The making of meaning event (1)

February 8, 2017

Yesterday’s post on bullying at work struck a cord with a lot of readers. Lots of interest in doing something so I will plan to set up an open access narrative database on this in the fairly near future. If interested in that then please comment on that post or click on the email link. I’m tied up in the Making of Meaning project for most of this week so a fairly relaxed timetable. One of the negative impacts of bullying for the victim is that there are excluded from social contact and interaction with key peer groups. The bully also has an inauthentic relationship with those interactions as their attract the hangers on who support the alpha regardless, the acolytes whose identity is associated with serving fear. Any failure and the relationship will turn out to be shallow. Their relationship with the wider population is also inauthentic to any sustainable social support. The bullied often become bullies as those abused often turn into abusers in adult life.

A large part of what we are trying to do with the Making of Meaning project (or rather projects) is discover how we connect not only with each other, but with our heritage, our physical environment, our sense of something other than ourselves and so on. I know I’m floating teasers here but by the end of the week I will be able to give readers access to the draft web site with a chance to contribute and comment. In the meantime you might want to reserve 13-14th March in your diaries. We will be holding a seminar at Bangor University to explore the nature of meaning in the modern world that will launch the programme. One day will be an interdisciplinary discourse between complexity theory, anthropology, psychology, sociology and others; the second will be in working groups on the twelve separate areas of interest. It will be a cost only seminar but places will be limited! Oh and there will be a chance to explore Mountains of the area on the weekend before the event for those interested.

There is an underlying principle here that human meaning is not isolated, entire unto yourself but requires interaction and connectivity. Not just in the here and now, and not simply through social media; the whole idea of Cynefin is that we sit within, influence and are influenced by, multiple constantly changing strands of connections which we can never fully understand. The nature of those connections is what we will explore, using overlapping patterns of human sensor networks and activities. This is the first post specifically on the programme although I started to explore it a couple of days ago. Expect the rest of this week and beyond to expand on the theme. But reserve those dates!

The heading photographs for this series will all come from the place to which I belong, namely the mountains of North Wales. The cartoons from Gaping Void. This picture is an early morning view of Snowdon from Nantlle.

2 responses to “The making of meaning event (1)”

  1. Conor O'Brien says:

    I would like to attend this. Dates reserved already.

  2. Marion says:

    I’m loving the sound of this event Dave, looking forward to it 🙂

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