Activating a Global Research Ecosystem


Pioneering the research that brings social field science to life

Image Credit: Pitzer College | Published here

 Building an MRI for the Collective Brain 


Over the past two decades, neuroscience took mindfulness from the fringes of public awareness to the mainstream. We aim to do the same for collective awareness and we are looking for research partners and funders to make it happen.

 

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The Opportunity


Two decades of global action research has taught us that leaders and changemakers, with the right methods and tools, have the capacity to shift social fields from one quality of relationship and awareness to another.

These social field shifts have been essential in every example of profound change we have studied or participated in. However, the scientific infrastructure to make these shifts visible, measurable, and replicable at scale does not yet exist. 

While we now have tools to measure the individual brain in ways unimaginable a generation ago, the "collective brain" remains largely invisible to science.

This is a generational research opportunity, and an invitation to build it together.

Northern Kentucky University | In https://www.nku.edu/academics/artsci/programs/undergraduate/neuroscience.html
What Will It Take To Build This Science?

1. Methods

New methodologies that integrate in first, second-, third- and fourth-person observation.

2. Activation

Social field research activation in the form of an annual Summer School where emerging scholars and research practitioners connect with senior researchers and thought leaders to co-inspire and innovate.

3. Contributors

Researchers and research institutions who contribute from their unique place and perspective to evolve the science.

4. Partners

Ecosystem innovators who partner with research initiatives to serve as living examples of social field inquiry and systems change.
Our Vision 
Three interconnected activities form our social field research initiative

The Social Field MRI Project


A multi-method research platform integrating third-person data (wearables, hyperscanning, biosensing), first- and second-person methods (qualitative and participatory research), and fourth-person methods (collective deep sensing practices such as Social Presencing Theater and Visual Presencing). Together, supported by AI for scalability, these methods will generate new metrics for understanding and shifting social fields.

The Social Field Science Summer School


The living heartbeat of the emerging field. Modeled after the Mind & Life Summer Research Institutes, this annual gathering connects emerging scholars with senior researchers and thought leaders, seeding collaboration and mentorship, incubating new methodologies, and accelerating the field by making it visible to itself.

Applications in practice fields


The value of social field science will lie in its ability to support regeneration and healing. To truly transform a social system, you need tools that help the system sense and see itself. The science of the social field emerges from and is embedded in systems change initiatives across health, education, governance, climate, and community life. A key early application is the Social Field Assessment Tool, helping large ecosystems see, sense, and assess their deeper structures of awareness and wellbeing.

Image credit (above left): Julie Basso (left), director of the Embodied Brain Laboratory at Virginia Tech, and Rachel Rugh dancing in EEG caps. Photo courtesy of Virginia Tech. Published here.

The Path Ahead
 
Building on two decades of global action research, strong institutional partnerships, a practitioner network spanning 194 countries and a solid publication foundation, we are ready to take the next step. We are building a consortium of partners, scoping the research landscape, and designing the infrastructure for the annual Summer School.

PHASE I

Planning & Partnering


Scope the research landscape and identify methodological innovations most promising for establishing the field. Build a consortium of partners across neuroscience, social science and application fields. Convene the first design workshop for the Annual Summer School.

PHASE II

Grow the Core


Design, launch and establish the Annual Summer School, building iteratively year to year. Refine methodologies and seed 3–5 major projects. Develop the digital infrastructure for quarterly gatherings that create feedback loops, sense-making opportunities and cross-pollination of ideas.

PHASE III

Activate the Wider Ecosystem


Expand into a global ecosystem with cross-institutional research, emerging scholar support, practitioner integration, publication platforms, and experimental labs. Produce a steady stream of evidence, train the next generation of researchers, and mainstream social field methodologies across health, education, governance, climate, and business.

A Successful Prototype

The 2019 Summer School brought together 55 participants from 23 countries and numerous organizations including the World Health Organization, Impact Hub, the Scottish Government, MIT, Stockholm School of Economics, and universities across five continents.

Over the course of the program, participants experimented with emerging methodologies, including the social field resonance process, which uses social art practices as a gateway for exploring the deeper dynamics of collective experience.

The event birthed the Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change, seeded research collaborations and built a network of research-practitioners that continues to shape the field today (read more here).

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Partner With Us
We are seeking research partners and funders who share the conviction that making visible the deeper structures of collective awareness is one of the most consequential, and most underfunded, scientific undertakings of our time.

 

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The Presencing Institute, a global non-profit, equips change-makers with innovative tools and methods for leading from the future as it emerges. Using our Theory U approach, we combine science, collective action, and creativity to drive systemic change, with hubs across Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Americas. 

 
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