your email.
By focusing on the positive aspects of aging, and the availability of resources, skills, and resiliencies, research not only brings useful insights into the realm of practice but creates hope and empowers action among older people. By moving beyond practices of repair and prevention, to emphasize growth-enhancing activities, practitioners also contribute more effectively to the societal reconstruction of aging.
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Manuscripts for Downloading
Access hundreds of articles and papers on topics such as:
- Appreciative Inquiry
- Collaborative Practices
- Dialogue
- Appreciative Cultures
- Creativity and Improve
- Narrative Practices
- Relational Learning
- Relational Research
- Qualitative Research
- and so much more!
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Donate to the Taos Institute
Given the current global context into which we are moving, the work in which we are engaged is more important than ever. We invite you support the work of institute.
Read more
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John Shotter Memorial Fund
John Shotter's death on December 8, 2016, was a profound loss for the scholarly world, for the Taos Institute, and for many of us personally.
Read more
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Jane Magruder Watkins Memorial Fund
We remember Jane as an avid educator. This fund will support students who apply for a need-based scholarship to attend the various Taos programs.
Read more
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Peggy Penn WorldShare Fund
Supports the publication of new WorldShare Books on topics related to the work and interests of Peggy Penn, Ph.D.
Read more
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