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Dr Joseph Voros began his career as a physicist—he holds a PhD in theoretical physics, during which he worked on mathematical extensions to the General Theory of Relativity - followed by several years in Internet-related companies, including a stint at Netscape Communications Corporation, before becoming a professional futurist and strategic foresight analyst. He is a Senior Lecturer, Strategy & Strategic Foresight at Swinburne University, Australia.

Reframing Environmental Scanning

An Integral Approach

Joseph Voros

"... a major piece on future views ... that further advances the Wilber philosophy in that specific domain." (Don Beck)

Summary

The basis for a broadened scanning framework is described which may also function as a means for understanding how human minds filter their perceptions of the world. The framework is based on the Four-Quadrant Integral model of Ken Wilber and the Spiral Dynamics model of Don Beck and Chris Cowan. An analytical tool (cross-level analysis) is presented for examining views of the world in terms of both the perceptual filters of the viewer as well as the aspect of the world being viewed, a technique which is also useful for analysing how other scanners do their scanning. A notation for cross-level analysis is presented and described, with examples of its use.

This paper is aimed at futurists, environmental scanners and intelligence analysts, all of whom need to gather information, process it, and assess the implications of the signals they find. It assumes no prior knowledge of Wilber's integral framework or of Spiral Dynamics. Rather, it seeks to present the elements of these two models as useful bases for broadening and deepening our understanding of what we see going on in the world. It is hoped that the reader will find them sufficiently useful to investigate the models in more depth."

An earlier version of this paper appeared in 'Foresight --- The journal of future studies, strategic thinking and policy', Vol 3, No 6, pp533-52, December 2001. Published by MCB UP Ltd and on-line via Emerald Fulltext: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/fs.htm