Seeds of Change - Heiner Benking's Blog - quergeist.info

SOIL IN THE NEXUS - a topic across sectors, magnitudes, times, cultures, ...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:37:40 GMT

I was very "priviledged" to attend yesterday the SOIL gathering at the IASS. http://www.iass-potsdam.de/ Expert Meeting Soils in the Nexus

"Global population growth and the impacts of climate change lead to a serious overuse of natural resources and thus to far-reaching consequences for ecosystems and people."
Read more http://www.iass-potsdam.de/research-clusters/global-contract-sustainability-gcs/news/expert-meeting-soils-nexus CHECK THIS OUT CAREFULLY !!
http://www.iass-potsdam.de/research-clusters/global-contract-sustainability/sustainability-governance/global-soil-forum/global

SOIL, like WATER, HEALTH, CLIMATE, SECURITY, ... are very important issues treated as sectors or silos in many cases, but now we have a final call and need to bridge them: NEXUS !! is the new objective and mission and term. So watch out - are very important term for the next programmes and summits !! Even the DG Klaus Tpfer was there: http://www.iass-potsdam.de/de/menschen/prof-dr-dr-klaus-topfer and he was suprised to see me as i was the only with an "observer" status - like we said when I was young: sitting "besides" and not allowed to speak up !
But I was at the GLOBAL SOIL WEEK last year and I liked it very much, specially the GLOBAL COMMONS section, and feel that we need to make the NEXUS become real !! finally !! My question would be: "What is the plural of NEXUS - and aRE WE PREPARED FOR MANY AND HOW THEY INTERACT!? just a question...

Before we dig deeper I recommend LAST YEARS: Global Soil Week: Film "Let's Talk About Soil" http://globalsoilweek.org/

Klaus Tpfer came to greet me, shook my hand, mumbling something like "you again" - (we know each other since 25+ years and I for example invited him officially in 1991 to tour the geotechmica fair and the LOCAL and GLOBAL CHANGE Research and Coordination Tasks of International Organizations a Special exhibition hall dedicated to International Activities and later the Hall of the Alfred Wegener Foundation: I helped a little that time to establish a MARKETPLACE for the EARTH! and to present what Geosciences could contribute when they would talk to each other and work "hand-in-hand": http://benking.de/Global-Change/aws-geotechnica-1991.html maybe I should scan some of the opening speaches and introductions of our "EARTH SCIENCES" elite back then : ... Do not forget: 18 months earlier the term "GLocal" description http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glocalization#History_of_the_concept found a referent ! Manfred Lange pointing at the magnitude scale of micro-meso-macro ! - what we call now the needed "elevator" across scales - demanded in a lot of UN Conventions !! Maybe see these UN-AMR 2008 recommendations: The Cognitive Panoramadescription http://benking.de/systems/encyclopedia/newterms/#_Toc87362164
is to include 3 such "elevators" - easy to get it ! at least from a distance (birds-eye) and just the context and frames ! terms and meanings are another matter which needs to be linked/connected as well ! we called it a "meta-paradigm" when the European Council was searching for "New Ideas - New Spaces" "meta-paradigm" when the European Council was searching for "New Ideas - New Spaces" in 1996.
I also recommend to collect, frame, negotiate and connect!

This above is only to position my statements, insights and concerns for the eyes of some "not-insiders" or "new-commers"!!

So we met around and under the spell of CHATHAM HOUSE RULES:

For me it was essential in he late 80ies to not only cite statements, (80% is non verbal some comedians maintain) but also to portrait emotions involved and who was around at such meetings (times were quite different). But times change, we even meet Virtually and can be "hacked" and now even the people present are in the internet: see the programme, speakers, issues, ... http://www.iass-potsdam.de/research-clusters/global-contract-sustainability-gcs/news/expert-meeting-soils-nexus

So what is my turn here? Do some interviews, mingle, connect and reconnect, meddle in or help to "muddle through"?? !?

in October !! governance !

come back soon !! - I got to rush now .... and incredibly busy, OBAMA has just landed Berlin, and I still did not even finish my pieve from the PIK about the need to revisit modelling and Climate Change. http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v396/__show_article/_a000396-000225.htm
and I am too late behind with the needed preparations for the WFSF 40th in Bukarest.

Unfortuantely it all about the same stuff, 40 years ago, 20 years ago, now....
I hope we come to GIG's - GLocal Interest Groups one day !
It is high time.
Presently we are again in the mode of creating new buzz or plastic words and modes (Prksen- Plastik-Wrter in policy and politics).
What I mean and will prepare for the WFSF? maybe read: IGNORANCE or COMPASSION? http://benking.de/futures/ECOTHEE--ignorance-compassion.pdf - or SHOW or SCCHAU? http://www.benking.de/show-schau.html The question back then was: Is Humanity Destined to Self-Destruct?
I am presently reading the Bellagio 1968 Meeting Report by the OECD as organized by Erich Jantsch ! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for any new NEXUS !! more >

Construction Site Democracy - Baustelle Demokratie

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 14:29:17 GMT

I recommend a very special book from last year: Construction Site Democracy - Baustelle Demokratie when writing from the very special Futures Congress about the Construction Site Democracy - where meddling is needed today

A VERY GOOD and IMPORTANT event a over 3 days - really no time to report - but to time to mingle and meddle in (in the sense of Heinrich Bll !!)
maybe follw the video recordings and the tweets.

Futures Congress with lectures, workshops, discussions, performances, and concerts, June 14-16.

Saturday evening Chantal Mouffe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantal_Mouffe speaks about INCLUSIVE DEMOCRACY is identifiying the crisis of Democracy is in part a problem representation and identity. Read her books!
Inclusive is about an empowered agonistic democracy and practices of justification... See the scripts and check out her discussion partner Rainer Forst: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainer_Forst We are really digging deep here. In my sense a little to German/European philosophincal exchange about co-representation and "schools" and "isms". more >

Asia Pacific, SmartCities & Diplomacy, Foundations Week, PlannedCulturePolitics?

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:58:54 GMT

Berlin is like a bees-hive these days. We have the Asia Pacific Week June 4-14 with the title SmartCities, meeting in the Princesses gardens as organized by the asbc (see more below) or the Kte Hamburger Lecture and Modern Diplomacy Handbook! The Foundations Week June 4-14, and lot of very special side-events, like the First Diversity Day, or the foundations presentations like in teh field of environment or capacity building, and besides there is for example the Kulturpolitical Federal Congress 12-14 With the title: Culture Politics as planned? - Kultur nach Plan ? Strategies of concept-based culture politics.
We are talking her about hundreds of Events and Long Nights - it like the Roman Games and Circus as I feel these events had much in common. Exhausting.... but I will try to select some very special highlights, like the ones on Diplomacy or on Urban Farming, but also "Planning" and Cultural Policy - for me a very special and controversial theme - check out the Culture Politics Policy links and how we can cultivate culture and keep the socail and other sectores/dimensions in mind !!

So stay tuned and come back. Meanwhie check the diversity of events in the booklet available on the websites.

BOOK Presentation:
The Oxford Handbook of Modern Diplomacy http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199588862.do#.UbnWp9gkr4w
Ramesh Thakur presenting in the 5th Kthe Hamburg Lecture: Global governance and the State of Nuclear Weapons. A very important book and a sobering lecture ! Check it out !! Ramesh Thakur-GCR more >

Machine Spring !

Thu, 6 Jun 2013 15:14:45 GMT

INNOVATION FOR A BETTER TOMORROW http://www.boell.de/oekologie/oekologie-konferenz-maschinenfruehling-17419.html
Pls. check the Lifestream http://www.boell.de/mediathek/mediathek-stream.html in English and German!!

Will need to translate a.s.a.p. - maybe do online translate !? and check LABS and DOSSIERS

PROGRAMME http://event.boell-net.de/OrgClient/Downloads/12623.pdf - and also see the MANIFEST for an AGORA Energy "rebound" - 12 Insights on Germany's Energiewende http://www.agora-energiewende.de/

and see GROWING INTELLIGENTLY by the Head of the BOELL FOUNDATION Ralf Fuechs: http://www.boell.de/oekologie/marktwirtschaft/oekologische-marktwirtschaft-gegenblende-ralf-fuecks-intelligent-wachsen-17430.html

MASCHINENFRUEHLING - Innovationen fr ein besseres Morgen
Panels - Labs - Diskussionen 6/7. June 2013

I asked after the first panel about the quality of the needed change and mentioned "DOLPHIN SOLUTIONS" http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v396/__show_article/_a000396-000174.htm as collected by Robert Jungk in the early 90ies. This link Dolphin Solutions also includes the connection to mindbugs and mindboggling, but also handprints and mindprints. http://mindprint.tv/ I will go there tomorrow, so stay tuned ! as there is agreat chance to revisit our mind-bugs and representation bugs !
What I mean: Why do we only think linear or circular? why do we think "flat" http://benking.de/ceptualinstitute/12theses.htm when the world is alife, whole, and deep !? - so how about revisiting hoilistic systemic approaches http://benking.de/ISSS/ISSS-Primer-wholeness.html and our rule-sets and mind-sets ! http://benking.de/futures/Which_Languages_and_Mindsets_for_Democracy.htm and ways to "negotiate" complex matters, and how we collect, frame, negotiate, connect .... http://benking.de/futures/Collect-Frame-Negotiate-Connect-DRAFT_INTERN.pdf more >

DESIGNTRANSFER and CITIZENS PARTICIPATION - Bürgerbeteiligung 2.0

Wed, 5 Jun 2013 21:19:25 GMT

Yesterday was something like a deja vu - the last 40 years
se MARLOESTENBHMER oh behave! KORDINATEN UND ECKEN#
http://www.designtransfer.udk-berlin.de/index.php?n=Veranstaltungen.Koordinatenundecken
and Marloes: http://marloestenbhoemer.com
and
Brgerbeteiligung 2.0 http://www.herbert-quandt-stiftung.de/tagung_buergerbeteiligung_2013_Berlin

I will need to add impressions and outcomes here a.s.a.p. SEE:
5. Juni 2013, Umweltforum Berlin Tagung "Brgerbeteiligung 2.0"
Wir leben im digitalen Zeitalter. Welche besonderen Chancen bietet das Netz fr die politische Beteiligung? Die Konferenz "Brgerbeteiligung 2.0" sucht Antworten. more >

State as Father or the State of the Citizens ?

Tue, 4 Jun 2013 09:08:30 GMT

VOM VATER STAAT ZUM BRGERSTAAT Kommunalkongress 2013 http://www.dstgb.de/dstgb/Kommunalkongress%202013/

Every 3 years the German Association of German Cities and Communities / Deutscher Stdte- und Gemeindebund www.dstgb.de assembles its German Communal Congress - DEUTSCHEN KOMMUNALKONGRESS. And here we are yesterday and today!
Watch the Videos, check the pages ! and compare with other countries.

We have the Mrs. Chancelor, Ministers, the President of the European Parliament and about 600 mayors here... quite an Assembly !! oops - Mrs Angela Merkel had to be excused - her duty is now to be seen by "making herself a picture of the desaster" in various regions of the country !! it is election times and the times are grim, the worst flood since hundreds of years in some places.

see also the [R]EVOLUTION: Saving the Local Democracy below ... more >

Mother Planet Earth - and us as the Earthlings plague with strange mindsets

Fri, 31 May 2013 19:18:04 GMT

I went last night again to the Anthropocene event in the HKW ! http://www.hkw.de/en/programm/2013/the_whole_earth/veranstaltungen_83124/veranstaltungsdetail_88887.php

HKW Wissensclub #3
THE BLUE PLANET THE HISTORY OF AN IMAGE - CONVERSATION WITH ANSELM FRANKE

FRI 31.05.2013 | 17:00 h
What happened when humankind saw planet earth for the first time? What effects do iconic images such as the blue planet or the atomic mushroom cloud over Hiroshima have on our perceptions? How did it come about that romantic tradition and belief in progress shared a symbiosis in the California of the 1970s?

But before, let us go to my entry from the opening of the HKW "Anthropocene" Series: 2 month ago:
The WHOLE EARTH - a great story, a dj-vu?, or a lot of missing pieces?? http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v396/__show_article/_a000396-000216.htm more >

Participation and Transparence in Science and Research Politics

Fri, 31 May 2013 08:05:18 GMT

Academia Reloaded - Research Turnaround / Forschungswende
http://www.forschungswende.de/

http://www.forschungswende.de/index.php/component/gcalendar/event/6/aq1gcr04v4me84lme694nr3mt8?Itemid=107
http://scienceblogs.de/sic/2013/05/24/academia-reloaded/

FGS Federation of German Scientists - VDW Vereinigung Deutscher Wissenschaftler
http://www.teli.de/
Consultative http://www.consultative.de/handbuch_kap2.html
AGORA http://21stCenturyAgora.org

I was active in the VDW http://www.vdw-ev.de/index.php/en/ some years ago. http://www.benking.de/VDW-Benking.htm Now a new generation is active and at the helm I feel we should link to our CGI Science for Peace and Pugwash links to Canada - will need to check this out !! more >

43 years & 23 years and so little learning !! - anyone listening & acting?

Thu, 30 May 2013 07:47:04 GMT

DRAFT - just typing in the finla wrap-up session.
I am at the International Conference on Climate Change Effects, Impacts World 2013 http://climate-impacts-2013.org and I am getting very sad and angry.

But first her the core questions discussed here for 4 days:

1. Can we integrate our existing knowledge across sectors?
2. How certain are we?
3. What is still missing?
4. How do we bridge the divide between regional and global impact studies?
5. Is anybody listening?

Maybe see also this VISIONING DOCUMENT first: http://climate-impacts-2013.org/files/visioning_document_impacts_world_2013.pdf and note that you seldom get so many Nobel Laureats (2007) into one room ! (they all are Laureates as IPCC was awarded) http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/

Very good and earnest scientist around. I specially mentioned IIASA and Nathan Keyfitz a couple times.. See page 17-18 http://webarchive.iiasa.ac.at/Admin/INF/OPT/options-backissues-scanned/opt94-2sum.pdf also mentioned in this article (FN15): http://benking.de/futures/ECOTHEE--ignorance-compassion.pdf

Yes there is a chance for change of mindsets and rulesets... see MINDPRINT website http://mindprint.tv and maybe flatworlds and deepworlds: http://in-betweener.org

I learned as a child "View of the Whole, Responsibility for the Whole" "Sicht aufs Ganze, Pflicht frs Ganze" and realize that is actually what is missing in all these muddling through in view of the Problematique and the Predicament of Mankind we are confronted with.
In the opening discussion it was made clear that we know enough to act, but we do not know the root causes and can not manage vulnerability and fragility of of highly complex dynamic changes. Maybe revist again the lecture of Chrales Francois when introducing the 2nd edition of the Internation Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics. His title: The need for an integrated systemic-cybernetic language for concepts and models in complex and vague subject areas: "fields" such as humanities, cultural-, anthropological- and environmental- studies, education, and last not least: governance
http://benking.de/systems/encyclopedia/concepts-and-models.htm maybe also see our presentation we did 10 years ago: http://benking.de/systems/encyclopedia/BBK-Saur-Library-Francois-Benking.pdf and when you then see the Need for a New Science, New Language, New Thinking http://de.slideshare.net/benking/copenhagen-peace-laueats-climate-berlin-selection-2009

ANGRY ? YES !!
there were in my view central leverage points missed this today, Mai 30th

exactly 43 years ago
when the Club of Rome did not get their early work and jumped onto Prognostic Futures, ignoring the Particiaptory and Normative aspects. See my interviews about the matter here in EUROPEsWORLD: http://www.europesworld.org/NewEnglish/Home_old/PartnerPosts/tabid/671/PostID/1128/Default.aspx

exactly 23 years ago
when we had the vernisage of the GLOBAL CHANGE touring exhibition - it subtitle was Challenges to Science and Politics !!!!! Since then Science and politics seem to have ignored most of the messages and presentations, work by a lot of scientist over years and an interesting "status quo" documentation by-the-way.... We introduced for example a "0-Energy House" and still we are fighting for other ways of building; we introduced the Rubik's Cube of Ecology to provide a view for general orientation. Read this text by Anthony Judge http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323717004578158742420230924.html "Pointers to possibilities, http://kairos.laetusinpraesens.org/lifedisx_1_h_8
but who reads and who cares? more >

Robert Jungk and the need for Commons and a New Perestroika

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:28:34 GMT

Incredible busy days. We celebrated yesterday in co-op with the Boell Foundation "WINNING FUTUREs". this is my 2 minutes pitch at this 100 years Robert Jungk in memoriam symposium, and a (draft Translation) (check links) and maybe also the COMMONS conference from last year: ECONOMICS AND THE COMMON(S) : FROM SEED FORM TO CORE PARADIGM http://p2pfoundation.net/ description and Commons and Economics also check this an other blogs and tweets, maybe start at this COMMONS BLOG:

Besides there was the 3 days youth conference Democracy and Tolerance
see also: http://www.buendnis-toleranz.de/cms/beitrag/10035402/425892/
I discussed with Christian Petry about the need for a New Perestroika. We were involved more than 20 years ago in HOPE - Hilfsorganisation rettet Perestroika, so Petry's intuition is deep and needed.

Definitely THIS WEEK helped create a lot of leverage spaces, not just leverage points !! see Collecting and Connecting .... Dots and Spaces... [PDF]

The days are full of realizations for me. It started with my remembering the exchange with Roberet Jungk about what is free and a basic - and not behind walls hidden and trademarked for "profit". It later lead to my interest in CC "creative commons" and sharing, caring, daring... So for me this is a mayor "realization" in the field of the intangibles and creative commons. Should we invite to use and re-use and improve, or should we safe a name and product and method ! Methods can be improved or diluted ! maybe read "against method" in my pitch for Robert Jungk where I cited yesterday Rdiger Lutz and the "Future Lab": more >