Transdisciplinarity - the future doesn't fit into a single discipline
Published on Fri 26 Feb 2016
Friday 18th March, 12.30-14.30, River Room 3, Tower Building
Alfonso Montuori, Professor in Transformative Studies, California Institute of Integral Studies
Abstract - Disciplinary specialization has produced an overwhelming amount of information, and proved to be enormously generative. At the same time, it’s increasingly unclear what to do with all this information, let alone how to apply it or even begin to think about it, because it mostly remains buried inside the walls of a specific discipline. Particularly during this time of perilous transition and uncertain futures, this is a dangerous state of affairs. Along with disciplinary specialization, we need integrative transdisciplinarity, an approach to knowledge and inquiry that’s marked by creativity, integration, and application, bringing theory and practice in the crucible of the lived experience of self-reflective, creative inquirers who also actively participate in the world.
Bio - Alfonso Montuori is Professor in the Transformative Studies Ph.D. and Transformative Leadership M.A. at California Institute of Integral Studies. He has been Distinguished Visiting Professor in the School of Fine Arts at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and in 1985-1986 he taught at the Central South University in Hunan, China. Alfonso is the author of several books and numerous articles on creativity, complexity, and education. His books include Evolutionary Competence, 1989; From Power to Partnership,1993; Creators on Creating, 1997; Social Creativity, vols. 1-2, 1999; and Journey in Complexity, 2014. Alfonso is also a consultant focusing on creativity and leadership development through his company Evolutionary Strategies. An active musician and producer, he is married to jazz singer Kitty Margolis and lives in San Francisco.