Notes from the Field: Integral University Day, Paris

Notes from the Field / October 2011

 

Review of 12th Integral University Day

Michel Nguyen The

Michel Nguyen The

On Tuesday 24th May 2011 took place the 12th day of the Parisian Integral University. The theme was “integral societies and politics”. Many speakers were part of the Club of Budapest: Ervin Laszlo himself, Bénédicte Fumey, Carine Dartiguepeyrou and Michel Saloff-Coste. Edgar Morin was on the agenda but was too tired to make it as he was between other conferences. Alain Gauthier made a presentation on integral leadership and showed several methodologies inspired from “Speak the Truth and Point to Hope” by Lisa Marshell, from an AQAL approach from Ken Wilber and Jim Ritchie-Dunham, from “Theory U” from Otto Scharmer, from polarity management as developed by Barry Johnson.

Many people invited to talk are involved in politics. Jean-Claude Deveze and Jean-Baptiste de Foucauld work in France on the civil pact (“pacte civique”) which encourages groups such as companies, associations, to agree with a defined system of values and behaviours promoting ecological and human aspects. Alexandre Burnand, one of the founders of an integral politics party in Switzerland, said that he shared the same values showed in the civil pact. Jo Spiegel is a political man who tries to involve citizens in the political life. As far as he is concerned, democracy should be a co-production between political people and citizens, and the political life of people should not only consist of voting.

A last discussion table involved young people and allowed them to express their voices: how they see today’s world, what are the possible projects they are involved in, what they think about the integral university. It was a very refreshing session that would deserve to be organized again, as young people from today are different from yesterday and find themselves in a very specific configuration today with global issues.

About the Author

Michel Nguyen is an alumni from the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon and holds a PhD in computer science from the École Polytechnique. He currently works in financial mathematics. He is a member of several associations having a transdisciplinary essence (Afscet, Groupe Béna, Nouvelle Acropole).