3 to 6 June 2008 Chania, Crete, Greece

 

 

 

Ecological Theology and Environmental Ethics

 

 

 

http://benking.de/wholeness/EcoTHEE2008.htm

 

 

 

 

 

European Journal of Science and Technology  

 

 

Humans as

Model-Makers and In-Betweeners

 

Exploring & Linking & Negotiating

Old and  New Realities, Representations, and Cosmologies

 

A quest for using the human potential for sharing and in-betweening

by using maps and models and old and new forms of reality-making, dialogue and decision cultures towards a shared embodied covenant

 

Heiner Benking, Tagore-Einstein Council, Council on Global Issues, Open-Forum

David MacBryde, Yale University Club in Germany, Virtual United Nations Project

 

The paper first revisits maps and models, and ways such constructs have been used in different cultures and belief systems. Maps can enable communication about geographical position and orientation, but can additionally enable communication about paths, goals and alternatives also in extended senses (e.g. flow charts of processes or structural charts showing relations among different aspects of an undertaking).

 

We then explore ways to extend that use, both the scales and the contents covered, and in particular by developing common frames of reference with a view to assisting communications among otherwise disparate points of view.

The construction of “common frames of reference” is a key method in extending “maps” to become “conceptual commons, common cognitive spaces”.

 

The use of schemas or maps (with agreed upon scales and rules of map construction) is common to all cultures.

We revisit order-schemas or cosmologies in different cultures, looking into how they are used to communicate meanings and values and provide a discursive, communicative “frame” that makes sense.

Some cultures have created conceptual commons which go beyond lists of words, using imaginary depictions and models to relate issues, problem areas and solutions. Important in our context is that they can assist with sense making and help capacity building in participatory, dialogic process.

 

We explore ways to expand the boundaries and the range of issues we can display, embody and participatorily negotiate and change. We can add and negotiate frames in “common spaces” which include other sign systems, different scales, as well as additional thematic and media dimensions.

 

 

References:

Please check-out these links http://quergeist.info/bamberg2007.htm  http://benking.de/systems/oikos-bamberg-Dateien/frame.htm  ( it is about oikos – ecumene- ecodomy or spaces and secret spaces ) or these more technical or more genral presentation: http://quergeist.net/AMR-2008/ http://benking.de/ISSS/ISSS-Primer-wholeness.html  http://benking.de/systems/encyclopedia/newterms/  http://www.ceptualinstitute.com/genre/benking/aizu/aizu98.htm     http://benking.de/systems/codata/CODATA-MIST2005-ppt-s_files/frame.htm     http://benking.de/systems/codata/CODATA-MIST2005.htm  www.benking.de/covenant/  and maybe ask questions SKYPE heiner.benking or heiner  /ADD/ benking.de.  I will work in April-May on the full version, so maybe you can wait for the event in June?