TY - JOUR AU - Lin, Kingkong AU - Ming-fen, Li PY - 2010/08/26 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Enacting Wholeness-Infinity Theory to Foster Wholeness Praxis of Social Enterprise for Global Sustainability JF - Proceedings of the 54th Annual Meeting of the ISSS - 2010, Waterloo, Canada JA - ISSS VL - 54 IS - 1 SE - DO - UR - https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings54th/article/view/1507 SP - AB - <p><strong>I. Background</strong><strong>-Malfunction of global governing systems</strong><strong></strong></p> <p>Each century could be described as "The best of times, and the worst of times."&nbsp; Such contrast is unexceedingly great in the twenty first century. Because it might be a far better times, and an even darker times. The tension between the unsustainability driving forces and the awakening sustainability consciousness has caught much attention all over the world. Since the great shift on earth was admonished by scholars, such as Capra and Laszlo, and the "2012 Global Collapse" prophecized by the Mayans was cast on the public's eyes, resolving the imminent human crisis and unexpected global disasters become the urgent tasks to all human beings.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Indeed, the unsustainability crisis encountered by us nowadays has much to do with the malfunction of the global governing systems. The global governing network composed of governmental, business and non-profit organizations has become so complicated that any single sector could hardly cope with the increasing problems of the unsustainability crisis. Such malfunction, at worst, might cause a great number of losers in the dawn of new millennium, be they overwhelmed by the sudden loss of homes, jobs, family members or a safe environment. Therefore, it is obligatory that we expend more efforts to reframe the problem structures come from the three sectors and clarify the rooted causes of such unsustainability in order to create a new opportunity structure within the social enterprise (the sets of the three sectors) for global sustainability.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>II. Research Questions and Methodology</p> <p>2.1 Nurturing a Co-living Art for Global Sustainability</p> <p>Since the 15<sup>th</sup> century, western science has become a dominant discipine, and &nbsp;many humanity sciences, such as aesthetics, ethics and religions disciplines, were gradually marginalized and regarded as dissipated and archaic. This phenomenon aggravated in the following centuries, and went extreme in the 1950s. Therefore, calls for emancipation from scientific knowledge were echoed from various disciplines. The most distinguishable are Habermas' reflection on modernity, Derrida's deconstruction of modernity, and Giroux' postmodern discourse on unleashing the technological hegemony revealed in the western education, all of which represent emerging forces chanllenging the authority of scientific knowledge. Some scholars (Giddens, Griffin) even advocate the third path to search for order from the postmodern chaos. Moreover, attempts to resolve the disputes between modernism and postmodernism yield to more converging efforts on integrating knowledge and wisdom from the West and East. Meanwhile, the core idea and ultimate goal of integrating the western science and eastern humanity is also heatedly discussed with the economic uprising of China.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>2.2 Undertaking the wholeness-infinity holistic approach to resolving global </strong><strong>unsustainability</strong></p> <p>The literature reviewed in this paper covers four themes. The first is the major problems and challenges of technological civilization which human beings have been encountering and have to confront in the 21th century. The second is the paradigm shift of systems sciences, and the evolution of wholeness movement. The third is exploration of human collective wisdom and evolution of wholeness consciousness. The last one is devoted to the Tao of sustainability for enacting global wholeness praxis and global governance within the social enterprise (the sets of the three sectors).</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In this paper, the authors apply the Wholeness-Infinity Theory (WIT) they developed in 2010 to resolve the cultural disparities of the west and east, and to integrate the unique characteristics of the western and eastern cultures. The literature reviewed in this paper serves as theoretical background for the wholeness- infinity theory. It is expected that delicate integration and convergence of the western systemic knowledge and eastern wholeness wisdom will enact a new wholeness praxis organization, hence presence the various forms of social enterprise to maximize the possibilities of global sustainability.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>In this paper, the wholeness-infinity theory the authors apply includes four metaphoric patterns, each bringing forth different types of social enterprise. Furthermore, the authors use the four types of social enterprise to illustrate how to promote the global dialogues and cultivate collective wisdom among governments, profit organizations and non-profit organizations to resolve the predicaments of global unsustainability and to create wholeness praxis organizations for global sustainability.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The four research questions to be inquired in depth are listed as follows.</p> <p>1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; How might Wholeness-Infinity Theory (WIT) develop a co-living art?</p> <p>2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; How might WIT enact the possibilities of wholeness praxis organizations?</p> <p>3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; How could the essence of wholeness praxis organization presence various forms</p> <p>of social enterprise?</p> <p>4.&nbsp; How could the various forms of social enterprise enhance the transformation of</p> <p>global unsustainability into sustainability?</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>III. Research Results and Findings</p> <p>We are encountering a critical turning point in the 21 century. Laszlo confirms that human beings will leap finally in this point and create a human new era in his book "2010." De Chardin pioneered the next evolutions from the humanity to deity in the middle period of 20 century. We believe that wise integration of contemporary knowledge and wisdom tradition will open up new possibilities for well-balanced global governance systems. Human's collective wisdom for creating new forms of global social enterprise with transcendental knowledge and wholeness praxis would undoubtedly contribute to global sustainability.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;In brief, the primary findings of this study include:</p> <p>1. Application and exploration of wholeness infinity Theory (WIT).</p> <p>2. Cultivation and development of wholeness praxis organization through WIT.</p> 3. Critical roles of wholeness praxis organizations in building new forms of social enterprise for resolving the predicaments of global unsustainability. ER -