Thread by @Jonathan_Rowson

So much for #chessdrama

At @Perspecteeva we are calmly trying to avert the collapse of civilization. If that sounds more like your kind of scene, there's just *one week to go* to apply for the following jobs:

Director of Operations
Community Builder
Research Assistant

Short 🧵

First of all, a link to the relevant page on the website for those who want to get started. The deadline is the end of the day on October 3rd and we ask for a CV and letter in each case. We are also looking for new trustees and audio-visual consultants.
systems-souls-society.com/perspectiva-jo…

A few thoughts on the journey so far:

Perspectiva is an organisation trying to improve our understanding of the relationship between systems, souls, and society in theory and practice. I co-founded it in 2016 with Swedish entrepreneur and social theorist Tomas Bjorkman.

It's a difficult kind of organisation to place in an existing cultural category. We are not a think tank, because we do more than think and our target is not policy as such. We are scholars, artists, activists, and contemplatives - a collective of aspiring expert generalists.

If you'd like a longer rationale, you might like Tasting the Pickle: Ten Flavours of Meta-Crisis and the Appetite for a New Civilisation systems-souls-society.com/tasting-the-pi…

Or perhaps you'd prefer the more recent (7-part) essay series: Now that you've found the others what are you going to do?
whatisemerging.com/opinions/now-t…

The prior origins of Perspectiva lie in
Spiritualise (JR)
thersa.org/reports/spirit…
A New Agenda on Climate Change (JR)
thersa.org/reports/a-new-…
and The Market Myth (TB)
market-myth.com

The social origin was the perception of blindspots in our networks, particularly an unwillingness among social innovators to explore the spiritual dimensions of life as a matter of *public* concern. We seek to focus attention on the nature, meaning, and purpose of life as a whole

More precisely, we noticed lots of work on new economic thinking, political innovation, design for social good etc; and lots of new spiritual practices and retreat centres arising, but very little effort to bring these worlds together. We saw a kind of gap in the market.

I left a good job @theRSAorg to start @Perspecteeva. I received 6 months of funding from Tomas to articulate my purpose and attract funding. I succeeded in persuading JRCT & JJ Trust to support the venture and we started a few projects. But we were still more or less winging it.

We started several small initiatives and events, and invited like-minded people to help. Thanks for instance to @IAmPippaEvans @platospodcasts @simon_christmas @TomChatfield @dr_mcgilchrist @indraadnan @anthlawson1 @RonanHarrington @indy_johar @Lightkeeper @the_sky_above

There were relationships of various kinds with other small ventures too, including @alteregonetwork @AlterGlobal21 @Metamoderna and we were co-creators of @whatisemerging. We also had important connections to several legacy institutions, including @OpenSociety and @ClubOfRome

Just when I began to wonder if it would all work out, we met @FetzerInstitute. After a few transatlantic flights for long meetings, we began a serious partnership based on similar worldviews and aims. This partnership endures and is financially and strategically important to us.

Curious things happened. I was writing an essay on Bildung for @CUSP_uk when I met Nick Shaftesbury who lives in a particularly beautiful English Country House with a connection to Bildung, and, over time, this connection led to The Realisation Festival realisationfestival.com

We became a publisher. After a huge effort behind the scenes during Covid (Thanks @JMNSCH !) we succeeded in publishing 5 books. Because we'd done that, we were ready to catch The Matter with Things by Iain McGilchrist when it was suddenly up in the air.
systems-souls-society.com/insight/perspe…

And @Emerge, which we were a small part of initially, had grown socially but suddenly lacked management and direction. So after the gathering in Kyiv 2019, Perspectiva took it over. The project is now about "Convening a metamodern field of praxis" whatisemerging.com

Along the way, as well as several smaller grants, we also won funding from the Templeton Foundation for The Antidebate: systems-souls-society.com/praxis/antideb… which is a project I am particularly keen to use new capacity to get back up and running.

That's roughly where we are. There's existing work to manage and deliver on, but also new project plans including courses we need new capacity to start and maintain. We also plan to become less dependent on philanthropic funding and hope people joining can help with that.

So while we've advertised for three particular positions if you see yourself in Perspectiva in some capacity or know someone else who would, please get in touch. Again, all details are here: systems-souls-society.com/perspectiva-jo…